Baby Bump!

The jig is up! The farmer knows that I am pregnant for sure! Last night she was feeling around on my stomach, on the right side just above my udder, when my little baby made a move for it. The farmer jumped and said "Oooohh!" excitedly. I cursed the baby for giving away the secret so soon. It was supposed to be just between us. Only me and the kids would know what was really going on.

Oh well, at least this means the farmer will continue to give me extra cookies while I am pregnant.

Seeds of Doubt

The farmer is debating whether or not I am actually pregnant. Other than my wild new mood swings, there isn't much evidence to tell if I am pregnant or not. I have kept my girlish figure all winter and only gained a few pounds in the stomach area. The other goats haven't gained much weight either (this excludes Pepper Ann, who always gains weight no matter what), so that makes the pregnancy determination all the more harder. I have two more months to go until I will let the world know if I am going to have kids this year. Until then, the farmer will just have to wait and see.

I am in a bad mood!

I have been in a bad mood for a few weeks. I have decided that I don't want to share my stall with Cookie, the Nubian (patooey!). She is getting in my way when I want to walk around and she won't let me eat both bowls of grain (like she needs her own bowl, gimme a break!). All this has put me in a very grumpy mood. Now whenever I see Cookie I push her out of the way and head-butt her. If I have a problem with where she is napping, I go over and step on her until she lets me lay down where she was sleeping.

My bad mood is not only focused on Cookie. I have been grumpy to the other goats when we are in the pasture. I have tried to push Pepper out of the way of the hay bale but pushing her is a little like trying to push a 55 gallon drum up a hill. She usually just stands there until I give up. I have tried pushing Gloria out of the way but Gloria gets more grumpy than I am and she pushes me back. We have a little tussle and I usually end up having to go back to my hay bale and push Cookie off of it.

The farmer says that whenever a goat who is 3 months pregnant starts getting grumpy for no reason, it means that the goat is going to have only male babies. The extra testosterone in my body from the growing male babies is causing me to be "hormonally imbalanced" and grumpy. I don't know if the farmer is right because my last two pregnancies both resulted in twin boys and I was not grumpy during them. Maybe I am pregnant with twin girls and I can't handle the added estrogen? Well, we will see who's theory is right in 2 more months. Until then, watch out Cookie!

I have been busy!

It's winter here on the farm. That means snow and cold and more cold! Us, goats, do not appreciate the snow very much. It's wet and cold and yucky. We much prefer to stay in our warm pens in the warm barn. The farmer makes us go out in the snow every other day or so. We try to protest but she is not easily swayed.

Well, I don't have much time to say much more than that. All of us goats are expecting babies in the spring so we are using most of our time ruminating on that situation.

Breeding Season

Well, it's that time of year again -- breeding season. All of the goats (me included) decided to come into heat all at the same time this year. Cookie led the charge by coming into heat on November 3rd and 4th. Pepper, being a total Nubian and not wanting to be outdone by her daughter, followed on the 8th and 9th. Here's a picture of both of them in all their Nubian (PA-TOOEY!) glory:

My mom, Gloria, decided to give it a go on the 10th and 11th. Here she is looking much rested after her year off from having kids:



And I rounded up the rear on the 12th and 13th. I was looking very splendid on this wonderful fall day:


We were nice enough to the one and only buck on the farm to come into heat in succession and not all on the same exact day. That way he wasn't overwhelmed with adoring females to the point of total exhaustion.

Here is the lovely buck from both sides. Notice the wild spots and large splashes of white between the black. Hopefully his kids will be just as wildly colored.

The buck has one more doe left to breed. My half-sister, Madge, has come back from the farm she lives on in the next town over. She is here to visit for a few days because she didn't get bred the first time around when she was with the buck in September. After she leaves, the farmer says she will keep the buck for one month to make sure none of us decided not to get pregnant the first time.

I heard a funny rumor the other day:The farmer said that her friend's Nigerian Dwarf can come and visit our buck when she is in heat to make sure that she is totally in heat before being shipped to the next state to visit with her Nigerian buck boyfriend. Can you imagine what our buck will think of a Nigerian Dwarf?! Of course, being a buck he probably thinks anything with four legs and a heartbeat is a good thing but really... REALLY?! Sometimes I don't know what this farmer is thinking.....

Happy Halloween!

Okay so I am a little late on the whole "Halloween" thing, but heck, I am a goat - I don't exactly get to go trick-or-treating or anything (although some treats would be nice once in a while -- hint, hint farmer!). One thing good about this Halloween was that the farmer has really started to make her new assistant pay off. Here is a picture of Assistant Farmer, Emily, in her Halloween costume:


Can you guess what she is? That's right - She's a goat! I thought Emily being a goat for Halloween was a great way to pay homage to us wonderful goats of the world. It also is a great way to spread the message about goats being just as cute to dress up like as a sheep or lamb (patooey!) would be. The only criticism I have about this costume is that judging by the roman nose and the airplane ears makes me think that she must be dressed up as some sort of Alpine-Nubian (patooey!) cross. Nubians (patooey!) aren't exactly the best representatives of the species, so I am a little perturbed that such a nice costume is somewhat wasted on that branch of the goat family tree. Oh well, at least she doesn't have horns!

On another note: Cookie is having a hard time with this breeding season. This being her first time coming into heat, she is having a very difficult time deciding what is going on. Take yesterday for instance; yesterday she sat all day screaming throughout the barnyard. All we heard all day was, "Let me see my boyfrieeeennnnddd! I love my boooyyyffrrieeennnddd! I llllooooovvveee hhhhiiimmmm!". And soon on it went all day long. When the farmer came to do chores, she noticed the extra vocalizations from Cookie and did as Cookie was wanting. The farmer put Cookie in with her boyfriend. Well, once Cookie was in with the buck, she decided that this was not what she wanted. So all we heard for 30 minutes was, "GET ME OUT OF HERE! I DO NOT WANT TO SEE MY BOYFRIEND! HE SMELLS AND IS UGLY!!". The farmer got tired of this yelling so she took Cookie away from the buck and put her back in the barn with us girls. Cookie decided that this was not want she wanted either so she immediately started to protest and cry, "BUT I LOOOOVVVEE HIIIMMM! HE'S MY SOUL MATE! YOU CAN'T KEEP US APART!!!!!". And on and on it went, all night long. Sheesh.... Teenagers......

I won an award!

Many special thanks to Lilyian and Tayet Silverspoon over at "In a Goats Shoes" blog at www.lucky13goatranch.blogspot.com. They gave me my first "One Lovely Blog" award. Sweet! I will pass it on!