Meet the newest member of the flock!

Shareholder Lindy Sinclair had a Christmas eve baby. This little beauty is Graham. Oh, how I want to smell that head! Congratulations, Lindy and Michael!

Another Set of Twins

A boy and a girl this time, born to Agatha at 2 am this morning. There names are Rosemary and Oregano. I'll tell you all about it after I get a little sleep.

New Beginnings

Yesterday was a sad day. I can't tell you how much your kind words meant to me, how much better I felt reading them and sharing them with Patrick. It sounds strange, but I'm glad Parsley's death was so hard for me; I hope I never become so used to losing an animal that it ceases to be painful.
We did have some joy yesterday mixed with the sadness. 25 and 11 both delivered healthy baby bucks yesterday, named Cilantro and Tarragon respectively.

Cilantro

Tarragon

Both are good-sized kids and both are eating from their mamas which is good because 11 butted and bit me repeatedly when I was trying to help her baby latch on. Both 25 and 11 are proving themselves to be good mothers, very attentive and gentle.

I got a little worried about 25 because a couple of hours after she kidded she still seemed to be laboring. She was panting, getting up and laying down as if she couldn't get comfortable, and making a lot of noise. Now, I am not one who is quick to call the vet. I have learned that, nine times our ten, most problems will resolve themselves 15 minutes before the vet arrives and farm calls are mad expensive. BUT we had just lost Parsley. AND I have been reading the James Herriott books (All Things Bright and Beautiful currently) in which all kinds of horrible things go wrong during lambing. So I was all but positive that there was a second kid stuck inside 25 and that I needed the vet to come get it out.

Luckily, we have a great vet who trained in the UK, where farm animals are a big part of a vet's education. Dr. Dave Tuminaro is a great sport about responding to emergencies. He was on his way up-Island when I called, but rescheduled his day to come check out the situation with 25. He didn't find another kid inside, but he wasn't crazy about the way 25 was acting either, so he gave her something to help her expel the afterbirth. Within a couple of hours she was fine and I was grateful for the peace of mind.



I spent a lot of time in the kidding barn yesterday, afraid to leave because of what happened to Parsley, and I was dreading what I'd find this morning when I went in to check on them. What I found was two just-born twin girls!

Meet Sassafras and Saffron.

They are on the small side but full of energy and raring to go. We considered taking one of them away and giving her to 7, but their mama (9) wasn't having it. And 7 seemed to be more her old self today. She's stopped looking for her baby and her appetite was great. If we end up with a rejected baby we will consider giving it to 7 but, for now, everyone is content.

9 is taking great care of both babies, which is such a relief. It's pretty common for a mom to only take to one twin but 9 is showing no favoritism so far. We are going back to check on them one more time tonight so that I won't stay up worrying all night. As you can see, we jacketed them to make sure they stay warm. While we were at it we put jackets on Cilantro and Tarragon too.

Eight nannies down, two to go.

The Post I hoped I'd Never Have to Write

I have very sad news to share with you and I can't figure out the best way to say it. Little Parsley didn't make it. When Patrick checked the nannies this morning, Parsley was underneath his mama and he wasn't breathing. Patrick tried to revive him but it quickly became obvious that it was too late.

I don't know what happened to the little fella. He seemed healthy enough when we left him at midnight and it wasn't cold in the barn. The thing is, sometimes this just happens. It goes along with the joy of watching new life come into the world and it's just so amazingly sad.

I have spent the day second-guessing myself, not for anything I did with the goats, but for blowing the 'new baby' trumpet so loudly and so soon. The last thing in the world I want to do is make you all sad. But it would feel kind of dishonest if I only shared the successes with you and kept the disappointments all to myself. Our farm is a wonderful place where magical things happen, but it isn't Disneyworld. It would be paternalistic of me to filter the news I share with you and that doesn't sit well with me. But I want to hear your opinions.

25 and 11 kidded today and we have two new, healthy buck kids in the family, but I'll introduce them to you tomorrow. This post is about Parsely- a sweet, tiny angel that we were lucky to spend a little time with.

A Tiny Sprig of Parsley

Did you know that goats can fly? Farm Update 3/16

I know this photograph isn't great but I had to post it anyway. Our four angora goat kids have discovered the joys of jumping from one bale of hay to another and it is such a pleasure to watch. They chase each other around at mad speeds, incorporating an upturned crate, a plastic chair, and sometimes a sleeping mama, into their obstacle course.

They are so happy and so healthy and growing like crazy. Even little Basil, the youngest of the group, is sprouting some good sized horns!


The six remaining bred nannies in this group should start kidding by the middle of next week. We have never had this kind of break between babies. (Basil was born more than a month ago.) I spoke with our friend Sara, owner of Buckwheat Bridge Angoras, and the person we bought these bred does from. She said it appears that the does were bred by the "clean-up buck."

Basically, when you breed goats, you put 20 or 30 does in with one buck and allow them to go through two or three 21-day-cycles. Then, as an added insurance, you take the first buck out and put a second one in. That way is your first buck is shooting blanks you don't have to go a whole year with an unbred doe. Sara and her husband Dan followed this procedure before we picked up the does and brought them up to the Vineyard. Once they arrived here, we put all 10 of the most-likely bred does in with our new buck, Buck Fifty, just to be triply-sure they were all bred.

So I have a fairly high degree of certainty that the six remaining does are in fact bred. And all but one of them clearly are and four of them are "bagged up" to some degree. Bagged up means that the does udder has begun to fill up. This can happen as much as three weeks before kidding.

So stand by for new babies! I will send out an email as soon they make their appearance. Unfortunately, Patrick and I have to go off-Island next weekend for Easter and Patrick's eldest son's 16th birthday, so we will be getting the news second hand. Mark and Melinda Defeo, our dear friends, are super qualified to keep an eye on things here. Melinda works at the Farm Institute and has just attended her second Women's Kidding Week at The Heifer Institute.

My mom and I went to the Heifer Institute's Women Lambing Weekend in Arkansas a few years ago. It is a good program and we met a lot of very successful, intelligent women there. The thing is, the program was really designed to introduce people to Heifer and wasn't so great for the animals. In order to be sure that lambs were born during the weekend of the program they injected the ewes with something to force them to go into labor. It was kind of icky.

I love the idea though, and I think we will do our own version of it next spring. I'll let you know as the idea develops. Another idea that we are going forward with right away is Weekend Shepherd Camp for people who are interested in raising sheep or who just want to take an agritourism vacation. I've been doing a lot of reading about making a working farm sustainable and diversification is the key. We are going to start the Shepherd Camp in April and do it all through the summer.

Speaking of reading, I want to recommend a couple of magazines that I have really been enjoying lately. The first is Hobby Farms Magazine. This publication is really an introduction to small-scale farming (what the British call "smallholding") and we have probably outgrown most of the farming how-to info it contains, but I do like reading about what other people are doing with their livestock around the country.

The magazine I have a complete crush on right now is the UK edition of Country Living. It's nothing like the US version- it's actually about living in country, not just decorating your house as if you do. There is a sheep or fiber article in almost every issue and it's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. It's also expensive, expensive, expensive. Like $7 on the newsstands. But it's so very inspiring and oversized and just lovely.

All of the sheep and goats are heavy with wool and fiber respectively and more than ready for their shearing. I'm happy to say that the fleeces look relatively free of vegetable matter, which is amazing at this time of the year. I love shearing, not just because of all the yummy, wonderful fiber we harvest, but also because it feels like a new beginning.

We are going to be jacketing all of the sheep this year right after they are sheared. In the past we have only jacketed the cormos and this year we only managed to get jackets on Sicily and FDR. Jackets are a pain in the rear but they really cut down on the amount of vegetation in the fleece and the time it takes to pick all that stuff out. I am ordering a bunch of new jackets in a variety of sizes so they'll be here in time for the shearing at MV Fiber Fest.

That's all for this week. Be sure to enter the MVFF Hat give away in the previous post by leaving a comment.

Reindeer Games

No new babies to report, at least as of noon when I snuck away from the office to check. The four babies we have were doing some pretty adorable things though. Thought you might like to see these.

Kids spend a lot of time butting heads. Actually, they don't really butt heads, they sort of push each other around with their heads. They are sort of "play fighting", mimicking the behavior of adults. Except that they haven't seen the adults butting heads so it's all instinct.

Two against one.



Basil is just a week or so younger than the others but he didn't seem to understand the game. He thinks there is a group hug going on and wants in on it. I probably shouldn't have a favorite but I do and it's Basil.

Isn't he the cutest thing? Look at that face!
There is also a fair amount of smooching going on. 

Angora Goat Kid Theater

Basil, sleeping peacefully...

until Chive walks up.

"Wanna play?"

"Basil, do you wanna play?"


"Wanna wake up and play with me, Basil?"



"Basil, where are you going?"

"WANNA PLAAAAAAY????!"

Farm Update 2/19

My friends, what a wonderful and exhausting week it has been here on the farm.

We have had the full range of Vineyard weather on the Island in the past seven or eight days- fleeting snow, torrential down pours, winds so fierce and powerful that the ferries couldn't run, and beautiful blue-sky-days with bone-chilling tempurtures. Today was sunny and warmish, but I don't trust it to last. I am counting the minutes till spring when I don't have to fight the elements and the entire flock is on pasture.

The new kids are absolutely thriving- there is just no other word for it. Little Basil's eye problem has completely cleared up, whether from the antibiotic cream I put in it or not I don't know. He is a tiny little peewee though, so I am leaving him in the kidding pen with his mom a little longer than usual just to be sure he is bonded and strong. He has been eating from his mom without my help since Sunday and he is a very hungry little guy!




I am so happy that we are able to keep the kids in the warmth of the hoop house for awhile after they are born. We are supposed to be moving out of the hoop house at the beginning of March, so I really want the remaining six nannies to have their kids so they can also benefit from the warm surroundings. Andrew Woodruff, the owner of the veggie CSA that is lending us the barn, is a wonderful man, very generous and kind. I know he would probably let us extend our stay a bit, but I really don't want to take advantage of the situation. We would like to be good guest so that we get invited back next year.

Not having a proper farm is wearing on me this week. In New York we were positively spoiled. We had more than 35 acres that we were reclaiming as pasture land, cutting down the trees a few at a time so the flock could strip the leaves off, then cutting them for firewood. It isn't a perfect set-up- the land is adjacent to the Taconic Parkway (a busy highway that connects NYC to the rest of the state)- but it is ours. Being guest on the land of others is hard, because we could be asked to leave at any time and that is always in the back of my mind.

Unfortunately, it is the reality of life on Martha's Vineyard. Real estate prices have sky rocketed here since 2000 when the first house sold for $1 million. I read an ad in the paper last week with the headline "Price Drastically Reduced" that was for a two bedroom mobile home on 1/4 of an acre and was "drastically reduced" to $249,000!

Patrick and I are lucky to own a home here. We bought it as a summer rental before we moved up full-time, and without it we probably wouldn't have taken jobs here. It's on the market now while we look for a place that might someday accommodate a fiber mill and Bed and Breakfast.

The animals at Felix Neck seem to be adapting to their new home. They have already made a dent in the invasive bittersweet and they will be in heaven there when green things start to come out. Last fall, I pointed to a rolling green pasture and told Patrick that, in a few months, that kind of green would seem impossible, and it does.

Our Shearing Day Fiber Festival plans are well under way. The fun will begin on Saturday, April 19th at 10 a.m. I hope you can come because it's really a party thrown in your honor. I am so grateful to all of you and it will be nice to get to thank some of you in person.

I had two Shareholder visitors this weekend and it was so nice to get to show off the flock. Beth was here on Sunday with her beautiful baby Aubrey and they spent an hour oohing and awing over the kids. Beth started a great thread over at the ravelry group about he visit if you want to check it out.

Christine and her husband Brian spent the weekend on the Vineyard and visited both the babies and the rest of the flock on Sunday. Our insane rooster Dan Rather really didn't like Brian much and relentlessly attacked him in the kidding barn. It was terribly embarrassing and a tiny but funny, but only because Brian was such a great sport about it. It did reenforce my decision to do something about that rooster.




Our flock will be expanding by one this weekend when Mark and Melinda bring their sheep Daisy over to Felix Neck to join the others. Daisy is an Icelandic/Navajo Churro cross that Mark rescued from being sent to auction this fall. She is a sweetheart of a sheep and has a nice fleece as well. It will be interesting to see what kind of lambs she and our Cormo lamb Lincoln produce.

Adding one sheep to an existing flock is a tricky thing. The other sheep (not so much the goats) will often bully and butt a new sheep, so I am planning to put Daisy in an adjacent pen for a couple of days with Jack and Roquefort (last year's bottle babies and all around good guy goats) until everyone else gets used to her being around.

We actually already have a Daisy in our flock so the new Daisy will be known as Daisy2 from now on. The original Daisy was one of my original four sheep and, while she doesn't exactly come when you call her, she deserves a little respect. She is a Babydoll Southdown, a sheep not exactly known for their fine wool, but I had no idea what I was doing when I bought four of them. I am looking into having their wool turned into quilting batts, so if there are any quilters among you let me know.

The article in the Vineyard Gazette is definitely bringing visitors to Felix Neck to check out the sheep and goats. In fact, two couple s came by to see them while I was showing Christine and Brian around, but their attention very quickly turned to the dogs. Our dogs are just such amazing creatures. They are beautiful, fun and funny, and absolutely loyal. Cini has more than once protected me from our mean, charging ram, Lincoln.

These two pictures of Cini are my absolute favorites. He is such a gentle giant. In the first pic, Cini is licking Buster's ear. In the second he is checking out the hours-old FDR.




The picture below is one of the nannies who hasn't kidded yet. She has the very best horns I've ever seen (remind you of Marlo Thomas in That Girl?) but she also has a really cool personality. We will be needing a really good name for her.

Number Four

Basil made his way into the world yesterday. I didn't write about him before because I was a little worried about him and I can't take a picture (see previous post about my camera.) He is doing much better today, although he seems to have gotten stepped on by his mom- his eye is all swollen and teary. Rather than over-reacting and worrying my head off for the next few days I am adopting a wait-and-see on this one.
Basil is on the small side but he is an aggressive little thing and he is eating like a champ. I will go check on him one more time tonight before I go to bed, mostly because it is crazy-stupid cold here tonight, but I think he is okay. The heat lamps are on and I put a jacket on him earlier.
Chive and her mom Fran got to leave the kidding pen today. It was so great to see Chive running, jumping and generally trying out those brand-new legs of hers. She is a funny little kid. Before I let her into the main barn she kept sneaking over into Basil's kidding pen to check him out. She and Sage chased each other around the barn for a while and it filled my heart with joy.
More soon. In the meantime, I've uploaded some new pics to flickr.

Slight change in plans...

The doeling we named Cinnamon yesterday has undergone a name change. Patrick choose Cinnamon, and I wasn't crazy about it but I have to let him have a turn once in a while. Well, he had a change of heart this morning and renamed her Chive. His rational was that we haven't really exhausted herbs yet and it was too soon to move on to spice.

Both Sage and Chive are doing okay, although I don't think either of their moms are letting them eat enough. It's really hard to say though, because the kids nurse like crazy when I hold the moms and get them latched on but I haven't seen them nurse on their own. I am really super determined not to end up with any bottle babies this year, so I am trying to wait this out and hope that the moms catch on pretty soon.

Sage is also having a little problem with his legs. I noticed that he was walking with his hooves turned under, basically on his ankles. I called my dear friend Sara in New York, who has a gazillion goats and has seen just about everything. The funny thing is, she hadn't ever seen this before until last week, when they had a little buck kid born the same way. This nanny goat was bred to the same buck that bred the nanny in her case too!

Sara is a nurse and her husband Dan is a doctor, so very little phases them. They made a pair of splints out of a tupperwear lid and some tape and the problem corrected itself in a couple of days. I did the same thing with Sage and his legs seem much improved already.



We did finally get the electricity on last night and the heat lamps made the hoop house toasty warm. It's also great to have some light in there- the flashlight thing was getting tiresome.

Working at my office today was hard because I am on no sleep but kidding only happens for a short time and we always survive it. I am really excited because we have our very first Shareholder visit this weekend.

I will post some more pictures in a bit. I just discovered there is wireless internet access at the kidding barn!

And then there were three...

I went back to check on Sage and found him shivering cold, so I ran to the hardware store before it closed at 5:00 p.m. and bought a couple of heat lamps. But when I got back, there was no electricity coming into the hoop house. Shit.

While I was trying to figure out what to do next, another nanny went in to noisy labor and gave birth to another doe kid.  Meet Cinnamon.

 

Meanwhile I put a jacket on Sage.

And Miss Thyme was evicted from the kidding pen. She seems to be enjoying being with the big girls. She tried out those new legs with some joyful leaping.


Hard to believe she's only 5 days old.
More pics soon.

Meet Sage

After lunch, I decided to stop by the kidding barn on my way back to work  and I walked in just in time to see this little one slide into the world.

I didn't have a lot of time to stay with him but I am heading back over in a few minutes to make sure he is okay.

I'll keep you posted.