First Goat Birth on the Farm! (Video bonus, too)

 Sandia, Little Seed's first official goat baby :)

On Tuesday we had our first goat birth on the farm! She was born to one of our Nubian first fresheners, Tijeras. (A first freshener is a goat that has not previously kidded). We weren't expecting her arrival until today so you can imagine our surprise when we found a perfectly dry and fuzzy baby goat in the pasture next to Tijeras when we went to check on the herd in the afternoon! Izzy our LGD was right there with her, protecting the baby and mama and giving the little baby a few licks here and there. 

We named her Sandia, which is the name of the mountain range behind James' childhood home in New Mexico. Tijeras is also a name that finds its roots in New Mexico. To make life easier on the naming of animals front, we have certain lines for certain goats and Tijeras is the "Grande Dame" of the New Mexican line. We also have a Tennessean line (beginning with our goat Blackstrap), a Vermont line (where Eileen grew up), and, last but not least, a Bad NYC Nightclub line (beginning with our goat TenJune).

Here's little Sandia at only 2 days old hopping around like a jumping bean:

 

She weighed in at 7 pounds and looks just like her dad, our Nubian buck, Gozer. Since she's our only goat kid at the moment and we don't want her to be cold and lonely by herself, she gets to stay in the house at night until another goat kid is born! (ok, she'd probably be fine by herself, we just enjoy having a little goat running around).

Out runnin' around, wreaking havoc, as baby goats do best

Due Dates and Baby Bumps

It is almost time! Ever since we bred the goats this past October, I've been counting down to their due dates. The anticipation has increased many fold since drying them off early in January. For the past few months our schedule has been wildly different than our previous days on the farm. My twice a day treks out into the pasture to collect the herd and intimate one-on-one milking time with each goat has been reduced to our once daily visit when we check on the herd, give fresh water, and feed hay, sprouted grains and minerals. The luxury of drinking the milk from our own herd and eating the cheese we make from it has been suspended until our goats are back in milk this Spring. The return of these enjoyable pieces of our farm life will be accompanied by something I'm looking forward to just as much as the milk (maybe more) - baby goats!

By mid April we should have anywhere from 5 to 16 kids bounding around the farm. You may be thinking "5 to 16? Huh?". Well...

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Valentine Goats

 

If you haven't noticed, we're a bit obsessed with our farm animals here at Little Seed. They're not just animals to us - they're our herd! They feed us, they make us laugh (and cry), they're our close companions, and the first thing we think about when we wake up.        

So naturally, when we started selling our Farmstead Milk Soap, we thought they would make the best ambassadors. We decided that each soap would feature one of the very special goats who had helped make that bar, by being a part of our unique pastured milking herd. 

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