She doesn’t show any signs of being pregnant. I had a goat earlier this year like that. Looked completely normal. Of course, completely normal means big as a tank anyway. Even with being a really big framed goat though she didn’t have the ‘watermellon’ look that you pretty much expect from a goat in the final months. She ended up giving me three kids–so she was definately pregnant wouldn’t you say?

Bowie (the current goat in question) is a large, meaty, big-framed girl too, so there’s plenty of room in there for a kid or two, or three to hide, but the not knowing is just driving me crazy. I wish my goats would cooperate a little and have the decency to LOOK pregnant when they are. Even my vetran doe Polly hid it pretty well this spring, but she always does, and she always only has one kid… One big kid, but just one.

Thankfully all the rest of my girls had the good graces too look like water tankers during the final weeks, so there was no question as to their pregnant status.

A little cooperation from Bowie right now would be really nice.

Not too long ago. I got some goat meat from a friend of mine, a leg and some ribs. I slow cooked the leg roast and my son and I had it for dinner one night. Some of it was good–gave a hint as to what goat meat should taste like, very tender, sweet meat–but some was REAL gamey tasting. I had just read the thread on the homestead forum about how different kill methods, stress, illness, etc can do that so I had already primed myself not to judge goat meat by that particular instance, and it was bad enough that if I had I wouldn’t have wanted any more. LOL But I know that lady and although she’s a friend, she really doesn’t have good handling practices or killing skills much less clean butchering skills. And I also know that buckling died of ’something’. So anyway, long story short…

Savvy–the doe who killed her triplets last weekend–entered our freezer this morning…boy that was a chore, she was a BIG goat. LOL However, it wasn’t all that bad either, the worst part was how heavy she was to lift up and hang. We shot her, and we put her legs through the tpost and still had a struggle to hoist her up. haha, but Emily’s post on how to do the job (posted on the http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/ forum) was excellent. I had done plenty of other animals, but never a goat, and never a full-sized adult like that, plus never an animal with an udder before, just like Emily said, it cut right off, I was shocked at how easy it was.

Now, for the final result… Savvy hambugers this afternoon were DELICIOUS. Even past the ’son’ test. (Bobby is really cool about eating our animals and such, but he’s very honest about the taste, and that last goat he said was like licking our big buck’s butt, lol, ewww) but he said this was really good.

The last leg of goat that I got from my friend I put in the slow cooker, and you could even smell the ‘goatiness’ while it was cooking. I have a leg roast in there now from Savvy and it smells delicious. We had it for dinner and it was wonderful. Sweet beef taste.

As of now I say…. anyone who hasn’t tried goat yet–you have got to try goat!

Bubba and Punch playing kind and queen of the old crap pile

Bubba and Punch playing tag with mom

Bubba Punch and Dolly (yes I know it’s a mess there, it’s the junkiest place in the yard and they LOVE IT)

Close up of Dolly

Punch making a flying leap to grab all the hay she can before mom gets there(even though she really doesn’t know what it’s for exactly yet, mom seems to love it, lol)

Thanks for indulging me. Springtime is just too much fun. I don’t know who enjoys playtime more, me or them.

Here’s some of the girls over in the big barn just clumping about and enjoying the beautiful day

Polly saw me holding the camera and came over trying to see if it was food

Then Specs decided to see if maybe my shirt was food

Oreo one of last year’s kids, and Specs a spring boer cross brought home last year

Red and Specs, sisters born last year

On the other side of the farm in a run in pen I caught Blondie and Cherry giving me a once over and trying to decide if I was up to anything interesting with that gadget in my hand

And Blondie just by herself

Then of course, no farm ‘tour’ would be complete without a stop by the buck pen to visit the master of the place, Mickey, our Boer buck

And finally, took a little journey out back to see two of the new moms and twin does (the other twins belonging to the second mom were still back at the barn snoozing in the sun.

Anyway, I kept up my checking every hour as the evening turned to night. Eleven oclock I went out, Alex is laying down, but on her chest, munching cud and looking for all the world like she was just as satisfied with herself as can be. No contractions, no goo, nothing to alert me to imminent birth…

Midnight I walked into the barn and…

BOTH DOES.

We are 8 for 9 this year with does, one lonely little buckling in the yard, haha.

Now what I want to know is where did the color go? I expected big color from this one, and I got danged near solid white. One doeling is pretty much completely white, with just a very very minimal shading of red on the head, but not hardly noticable. The other has ‘eyeshadow’ and a couple little color marks on the very top of her head:

I don’t know how such a colored doe threw such colorless kids, haha, but I know one thing, these two does are HUGE. I swear the one is bigger than my two week olds in the other barn, and the other is about the size of the two week olds out there.

I’m just happy there were no problems. Alex delivered those babies and fast, by herself, and is a GREAT mom. She had them clean although was still working on dry, and I dipped their cords and feet, and made sure they were nursing which Alex handled like a champ. She’s very protective, she’s cool with me, but won’t even let the cat in the stall with the babies, haha, poor kitty she likes greeting the new arrivals. Mom says no go though.

Now I am just so befuddled, I have already picked two keepers from previous two kiddings, and wasn’t going to keep either of these since they’re just 50%er’s, but dang, they are beautiful big bodied girls, and I think they’ll follow in momma’s ‘no problem having big babies’ shoes. So, I think I’m gonna keep one of these too… oh lordy, potatoe chips anyone? LOL

Buck–we’re calling him Bubba for now.

The best pic of the doeling I could get–eating of course (come to think of it, considering how mom was during labor, maybe she just is taking after momma and never gonna stop eating). We were going to call her ‘Leap of Faith’ since she was born on leap day, but I was joking around with my son and said boy, what a knock out, and he said yeah, it was a lucky punch. I thought that was perfect, since leap day is also supposed to be lucky, her name is gonna be ‘Lucky Punch’ (I think anyway, lol).

The two of them-Bubba was trying to get his sister to let him have at the bar, she was being a pig, and he hasn’t figured out there are two spigots yet, haha.

Both are doing great and are happily eating. The pictures below were taking the moment they hit the ground, and on my camera phone so they’re not the best quality, but I was just so thrilled. Mom is a half Boer and Spanish cross, and dad is a fullblood Boer. The babies are perfectly Boer marked! I’m just thrilled. Being as big as they are I’m anxious to see how they grow. The little doe might just be a keeper. Hey, being born on leap day has to be lucky right?