When I went to pick up our photography entries from the county fair this afternoon I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this picture of four year old Ari and Mame's three day old buck kid had garnered not only a blue ribbon, but also the "People's Choice" award. 

Now I will have a "matched set" to hang on the wall because in 2008 a picture of then four year old Bekah and Allie's one day old buck kid won a blue ribbon and a "Most Representative of the Fair" award.  

Guess there is just something magical about a four year old child with a new goat kid.  Don't know what I'm going to do for an encore next year.  Guess I'll have to borrow someone else's cute child.  :)

For the past two years, only my goat pictures have garnered me ribbons and this year the trend was broken by the picture of Sophie stocking the goats.

How can I put this nicely....  I hate hoof trimming day!  Short of bucking a couple tons of hay, it is the one chore that always leaves me with a sore back!   It should be done every 4-6 weeks but I have to admit I've been known to let it go longer than that.

But after a week of temperatures in the high 90's this morning was so much cooler that I no longer had any excuses left.   I always start with the does and today was a pretty typical day with even the friendliest does protesting and struggling a bit.

I took a brief break after finishing the does, and then with aching muscles and a bit of trepidation went to work on the boys.   My dread however turned to astonishment as all the adults stood still with barely a murmur of protest.   In fact, they seemed to be almost waiting in line for their turn.  Something that has never happened before!  

When I got to Mojo I decided that he might still be small enough at 5 months old, for me to hold in my lap and the minute I sat down he crawled into my lap and laid there just like a sleepy puppy.   I didn't have to restrain him at all while trimming his hooves, and when I was finished he was content to continue laying in my lap soaking up the attention.  Sure wish I could have gotten a picture of that.

I gave all the boys some extra attention for their good behavior, and then headed to the house for a shower (I love my boys - but they are bit odoriferous!) wondering if I had just been in the twilight zone!

Shortly after dinner this evening we heard terrified screams coming from the goats pasture.  I rushed out on the back deck that overlooks the pasture and all I saw was our buckling Mojo screaming his little heart out.   No other goats were in sight until I started talking to him to calm him down, and the rest of the herd started back up the hill from where they had been grazing out of sight.

My guess is Mojo was napping when everyone else wandered off to eat and when he woke up and didn't see any other goats around he panicked.  Mojo is not quite five months old so it was definitely a scary moment for him, especially since none of the other goats were answering his calls.   This little incident, while amusing,  was a good reminder of just how important companions are to herd oriented animals.

Bekah had her final visit with the hand surgeon this morning.  He was very pleased with how thoroughly she is healing.   After only six weeks you can barely see where the injury was on her finger and the palm area where the skin graft came from is healing up nicely too.

This afternoon I let Bekah use my camera (under very close supervision) so she could take some pictures with an eye to entering them this year at the county fair.  She did a great job with the rooster and the daisy!

The rest of the pictures were taken while we were hanging out in the pasture with the babies.   Astro sure does love to play hide and seek with Ari.

After much deliberation I have decided to put Rio up for sale.  Now that I am down to just six does I don't really "need" to have three bucks.  On the other hand Rio is a gentleman, has an impressive pedigree, and produced very correct looking kids for us this year.   So I may very well end up talking myself out of this decision.  :)

The black stripe on his back makes his rump look high, but he actually has a wide and slightly up hill stance.  Below are two of the buck kids he produced this year.  I forgot to get a picture of his doe kid when I saw her yesterday, but she is a dark chocolate and very dairy looking.

*** Update:  The buyer for the two buck kids pictured here backed out of the sale at the last minute, so both of them are once again available. ***

Millie's boy has been sold as a bottle baby and will be going to his new home on Sunday.  Because we only had the one wether available I put the buyer in touch with my friend and mentor over at Mac's Rainbow Nigerians and they purchased a second wether from her.   That kid is now sharing a pen here with Millie's boy so that the two of them can bond before going to their new home.   They seem to be enjoying each others company, and they were both having a grand time running around the front yard with Ari & Bekah yesterday.

Millie and her new buck kid seem to be doing just fine.  He is a very lively fellow and loves to kick up his heels!  He will be available as a pet wether.

Bekah also loves to kick up her heels and this morning she got the cast off her hand.  She now has just a little removable brace to provide some protection for her finger and is she is scheduled to start physical therapy next week.

For the moment she is being very cautious about using that hand, but I'm sure it will be just a matter of hours before we are futilely reminding her to take it easy.

Millie started hollering about 2pm this afternoon and at 6pm finally started pushing.   The first kid born was a buck who weighed in at a whopping 3.8lbs!   He was on his feet and nursing in no time and Millie was wonderfully attentive to him.

She eventually started pushing on the second kid, but all we could see was a single foot.  After noting the lack of progress I tried a tentative feel and found a foot back.  I straightened that out but unfortunately that wasn't enough.  So I finally put a whole hand in but couldn't find a head.  I could not tell which way the kid was facing and as she had been in labor for 90 minutes at that point I tried calling my goat mentor.  When I couldn't reach her I called the vet.  The vet said she was on her way but she was at least an hour out.   I eventually got in contact with my mentor who arrived before the vet and went to work getting the kid turned.  He had his head back over his shoulder.  Sarah managed to get him out around  8pm,  just as the vet was pulling into the driveway.   He was a strapping 2.7lb boy with markings very much like his sire.  Unfortunately he did not survive the long wait to be born. 

Through out the ordeal, Millie remained attentive to her first kid.   He has nursed several times and is already trying to jump around.

Today is day 142 for Millie and she is looking positively ready to pop.  She has been losing her plug off and on for a couple of weeks now just like she did last year when she kidded on the afternoon of day 142.

Poor girl can't find a comfortable position to lay in and huffs and puffs, grunts and groans and is constantly shifting position any time she tries to settle herself.   It's hard to keep the children from constantly running out to check on her, but their boisterousness is not conducive to a peaceful birthing environment.   So I'm trying to keep the kidding checks to only every two hours.

Since it appears Mystery came into heat last week, this will unfortunately be our last kidding of the year.   I could have tried breeding Mystery again, but I really don't want kids arriving at the start of winter.  So the plan now is to bred her to kid at the end of February.   And hopefully she will have lost some weight by then and be in better condition to conceive.

My friend Sarah at Mac's Rainbow Nigerians had two does that were due to kid the same day as Millie - June 9th.  One of them kidded yesterday, and the other who was bred to Sunny, kidded this morning with twin doe kids.  Unfortunately only one survived, quite probably because Libby was a first time mom who didn't know what to do with the kids.

The birth of these two does means that Sunny has a 50/50 doe/buck ratio for the second year in a row.   While I would prefer a higher doe ratio, I'm happy that it isn't higher on the buck side.  And the fact that he throws a lot of color is a bonus!  This doe kid reminds me of last years buck kid out of Sunny x Millie, who like Libby is black and white.  The doe kid that didn't survive had flashy markings very similar to Sunny's half sister Mystery.

I gave Millie a stern talking to this morning about not following Dahlia's and Libby's example and told her she should wait until at least this weekend to kid.   Of course having done that she will either kid early herself, or hold out until well past her due date.  Hmmm..... I think I might just head back out to the barn and get the kidding stall ready just in case.