Ice, Ice Baby!

4' thick chunks of ice off of the water trough

Extreme cold continues in the Willamette Valley.  At 7am this morning it was 14 degrees and then the temperature started dropping.  At 9am it has finally climbed back up to 12 degrees!   Forecast high for today is supposed to be 30 degrees. 

Needless to say the goats water troughs were covered in thick ice - about 4 inches thick to be exact.   After breaking the ice and scooping out as much of it as I could I hauled about 30 gallons of hot water from the house.    Bet you can't guess that my dream barn would include running hot & cold water.

Allie didn't want the moderately warm water in the trough, she only wanted the hot water.  So I made a point to use a 5 gallon bucket instead of watering can for at least one trip so she could drink her fill.   Yup - my herd queen is spoiled.  :)

And speaking of Allie she was in heat yesterday so I put her in with Rio.  He is about 7 1/2 months old now, and I thought it was time to see if he was up to being a stud yet.   He didn't seem at all confused about what his job was and got right to down to business.  

He did nearly suffer a disaster on his second attempt.   A very brisk breeze was blowing and when he started peeing on himself (it apparently makes the bucks more attractive to the ladies) he started shivering so badly that when he mounted Allie the second time he fell over.   Fortunately I managed not to laugh out loud at him and Allie was very gracious and understanding and seemed to be trying to help him regain his confidence.    And while he didn't try again right away he did eventually get over the blow to his ego and get on with it.   Now we just have to wait three weeks to see if he was successful or not.   

---