January 16, 2018

Coming Soon

The 2018 edition of the Back to Basics Living Bundle.


Sale starts tomorrow. If you aren't interested in buying a collection of eBooks but enjoy book reviews, then come back throughout the week. I plan to run a series of daily book reviews on bundle contents covering natural cooking, gardening, preparedness, various homesteading and simple living skills, etc.

Kids!


If everything is going according to the dates circled on my calendar, kidding starts next month!

Jessie will be first with a tentative due date of February 5.

Violet would be about the same time - maybe.
She had a second visit with a buck at a later date.



Daisy is a first freshener who is due in mid-February.
She's already starting to bag up which is a positive sign.

Stay tuned!

Coming Soon © January 2018 by Leigh

18 comments:

Goatldi said...

Well looks like Jessie has the potential to go before her due date. Violet could be later couldn't she? But stretched out like that makes it hard to tell. Does she carry her kids up higher? Daisy is a cutie and knows it! I will miss not having kids this season but I am hoping I am able to breed Miss. Willa this Fall. Will look forward to February baby fix pictures and hopeful you have that very bad cold weather done by then.

Leigh said...

Goatldi, I was just looking at my kidding records from last year and everybody kidded early. But I don't think that's unusual for Kinders, since they are a mid-size goat. Officially they have a 150-day gestation, but a number of years ago a university analyzed something like 10 years of records from one of the original breeders. They came up with an average of 147.5 days. Last year Jessie kidded on day 145 and and Violet on day 144. Violet never did look very big, but she had twins! I did have some question about settling, and when a 4th doe went into heat in November, Violet acted like she was too. So she got to visit Colby again. She flagged like crazy and stood for him, so she may not be due until the end of April! If that's the case, she'll have a mighty huge load developing over the next three months!

I know you'll miss having kids this year, but sometimes life rearranges our priorities and I think you've made the right decision. I'm really hoping February warms up! I hate having kids in bitter cold.

Ed said...

Those goats look like they are ready to pop! I think I would keep my distance!

Mama Pea said...

Jessie and Violet have GOT to have multiples in there!

Leigh said...

Ed, sometimes I worry I got my due dates wrong! Keeping a close eye on things just in case!

Mama Pea, it looks like it, doesn't it! Kinders frequently have trips or quads, so we'll see!

Rain said...

I agree with what others have said, Jessie is as big as a house!!! How exciting Leigh. I love following your kidding season!! :)

Fiona said...

I just love your goats, living vicariously through your kidding expectations but every day we are closer to being ready for the sheep and the cow should be next week.

Living Alone in Your 60's said...

Wow lots of new additions, how wonderful. Can't wait to see the photos.

tpals said...

Adore the goat posts! Here's hoping for smooth deliveries for all.

Goatldi said...

My neighbor the cowgirl swears that if a heifer/cow goes over due date it is always a bull calf. I have seen some truth to that in my does. Who also have about the same gestation time 145 to 155 days with 150 being most common.

You are spot on and I am exercising great restraint by not tossing Miss Willa in with Longfellow for early Fall kidding. I have finally learned to listen to my heart. It is written.

Be warm and safe kiddings .



Leigh said...

Rain, she walks like she swallowed a house, LOL. This will be her third kidding, though, so she knows what it's all about.

Fiona, good to hear from you! How exciting about the cow! And the sheep. So glad to hear things are progressing so well on your homestead.

Tania, thanks! It's hard to believe the time has flown by so quickly. Februrary will hopefully be filled with lots of kid photos.

Tpals, thanks! Me too!

Goatldi, how interesting. I'd think a bull calf would be larger and therefore deliver earlier! But sometimes they do things backward from what we expect. Irene Ramsay in New Zealand says that an old farmer told her that he got more females than males by breeding during the latter part of estrous. She experimented and agreed with him. No one thinks that makes much sense, but when I've delayed breeding I've gotten more girls too. Nothing scientific about it, but observations can be just as important.

Goatldi said...

That goes along with the theory that if the doe is exposed on the first day of standing heat only there will be more does. It is based on male sperm having a shorter life cycle.

I think the bull calf is supposed to be hormone based. I have noticed that when a die is carrying twins that the girls do make an earlier appearance as do single doe kids. However I have seen it go both ways when it is fraternal twins. And then there is the question of why doesn't a buck and doe birth present a free martin as it does in cattle? That would mean the doe would present sterile as a heifer/bull calf breeding does for our non livestock friends.

We could go on 😊

Leigh said...

Ha, ha, we could go on, and on, and on. But it's nice to have someone to chat with about goats! I think Dan gets a bit tired of it sometimes, though he's always attentive, always a trooper.

Jessie was the only doeling in a set of quads and I was cautioned that she might be a freemartin. I did some research and found it was fairly rare in goats, but not impossible. Fortunately she wasn't! But it was a bit of new information and I'm always interested in expanding my knowledge.

Mrs Shoes said...

wow, those does are looking ripe & lovely! Can't wait for kid pics.

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

I can't wait to see your baby pictures!! You will be a busy lady! Nancy

Leigh said...

Mrs. Shoes, me too!

Nancy, it gets pretty exciting the closer we get. :)

Mark said...

I've got a very good friend at the day job (kind of a "work daughter") who, due a minor lack of planning on her part, has a doe giving birth to her first kids - triplets she thinks - about the same week she's giving birth to hers - a single - in a week or so. Her husband, a great guy and also a co-worker, is coming along in his rural education but is largely a city boy. We're all watching both future mamas with lots of interest to see how who's first and how it all plays out.

Leigh said...

Mark, oh my! Sounds like exciting times are ahead for your friend! Here's hoping the timing works out just right.