Kids, kids, and more kids! Part 1...

Although technically the end of the 2010 kidding season, Jack Frost is the oldest of our newest batch of kids. He was born December 30, on the first day of a serious cold front. His sweet frosted shoulders and time of birth made his name an obvious choice! He is so sweet and friendly! He is sired by our awesome buck Image, and out of Gidget.

The real 2011 kidding season started February 6 with these two gorgeous Blue Eyed kids out of Hibiscus and by our awesome blue-eyed buck D'Artagnan. Hibiscus is one of our best milkers - she easily gives close to a quart of milk every milking! The black and white kid is a buckling - Fairywood DA Twilight, and the light buckskin doe - Fairywood DA Dawn will be retained.

Two days later, Hibiscus' firstborn - Storm - gave birth to two blue eyed doelings! These babies are also sired by D'Artagnan and we are so pleased to see his long body and long legs and blue eyes coming through on all his babies! Both these girls will be available to go to thier new homes around Easter.

February 9th, our big Nubian doe kidded with two adorable mini-nubian bucklings. They are sired by Image, and are so similar to thier brothers from last year. They are best friends and so funny to watch as they caper and play together! The brown, moonspotted buckling is already spoken for, but the black and white is available as either buck or wether.

This was our first week, by the end of the next week we had 15 kids born out of 7 does! It has been crazy, but so fun to see these sweet babies playing and bouncing around!

Mariposa

As you can see, little Elsa still loves her Mariposa! She has decided that she wants to milk her all by herself, so every night she goes out with me and milks while I sweep. She is doing a great job!

Here is a great picture of Mariposa taken when she was a junior doe - right after her first breeding. I still need to get a good udder picture of her. She just had her second freshening and
gave birth to these gorgeous little blue-eyed bucklings sired by our herd sire Image.

Fairywood IM Bonnie Prince Charlie (pending) is already sold! He will go to his new home as soon as he is weaned in October.

Here is Charlie from the back. He is going to make a fine herd sire for his new family!

Charlie's brother (nicknamed Gremlin) was tragically killed by visiting dogs. He was very curious, and had learned he could slip through the gap between fence and gate. Unfortunately, the dogs thought he was the perfect plaything and he couldn't outrun them. Elsa was devastated to lose him, and so was I. It is one of the hardest lessons about farm life - we can't always protect everyone however hard we try, and so sometimes we lose an animal. But we learn from our mistakes, make improvements, and hopefully reduce future risk. It is part of the circle of life. We must accept death, but there is always a new birth to remind us of the beauty and miracle of life.

Image

Here are current pictures of our herdsire, Big Enuf SI Image of the Moon. He is looking a little older and more "filled out", but he is healthy and happy and sweet! We love this guy and boy has he sired some gorgeous babies for us!

Merci's Quads

Well, we knew she would at least have triplets again as she was huge!! And I did suspect quads. Sure enough, February 9th, Merci kidded with one solid black doeling, two black and white bucklings, and one chocolatey brown buckling with tiny white spots. They are just as amazing quality as last year's triplets, without the flashy coloring. All will be available for sale and should be weaned around Easter.

Mini Nubians are Soooo Cute!!

Last fall, when faced with the problem of breeding our dear Nubian doe and no available Nubian bucks within easy reach, we decided to go ahead and try breeding her to our darling Image. Well...it worked! And, the kids are just the cutest things we have ever seen! February 11 KitKat kidded with triplets (last year, bred to a Nubian buck, she had a single buckling...) One very dark mahogany doeling, one black and white extremely outgoing and adorable buckling, and one brown with amazing moonspots and sweet personality buckling. We wil keep the doeling, but will probably sell the bucklings. They will be available as either bucks or wethered for pets.

Gidget Does it Again!

February 1st Gidget gave us twin doelings again! This is the third time in a row for her, and since it is her 3rd freshening, she has only ever had twin does. This time they are both blue eyed as well, and just as beautiful as ever. Gidget and Image throw gorgeous dairy doelings! The little buckskin looks just like her mama and will be named Fairywood IM Saint Bridget, and the black with white spots will be Fairywood IM Snowdrop. Both of these babies are available for sale.

New Year Baby

Mocha totally surprised us by giving birth to this sweet little guy on New Year's Day! We had thought she wasn't bred, and were about to re-breed her to Image, but apparantly she found a moment with our Jr. Buck (not jr. any more!) Fairywood IM John Muir...and this darling little buckling was the result. We were calling him "Early Bird", but it has been changed to "Lightning Bolt" by the neighbor boy who will soon be his new owner. Lightning Bolt will be wethered and go to his new home for Easter.

Merci's Spotted Triplets!!!

Here they are! Out of Fairywood Dark Chocolate and by Big Enuf SI Image of the Moon. Moonspotted doeling, moonspotted buckling, pinto buckling. And aren't they gorgeous!! We are so thrilled with these kids! They are everything we could have hoped for and more. I know they are brand new, but every one of them is put together just beautifully with nice wide escutcheons and really straight legs and toplines.

Here's the little pinto buckling. Isn't he adorable! He was hard to photograph as he is constantly moving!

And the moonspotted buckling. Also adorable! You can see his lovely stance in the picture at the top. He's the baby in the middle.

Here is our little moonspotted doe. She is just breathtaking! Tons of moonspots and beautiful dairy type too. Wow! Look at that escutcheon below!! She already knows she's a show goat!

The bucklings will both be for sale, but we are keeping the doeling, of course! How could we ever part with her?

Angel's New Baby

On Friday January 2nd Fairywood Angel Cake gave birth to Fairywood Sugar Cookie - a tiny little doeling! Her sire is our own buck, Image. This is our 3rd baby by Image, and so far we are quite happy! We are expecting Angel's sister Merci to have her kids any day now, hopefully soon as little Cookie is very playful and would love some little cousins to frolick with.

Image's Inheritance

This is Image's Granddam, PGCH Enchanted Hill Moonflower *D.

This is the udder of Image's Dam, GMF Dark of the Moon 2*D.

Both of these does are owned by Good Measure Farm in Oklahoma.

Big Enuf SI Image of the Moon

I guess a good place to start this blog is with our buck. We just bought him May of '08 from Dotty Clark of DC Miniatures here in AZ. We were so excited about this cute little guy! He is so sweet and friendly, and we have been very happy with his kids so far. His breeding is of respectable quality, we are hoping he will pass on the beautiful udders of his dam and granddam. And just look at those moon spots!