New Additions

This past Saturday was my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary, and they took a nice overnight trip to Windsor, Ontario to celebrate. Yay mom and dad! 🙂

George and I had our anniversary on April 19th, and I received a belated gift, also on this past Saturday. (They weren’t weaned until this past week!) You may have already guessed it – additions to our herd. 🙂 Three more does that will be milkers for me starting next spring. I’ll introduce them, one by one. They are all Alpine/Saanen/Boer crosses.

First, we have MaryAnn – she is tiny, and has a little eensy voice to match! She’s been the shyest of them all, but she has warmed up and is gladly accepting pets and attention. She is definitely the most “Alpiney” of the bunch in appearance, and was a triplet. Her mother (Mallory) and grandmother (Dobbie) have both given birth to quadruplets, so despite her diminutive size now, she may give us multiple kids when she becomes a mother herself. Isn’t she the spitting image of Heidi?

Next, we have Ginger, who shares the same grandmother (Dobbie) as MaryAnn – and her mother, Bobbi Jo, is also a producer of quads. She has cute little shading on her face, and look at those ears! We can thank the Boer heritage for those cute floppy little things. While Boer goats are raised for meat, their milk has a high butterfat content, so mixing that with the Alpine and Saanen should make for great milk, particularly for the cheese-making purposes I have in mind. Despite her namesake, Ginger refused to vamp for the camera.

Last, but not least, we have Lovie, who has the cute floppy Boer ears, and adorable little wattles on her neck. She’s been the most open to attention from the start, and is very playful and acrobatic.

Heidi and Gidget were unsure of what to think at first, but everyone is integrating together well. My bottle babies are still the first to call to and run up to me, and I am lavishing them with extra attention so that they know they are still my special girls. Heidi is still the queen of the herd thus far, and I honestly hope that remains the case, because she’s a good leader. In fact, I was able to take everyone on a walk today, and because she kept everyone together, I didn’t have to worry about the new girls wandering off. This is from my cell phone, so the quality isn’t great, but it gives the idea! She’s right in the middle, making sure everyone stays together. Such a good girl. 🙂

Now, I’m off to get some lunch before running errands this afternoon. I really hate leaving our home, even for the shortest of trips, because I really do feel serene here. But there are things that require me to venture into the outside world, such as it is.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you some photos of our adventures in getting the girls home in our sedan. That’s right, a sedan.

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