An Early Spring
Spring is always a time I look forward to even more than those first crisp evenings of late summer hinting that autumn is just around the corner. And this year spring came a day early because of something having to do with the leap year adding an extra day. And just a little more leap year trivia while I’m on a roll: our every four year ‘leap year’ cycle always coincides with a presidential election occurring in the same year. Who knows? It might just come up as an answer on Jeopardy!
It actually feels more like spring than winter felt like winter, and many local meteorologists calling what we experienced, “sprinter”. Somehow the goats decided they were no longer goign to tough out kidding in early to mid winter, they’ve actually started getting more in touch with springtime.
Throughout nearly the entire winter of 2023/2024, not one kidding occurred except for the little buckling on the right who was kidded March 18th making him officially a ‘winter kid’. And for the rest of the nannies now visibly showing they are pregnant, I don’t expect it’s going be to much longer before the goat pen is bustling with activity.
I have to say that I am a bit relieved the goats have chosen to kid later as they were prone to having their kids on the coldest nights in late December and a good part of January.
I am kind of guesstimating how many kids to expect this season, but realistically it is going to be around 15 with perhaps as many as 30. There are a few nannies in the herd that throw out an occasional triplet surprise. The nanny for the buck in the picture produced this single kidding after kidding twins last year. And more about the little buckling. He is the result of mixing a naturally polled percentage Boer billy with a Toggenburg nanny. With both breeds being larger framed, the mix should prove interesting.
We named this little buck Stanislaus kind of on a whim, I don’t know why but I was doing chores and out of fun started calling a rooster Stanislaus. As I moved on to the goat pens, that’s when I saw the kid on the ground. Because this little goaty was doing so well and already up and about, I didn’t take it in for immediate attention like is usually the case in the winter kiddings. When I announced to Pam that we had a new baby goaty, I think I said ” a little baby Stanislaus” and the name kind of stuck from there.
And now that it’s officially spring it’s officially time for planting! This year I’m trying something a little different by seeding in a large section of our garden with yellow field peas before planting anything else. In addition to peas fixing nitrogen in the soil, growing the peas should yield enough peas to also provide the goats an occasional treat as well as for our own personal consumption.
My garden planning for this season goes back a number of months and I had originally intended to create a test plot for just the peas alone, but I began thinking of the various companion plants for peas and have had some good success with multiple garden crops in the past. Beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, radishes and a few odd turnips should work out nicely for this year.
The other part of planning for this years garden is whether or not we are going to be plagued with another grasshopper infestation. It’s generally in March and April when I can tell if it’s a good year or not by kicking some old brush and weeds and checking for grasshopper nymphs. It doesn’t seem to be as bad this year, at least not yet. Lettuce pray!
Also on the agenda for this spring is further working on our poultry project for egg layer and meat chickens. Almost all of our chickens went through a heavy molting period this year, but by mid February, egg production began stepping up. I began collecting some of thee eggs I hoped would be fertile and good candidates for incubation.Of the twelve eggs gathered, only one made it through the hatch, mostly due to getting a new incubator location set up and dialed in just right. One out of twelve isn’t good odds but it will get better!
And if you find yourself asking what chickens have to do with goats…keep in mind that I often let a few of my chickens roam the goat pens on a rotational basis where they scour the ground like the fine bug lovers they are. Goats and chickens seem to be very compatible and each creature knows their place. I think the goats actually welcome the company of a different species. This little chickee to the left is a hybrid cross between Rhode Island Red and a Red Star chicken which is a hybrid of itself. They sure do lay good eggs!.
Last but not least for this update is how we are progressing with our GoatWorld Store front. Many of you may have noticed that the GoatWorld Livestock & Supply Store is now the front page of the GoatWorld web site. I’ve gone over the format of the store several times and made changes based upon customer feedback to eliminate any possibility of confusion. The main concern many customers relate is that they are unsure how to pay or click a button that adds an item to a shopping cart.
As a small individual business, I try to let each customer and potential customer alike that “We are like an old fashioned feed mill with 20 years in the business that does our best to offered personalized customer service”. We feel strongly that where many businesses have largely ignored their practice of customer service, we strive to make good business by dealing with people on a more personable level.
At some point this spring we will be announcing our new additions to the store which are more oriented toward jewelry & fashion, as well as a few handmade items here and there. In creating this new section of our store, we are experimenting with a number of different formats for the best presentation possible. I’ve been rather reluctant to switch over completely to using WordPress or anything else completely, but considering I designed this site over 20 years ago, and a lot of the tools that weren’t available then are available now. So we’re very interested and anxious to see how the new look will be received by our web site visitors.
But until that time there’s plenty to do here on the ranch. Fences, gates, fixin’ this and that, and most of all, getting the garden well established. Until next time, enjoy the weather and happy goating!
Gary