Kids These Days

Juniper kicked off the kidding season on April 9th with a doe and a buck. They were little, pink-nosed, and hungry, as Junie's kids tend to be. This is Jolene, just a few minutes old.

The next day, Petunia delivered two big, gorgeous bucklings by herself in between my hourly labor checks. She's independent like that. The four kids kept each other warm in the nursery pen.

For a week or so, they were fast and furious: female twins for Juno (the first on the farm since Jade and Jasmine were born three years ago), a giant single buck for Peony, a difficult birth resulting in two stillborn kids for Jasmine, and a tiny but spunky boy and girl for Jade. They are quite the kindergarten class, quickly picking up skills like drinking from the suck-it bucket (a huge time saver for us humans, the milk-givers) eating grass, head-butting, and jumping on things.

This week will be another busy one: Veronica had a boy and a girl on Saturday, and Violet and Vervain are both due any minute now. This is Roxanne, Veronica's daughter, who is indistinguishable from three of the other four doelings this year. I don't know how we will tell them apart once they are all the same size! They sure are cute though.

Goats of Note: Juniper

If Juniper knew I skipped her, she'd be indignant. It was an accident. Now, in honor of the Chinese New Year, here's Juniper.

Juniper was the first goat I ever milked, in the summer of 2010. Look at my crazy goat milking face!

When we got Junie, we already had Violet and Pansy (see Goats of Note posts 1 and 2). Juniper was the same age, yet she was sophisticated, mannered, lactating. I don't think I make that face when I milk goats anymore. At the time, though, it was quite a revelation.

Juniper came here with her sister Sassafras, who has since moved on from our farm. We used their milk to make cheese for the first time. The milk was amazingly sweet, and we learned to make chèvre, mozzarella, and feta; we experimented with aging cheddar, provolone, and gouda in the basement. We learned to trim hooves and give shots, drag sheds and move fences, and we learned that each of these creatures had distinct personalities, habits and senses of humor.

June and Pansy Ignoring Each Other in 2011

In 2012, Junie had two does, Jade and Jasmine. They were and are adorable and will have their own post shortly.

Big Momma

She's a pretty laid-back mom in general. Her main mothering technique involves head butting human children. Don't ask.

Newborn Jade

Generally, though, Junie is a charmer. She's a typical goat, inquisitive, crafty, and funny. She likes your sweatshirt string, belt end, and camera case. She enjoys picking locks, head-butting her friends, neck rubs, and eating things.

I Love her Eating Face

Mealtime with Clyde the Savage

Happy Year of the Goat. May your feed be sweet and your horizon clear. I promise many goat pictures in the year to come. 

Goats of Note: Buttons

Buttons, part snowy owl, part Alpine goat, came to us (with her name) in the summer of 2012. She's still kind of the new girl. 

Buttons, New to the Neighborhood, September 2012

Buttons has many amazing qualities. She is an excellent kisser. She is a contortionist who likes to look waaaay up, then turn her head all the way around. She has a sweet disposition and a wonderful sense of humor. She also has a talent for producing adorable white doelings: Bluebell in 2013 and Bergamot last year. 

Buttons and Bluebell Eating Apples, August 2013

Buttons is actually a pretty big girl, probably 150 pounds or more, possibly bigger than Violet the herd queen, but she's one of those folks who seems smaller. This is partly because she lacks seniority around here, and has developed a non-confrontational, goofy demeanor that keeps Violet, Pansy, Juniper, and Veronica from picking on her too much. Buttons has a quiet determination. She tries not to draw attention to herself, but she gets her due.

Vervain, Buttons, and Bluebell, July 2014

 Buttons loves cabbage and other treats. She would ask you to consider that if you come see her.

January Feast

The days are getting longer, we keep telling ourselves and the goats. Still, the act of taking down the Christmas tree does require a little faith that we are truly exchanging lights for light. I dragged my feet a bit, but the tired old tree makes our caprine charges so happy. It's the feast of the Epiphany, for goats!

Parade for the Three Kings

Violet Politely Thanks Us...

And Then Chows Down With Some Little Friends

Sure enough, it's light out at 5:00 PM now. Hooray for sunlight!

Nor'easter

The nor'easter that blew in today is our second winter storm of the season. The season is actually still technically fall, I guess, since winter doesn't officially start until next week. 

Looking Northeast

Friday Recipe: Ratatouille

In the autumn, every warm day feels like a gift. Here on the hill, we have not yet had frost, and although I am no longer watering the garden, as we have instituted conservation measures because of the lack of September rain, it continues to produce some tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Whatever we aren't growing is easy to get from the farmers' market, but every eggplant also feels like a gift.

This is the perfect time to make ratatouille, while we still can, and on a day when the comfort of a slow-cooked stew will hit the spot. Saturday is forecast to be such a day, chilly and wet. As soon as we get home, I'll turn on the oven and get to chopping.

My recipe - really this one's just a template, too - is inspired by the wonderful writer, adventurer, and practiced palate MFK Fisher. If you haven't yet, read Long Ago in France. You can start it while the ratatouille cooks, instead of doing something fatalistic and useful like the storm windows.

You need a couple good sized eggplants (more if you have a giant oven-safe pot), plenty of tomatoes, onions, garlic, and a pepper or two. MFK wrote:

“The first ingredients were and still are eggplant and onions, garlic, green peppers, red peppers, plenty of ripe peeled tomatoes and some good olive oil. Proportions are impossible to fix firmly, since everything changes in size and flavor, but perhaps there should be three parts of eggplant to two of tomatoes and one each of the peppers and the onions and garlic. I really cannot say.

Las Blancas: Buttons, Vervain, and Bluebell

These are from the early summer, in a sweet moment on the hill. The whities, having a time. Vervain is on the left, Buttons front and center, and little Bluebell on the right.