Have I told you lately...??

Just how much I LOVE my little farm, and my Suzie? Suzie is my dairy goat, she is Alpine, and full of attitude. Oh, she is gentle on the milking stanchion, and sweet and loving....but she sure likes to "try" to be mischievous.

Here she is "sneaking" in to the pumpkin stash. When she was brought "home" to me last summer, she was a first time freshner, meaning she had just had her first kids. I was milking her morning and evening, and was getting 3 quarts of the most yummy milk every day. Over the winter months, with breeding her and all, I have taken her down to milking just in the morning. I am still getting a quart of milk, and enough milk for my Keefer grains. ( about 6 ounces) I am sure if I wanted to start milking her in the evenings again, her milk production would come back up, however I am letting her body rest and hopefully she is bred, and making great babies in her tummy! We should know in another week or so, of our little Fred was able to "do his deed" If so, we will have alpine/pygmy babies in May! Fred is a little on the short side, so I had to assist, Ewwww! I backed Suzie up to the shelter, which is about 6 inches off the ground, while Fred...well, you know. How embarrassing!
I was wanting this to go quick, but Fred wanted to court her, and I think he even brought her flowers, it seemed to take so long! I sure hope my efforts in this were successful. I really do NOT want to have to do THAT again!
The weatherman was "cussing" last night on the news. He repeatedly said 4 letter words....COLD.....SNOW...WINDS. I tell ya, what has this world come to when a weather man can "cuss" on tv like that?? Looks like winter might be trying to settle in...later next week. I better get busy outside and finish putting plastic on the coops windows. Yesterday I was able to get the duck coop windows covered. See, I saved the plastic bags from the pine shavings. It is clear, and about 10 mm thick. PERFECT for window coverings. Lets the sun in, and keeps the winds out. 30 minutes after I finished that small coop, the temp inside had already climbed by 5 degrees. Nice! Today I will be finishing the larger coop. This will require a ladder...and I am not fond of being on ladders. At least the sun is shining today, and I will be able to get outside work finished before "winter" sets in.