Spring Scenes

Mickey has been converting frozen sap to delicious maple syrup.

The bird feeders continue to be a hub of activity, including redpolls.

Meanwhile, the hens found themselves a nice spot under the Kubota in the shed.

One of the ducks had a bit of difficulty navigating the hay bales.  (It may be hard to see in the picture -- she fell between two hay bales and got quite stuck!)

An empty nest in the corner of the coop. 

Not so empty!  The geese fastidiously build the nest each day, and cover the eggs when they leave.

 

We enjoyed a visit with my (Sarah's) folks last weekend, including some help with the firewood. 

 We have also been enjoying the double rocker they bought for us, along with the oil lamp in the background.  (And that's our new phone -- you get reception anywhere in the house! not just hanging out the loft window.  Sheer decadence!)

Gilly and Son spend most of their time like this. 

I saw a crow building a nest yesterday, and thought, "That's what we're doing!"  We'll be ready for our own eggs to hatch soon.

Loki and Laufeia

Friday morning, Mickey delivered a bale of hay to the sheep before he left for work.  When he returned to the house, he announced to me, "Well, the bad news is, we only have six sheep."  I did some quick calculations.  Six sheep... last night we had four sheep... that means -- Lady had twins!

Laufeia, the eweling, was born larger than her brother.  

She is brown and has a beautiful face.

Loki, the scrawny ramling, is nevertheless consistently more active and more adventurous than his sister! 

He is grey, and you can already see where his horns will grow.

Here...

...comes...

  

...trouble!  

He is even trying his hand at eating hay already.

Roscoe was soooooo excited to meet the lambs!

Lady is a very attentive mother.

  

It astounds us that the Shetland sheep hardly notice the snow, or the cold, or the wind.

While three pregnant ewes wait in the wings, we have been enjoying watching Lady's beautiful twins!

Coriolis

Friday afternoon, Corylus looked quite uncomfortable, and we thought her time was coming soon.  Sure enough, a couple of hours later...

Coriolis was born!  His name continues our "wind" theme, and goes nicely (we thought) with his mother's.

It took the two of them some time to get acquainted -- Corylus seemed so confused as to why this little furball was following her around trying to suck on her -- but they have bonded nicely.

His Toggenburg shines through with a stocky build, beautiful color, patches of white, and thick fur.

 

 He has assimilated nicely with his goat aunt and cousins.

Our flock groweth!

Typhoon Twins

As the goat kids grew older, I (Sarah) was concerned that every time I saw them, they were sleeping -- really not nearly as active as I thought they ought to be.  Well, one day I went down to their shed and noticed innumerable small hoof-prints in the fresh snow.

Mystery solved!

Much to the chagrin of their mother, the girls have cleverly learned to escape the shelter at will.

Free at last! with hardly a look behind towards Ma, who watches them anxiously as they explore their newfound freedom.

Ma is also very nervous about this very exuberant dog who comes around periodically.

Roscoe was thrilled to meet his new friends! and the girls usually aren't too timid about playing with him.

Sometimes the snow is a bit more than they bargain for.

Now I understand why they sleep so much!

They are quite intrepid.

The goats are in the shed in the backyard, which allows me (Sarah) to "spy on the cuteness" from the loft, bathroom, or kids' bedroom window.

Double trouble!

Drying Rack

Mickey whipped out a collapsible drying rack by the entrance-way.

In its collapsed position.

Ready to be used.

Lots of socks and gloves and towels to dry! 

This has cleaned the hearth right off, and means lots of dry, warm socks and gloves! :)

Flaga and Skvala

Since the day that our goat kids were born was so epically windy, I (Sarah) suggested we name them for the wind.  Mickey determined that they are both females.  So, after much research and deliberation, we settled on Flaga and Skvala, which are both Norse words related to wind.  Skvala can also mean "loud cry", so we thought it suited the louder of the two kids (formerly "Li'l Brown").

They are now much steadier on their feet, and don't sleep quite as much as they did at first.

They are both very curious and love to explore!

They have made themselves right at home in the shed.

  

Every once in awhile, they try to gum some hay or pine, and Mickey saw Flaga "chewing her cud", although their diet is almost certainly still all milk.

Avelanna continues to be a very dedicated mother.

Yesterday we all ventured out into the yard.

Avelanna got to eat some real-live plants out of the ground! and Flaga and Skvala had a blast investigating the yard.

They were rather curious about the camera.

So far Skvala seems a bit bolder than Flaga.

 We thought they might get tired, but we got tired long before they did!

Everything was new and exciting!

They loved wandering, and wandered far enough to worry Avelanna a couple of times.

 They seem to get along very well.

So far, they don't pose a threat to our evergreens.  Not for long though!

They are learning to play together.

They are one-quarter Alpine and three-quarters Oberhasli.

We finally managed to rein them in for the afternoon. 

Wagging tail means successful nursing!

For more goat cuteness, there is a playlist of additional goat videos at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHiW716dL-7yrVleIiQNG-a31ORDWNNaT&feature=view_all

Enjoy! :)

And of course there's always a visit to see them live and in person! :)