Jezebel & Co.

"Sorry we're late...." I started as we stepped into my violin teachers house. "Dolly kidded this morning." I explained.

"Oh really?" She replied. "What'd she have?"

"Two kids. Jairus, a boy, and Jezebel, a girl." I grinned happily. It was the first of the 2012 May kidding season. The day was the 11th of May.

Jezebel.

Sadly we didn't get any pics of Jairus before we sold him.

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"Jana, where is Jamella?" Mum asked me that Friday evening as we were doing the milking.

"I don't know. She's probably kidding somewhere... can you bring in Pie, please?" I grabbed Kenita and pulled her out of the garden before anyone else could shove their way in.

"Sure. But don't you think you should find Jamella before it is dark?" Mum let Pie in.

"Well, I'll finish milking Pie, and then the rest of the goats will have to wait while I find her." I replied.

When I'd gotten Pie out, I started down towards Dad's bee-shed. When I was nearing it, I saw a dark shape in the trees, and headed straight toward it. It was what I thought it was. Jamella. She had two kids. Before picking them up, I checked what they were. A boy and a girl.

Later on, with much difficulty, we decided on their names. The boy became Jehu, and the girl Jaminna.

^Jaminna.^

^Jehu.^

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"How are the goats?" The usual question coming from Mum. It was Friday morning. The 18th of May. I had just come up from milking.

"They're all good..... Oh and Chrissy kidded!" I replied merrily.

"Oh really?! What'd she have?" Both Mum and Stella looked at me expectantly.

"She had a little girl. And I'm calling her Dana (pronounced Dayna)." I smiled back at them.

Though poor Dana was a week old when Mum got to see her, and she'll be 3 weeks old when Stella gets to see her....

^Dana.^

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"I wonder when Jillee is going to kid. She was due on the 16th, and it's the 22rd now." I said to Mum.

"Hmm, yeah, I wonder too." She mused.

"She's probably waiting for us to go to Able's birthday party before she kids. Naughty little goat." I laughed thinking about. "She must've had a talk to Chrissy. Remember how Chrissy was 7 days overdue, yet she waited till Friday night before Cherith's wedding to kid?"

"I remember." Mum smiled.

It was two days later. We were home now, and I went straight down to the yards to check on Jillee. I heard a little cry. That must be a new kid.. I thought. And sure enough, as I walked into the yards, I saw her. A gorgeous little fawn coloured doe kid. She was duely dubbed Buttercup. :)

^Buttercup.^

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"Hey, look over there!" Mum said in surprise.

"What is it?" I asked. "Oh wait, it's the Floxarians! I wonder if Flicka kidded. And if so, I wonder who the father is.... look! There she is! And there's a kid with her!" I squealed. And with that, I was running down towards her. It didn't take me much effort to have the kid caught and in my arms.

"What is it?" Mum asked.

"A boy." I scowled. "But it's Zing's kid." At that I smiled.

"He's sure cute!" I had to agree.

"Mum. I know what he'll. He'll be Fling!" I grinned.

"Haha, perfect." She smiled.

^Fling.^

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"Hey Mum. Why is Dad honking his horn?" I looked out the window.

"I guess because he must want you to open the gate for him. You'd better go open it for him." She turned back to what she was doing.

I paused momentarily as I put my boots on and walked out the door. Hmmm, I thought to myself, He must have picked up some animal, and brought it home... I wonder what it is this time! I don't think it'd be a kid.... the bush goats start really kidding in Spring..... deffinitely not an emu chick.... I got to the gate and opened it. When Dad drove up to me, he paused and opened the door. There is was. Whatever "it" was.

"What is it? Where'd you get it from?" I put my hand out to touch the white little thing.

"It's a lamb. And I don't know what it is. (Gender.) I just saw it on the road. Almost ran over it. It had no mother, and I couldn't just let the poor baby get eaten." He started to close the door.

"Okay. Well I'll shut the gate and come up. I knew you had to have some animal with you, or you would've opened the gate yourself!" I laughed.

Later, I "checked" the lamb, and found that it was girl. Oh well, at least it's girl... Sadly, I'm not too fond of sheep/lambs. They all look the same! They don't even smell as nice as goats/kids! lol Oh well. I'm already getting to love her. :) She might win me over to sheep yet!

Name pending. ;)

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How it all started...

"Quickly! Finish eating! I see a herd of goats at the neighbors*!" I turned enthusiasticly from the window.

"Oh come on Jana! It's LUNCH time." Elisha gave me a scowl. "I'm not giving up my lunch for a wild goat!"
"Well I'm going!" Able said as he jumped up. "Lunch or no lunch."
After a brief pause, the four of us burst out the door and grabbed for our shoes. We were off on yet another goat chase.

Goat hunts. To us, that spelled fun. We were ready for one any time. Though we didn't generally go on goat chases in the middle of lunch, they did happen quite frequently. Our goat herd was steadily increasing, with kiddings and catchings. Mum decided that something had to happen. No, she knew we'd never get rid of our bright and cheerful pets. Her decision? It was time to get some goats that had some use other than being weed eaters. And we don't eat meat. We thought hard. The only solution was to get... Dairy goats! Yep, that was what we needed now! Mum went internet surfing a bit and finally found a registered Togg herd that was being sold. There were 3 pregnant does, 1 buck, and 1 doeling. Elisha bought them. They were our starter dairy herd.

A few months later we experienced our first kidding season with dairy goats. Triplets everytime. Things were going good! With the kids, we decided it was time to find out about the Dairy Goat Society. How much was membership, what about registering kids? Though the yearly membership fee was quite a bit for our starting farm, we decided to give it a go.

My kids, Zing and Zeste, and I.

Three years later, we're still in goats. Loving every bit of it. Learning what feed to give the goats (Thanks to Pat Colby's book). How to worm them and then doing it naturally. (After all, what you put into them, goes through their milk into you..) Helping with births. The fun of naming the kids and seeing how interesting a name we can give them. Bonding with them. Facing the problems and getting through them. It all gives a satisfaction that feels good. I personally have 5 goats. Two are beautiful little bush does and the other three are purebred British Alpines. Names are: Chrissy and Misty. Kenita, Zwingli and Zeleste. (Misty is Chrissy's kid. Zing and Zeste are Kenita's kids)

Kenita's face.

Back to the goat chase.... We stormed down the backstairs from the veranda, Elisha stabbed a potato onto his fork as he ran. He told us that he didn't want to be cheated out of his lunch. I didn't really get why he needed the fork, but anyway! As we headed over the paddock, it started raining. It was just a drizzle, but it was enough to get us lightly wet. A previous time I'd complained to Able that the reason that I never managed to catch any goats myself, was because he was always off running before I could even start! So, to be fair, this time he said he'd let Stella and I go first.
He left us with instructions as to what we were to do. Then he and Elisha disappeared into the overgrowth. Stella and I concentrated on the herd, naively nibbling the grass.

"Ready, set.... GO!!!"

Stella and I jumped out at our cue. The goats wheeled around and started running. The boys ran after us, easily overtaking us. I realised that it was time to accept the facts. I just wasn't fast enough to catch a goat. And certainly not with thongs on! Since it had rained a bit, it was slippery and there were bindies (prickles) everywhere. I slowed to a stand still as I passed someone else's thong. Not thongs, thong. There was only one. It was Able's. I picked it up and headed on in the direction I'd seen the goats go. When I reached the fence, I started wondering where the rest were. I couldn't see anyone! I walked alongside the fence. Dusky forms. Who? What? It was Able and a goat.

"Able!" I gasped. "What is it?"
"A doe." He panted.
"Umm, how'd you get so muddy?" I wondered out loud.
"Well," he explained, "I was chasing the herd and they went under this hole here in the fence. I figured that if they could go under it, then I could too!"
"But that wouldn't get you that muddy!" I interrupted.
"I know," he continued "so I'm chasing this goat and suddenly we're going down hill. And since it's just rained, I slipped and started rolling."
Ah... I got it now.
"And then I found, to my surprise, that I could roll faster than I could run!"
He was talking very animatedly. And I was seeing it all happen in my head. I couldn't help but laugh. Wow!
"So I rolled so fast that I rolled into her! Before she could start rolling too, I grabbed her leg. And then came back up here."
I envied his ease in catching them. Or maybe, just maybe, was it how it how he told it? I smothered a sigh of dissapointment. Another chase and I didn't catch anything. Oh well, I thought to myself, this girl is nice enough. I'm going to make friends with this blue-eyed black beauty. That's Dolly.

Thanks to the goat chases, I have a top favorite animal. Bet you can't guess! ;-)

*the neighbor didn't live there, he just came every 3 months to check up his horses that were there. And yes, we'd asked permission.