Shake is so cute that I just keep posting about her, but there have actually been a lot of changes happening in the rest of the herd.
We sold and delivered Honey over the weekend. She was one of our original goats and came to our farm as a yearling. She's kidded on our farm three different years and provided us with several adorable babies, including this year's Solo, pictured with Honey above.
But, this farming lifestyle is a tough one. I decided recently that I need to try to make this difficult thing as easy on myself as I can. And, Honey is a challenge to milk, and I have several other producers now. I had made the sales arrangements more than a month ago, so I had quite a bit of time to wrap my mind around parting with her, but I still found myself emotional when we pulled away from dropping her off. Last night, Girl 1 and I had a conversation about it.
Me: I just keep thinking about Honey. It's raining, and she's probably so lonely without her herd.
Girl 1: Nah. She's the biggest and oldest goat there. She's going to love bossing those other goats around.
Me: You're right. But, what about Solo? She's without her momma now.
Girl 1: Honey was not the greatest Momma anyway. Solo's got Nutmeg and Izzy to take care of her.
Me: Thanks, sweetie. That makes me feel a lot better. I really worry about my goats sometimes.
Girl 1: I would, too, if I were a crazy goat lady. (Then, as I tackled her . . .) At least you're not a crazy CAT lady! And, I never said being a crazy goat lady is a bad thing!
Also, last week, Star passed. If you recall, she had given premature birth to Foxy and Fred and then had been terribly sick since. She just never fully recovered and continued to go downhill despite our best treatment efforts over the past several months. Star was the first doeling born on our farm and a sweet, quiet goat who was always happy by her mom and sister's side. (I had dug up a couple of good photos of our gal to insert here, but I've tried for two days now to get them to upload with no success.)
On a brighter note, we will be adding a new buckling to the herd this week. We will travel to Springfield to pick up our new little fella. I've shopped pretty extensively to find a decent deal on an excellent new herd sire, and I'm greatly pleased with the bloodlines that this guy will bring to our herd. More pics and info to come later on!