DANGER!

Good Heavens, we almost had a terrible accident here at the farm yesterday! My daughter Hannah Belle, who is quite an escape artist, decided that she would just jump over the fence to go visit her friend Clipper.

Now Hannah Belle is 8 months old, and she used to be quite a skinny little doeling, but as she has become a teenager her figure is not quite as willowy as it used to be, if you know what I mean. Anyway, Hannah Belle did not quite clear the top of the fence, and on the way down she got her leg caught in the wire, and she was stuck in the fence swinging upside down!

Luckily the farmer happened to be right there or I shudder to think what might have happened. We thought her leg was broken but after she hobbled around for a while she was fine. I hope she has learned a lesson, for once! Anyway, you kids out there, do NOT try to jump wire fences!

If you are keeping track, today is DAY 5 in the KIDDING COUNTDOWN!


Hannah Belle gets a vet check after fence mishap 

Dot and Snowy

Here is a picture of my niece and nephew, Dot and Snowy. Dot and Snowy were the first kids born on the farm last year. This year my kids will be the first born, so everyone is very excited.


Dot and Snowy 

Day 6

Hi Everyone -

I am feeling pretty chipper this morning. Yesterday everybody went out except me, since I was on maternity watch. Well, I didn't like that, so I just jumped over the top of my stall. They thought I couldn't do that any more but they were wrong!

Heck, I may be a pregnant lady but I still have plenty of hang time!

Anyway, the farmers got the point and they brought my fat little sister Snow Pea back up to the barn so I wouldn't be alone. I guess I will stay in my stall as long as I have company.

Right now, though, since it is so sunny and bright (cold, though) I am strolling around the pasture with my buddies Breezy, Eo, Marty, Scout, and Boo. It is important to keep getting exercise when you are pregnant, you can't just sit around eating alfalfa all day.

Below you can see a picture of Eo back when she was just a kid. She was a housegoat like me, and she loved to stand in front of the stove soaking up heat. Once her diaper even started to melt, but she didn't care. Anyway, that's my friend Eo in the picture.

Six Days to Go in the Kidding Countdown! Don't forget to send those names in! Also, if you would like to see another cool goat blog, you can go to this link. It even has pictures of our guardian dog, Atticus, who keeps the coyotes away and makes sure nothing bad happens to us.

Eo the housegoat, soaking up heat 

Super Bowl Party

It's Monday morning and we are in the final week countdown. The babies are bouncing around a lot!

Below you can see a picture of the Super Bowl Party we had here at the farm yesterday. Sometimes the horses just lie down and stare at us like they are watching a tv show, as you can see.

One of the horses, the black and white one in the background, thinks he is a cow horse and likes to chase us if he has a chance. The farmer does not allow this, but he thinks it is very funny.

His name is Laddy and except for chasing goats and cows he is the laziest horse in the world.

Ok, everyone, keep your fingers crossed, because it DAY 7 in the KIDDING COUNTDOWN and it won't be long before my babies hit the ground!

Super Bowl Party at the farm! 

Super Bowl Sunday = Eight Days to Go

Hi Everyone!

Today my babies (or is it just one baby? Sometimes I'm not sure) are really squirming. They can hardly wait to get out and start causing trouble.

Their dad's name is Marquee and he is very handsome. Marquee has wattles, and all his kids do too. Wattles are cute little tags that hang on a goat's neck; we call them "goat jewelry."

Marquee's dad is a champion show goat, and so is his mom. Marquee has done very well at shows also. One thing about his babies is that they all seem to have really sweet dispositions, although some of them, I have to say, can be very mischievious.

Sometimes Nigerian Dwarf goats can be a little shy and skittish of people. This is not a problem with Marquee's kids. One of the biggest problems with Marquee's kids is trying to get them to stop jumping in your lap and chewing on your hair and kissing you all the time.

Nine Days to Kidding!

Good morning, everybody. I hope you are enjoying our early spring. The chickens are laying and the horses have started losing their coats. I hope we don't get a hard hard freeze because everyone will be very chilly and confused if that happens.

Below you can see a picture of our friend Scout the Nubian. We all like her a lot, but she is a Nubian, so she can be a little bit intellectually challenged. But to tell the truth, even though she is afraid of hats and doesn't understand that it only rains outside, she is not the dumbest Nubian on our farm.

No, that honor belongs to Stacy. Stacy is four years old, and even though she loves food (like all Nubians), she still hasn't figured out that if you jump up on the milkstand there is a big dish of grain waiting for you.

This is something Eo and I learned when we were two weeks old. We would have done it sooner, but our legs were too short to jump that high. Anyway, the poor farmers have to lift Stacy onto the milkstand every time they want to trim her feet, and she weighs about 150 pounds.

She's sweet, though, and she's an excellent hummer. Most of the day she lies on the ground humming Nubian songs to herself. Go Stacy!

Today is DAY NINE in the KIDDING COUNTDOWN.

Our friend Scout the Nubian, trying to figure out what those drops falling from the sky are 

Ten Short Days to go!

Hi everybody! Here I am on a windy Friday with ten days to go. My friend Eo (a miniature Toggenburg) is visiting me in the barn because she got bored down in the pasture. Eo is spoiled because she lived in the house when she was a baby.

When Eo finally went outside to live she was shocked to discover that:

a) there were other goats in the world.

b) the other goats didn't wear a t-shirt and pull-ups and lie on the couch with the farmer eating Cheerios and watching tv.

It has taken her about a year to adjust.

Anyway, Eo and Snow Pea and I are relaxing in the barn but someone will probably come and make us get some exercise later.

We get our entertainment by watching the Nubians try to figure things out. Nubians are the blonds of the goat world: one of our Nubians bellows in fear whenever the farmer comes outside wearing a baseball cap (which is just about every day in the winter, because it rains a lot.)

She thinks it is a whole different duck-person-creature with a bill growing out of its head. Probably carnivorous, of course. Yo, Nubians, it's called a HAT!

If you have a good Nubian joke, send it in, maybe we can start a list of Nubian jokes.

Day Twelve!

Hi Everyone:

It's DAY 12 in the Kidding Countdown. Twelve has always been one of my lucky numbers, so I think it will be a really good day.

This morning the babies were kicking inside my belly, just squirming around like little hoodlums. The farmer served a delicious breakfast of cob, black oil sunflower seeds, and alfalfa pellets, mixed with minerals and a spoonful of linseed meal. YUM!

I am officially on maternity watch in the barn now, so I have a semi-private stall (my fat little sister SnowPea is with me). The stall has its own paddock, so I can go out and stretch my legs whenever I feel like it. (Not very often.)

The farmer made me take a walk, which wasn't too bad since it is a nice sunny day here in Western Washington. Below you can see a picture of me all tucked into my suite in the barn.

Waiting in the Maternity Ward

Me, Baby Belle, in the barn 

Missing Post

Something happened to my post from yesterday. I tried to email it in. I guess I am not as technologically savvy as I thought.

Anyway, it didn't say much, just that the weather was gray but mild here in the Pacific Northwest. Our mountains have really no snow! It's quite shocking.

Anyway, the farmers were hassling me to get some exercise, and called me a barn potato. I have to admit I am getting pretty big - the other day I caught myself sitting like a dog, just because it was more comfortable that way than lying down normally. Luckily no one saw it - when the farmers see you sitting like a dog they say you are too fat and put you on Atkins right away.

I have had a couple of suggestions for baby names, but I still need more. So send them in if you think of any - remember, the word Belle has to be in the name somewhere. Today is DAY 14 in the Kidding Countdown.

Day 16

Today is Day 16 in the Kidding Countdown. I had a big breakfast this morning, alfalfa and grass hay and cob mixed with 13% grain (yum!). The farmers encouraged me to go outside and stroll around and get some exercise, but there was a light mist of rain in the air, which I personally don't care for. So I pretended to go out then came back in and had a lovely snooze while the silly Nubians walked around in the rain bawling.

Yo! Nubians! It's called a door.

You walk through it and you're inside. No more rain. Like magic!

Baby Hannah Belle, one day old 

Day 17

Ok, now we are at Day 17 in the kidding countdown. If you don't know much about dairy goats, their usual gestation period is 150 days, but Nigerian Dwarfs (like me) usually like to go about 144 days. Above is a picture of my first daughter, Hannah Belle the hoodlum, right after she was born last year.

Usually people say "aawwww!" when they see her. That is before they realize what a troublemaker she is.

Here is a short list of places Hannah Belle has escaped from: baby stall in the barn; tack room in the barn; pasture with four foot fence; pasture with five foot fence; inside the locked canopy of a pickup truck; inside a fully enclosed, locked horse trailer with steel doors.

Hannah Belle has also perfected a head fake and spin move that fools the farm's border collie 98% of the time. She is the Walter Payton of dairy goats, and holds the all-time farm rushing record even though she is only six months old.

When the other goats see her come to the line of scrimmage they yell "go, sweetness, go!" (In goat language, of course.)

Kidding Countdown Commences

Dear Goat Friends:

Please visit my web site.

Right now it is a work in progress.

As of today, my kid countdown stands at 18 days. I expect to have my kids on February 14, Valentine's Day. If you have some good name suggestions for my new babies (I hope they will be girls!) please post them. Just remember, the word "Belle" must be in there somewhere.

Right now, I have two ideas: Jingle and Tinker. (Last name Belle, of course.)

My Christmas Photo 

Hello!

Hello! My name is Baby Belle. I live on a small goat farm in Western Washington. I am a one-year-old Nigerian Dwarf dairy goat. I have one daughter and am expecting more children next month. I can't be sure, but this time I think I will have two kids. I hope they will be more obedient than my first child, Hannah Belle, who is, I must admit, a juvenile delinquent. To tell the truth, I used to be a delinquent myself before I settled down.