They really are this fluffy and adorable. Bouncy baby goats are one of God’s great gifts to humanity. Nothing brings a smile faster than a baby bounding around and wiping out because their hind end got going faster than their front end. It makes the work and the worry and the complications totally worth it…I am a producer and a grower of food and yes, these babies will eventually end up in my crock pot. In the mean time we will love everything about them and make sure they have the best goat life possible. Their moms are setting me up nicely with some fresh dairy that has been sorely missed, and I’ve got big plans for the end of the summer: roasted figs and goat cheese with honey. All from my own farm! Can. Not. Wait! But in the near term, I’ve got my sights on feta in rosemary garlic infused olive oil. Um, Yes please!

We have 4 does: Kiwi, Kawati, Kayla, and Kairi. Kiwi and Kawati are full blood kikos, Kairi is half Boer half Kiko, and Kayla is a full blood Nubian. Kiwi and Kawati should give me one quart of milk each per day, Kairi is giving a pint (it’s her first freshening) but Kayla should be giving 2-3 quarts since she’s an actual dairy goat. All of them have kidded now and they were almost exactly a week apart. So since babies stay with mom for two weeks, we add another doe to the milking schedule each week. We just started milking Kairi (in addition to Kiwi) this week, with Kawati starting next week and Kayla the week after.
But enough words…more pictures!

Arwen was Kairi’s only kid and our only girl this year. That means the other six were boys! Oh well. We aren’t really needing to add does so it’s ok. She is hilarious and easily the most bouncy and crazy of the babies.

Here are Sirius (brown in the igloo) and Samwise (white in front of the baby yard) to show where the babies live at night so I can milk their mama’s in the morning. Sirius and Samwise are the oldest babies born to Kiwi.

Kawati’s boys were born right before snow. Killer and Dickon are practially idenical except Dickon has a black nose and Killer has a pink nose.

I was worried when Kayla had her boys and cleaned them up and was very attentive but I never saw her let them nurse. Luckily that’s totally fine now and they are both happy and as rambunctious as the rest of the crew. Frodo is smaller and darker, and Daystar is practically Arwen’s doppelganger.

A word on the names: Our current baby goat naming convention is literary names. So we have a handful from Lord of the Rings, two from another series we love called The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and one from Harry Potter.
They have all dealt with the cold and snow way better than I imagined that they would have which was a huge blessing. Although Corra was super disappointed when my back up plan of babies in my bathtub for the night was never necessary.
Here’s to a few months of the best milk possible coming out of our ears and no end of baby shenanigans to make life simply delightful.