If you haven’t yet you should come see the babies. If you have you should probably come and see them again!
After much deliberation we have finally decided upon names for the baby goats. The little white one with brown spots is Truffle and the black one with white spots is Enoki. We thought that keeping the mushroom theme was appropriate and the names just fit. We are totally in love with our baby goats. They like to cuddle! Yes, cuddle! When you hold them they will tuck their little baby goat heads under your chin and snuggle in. It melts your heart. We have had a huge influx of friends over to see them and they have been great sports about being held by people 6 – 60. Our only trouble so far has been that they can and will get out of anything. If there is even the smallest gap, even if it is two feet up, out they go. We had to eventually wrap the whole pen in chicken wire. Which helped a little but we still found them in with the cows yesterday and as they are all still alive I guess we can assume the cows didn’t particularly mind.
If you haven’t yet you should come see the babies. If you have you should probably come and see them again!
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Our goat Bailey was due to kid on the 15th. Today is the 19th and so far no sign of labor. So this morning we head back into the house to shower and get ready for the day and, of course, Bailey had her babies. Aby has been sleeping with a baby monitor for weeks. We have been nervous to leave the farm for too long and then WE MISS IT. We went back out to the barn at 10:30 and there is Bailey with 4 brand new baby goats around her. We missed it by minutes. They were covered in goo. They were cold and they were curious. So we cleaned them up and set them under heat lamps and they warmed up enough to want to nurse. They are so cute and cuddly. They are the size of your hand. We have twin boys who we named Myco and Rhizal. Get it? Mycorrhizal. I know, we are total dorks. Our goats are a play on mushroom morphology. Mycorrhizal , as in mushroom roots. The other two are girls but we haven’t come up with names for them yet. We may continue the mushroom theme or we may not.
The best part of today was that some of our CSA customers were bringing out their grandkids to see the farm today and they showed up an hour after the babies were born. What a great surprise for those kids? It reaffirmed for me why we are doing this: to connect people to their food and to excite and educate children. How cool is it that these people have a relationship with their farmer and that because of that relationship their grandchildren were present for something very few of us get to experience? It helped that these kids were ridiculously cute and excited to meet all of the farm animals. Our original big plan was to take them to collect chicken eggs and instead they got to meet newborn goats. Life is great sometimes. If you are reading this and you are in Portland, get out here to see these babies. You have never seen anything as cute as a baby goat. Today I spent quite some time contemplating the place of mini cows in urban and suburban sustainability. Prior to this I was convinced that the mini cow was the wave of the future. Dairy and occasional meat on a manageable scale seems ideal. Especially for those who are not interested in the goat dairy option. That was until our formerly peaceful cows went rogue. For months we only heard the occasional quiet moo, usually when we were not feeding them as fast as they wanted but for the most part, they seemed content to fart around and chew on things. Then today I let them out into the field and they wouldn’t shut up. Oh the mooing! So much very loud mooing. Bianca started and just couldn’t stop. She mooed at the fence, at the goats, at the llamas in the neighbor’s field. She mooed at Allegra and her water bucket. She mooed at the wall. She mooed until I got a spray bottle and squirted her in the face. And then she mooed at me.
So this is something to think about. What about animal noises in urban settings? Will the occasional mooing jag send people running to complain? If I was worried what our neighbors would think, I can’t imagine if they were closer. The fact that I spent any time thinking of this at all is a strange commentary on my life right now but these are the things I worry about. Rogue urban mooing cows. Here at Siren Song we are lucky to have the occasional help of indentured servants AKA our parents. This week my Mom and Dad drove up from Reno, with 2 of our cows, and are staying to help! Our big project is building a 40 foot hoop house in the back field to start getting some crops in the ground. Thank god my Dad is a force of nature and knows how to build things or I have a feeling that the door wouldn’t be square. We had a couple lucky days of sun to put it up and we are excited to start using it.
Today we found out that we have a spot, for sure, at the PSU Farmers Market. We have been on pins and needles waiting to hear if we were accepted. We are very excited and we have been working hard to get ready. We have also been invited to attend a Sunday market. We haven’t decided yet if we will but it was very flattering to be asked. Well, we are off to the seed starting room to keep planting!
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AuthorJen Henry is a Permaculture Designer, horticulturist and visual artist. As well as a massage therapist, herbalist, painter, chef, glass blower, writer and market gardener. She is grateful that her English Degree has finally come in useful for something. Archives
January 2012
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