ITS A GIRL AND A GIRL! TWIN DOES

ITS TWINS! ITS TWIN GIRLS! OUR DOE POPPOM, A FADED RED ANGORA GOAT, GAVE BIRTH TO TWIN DOELINGS AT 3:30 THIS AFTERNOON! THESE PICTURES WERE TAKEN JUST MINUTES AFTER THEY WERE BORN!

THEY ARE TRYING TO FIND MOMMAS TEAT...JUST MINUTES AFTER THEY WERE BORN! ISN'T IT AMAZING!

BECCA YOU WON THE CONTEST! PLEASE CONTACT ME SO WE CAN MAKE ARRANGEMENTS FOR YOUR PRIZE!

THANKS TO ALL THAT ENTERED...IT WAS ALOT OF FUN!

STILL WAITING!!

I have heard it said from other breeders "A Watched Goat or Sheep Never Kids or Lambs"! Just when I have to run out to the store or drive carpool is when someone will decide to go into labor! It never fails...Oh well best laid plans...LOL We are ready whenever they start to go!

I

KEEP TRYING TO GUESS WHEN THE FIRST BABY WILL BE BORN AS MANY PEOPLE GUESSED EARLY AND THE DATES HAVE COME AND GONE!

Hooked Up the Baby Monitor

With the contest running I was starting to get a little nervous so I went down into the basement and uncovered the baby monitors we use for the barn. I put one receiver out in the barn near a window then I place the other end in the kitchen window. I then place the other receiver next to that one so that I can place the other monitor upstairs next to my bed! Once kidding and lambing starts it is over several weeks that I am on call at all hours of the day and night. We don't usually go anywhere that someone isn't home to cover the barn! When its starts to get close to the approximate due dates I check the barn every two hours during the day and twice at night!

Love all of the guess's the kids are having a great time reading all of the entries! All of you who are guessing at night are killing me though...I keep telling the girls daytime...daytime LOL they don't always listen...Oh and all does and ewes please!

Kidding and Lambing Contest! Win $25!

Kidding and Lambing Contest begins today and runs thru January 31st 2010 11.59 pm. Guess correctly to win a $25.00 gift certificate to our etsy store! We have 18 does and ewes pregnant!

Super easy all you have to do is guess the date, time and sex that the first kid or lamb is born! Post your guess in the comment section at the end of this post...so I can find you! In case of a tie the person with the first post will win so get your guess posted!

Here is the SCOOP...Gestation (length of pregnancy) is approx. 145-150 days for goats as well as sheep. We put our bucks and rams in with the does and ewes on August 31, 2010. Sometimes it takes several days for the girls to go into heat so we usually add a week or two to the actual date due . For example last year we put the girls in with the boys on August 18th and we saw our first kid on January 22...do the math and take a guess...see how close you are!

We will post updates periodically throughout the contest...pics too to see how our girls bellies are growing! Gwennie pictured above left looks like she is going to explode if she gets any bigger!

Mindi pictured to the left looks like it will be twins!

Good Luck and have fun!

Contest coming!

Contest Coming....Starting January 17th and running thru January 31st! Win a 25$ gift certificate to our shop on etsy,http://farmgirlchic.etsy.com/, for the person who visits our blog and posts an answer to the question?? "When will the first kid or lamb be born?" You will have to post a comment below the official blog post stating the day, time and sex of the first kid or lamb to be qualified to enter. Will post official contest details Saturday night!

The Phat Process...samples that is!

The road to preparing my samples for the Phatfiber box, a monthly gathering of samples by indie fiber artists, takes alot of time and energy. If I do a combination of batts and fiber samples it usually takes me about a week of doing just about nothing but washing, dyeing, carding and the design work for the labeling on the computer and then the packaging of the samples. Time usually just gets away from me with the kids and the farm work.

The samples below are for the January box...the theme this month was your favorite book. I chose the Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats...it was favorite of mine as a child!

Some of the dyed fiber being prepared to be placed on the carder. A carder will aline all of the fibers in one direction so that when removed from the carder they may be used by a handspinner to spin into yarn.

Mohair that was dyed and then carder...the cherry was dyed with Kool-Aid!

This is what it looks like coming off of the carder

This is what the batt looks like when it has been pulled off of the carder.

Finished batts all ready to listed on etsy or ebay!

These are mini batts that will go into the Phatfiber sample boxes...I also have made small fiber sample bags. The little boy, Peter, in the book The Snowy Day wakes up one morning to a Snowy Day and the fiber samples represent the color of his PJ's.

Super uber soft Cotswold wool, natural black mohair and overdyed black mohair in purple and green.