# NEW BABIES HITTING THE GROUND



## goatboy1973 (Feb 7, 2015)

Calfee Farms has officially entered into kidding season! We had a set of twins born yesterday, a set born today and another single yesterday. All kids are sired by our Spanish sire "Zorro". So far we have had more colors than a bag of Skittles. LOL!!! Still got potentially 22+ kids coming over the next few days. Our untested "Molly" the mini-mule has stood watch over the little newborn kids and their mommas and we have a "changing of the guards" when she gets tired or needs to get something to eat and this is when Carl our guardian llama takes her place. It is amazing how they coordinate constant watch over the herd. I have attached some pics of newborn kiddos and their mommas.


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## luvmypets (Feb 7, 2015)

Awww!!

We are waiting for our only ewe to lamb.


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 7, 2015)

I just love baby lambs! They are so peaceful looking.


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 7, 2015)

The first pic is a high percent Kiko doe with some of our new "Spaniko" kids (brown one is a buckling and black one is a doeling). This is a first time momma as well. Dad to thall these kids is a solid black Spanish buck. You never know what color his kids are gonna be when we crossbreed with our Nubes and Kikos. As of right now, 3 bucklings and 2 doelings.


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 7, 2015)

The next pics are of our herd queen "Miracle". She delivered twin bucklings so they will be for sale. She is 3/4 Spanish, 1/8 Nubian, and 1/8 Kiko. The bucklings will be sold as commercial high % Spanish herdsires in October 2015.


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## madcow (Feb 7, 2015)

Kiddos, love the term!  They are so cute!  Congratulations!


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## Sweetened (Feb 7, 2015)

You should name a doeling pita! Spaniko Pita!

I am less clever than i tell myself i am.

Watching!


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## OneFineAcre (Feb 7, 2015)

Congrats.


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 7, 2015)

Sweetened said:


> You should name a doeling pita! Spaniko Pita!
> 
> I am less clever than i tell myself i am.
> 
> Watching!


LOL!!!


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## Southern by choice (Feb 8, 2015)




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## goats&moregoats (Feb 8, 2015)

Congrats!  Welcome to the kidding process and all the cuteness that comes with it. Beautiful babies.


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## Hens and Roos (Feb 8, 2015)

Congrats!!


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 9, 2015)

Thanks to all for the well wishes! UPDATE: Today my Dad (the other part of Calfee Farms and my buddy and right hand man) called me at work to tell me that one of our Koy Ranch Spanish does had twins out in the open field and one of them isn't moving. I was close by, but in my work attire (suit and tie). I am a regional coordinator for our local blood bank and had just finished a meeting with a client. I got to the farm and looked with the aid of binoculars and indeed, there lay a tired 1st time momma with 2 big lumps of baby goat out in the wide open pasture with the closest goat half a mile away. I went in the barn and changed out of my dress shoes and into a pair of rubber knee boots and tucked my pant legs into the boots and tucked my tie into my shirt so I wouldn't accidentally dip it into afterbirth. I grabbed a 5 gal bucket and filled it 1/4 of the way with shop towels and headed to the field. The momma goat jumped up and sprinted to another pasture with the rest of the herd never looking back. She abandoned her kids so I thought. We tried to herd her back to her newborn kids several times without success. So I told dad that we would probably need to start bottle feeding the twin that was still alive. I headed back to the house with a 5 gallon bucket of baby goat to bottle feed when I heard a peep out of the corner of one of the loafing sheds and a doe that looked as if she wasn't that far along had birthed in the 30 minutes it took to find out that the Spanish momma rejected her kids. Then the light bulb went off in my head. I took the surviving Spanish twin over to the commercial doe that had just kidded and dried the twin off with a shop towel and grabbed a handful of commercial doe afterbirth and began slathering it all over the orphaned twin. I then placed the orphan right beside the newly born commercial kid and watched the commercial doe clean both kids off and nudge both her kid and the orphan toward her udder for some colostrum. In a million years this will not happen to me again. Later on this evening, Dad called me and told me that the Spanish momma came to the barn and took her twin back. Go figure! During all this, I managed not to get one bit of goat juice on my clothes. LOL!!! Total today we had 3 kids born and 2 survived. The one we lost was stillborn or died shortly after birth. I got back to the office and no one knew what I had been through. They wouldn't have believed me if I told them I was helping to bring baby goats into the world. I was the best dressed farmer in Tennessee!!! What a lunch break I had today.


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## norseofcourse (Feb 9, 2015)

Wow, just wow.  Congrats on the ones that made it, what an experience!


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## OneFineAcre (Feb 9, 2015)




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## Baymule (Feb 9, 2015)

Love the lunch break story! Glad it all turned out ok for you!


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## frustratedearthmother (Feb 9, 2015)

That's a great story!


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## goatgurl (Feb 9, 2015)

don't we do the craziest things for our animals.  if you'd have gotten goat juice on your tie you would have had a lot of explaining to do.  congrats on all the babies.


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## Hens and Roos (Feb 10, 2015)

congrats!


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## madcow (Feb 10, 2015)

So glad that the 2 made it and sorry for the loss of the other.  You were really thinking on your feet about putting the temporarily rejected kid with the other new mother.  Surprised that the first mother came back after her remaining kid, because by that time it should have smelled like the other's baby.   Go figure goats.  At least you don't have a bottle baby on your hands.  Congrats on your first births, in a suit and tie no less!


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 10, 2015)

madcow said:


> So glad that the 2 made it and sorry for the loss of the other.  You were really thinking on your feet about putting the temporarily rejected kid with the other new mother.  Surprised that the first mother came back after her remaining kid, because by that time it should have smelled like the other's baby.   Go figure goats.  At least you don't have a bottle baby on your hands.  Congrats on your first births, in a suit and tie no less!


Thanks. There was the time last year that our herdsire somehow got his big noggin and huge rack o horns stuck between a brace post and a tree trunk and dad needed help freeing the big lug. The buck was especially excited because his girls were all in heat and he smelled so bad that his stench could knock a buzzard off a manure wagon from 50 feet. LOL!!! Not such a good outcome as yesterday though, I went to the meeting smelling like billy goat, Febreeze, and sweat. This is why I always keep an extra tie in my company car. LOL!!! No new kiddos today and the surviving kiddos born yesterday made it through a cold cold night last night. We are still awaiting the next wave of mini- hippos to kid. The goats are snuggled up in the barn with the guardian llama and guardian mini-mule with full bellies of Timothy and Orchard grass.


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## Goat Whisperer (Feb 10, 2015)

Congrats on the kids!  Sorry about the stillborn

Glad you didn't get any juice on you! I'm not that good...... I always ALWAYS get some on me  Last time I got "roped"


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 10, 2015)

Goat Whisperer said:


> Congrats on the kids!  Sorry about the stillborn
> 
> Glad you didn't get any juice on you! I'm not that good...... I always ALWAYS get some on me  Last time I got "roped"


Oh wow!!! Yeah, the stillborn, he was teeny tiny and his little legs were small as my pinky fingers. He was doomed from the start I guess. I absolutely hate losing any of my goats.


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## Baymule (Feb 10, 2015)

goat juice......


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 11, 2015)

Baymule said:


> goat juice......


LOL!!! I use this as a collective term referring to any liquid or semi-liquid substance produced by a goat that could potentially soil my work attire while on my lunch hour. Incidentally, lunch hour can be defined as 1 hour of my regular work day that is set aside to eat lunch but is sometimes spent trying not to get goat juice on my work attire, especially during kidding season and incidentally skipping food altogether. LOL!!!


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## Southern by choice (Feb 11, 2015)

Best dressed farmer in TN!


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## Baymule (Feb 11, 2015)

Sooooo....... if you show up in striped overalls instead of suit and tie, do your goats run screaming to the far back corner to get away from that scary monster?


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 11, 2015)

Baymule said:


> Sooooo....... if you show up in striped overalls instead of suit and tie, do your goats run screaming to the far back corner to get away from that scary monster?


LOL!!!


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## hilarie (Feb 11, 2015)

Sweetened said:


> You should name a doeling pita! Spaniko Pita!
> 
> I am less clever than i tell myself i am.
> 
> Watching!


You are every bit as clever as you think you are


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 11, 2015)

If only I could use my powers for good instead of evil. LOL!!!


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## BrownSheep (Feb 11, 2015)

Haha, my dad is a lawyer and usually does mid-day checks in his suit. He's had to explain to a judge why he's been late to court....Luckily, the judge here is an ex-college cowboy. 

We have slip cover shoes here that you essentially slip your shoes into.


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 14, 2015)

Bitter sweet this morning! Awoke this morning to find our 2nd set of Spaniko twins up and bouncing around. Then upon going to the field found our last Spaniko to birth dead with her head tangled up in the fence and she was in the middle of birthing twins so we gained a set of Spaniko twins and lost a set and a good Spaniko brood doe. This was a BIG blow to our new breeding program. There's a passage of scripture in the Bible that says, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh; blessed be the name of the Lord!". I believe this was the words of Job when he was being tested. No other words more suited to this morning than those. Now the wait for our Spanubian kids to start hitting the ground this week. Maybe we will have a little better luck.


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## Hens and Roos (Feb 14, 2015)

sorry to hear about your loss  and congrats for the babies.


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## norseofcourse (Feb 14, 2015)

I'm so sorry about your loss


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## frustratedearthmother (Feb 14, 2015)

That is so sad... I'm sorry.


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## Southern by choice (Feb 14, 2015)

So so sorry. Your scripture reference is one I often think of too. Sometimes things just don't seem to make much sense. Remembering that all is His, everything, including the animals entrusted to us is a good reminder that we are limited.


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 14, 2015)

Southern by choice said:


> So so sorry. Your scripture reference is one I often think of too. Sometimes things just don't seem to make much sense. Remembering that all is His, everything, including the animals entrusted to us is a good reminder that we are limited.


SBC,
You are so right! We are limited but He is unlimited. All we can do is take the best care of what He has entrusted us with. Thanks for the kind words. This is the first time in the 15 yrs. I've been in the goat biz that I have lost a momma goat and the babies during labor. I have  had a whole kid crop 5 yrs. ago snatched one by one over a 2 week period by coyotes (this was before I had any livestock guardians). So, I have had a few ups and downs but many many more ups than downs. I keep getting up when I get knocked down and going forward. On a lighter note, I had another of my commercial does (first-timer) drop a huge single this afternoon so this means we are batting .500 today, lost 3 and gained 3.


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 14, 2015)

Thanks to everyone for your kind words. Y'all are the best!


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## Goat Whisperer (Feb 14, 2015)

I'm so sorry goatboy 

I love the scripture


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 15, 2015)

Goat Whisperer said:


> I'm so sorry goatboy
> 
> I love the scripture


Thanks Goat Whisperer! I'm glad you liked the scripture.


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## Pearce Pastures (Feb 15, 2015)

Never is easy to lose.


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## Sweetened (Feb 16, 2015)

My condolences  to you and yours. I envy people of faith in events like this as it can help you be strong where the spiritual or spiritless can struggle.

I wish you all the best.


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 16, 2015)

Sweetened said:


> My condolences  to you and yours. I envy people of faith in events like this as it can help you be strong where the spiritual or spiritless can struggle.
> 
> I wish you all the best.


Thanks so much! Yeah, my faith in Christ has gotten me through huge obstacles in my life; some of the obstacles I created out of my own disobedience to God, and some where just there to help me grow in my Christian faith. My faith gives me a totally different outlook on life and an understanding that God owns it all and He entrusts me with some of His creation to care for and He can give or take back what He wants. 

We had 2 more of our pure Koy Spanish does kid this morning in the heavy sleet/snow and now all the newborn kiddos are clean, dry, and warm in the barn.


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## Southern by choice (Feb 16, 2015)

Those words are so true Goatboy! Well said! 

Congrats on your newest kids!  
Hoping this all clears by next week before my next ones are up!
Not worried about the goats... I am just a weather wimp!


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 16, 2015)

Southern by choice said:


> Those words are so true Goatboy! Well said!
> 
> Congrats on your newest kids!
> Hoping this all clears by next week before my next ones are up!
> Not worried about the goats... I am just a weather wimp!


Thanks SBC! Yeah, I too was hoping these next round of kids would have been born in better weather but this just shows the resilience of the Spanish breed I guess or the goat as a whole.


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## Sweetened (Feb 16, 2015)

Cogratulations on even more additions!!


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## SueD (Feb 16, 2015)

Aww they are adorable GB!!!! How cute. Much luck with them. Cant wait to see more pics.


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## SueD (Feb 16, 2015)

goatboy1973 said:


> Thanks to all for the well wishes! UPDATE: Today my Dad (the other part of Calfee Farms and my buddy and right hand man) called me at work to tell me that one of our Koy Ranch Spanish does had twins out in the open field and one of them isn't moving. I was close by, but in my work attire (suit and tie). I am a regional coordinator for our local blood bank and had just finished a meeting with a client. I got to the farm and looked with the aid of binoculars and indeed, there lay a tired 1st time momma with 2 big lumps of baby goat out in the wide open pasture with the closest goat half a mile away. I went in the barn and changed out of my dress shoes and into a pair of rubber knee boots and tucked my pant legs into the boots and tucked my tie into my shirt so I wouldn't accidentally dip it into afterbirth. I grabbed a 5 gal bucket and filled it 1/4 of the way with shop towels and headed to the field. The momma goat jumped up and sprinted to another pasture with the rest of the herd never looking back. She abandoned her kids so I thought. We tried to herd her back to her newborn kids several times without success. So I told dad that we would probably need to start bottle feeding the twin that was still alive. I headed back to the house with a 5 gallon bucket of baby goat to bottle feed when I heard a peep out of the corner of one of the loafing sheds and a doe that looked as if she wasn't that far along had birthed in the 30 minutes it took to find out that the Spanish momma rejected her kids. Then the light bulb went off in my head. I took the surviving Spanish twin over to the commercial doe that had just kidded and dried the twin off with a shop towel and grabbed a handful of commercial doe afterbirth and began slathering it all over the orphaned twin. I then placed the orphan right beside the newly born commercial kid and watched the commercial doe clean both kids off and nudge both her kid and the orphan toward her udder for some colostrum. In a million years this will not happen to me again. Later on this evening, Dad called me and told me that the Spanish momma came to the barn and took her twin back. Go figure! During all this, I managed not to get one bit of goat juice on my clothes. LOL!!! Total today we had 3 kids born and 2 survived. The one we lost was stillborn or died shortly after birth. I got back to the office and no one knew what I had been through. They wouldn't have believed me if I told them I was helping to bring baby goats into the world. I was the best dressed farmer in Tennessee!!! What a lunch break I had today.



Wow, what a day that was. Im glad things have gone well for the new momma too. Hope they continue to do well.


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## SueD (Feb 16, 2015)

goatboy1973 said:


> Bitter sweet this morning! Awoke this morning to find our 2nd set of Spaniko twins up and bouncing around. Then upon going to the field found our last Spaniko to birth dead with her head tangled up in the fence and she was in the middle of birthing twins so we gained a set of Spaniko twins and lost a set and a good Spaniko brood doe. This was a BIG blow to our new breeding program. There's a passage of scripture in the Bible that says, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh; blessed be the name of the Lord!". I believe this was the words of Job when he was being tested. No other words more suited to this morning than those. Now the wait for our Spanubian kids to start hitting the ground this week. Maybe we will have a little better luck.


Ooooh, so sorry about that one. Thats tough.....big hugs


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## alsea1 (Feb 16, 2015)

Sorry to hear about such tragedy.  I take it hard when I lose an animal.
Sure hope your weather gets better.
Here in Oregon we had warm, sunny weather.


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 22, 2015)

Seems like our Spanish influenced commercial does are oblivious to the recent ice/ snow we have been bombarded with. We have had the bulk of our kids born in this bad weather complete with freezing temps, freezing rain, and windy conditions and our Spanish goats are tough as nails even in the worst of conditions they are programmed to survive. Mostly they have kidded either in the brush, in the cedar thickets or in one of our portable shelters in each of our paddocks. So far 16 kids- 9 last week and 7 week before last. We will have several Spanish influenced herdsire prospects (from 50% Spanish- 100% Spanish) weaned and ready for their new homes in late May 2015 and probably ready for service by September 2015. We'll keep y'all updated.


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 22, 2015)

...Still waiting on our Spanubian kids...hopefully this week 3/4 Spanish/ 1/4 Nube kids start hitting the ground.


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## goats&moregoats (Feb 22, 2015)

Sorry about your losses, congrats on all your babies and I am happy to hear that your faith keeps you strong as well as giving you a different perspective on life.


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 22, 2015)

goats&moregoats said:


> Sorry about your losses, congrats on all your babies and I am happy to hear that your faith keeps you strong as well as giving you a different perspective on life.


Thanks g&mg.


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## jodief100 (Feb 23, 2015)

So sorry for the loss of the doe.  That is the worst.  Loosing babies sucks but you kind of expect a few in an operation as large as yours.   Loosing mommas, you don't plan on that.   We had one get herself tangled in the electric net while giving birth a few years ago.  Fortunately for us Jack cleaned up the babies and kept them warm and we were able to cut the doe loose in time.  She took a few days to get back to normal but we still have her. 

Congrats on all the kids.  I showed hubby what you have and he had to remind me we agreed to no new goats for at least two years.


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## Hens and Roos (Feb 23, 2015)

jodief100 said:


> So sorry for the loss of the doe.  That is the worst.  Loosing babies sucks but you kind of expect a few in an operation as large as yours.   Loosing mommas, you don't plan on that.   We had one get herself tangled in the electric net while giving birth a few years ago.  Fortunately for us Jack cleaned up the babies and kept them warm and we were able to cut the doe loose in time.  She took a few days to get back to normal but we still have her.
> 
> Congrats on all the kids.  I showed hubby what you have and he had to remind me we agreed to no new goats for at least two years.



but you can always use that time to research


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 23, 2015)

jodief100 said:


> So sorry for the loss of the doe.  That is the worst.  Loosing babies sucks but you kind of expect a few in an operation as large as yours.   Loosing mommas, you don't plan on that.   We had one get herself tangled in the electric net while giving birth a few years ago.  Fortunately for us Jack cleaned up the babies and kept them warm and we were able to cut the doe loose in time.  She took a few days to get back to normal but we still have her.
> 
> Congrats on all the kids.  I showed hubby what you have and he had to remind me we agreed to no new goats for at least two years.


Jodief100,

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you had a good outcome with your doe in labor. If you talk "hubby" into getting some goats, I do a 10% discount for all fellow Backyardherds.com members. It's not a huge discount, but this site and its forums have been a wealth of information that has helped on several occasions so I figure I should give a little back. Check our Facebook page and website for pics of goats for sale starting in May. We usually kid out in January/ February and then a few in October as well to have for our Middle Eastern and Nigerian customers for their holidays.


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## SueD (Feb 23, 2015)

Im so glad to hear things are picking up. Hope you will have some pics for us....or at least I will go see your FB page. I may send you a friend request!!


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## goatboy1973 (Feb 24, 2015)

SueD said:


> Im so glad to hear things are picking up. Hope you will have some pics for us....or at least I will go see your FB page. I may send you a friend request!!


Yeah, send me a friend request. I would have already posted a bunch of pics but we are getting hit with another 5" of snow on top of the 5-6 we already have. Doesn't sound like a lot, but Tennessee usually doesn't see this type of snowfall but once every several years so we aren't as snow savvy as our northern goat producer counterparts. I do know that our shorter Nube/ Spanish may be dragging their udders through the snow if this keeps up. I may see if my great aunt who knits can knit some udder cozies. LOL!


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## SueD (Feb 24, 2015)

Udder cozies...bwahahahahahahah.......poor babies


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