This is Luna. She is the granddaughter of the first goat we got when we arrived here. We lost both her mother and grandmother to meningeal worm within a year. That is a story for another day. Luna was born early in 2007. She stays with our Angoras, and we'd hoped that she'd provide us with milk for at least part of the year She has been in with a buck each winter for the whole winter and has never kidded. We assumed she was barren, as she'd never gotten pregnant. The other day I went to do chores. She always greets us by planting her front feet on the gate to the pen. Lo and behold! I noticed this on Monday when I went down:
Is that an udder I spy? Amazing! She's looked fat for the past few months, but she's tricked us for the two prior years. Her udder was the size of a peach on Monday, but is the size of a grapefruit today. With luck you'll be seeing photos of a kid or two sometime in the next few weeks.
Till then, have another viewing. You have no idea how long it took to get this shot. Milking her should be a real challenge, as she's three and a half and never freshened before. Also, she was bred to an Angora buck. What might the result of that be? I haven't a clue.
I also want to thank Karin for telling me how to spread my photos throughout my post in a more seemly fashion. I love friends.
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Oh dear... this will be a beautiful kid! Hopefully with the locks of the buck and lovely shading of Ms. Luna. What fiber have we in store?
ReplyDeleteQuestion (for all of us inquisitive yet unsavvy), how long post-partum do you begin milking? In other words: at what point does the kid let up so we can get a hold of those dam utters?