Happy days - we got more rain....for hours and hours yesterday! Went from wet to wetter, sloppy to sloppier, depressing to depressing-er...? Can't change it so gotta deal with it.
I shoveled up some horse poop today to put into the big tubs I planted in last year. I've still got a few things in a few tubs, but I needed to 'top off' some of the other ones. The kinda poor quality potting soil I used last year needed some amendment sooooo, today it got some. My horses are quite kind and, like most horses, poop in roughly the same few areas. Lately, because of all the rain none of the critters are utilizing the pasture - they are hanging out in the barn area and staking out the round bale most of the day. It's vaguely similar to a "dry lot" (haha - nothing dry around here) situation. All of that was my round-a-bout way of saying the horses are pooping on one place and it was very easy to shovel up a big ol' wagon full.
So, while I was out in the garden area and around some of those tubs with absolutely nothing growing in 'em, I decided to plant something in a few of 'em. I came in and pawed through my seed drawer until I found some sugar snap pea seeds and I planted 'em in three of those big tubs. The tubs each have a bit of welded wire bent into a circle that sits down in the tubs. The vertical wire tunnels made for great tomato cages for those tubs and to keep the chickens out of 'em. So, why wouldn't they work for peas to climb on too? I guess I'll find out if they'll work for that. Since you can plant peas pretty closely together I could get quite a few in each tub. Hope they come up! I guess if we have a hard freeze pending I'll just fill the vertical wire tubes with hay as an insulator and wrap a feed sack around 'em. In theory it sounds like it'll work.
I keep counting the does that I think are pregnant and it's scary! My intentions were to breed about half of the does to kid in early spring and to breed the other half to kid in the fall. That was supposed to assure a continuous milk supply and to NOT have a hundred babies running around that I need to give a lot of attention to at one time.
So much for planning - my plan was an epic FAIL! My bucks had other ideas. Remember those times the bucks escaped? Well - I think they took advantage of EVERY doe on the place - GRRRRRRRR! I think I've got, I dunno, maybe a dozen does bred right now. Nine for sure, and heck, I can't tell with the pygmies until they start bagging up... Maybe two or three of those will hatch too. What the heck am I gonna doooooooooooo? OH yeah, forgot about the ND too. Oh. My. Gosh.
I have a feeling I'll be trying to sell some mama/baby groups.
But on a positive side I should have plenty of milk for kefir, yogurt, cheese, chickens, neighbors, and maybe a pig or two. That sounds good - I'd like to find a couple little piggies! But heck - I probably won't have room for any little piggies because every pen on the place will be full of GOATS!
Oh well - I'm sure this is a blessing and I'm going to love having lotsa babies around! I'm gonna love having lotsa babies around.... I'm gonna love having lotsa babies....
For the bucks ideas -- remember I said mine broke in & began early breeding....also that they were due end of Jan (? +/-). Further that I felt like castrating him AND that it would probably snow when kidding. Well, We had snow Sunday. 2.5" vice .25" predicted ---AND, flurries tonight, AND poss few more inches Friday night 
AND while still have ligs, they are swelling some in the back end. 
) Then I had to move the two does that were in the feed room into the already over-crowded main area. That was one CRAZY day! In the end everybody was fine, but a little crowded. I musta shoveled a ton of shavings in the next couple weeks trying to keep everything and everybody dry! Really hoping I don't have a repeat performance this year. It makes sense though that I'll be having does deliver really close together if several of them were bred when the bucks were out. Ugh... 
