"He was so honest you could play craps with him over the phone." - Earl Wilson

The kids have finally moved out. I left yesterday morning at 8:30, and after a stop in Philomath an hour north of here to pick up an antibiotic from the vet I drove on to Briana's in Castle Rock, WA, arriving about 12:45. By 1:30 I was headed back home with Stella in a big dog crate borrowed from Marta in the back of the Kia. Stella was NOT happy to be there and let that be known for the first 30 miles or so, but then she settled down some. While I was gone Pam moved Itzhak and Asante out to the barn, now their permanent residence.

I got home at 4:30 and was exhausted. The traffic through Portland was bad both ways, and I had to pull over a few times to put the dog crate back on its bottom. Take a corner just a little too fast and a goat standing up causes the whole thing to roll over.

Stella is settled in the barn with Itzhak and Asante, but she's still really skittish and doesn't want me to touch her. Four times a day I give the kids bottles, and each time I take some grain mix in my hand to feed Stella, which she eagerly gobbles up. But so far that hasn't translated into trust. It's only been about 24 hours, so we'll give it more time before considering other options. I need her to be tame enough that I can trim her hooves when the time comes.

But the BIG news is that Sundae is in the mood. Female Boers come into heat for three days every 21 days, and Marta sent me a message today saying Sundae is showing the signs. So Marta has put her in the boudoir with Mondo, one of her sires, where they'll spend the week together.
I asked how she knows when the deed has been done and if it's been successful. She said Mondo is...um...vocal enough that there won't be much question about the first part of my question, and because they're both proven performers she'll assume success. Goats have a five month gestation and in the final weeks it's pretty obvious if a doe is pregnant. They get pretty big and their udders swell. There's a blood test you can do but that's usually not necessary and only done if the obvious physical signs are missing.

So, we should have a doe giving birth the second half of June.
Do we send out birth announcements??

Pam leaves on a flight out of Portland at 6 a.m. Thursday morning for a week with the family in AZ. I'm bummed I can't go!
We'll leave here by 2:30 to drop her off at 4:30, and then I'll hustle home for the 6 a.m. feeding, which will be a little late.
Then I hold down the fort for seven days while she gets mommy and grammy time. NOT fair!
Tomorrow she'll go through the information I'll need to survive - where to find the meals she's made for me and how to prepare them, how to mix the goat's replacement milk (that's been her task), and anything else I need to survive a week on my own.
I'm not good at this, in any way.