Debbie's New Digs

The Big Man and I have both been a little under the weather - and with my recent trip - there have been a few projects that have gone undone. One of them is to separate Debbie - again - from last spring's doeling, Dahlia.

Debbie's new digs - in the turkey house.

Our prize milker, Debbie, may or may not be pregnant after her time with Too Short. But its hard to tell if she is making an udder - a sure sign of pregnancy - when Dahlia keeps sipping off her. Unfortunately the best place to put Debbie is in the turkey house on the side where the meat chickens are currently living. But they are still....well.... living as we haven't been able to send them to the freezer. You could say we were stuck between a silly goat and a meat march. Then it occurred to me that the turkeys sure did have a nice coop.....

So today I shoveled out the turkey-coop-side of the turkey house, shuffled them right on out and into the smaller auxiliary coop....and marched Debbie right in. She hated it. The turkeys were a little confused but I think it will all work out.

Debbie has a nice big coop to herself...and nest boxes to jump up on. Debbie! Get down from there!

The only downside, along with Nibbles and Dahlia screaming their heads off all afternoon because Debbie was gone, was that Debbie immediately jumped up on the turkey nest boxes. So I had to block her from doing all that hopping around. At one point she made a break for it and ran directly back to the goat yard fence. Dog #1 ran after her and there were a lot of sad faces, mostly Debbie's. I marched her back to her new digs with steam coming out of her ears. The dog smirked. (So did I.)

The plan is to keep Debbie separated for the next couple of weeks. She won't like it at all but at least she will either make an udder and have some babies... or she will just dry out and prepare to spend the saddest summer of her life with a sign around her neck that says "This is what losers look like" and listening to me tell her to put that coffee.. I mean.. hay down and get back to grazing because "hay is for milkers only."

The good goats news is that Nibbles is looking bigger and bigger everyday and her udder has just about filled out. She still has another week or so and I hope she can keep those buns in the oven. The other great news is that today Dahlia had a nice round handful of udder going. So it looks like Too Short really was Just Tall Enough.

That's the word in the barnyard. How about you? Anybody else have does making udders and getting fatter?

Happy Thursday everyone!