Twins!!!!!

 When I got home from work last night I found twins!!  So exciting!

The female, Tanzanite!

The male (no name because we will be selling him and I can't get attached).

Topaz is doing a GREAT job for her first time kidding!  My only complaint is that she had them outside in the dirt under the overhang during a terrible storm, but they are no worse for wear because of it.  She had them completely unassisted and is a very responsive mother.  There were moments of confusion where she accidentally stood on one and pawed the other trying to figure out what it was, but once the hormones kicked in she was very sweet to them, grooming them and talking to them constantly.  She was wanting to groom them so bad that while we were trying to get them to nurse she was licking us because she couldn't reach them.  She even licked my ear.  It was hilarious!
 

 Tanzanite

 Topaz grooming her babies.

 The boy is standing up.

 She is adorable!

Are they not the most adorable family you've ever seen?

 All three eventually fell asleep.

It took a while to get them nursing.  Topaz did great, standing still and letting us do whatever we needed to with her and the babies.

 Learning to nurse is hard work and the boy had to take a nap.

 Isn't she so cute?

 So blurry, but baby yawns have to be included.

 That face!!!!!!!!!

 Tanzanite is bad about laying right under Topaz, 

but she eventually figured out how not to step on them.

 Tanzanite finally nursing!  Sorry the picture is bad.

 The boy finally nursing!  Once he figured it out he is a little pig!  

He nurses often and makes the most adorable noises.  :D

So these are Topaz and Jasper's first babies and I'm very pleased they had twins.  The female weighed 6.1 pounds and the male weighed 6 pounds!  I was almost sure Topaz would have a single (not uncommon for first timers), because she just did not look that big.  I'm kind of worried how many Garnet will have because she is enormous compared to Topaz!!  I kept thinking for sure that Garnet would have hers first, but hubby insisted Topaz would and he was right.

I will get better pictures when the weather and light improve.

Meet Scuff!

Poor turtle got stuck in a bucket.  Don't worry, hubby saved him.  This is our resident box turtle and ?his? name is Scuff.  Did I ever tell you guys how he got his name??

I was leaving for work one day, got in my car and started backing out of my parking spot.  My tire went over a big bump and I stopped the car, jumped out in a panic thinking I'd run over a cat and saw.... a box turtle!!  He was completely unharmed, but the tire left a scuff mark on his shell.  I was so relieved he was okay.  I moved him off of the driveway and went along my way thinking I'd never see him again or if I did that I wouldn't even know it.

I was wrong!  I did see him again and his scuff mark stayed, making him easy to identify.  He regularly shares the cat food with our cats and we keep water out for him.  It's so cool seeing him hanging around.  You never know when you'll run across him.  :)

Ch-Ch-Changes!

 So today were big changes for Jasper, Coral and Amethyst.  It's weaning time!  And breeding time!  Amethyst has been with her mom for four and a half months and that really is way too long.  Doelings really should be weaned around three months.  Coral is starting to lose weight so it's time to separate them and get weaning started.  She's been self weaning Amethyst for the most part and Amethyst is eating solid food really well, so it's shouldn't be a difficult weaning.

It's also time to breed Coral again and we're going to breed her to Jasper, since Apatite is nowhere near old enough to breed.  I mean physically he can, but I'm not having my little baby breeding at his age.  He needs to mature a lot more.  We originally intended to get two Myotonic bucks, one buckling and one adult who would be ready to breed Coral, but it didn't work out.  Jasper is turning out to look like a really nice buck (although he's only 75% Boer), so I don't mind seeing how he crosses over Coral.  They could have really cute babies.  We will keep any doelings and we can sell the bucklings as 4H kids.

Check out how nice Jasper is turning out.  He's only fourteen months old, so nowhere near full grown yet.

His beard is always dirty from his mineral lick tub lol.

 This is why I love Jasper.  He's a very friendly, laid back buck.

 He's looking nice.  Definitely has some growing to do and 

he doesn't have perfect conformation, but he's not a train wreck either.

 Comparison, Coral is full blood Boer.  Sorry the sun washed her out so bad. 

The white on her neck is Desitin I put on some healing cuts she has and she smeared it everywhere. 

 We put them in the breeding pen and they both were only interested in eating LOL!

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They did have a couple of short tussles to sort out dominance.  Coral is used to being top dog, but she quickly realized he out-weighed and out-muscled her.  So they went back to peacefully eating.

 She's so pretty. I wish she didn't have Desitin all over her in this picture....

While the adults were getting to know each other (not like that!), the kids were out playing in the yard.  Amethyst was upset that her mom was in a new place.

 They love playing together.

 Coral was too busy eating to care too much, but she did cry for her baby.

One thing I love about Jasper is that he doesn't waste energy harassing a doe that isn't in heat.  That's a really nice quality to have in a buck because it keeps them from running the weight off the does.  Some breeds (like Pygmies) seem to harass the does constantly regardless of whether they are in heat or not.  He's a good boy though and left Coral alone for the most part.  He will get the job done when she's in heat, but he won't wear her down in the meantime.

 Poor App stepped on some fire ants and was chewing on his painful foot.

We have fire ants EVERYWHERE!  I hate them....

 Amethyst was full of herself and likes to try to climb on top of Apatite, like she used to do to her mom.  Apatite was annoyed, but he put up with it lol.

 In between playing, she was crying for her mom.  I hate weaning. It's always so sad.

It was hot, so they had to stop for drinks.  We finally put them back in their pens because Amethyst was so wound up she was panting.  I didn't want her to overheat.  She just doesn't know when to quit.  I think she really misses having another kid to play with, but they can't be left together unsupervised because she is capable of getting pregnant at only four and a half months old.  I wish she'd had a sister so she would have a playmate, but what can you do?  Garnet and Topaz will hopefully have some doelings that can go out with Amethyst eventually.

Well that's all for now.  I'll update again soon.  Hopefully the update will be to tell you about Garnet and Topaz babies hehe.  I'm getting so impatient!

P.S.  I completely forgot to mention their updated weights and we measured their heights too.  Amethyst is four and a half months old and is 21 inches tall and 52.9 pounds!  Apatite is five months and a week old and is 19 inches tall and 44.8 pounds!  Keep in mind he is a Myotonic, which is a slightly smaller breed, and she is Myotonic/Boer, so she's larger.  That's what we want though.  Smaller bucks bred to bigger does keeps birthing nice and easy.  Okay, talk to you guys later!

P.P.S.  Don't forget to check out the earlier posts if you keep up with the blog on Google+ because I scheduled them in advance so they didn't post on Google+ like this one will.

Goat Picture Spam!

 It was an absolutely gorgeous day yesterday so after work we let Garnet, Topaz, Amethyst and Apatite out in the front yard to browse while Chrome grazed.  They had a blast! I enjoyed two hours of just watching them, taking photos, cuddling them, etc.  It was a great evening.  Enjoy the photo spam

Garnet looks ready to pop!  She loved those muscadines!

The kids were a bit hesitant because they didn't realize there were adult goats out.  They haven't been out with Garnet and Topaz before.  Once they realized they had company they were a lot more confident and explored a lot more of the yard than they ever have before.  They used to stick close to the barn because Amethyst wanted her mom. Coral isn't allowed out because she's impossible to catch if she's loose.

Apatite is growing SO much!!  He's now just over five months old and is separated from Amethyst because I don't want her getting pregnant while she's a baby.  Yes it can happen with goats. They are fertile at a very young age.

Apatite saying hi to Jasper.  Jasper has gotten huge!!  I need to get pictures of him for you guys.

 Jasper rubbing against the fence.

This is why Apatite can't be with Amethyst.  He's already very bucky!  Don't worry I distracted them and he didn't try it again.  He was too distracted with Topaz and Garnet because he's never met them.

 App pausing for a drink.

 My miss priss.  She is so cute!

Amethyst innocently sniffing Topaz and getting told to back off.  Don't worry, she totally deserves it.  She makes a total pest of herself.

 More attitude.  She loves head butting.

Apatite was very interested in the girls.  He doesn't understand that they are pregnant and not interested in his advances lol.

 Topaz's expression is priceless.

Poor Garnet.  She looks so uncomfortable.  They are going to have their babies soon.  Their due dates are around June 19th.

 Topaz bailing out because App won't leave her alone.

 Amethyst finally got the guts to approach Jackal.  She's been terrified of him up until now.

 Hubby hanging on to Apatite, so the girls can have a break.  Look how big he's gotten!

 I LOVE her ears!

 Look at that belly!!  How many babies do you think she'll have?

 She actually managed to heft herself up onto the fence to eat.  It sagged so bad!

 I love my pretty girl.

 Hubby mentioned her markings make her look like she's always smiling.... it does!  So cute!

 Zoom!

 This is my favorite of Amethyst for the day.  She is so gorgeous.

 She finally stopped zooming around and started browsing.

 She tried to climb the tree too lol.

It was hilarious because Chrome snorted and it startled Apatite.  He tried to bolt, but the myotonia set in and he staggered off.  This was the only picture I managed to get.  He didn't fall over though.  He was so angry, he came back to us bleating and in a huff.

Jasper is really starting to fill out.  He looks enormous in this photo because Rocky is quite a distance behind him, but you can see how broad he is even if the scale is off a bit.

 Apatite went straight back to making a nuisance of himself.

 When the does headbutt him, he doesn't back down!  He's a stout little guy already!

Compare how big they are now to....

....to how tiny they were when we first brought Apatite home!

 They met the cat too.  OrangeJello hissed at them and they backed off before it came to blows.

 Garnet using the fence to chew on her leg.

 That belly!

 I love this picture of App.  He's so handsome!

That face is so adorable!

 This really shows how big he's gotten.

 

Amethyst was so funny, trying to eat a weed, but kept walking and got too close to it.

 He was calling to the girls.  Super cute!

 Love her expression.  Did you notice Apatite has a half mustache on the same side an Am??

 Well, that's all for now.  Sorry to bog your computers down with soooo many pictures, but I took almost three hundred and it was so hard to narrow them down hehe.  I hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I enjoyed watching them play yesterday.