During our farm's "in between" state of growing, seeding for spring and birthing babies, Michael and I are so incredibly thankful for Farmer Frank (of Crooked Sky Farms) and our opportunity to partner with him, his farm, his naturally grown vegetables and to compliment them with what we do have and can harvest.
I just filled buckets with the most be-a - u-ti-ful kale and chard EVER. . . from Frank's Farm. If you are a "farm member" and have already taken advantage of our HSM feel free to shop today (Friday) up until 6 pm. We'll lock our market up then. Farmer/Chef Wendell (of Crow's Dairy) will be showing up soon with a ton of goat's milk and cheese. In the freezer - Bread Maker Carol (of Grano de Vida) has left a ton of all your favorite breads.
The Last Saturday Market
We've been announcing as best as we can, but tomorrow - Saturday - January 26th is our LAST Saturday market. Not only will be closing the Saturday French Cafe' and Market but we will also be closing the farm to visitors. You can read here more about that.
The Thursday morning French Cafe and Market will continue from 8:30 until noon. Great stuff, shop local, support The Simple Farm!
Don't forget.... Valentines Day is coming and you can order and we can ship little packages of our farmstead experience! Click here - www.simplycaramel.com
The first kidding of the season is always a nervous one for me. I go over in my mind the last seasons, review my notes, talk to my other goat gal friends (support, stories, etc.) so that I'm somewhat prepared for the arrival of new farm life.
This past week, Michael and I haven't slept a whole lot - like anxious parents waiting for labor to begin and not totally knowing for sure if "it's the moment now" kind of thing. Michael pretty much stayed up a lot of Thursday night checking the borrowed baby monitor - watching Storms moves and stretches and arches and pawings - to see if "anything" was happening. Nothing.
With a little cup of French press, I took over Friday morning. I figured it wouldn't be anytime in the morning because Miss Storm devoured her morning portion of "goat breakfast"...oats, barley, sunflowers, kelp, beet pulp. Generally, when a doe is in active labor - she does NOT eat. All afternoon Storm hung out with her goat gal pals, chewing her cud.
Friday night, Michael, my hero and love, stayed up . . . again . . . off and on watching the monitor.
It's important to us and just about every other goat owner to be with their doe when she's in labor. Sometimes assistance is needed and if you're not there to observe the behavior of your animal - you might miss a sign that she's in trouble. We get to be there with her, loving on her and talking to her as she presses through her labor.
I got up at 3 am and took over watching the monitor. She would stretch and paw and lie down and get up. I watched as Storm would arch her back - clear signs of contractions and at 4 am I went out to see what was cooking. I knew "this was it" and ran to get Michael.
Storm having contractions.
The bubble....baby is next.
At around 4:15 (ish) the first kid presented itself - in the wonderful toes and nose position . . . a nice healthy buckling. Then fast and furious a breech little buckling presented itself. I knew upon his entrance that something wasn't right. He was tiny - 5.3# and had no tone. He probably died a few weeks ago. Why, we don't know.
Next came another breech kid - the sweet little girl we call Ashley.
