Half Pint Farm.

 So. I applied for our farm name through ADGA (American Dairy Goat Association) and although we wanted our first choice as Half Pint Acre, it was already chosen by another farm, so we got our second choice: Half Pint Farm. So we are officially a farm, lol! By the way, Alice (above) says hi!

 We "celebrated" our official-ness by buying 32 tons of structural fill (a type of gravel) with some of our tax money. The objective is to get it smoothed out over the goat & chicken area because we are having some issues. One, is drainage. The rain has swamped this area and it doesn't drain. Instead it pools and the goats are walking through it. Wet hooves mean foot rot. And currently, my girls have what's called thrush, a type of foot rot. They are on the mend, but I want to avoid it for the future. Also, having rock gravel will naturally trim their hooves so they aren't overgrown--another issue I faced this winter.Getting structural fill kinda solves a multitude of problems. 

 I caught Frankie stealing a break from her kids. When we got her, she came to me with a cough. I thought the cough was a result of having a big belly from her pregnancy and that she was having difficulty coughing up her cud from the belly pressure. It's not gone away since her kidding, tho. I fear it's lungworm. In fact, I'm more than sure it's lungworm. I responded with putting her (and all the goats) on a herbal wormer regime. But there's only a small chance that it will get the lungworm. So I am going to have to use chemicals. And the only chemical I know of that works on lungworm is Ivermectin Plus. It's expensive. Like a two ounce bottle for almost $50! But I will treat all the girls, just in case the lungworm has spread.

For the longest time after I began feeding alfalfa pellets (which I did that because they are so wasteful on the alfalfa hay), the girls wouldn't touch what alfalfa I did put out for them. But since the kids are eating it, so are the big girls! Lol! It's important for all the goats to get roughage. Even tho they are getting the nutritional value from the alfalfa pellets, they still need "texture" to make good poops. (That's the best way I can explain it, lol.) Alfalfa pellets are so ground up, there's no roughage to it. I've tried like three different kinds of hay to give them their roughage (the cheaper route), but they won't eat anything but alfalfa! My girls are SPOILED! 

After the dump truck came and dumped the fill, the goats had a blast climbing the "mountains". Then they got tuckered out and napped. This is a picture of Capella and Gemma.

Then they woke up again. Lol! Sorry for the haze. . . we burned.

Nina's favorite is Hercules. She can put him to sleep in like thirty seconds. He is incredibly soft! It's going to be hard to say goodbye to them. You never forget your "firsts". 

Nina did the five o'clock feeding last night. We are teaching Gemma and Tally to feed standing up, instead of us holding them. Problem is, the big girls think it's time to bottle feed them! 

So that's the haps. I hope all is well on your end!