What do you do for a living?

Sometimes I have a hard time answering this question.  The response is highly situational — who I’m talking to and whether I’m interested in talking or not.  Sometimes I tell people that I own a quilt restoration business.  Other times I admit to being a consultant.  If I really want to confuse people, I tell them I’m a goat rancher.

I was in D.C. this week (aka consultingland) to work on two very interesting social media projects and to do some pro bono work for a third.  One of these projects is nearing fruition.

Now that I’m home again, I put on my rancher hat again this morning and took a stroll around the barns to document the progress of the past few weeks.

First of all, my how the kids have grown!

 

 

 

 

In addition to the weight gain, their horns are starting to emerge.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, the second group of kids have been coming in. These (and subsequent kids this year) are from the group of 25 Spanish cross does (the smaller, white goats) and their coloring is less striking.  They’re still awfully cute, though.

We keep the kids in the nursery pen with their mothers until about the age of two weeks.  At that point we place the ear tags (think of it as getting their ears pierced) and give them a vaccine against some common diseases.  Then we turn them out into the main herd, where they rapidly grow more independent.

 

Father and son.  Bucks don’t get cuddly with their kids, but Captain Patch generally tolerates them so far.

 

 

Oh, our chickens have grown up, too.  Oh, and notice the  new doors on the barn?  The old doors were picturesque in their decay, but rapidly losing functionality.  The new doors are much more weather-tight.

 

 

 

  The cats like to lurk.  This is our young orange male, peeking down at me from the hayloft.