Took Sir Guy DOWN!

Our young Alpine buckling, Sir Guy, won't be a year old till April, but he thinks he is hot stuff.

This morning, I was in the buck pen, moving their dogloo shelter. Sir Guy jumped up on my back twice. The first time I twisted his ear. The second time, I grabbed one of his front legs, bulldogged him to the ground, and sat on him, holding his head to the ground till he stopped wiggling. This is the proper procedure for teaching a buck that he is NOT the boss.

He didn't jump on me any more after I let him up.

Unexpectedly Preggers

Our herd queen, Orange, is most obviously pregnant. Now. HOWEVER, we didn't realize this until recently. We had been planning on 'milking her through' as she was giving a nice half gallon a day. Then, suddenly, production dropped to a couple of cups or less. The obvious thing to do was dry her off and breed her to kid in the spring when we will be back in Missouri.

HAH! Orange apparently had other plans, starting back in September, shortly after our purchase of a nice registered Alpine buckling.

We had some problems keeping the bucks in when we moved them to a fenced area just downhill of the does. The plan was that we would be able to tell which of the girls were in heat by their flirting with the boys at the fence line. We didn't anticipate the determination of the bucks and their disregard for electric fence tape. It took about a week to get the fence reinforced enough to keep the gentleman restricted to their side of the fence.

Apparently, Orange came into a quiet heat during this time. By mid December, we began to suspect she was in the family way. Here it is, the end of January, and we're watching every day for signs of kidding. We're getting closer. Lonnie is predicting February 7, Super Bowl Sunday! I'm thinking it will be sooner than that.