It's a boy!!!

Little Leonidas made his appearance in the world around six am, and he couldn't be cuter. He's going to be a big goat, I think, judging by how long his legs are. Last night, I had a feeling Daisy was getting close because for the first time in the history of ever, she didn't eat dinner. Since she normally inhales her grain, then spends the next thirty minutes trying to cram her head through the fence to get anything that dropped on the ground, I figured her lack of hunger was a sign from above of impending parenthood.


I worked most of last evening to make a few suitable nursery options, then spent the rest of the night shining a flashlight out the window every hour to monitor Daisy's girth. I finally gave up after two am, took a nap, then got up a few hours later to check on her. I think I missed the event by about half an hour; she totally did it on purpose out of annoyance over the whole flashlight thing. She chose the cabana, which is the one nursery option without a door. After watching goats come flying out of it on the receiving end of ferocious headbutts, Abigail came down and helped me move a chain link panel with a gate over to block the entrance. After using bungy cords and concrete blocks to secure it, it looks sufficiently redneck. If I can find a way to incorporate a blue tarp of some sort, it will be perfect. Daisy seems much happier to have a place to herself, and there's plenty of room for little Leo to romp and hop.

Leo's not the only new addition this week; the chicks have arrived as well! Between caring for the chicks and starting all my seeds according to schedule, re-potting everything in the greenhouse into bigger containers, then spending an entire day shuffling pots around to make room for everything, I haven't had time to post in awhile! I managed to buy 16 chicks before Gene cut me off, and I'm fostering 7 for Abigail as well. When I went to pick up the Frizzle chicks at Wilco, I found a tiny, tiny one that had been hiding underneath some of the bigger chicks. She is literally the size of an Easter Peep. The employee had already boxed up the 6 I had reserved, but I told her I would take the little one as well, since we have a vast stock of chick emergency products. Since the Wilco chicken department staff and I are on a first name basis, I got to take home Little Bit for free! She's actually doing really well, although she's definitely not growing at the same rate as the others. Gene often wakes up to find me spoon feeding her on the kitchen table, and once he walked in the bathroom to find me blow drying her butt after cleaning poo off her feathers. Nothing surprises him anymore, he just made a comment about how he didn't realize we'd added a chicken spa.