This is our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life (Hebrews 11:8-10) along the narrow way (Matthew 7:14), even the old paths (Jeremiah 6:16), submitting to the Bible as a light unto both (Psalms 119:105). It is our prayer that these documented moments in our earthly time benefit whom God might choose to edify, but ultimately that God glorifies Himself through them.
The beginning of November came around, and it was time to put our male and female goats together for breeding time 2023!
We have two separate groups, two different buck lines, with the idea that the offspring from group 2 could be mated with the buck from group 1 to be able to be self-perpetuating without too much inbreeding.
With the time upon us, we had planned to do the move on a certain day, but I was busy in the morning some, and Sue carpe-diem’ed the whole thing and performed the move all by herself! Wow! And she did it in order to be a help to me, to take off something from my plate. I pray the Lord bless her for her diligence in serving Him by serving me.
And so, she filmed the journey that morning, and here’s the video:
We thank the Lord for His provisions of the goats, and we pray He might grant offspring in the Spring! And I thank Him for the wonderful wife He graciously granted me! 😀
With moving our billies and nannies together this last autumn, it was kidding time! Interestingly, only one buck’s two females actually got bred this year, and the other four goats with the other buck didn’t get pregnant. Two are old, so we figure that might be expected, but not with the other two young ones, so we don’t really know what happened. Perhaps we didn’t leave them together long enough, or perhaps something’s going on with the male, and so Lord willing we’ll hopefully see what happens next season.
But, the Lord did graciously grant four bucklings! Besides the picture above, here is his brother:
And then, here’s their video. If you’re tired of hearing me on the videos most of the time, you get the full narrative from Sue on this one! 😀
Even though it didn’t turn out as anticipated, we thank God that He graciously granted the ones He did, and we pray they will maybe be a blessing to someone else!
With November upon us, it was time to put our male and female goats together for this year’s breeding time! We have goats basically for the milk.
Since our nanny Annie died, we kept a young from from this year’s kid crop to take her place, one we named Annalita in memory of Annie, Annie’s grandkid.
And so, we put her and Lucy with Shakespeare, and moved over Elvis to be with Adeline, Nellie, Lily, and Hassie.
And here’s the video of that day:
We thank the Lord for the provision of the goats, pray they make it through the Winter according to His will, and pray God might grant the offspring in due season!
Well, the results of last year’s goat breeding time are in! 🙂 God graciously granted 4 bucklings and 2 doelings, although there was another doeling, but she was still-born.
Here are some pictures when they were going to the kind gentleman who buys our goats:
Very sadly though, the Lord, as owner of the goats, decided to reclaim Annie, whose two bucklings are these last two pictures. Thankfully they were 7 weeks old when she died, so we didn’t have to bottle feed them.
Annie was also our little orphan from way back. Here’s a video of her and her brother Spot drinking off the bottles!
This is Hassie’s (Annie’s daughter) daughter (in front), which we’re keeping to replace Annie. We’re calling her Annalita, in honor of grandma. 🙂
Goodbye Annie…we’ll miss you…
Lastly, here’s the video of 2022’s kids:
We always thank the Lord for His gracious provisions, and for the milk, and we pray the kids do well for the new owner!
Early November means goat breeding time — time to put our billies and nannies together in hopes the Lord might graciously grant offspring starting in April, when usually it’s starting to warm up!
Even though we tried to keep some new does we kept from last year’s offspring away from the bucks, one got to one of them and had kids, and one didn’t, and so this year is her first time with the boy goats!
And without further ado, here’s the adventure from this year!
As always, we are grateful to the Lord for His continued provisions, and we pray He might grant offspring, according to His will!
This one wasn’t supposed to get pregnant this year, as she was born last year, but she apparently found a way. 🙂 And we’re extra thankful she had no birthing complications:
And here is their video through the whole kid season from births to leaving with their new owner:
We are very thankful to the Lord for these gifts, the healthy and safe mommies and kids across the board, and we are thankful for the milk He provides from them!
Here’s a little around our homestead at the beginning and end of Texas’ 2021 arctic blast!
This was after the first main night — snow and cold, with forecasted windchills down to -18F. These were I believe our worst temperatures we’ve experienced here, even after the 2011 freeze. The thermometer says about 4F:
Here’s the homestead:
I was a little worried about the cattle, given there are some young ones, but thanks to the Lord, they all made it through ok!
During the week, Sue’s “onesy” (coveralls) in front of the wood burning stove was the favorite for the domestics:
On the first day after a week of these freezing temperatures, things started getting back to normal. Here’s our resident stray hanging out on the cistern spigot, which we had double wrapped with blankets the whole time, allowing us to use it too whenever we needed:
And here are all the goat accoutrements hanging on the fence after Sue took them off:
Those were just a few pictures, but we show a lot more in this video, which has the day after the first main night as above, and then after coming out of it 5 days later (including a surpise from a momma cow!):
All throughout, the Lord was merciful in granting all the animals come through (yes, that missing rooster from the video showed up!), and helping Sue and me with strength to do all the care-taking!
We have no grid electric or water, which actually worked to our advantage, as we always had electric and good water as needed. We pray for those still suffering from the effects, but also hope people might consider their situation and on whom or what they depend for life sustenance.
We also saw how we believe God pre-set up provision before we really knew what was coming, even though they seemed a little “cross” to us at the time: the boy goats had knocked off the top of their hay bale, but Sue just took that hay into the barn, and it ended up being their main food for the week; and I had pre-put out hay bales for the cows, and one had been eaten down a lot and spread out by the time the cold hit, and another spread around some, but those also afforded bedding for the cattle. Also, both the tractor and truck starters went out at the same time a few weeks ago, we needed both for this cold front, and so they were ready to go.
Once again, we are very thankful for God’s help through 2021’s arctic blast, and for the gift of the new little heifer calf!
Heb. 11:8-10 - "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
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