Just another day...

So kidding season has begun and our first kids were born yesterday.   I have been gone during the day for the last two days, attending cheese class at UVM/VIAC, so I missed Katie's kiddings but of course my mom and Meghan (our new intern) had things well under control.  I admit it was very nice to be able to get up early and head off to class in Burlington instead of having to get up even earlier and go do morning feedings before I could even think about getting ready for class.  Meghan just started last week but she has jumped right in and is doing a spectacular job of assuming a key role in the general day to day function of the farm.

Off I went to class this morning, knowing full well that after 8+ hours in the classroom I was going to have to make the hour drive back home at the end of the day and head straight to the cheese room to pasturize milk and set my weekly batch of chevre.  When I got back home around 7 the only doe left to kid was Nimbus so Meghan joined me in the cheese room and we checked in on Nimbus periodically so my mom would get a break from goat monitoring.  At about 10:30pm we headed out, chevre setting for the night, and I was just starting to think about warming up the dinner I'd brought home earlier - only to find Nimbus in labor.

Unfortunately it was not an easy one for Nimbus and after quite a bit of extra effort by all hands on deck she did give birth to 3 live kids - all bucklings.  So, a full day of cheese class, cheesemaking, goat kidding, and 1 vet visit later, it's almost 1:45 am and my head is finally about the hit my pillow for a few hours of sleep before I have to get up and milk. 

Yup!  Kidding season has definitely begun :)

Tale of Three Bellies

So as of this morning there were still not kids - here are the aerial belly shots (L to R: Nimbus, Tatum & Katie).  Of course it was pretty much a guarantee that someone would kid today during the day since I was off at a cheese chemistry class at UVM all day!

And the winner is.....

Katie! 

She had 1 doeling and 1 buckling, both were nice weights and are active and healthy!



With that, kidding season has officially begun!

Nope, no kids yet!

While we expect kids any day now there aren't any yet!  All three moms-to-be have been moved inside the barn into the kidding area for the night, and there is definitely some serious nesting behavior going on, but nope - no kids yet.

Kids won't be coming soon enough from a cheese perspective.  The does we milked through this winter and dwindling and milk production is pretty darn low.  The last of our feta cheese was made up into packages of marinated feta and most of them sold at market today in Montpelier, as did most of our newer aged raw milk cheese, Tweed River.  

Tweed River Tomme started out as an experiment in cheesemaking to produce an "old school" hand made cheese from our farms milk in a French tradition that would be unique to our farm and we couldn't be more pleased with the result - other than the fact that we are almost out of stock! 

Who's On First

Kidding season is fast approaching.  The barn is ready, kidding pens are setup, and we're just waiting for the first doe to decide it's time.

Guess who will kid first and possibly win some yummy Willow Moon Farm cheese :) 

Visit our website and look for the survey on our home page - www.willowmoonfarm.com

To Blog, Or Not?

I guess I'm just not cut out for daily blogging.  Or maybe it's my lifestyle?  Well we'll see.  Kidding season is about to get underway and I'm hoping to post information here about all the new kids as they arrive. 

To start with I'll be posting a link to guess which doe will kid first on the farm this season.  Last year was a little anticlimatic due to the unexpected arrival of Kim-Oh-No, our first kid of the season who arrived in December - on my birthday as a matter of fact!  She was not expected so her early, pre-new year arrival was a surprise.  Thus her name - Kim, oh no!  Her parents names had Japanese roots so naming her after a traditional Japanese dress seemed only fitting.

As we start to get into kidding season a little I'll post a couple contests where subscribers can win free cheese!  So stay tuned.

Who's On First?

I'm about to post our 2nd annual guess the goat who's on first - which goat will kid first this year.  So watch our Facebook page for an update between now and Monday!   http://www.facebook.com/#!/willowmoonfarm

Artisan or Farmstead??

As January whizzes by, kidding season is fast approaching. While I am primarily a cheesemaker, being a "farmstead" cheesemaker adds a lot more to the definition than just cheese.  Being "farmstead" implies that we make our cheese with milk from our own animals raised and milked on the farm where the animals are raised.  Our cheese is also "artisan" cheese - produced in small batches, with attention to the tradition of the cheesemaker's art, and using as little mechanization as possible.  Cheese made by hand.

With the farmstead chapter comes milking and goat care.  In order to get milk - you need them to get pregnant and have kids.  Seems simple enough.  Well maybe simple isn't the right word.  Life during kidding season is definitely not simple.  My mom handles most of the kidding watch, but at least one night a week I take that duty.  Sometimes it's quiet, othertimes just sleepless, and then here are the busy nights.  We are always glad when kidding season is over, but somehow as it rolls around again we still get excited to see the new kids arrive and ramp up the milk production once again.