Milking goats, harvesting grapes for jelly-making, what more could you ask for?
Now that the new San Clemente girls are settled in, I decided it was time for Rose to move back to her retirement condo- no possibilities of her accidentally ending up with Hawthorn there. She enjoyed her ride in the pickup. When I was lugging her into her yard, I noticed her udder was full. What?! At 13 with NO possibility of pregnancy, she has spontaneously entered lactation. This phenomenon (called precocious lactation) can occur, but usually with high producing dairy goats. Poor little Rose was apparently very maternal and being put in with the two little girls who were crying for their mom made her feel like she needed to provide. Whether or not she nursed them I don't know, I never saw them nurse. Now I just need to decide... milk her out or no? It could make some lovely soap! She's such a precious little thing.
Grapes are ready! We cut the vines back pretty after last year so we could train them better. Harvesting was much easier as they weren't growing through the fence, but yield was down and the grapes weren't any larger than last year. This year I think we will let them be.
And Gretta is looking very fashionable with her red bandanna. She's still pretty spry for 13.
-M
