Did the summer fly by as quickly for you as it did for us? It was a good thing for me. As much as I hate to wish away life, anytime that The Husband is gone and time passes quickly is a good thing. Granted, it was more like that saying, "The days drag on, but the years pass quickly." Or something along those lines.
There's been a lot of talk about this year's winter forecast. According to the almanac (yes, I read it and I've found it's usually pretty accurate), we're to have a "biting cold" winter with lots of snow. Another forecast I saw said lots of early snow. I'm not really sure what they count as being early. In my neck of Indiana, a white Christmas isn't rare, but it doesn't happen often either. There's been other times when it's snowed on Halloween (Not fun when you're dressed as Princess Jasmin from Aladdin, just sayin'.). Indiana weather is crazy like that.
And true to Indiana fashion, strange things have been happening with nature's way of telling us it's going to be a doozy. Of course the usual hints, like the whooly worms being brown and extra fuzzy, are showing up. One Old Wive's Tale that I had yet to try was the persimmon trick. The first persimmon you find on the ground (our type of persimmons are the kind that have to fall off the tree before you know they're ripe enough), you cut it in half. If the core is in the shape of a shovel (or a spoon depending on which old-timer you talk to), you can expect lots of snow. We actually have several persimmon trees along the edge of what we call "The Walnut Grove" where we like to camp. I didn't realize this 'till last year after the persimmons were done. Husband pointed the trees out to me, but I'm not a tree master yet so I still couldn't tell one tree from another. A few weeks ago, I decided that I was going to figure out which ones they were. It wasn't too difficult once I found little fruits on them and took note of the shape of the leaves on the trees and the look of the bark. 'Course I didn't know what a persimmon really looked like either, but I knew they weren't walnuts. We had plenty of walnuts in the backyard at our previous house, a huge one right over my chicken coop and let me tell you - they ain't kiddin' about the amount of noise a walnut makes when it hits a hen house roof! Makes a sound like a gun going off right outside your bedroom window and loud enough to wake you up from a dead sleep if your windows are open. . .
So the other night I was out walking with the kids a noticed a ripe, dark orange persimmon laying on the ground. I was excited and all giddy and took it back to the house to dissect it. . .
I've also heard it that you split a seed down the middle and the same holds true. Let me tell you - persimmon seeds are not easy to split so if you try it, watch that you don't slice open a digit.
Seeing that we've also gone from 96* to 70* in two days, I'd say fall weather is finally starting to get a good grip. I'm excited. We barely had a fall last year during the drought, and even the winter was pretty mild.
I'm in the mood for bonfires, sweaters, apple cider, and all the other fun goodies of autumn. I love all the wonderful, mouth-watering smells of the gift shops and the stands at the Covered Bridge festival.
One smell I could do without is the smell of a buck in rut. If you've never had the pleasure of getting a whiff, you're not missing much. It doesn't even really "stink", but it is a strong, part must/part urine smell. Let's just say that Mr. Tennesse definitely has a "yang" to him now that the rut has started. Goats (well, the swiss breeds like my Alpines anyway) are seasonal breeders, meaning that they have a breeding season (like their cousin, the deer) instead of going into estrus year-round like humans. The goat breeding season starts as the weather starts to turn cooler, around mid-late August and goes 'till about mid-late February. Last year, with the drought, it was still HOT in October so there were a lot of does that got bred late last year because their cycles were fooled by Mother Nature.
Being that it is September, we're into the swing of things, and my goats know it. The girls have been flagging their tails, their hoo-has look all swollen and bright pink. . . they're playing "leap frog" with each other. At least that's what I tell the sensitive neighbors/kids. My kids know what's going on (REALLY glad that when the time comes to have the "birds and the bees" talk with them, it should be a fairly short conversation. . .), but they don't know why the girls are riding each other when the buck isn't around. . .
T (that's what we call Tennessee for short) is hanging out over at the big farm until I'm ready for him to do his "duty" (sometime next month, whenever the girls are in heat). Despite having a pen over here to keep him separated from the girls, the temptation would just be too much and there's a good chance he'd either find a way out of the pen to get to the girls before I've planned, or there's the chance of what I've witnessed where a buck will breed a doe through the fence. Yea. They're THAT good at what they do. . .
A goat's gestation lasts about 5 months, or 150 days. Does can kid anywhere within a week (or even two) before or after her due date, just like people. The closer a doe is to her due date, the better. There's a better chance that the kids are fully developed, but without getting too big and causing problems during kidding. I plan the girls' breedings so that they kid in March. January and February are just too cold for me, you can lose kids that are born in extremely cold weather, or they can end up like Miss Baerli and missing the tips of their ears/other extremities due to frostbite. March can still get pretty cold here, like it was last year, but winter is on it's way out and it's not much longer until spring arrives and nice green grasses and the babies can be let out with their mothers to play. Plus, I just don't like having to milk by hand in freezing temperatures.
Luckily the weather is in my favor this year, the girls are starting to go into heat pretty regularly and it shouldn't be hard to get them all to cycle (and hopefully settle - meaning become pregnant) in October so we'll have a bunch of bouncing babies next March. I'm interested to see what the girls throw for me. Last year, Annie had good-sized twins, a buck and a doe (Penelope). Baerli threw triplets that were almost as big as Annie's kids! Two bucks and a doe (Miss Kay). This will be my first year kidding with Piper and Bri. Last year, Piper had twin does and Bri had big triplet bucks during a marathon labor. Bri needed a lot of help from her owner at the time (a friend of mine who is a more experienced goat-breeder than I am). She is on my "watch like a hawk" list for kidding season in case she needs help again.
But, that's all 6 months down the road. Right now I'm just looking forward to fall fun!
