About Shelley Young
Shelley Young, lifetime "Hope-ite", sharing her blessings and living life with love and laughter.
Much to the disappointment of the bucks, breeding season has officially come to an end. We have 25 does bred with the anticipation that we will average twins for each doe. Some will have triplets. There will be a few singles and once in a while one will slip in a set of quads on us.

The grand events will start at the end of February and carry on through mid-May. I hadn't intended on breeding this many. In fact 10 was going to be my max. Raising goats could possibly be considered an addiction. I have thought about getting a support group together, but we are all too busy taking care of our goats to meet.

The horses are getting up there in years and I have had to bring the blanket out for Sheba. She is the oldest at 28 and this cold is hard on her. Kind of like it is on me!

It appeared that she took a fall yesterday at some point. I brought her in last night, cleaned her up, fed her and she was happy with that. She, like the others, hates to stay in the barn so I leave them out as much as possible.

I have found the older I get that the majority of the work on the farm is getting in and out of your barn clothes. While morning chores takes about an hour and a half, getting dressed and undressed is just as time consuming. Layers of clothes, and then of course the coveralls and the boots. By the time I finish getting ready to go out I realize I need to go to the bathroom again.

Then it starts all over.

Once I finally make it out the door I resemble the Pillsbury Doughboy coming off the porch. The upside is, if the porch is slick and I fall, I have enough padding that a serious injury is unlikely. However getting up would create a major challenge.

My doctor told me I needed to loose weight (duh!) so I told him that if he could keep up with me for just one day I would start working out. He wouldn't take me up on that challenge. I didn't think he would get past the clothing part anyway. With all that goes into winter chores I should be relatively skinny. Just getting dressed and undressed should burn a lot of calories.

Maybe it's those Christmas cookies!