BABY GOAT snugglers needed in spring 2022! (newsletter)

This week we bred Charlotte! That's a fun way to start a newsletter isn't it? Charlotte has been with us a year now and will be a second time mom (first time for us though.) She was bred to Poppy (our boy who is white with caramel colored patches.)

Charlotte is a super friendly, funny, and smart goat.

And Poppy is a homegrown buck and was THE sweetest baby! He's  has proven that sweetness is in his DNA :-). He was the father to Alaska's 2020 babies Flame and Ring—two of the friendliest we had that year! Here's Poppy as a baby:


It's hard work to make our baby goats friendly (haha) but somebody has to do it ;-) Goats are inherently loving, funny, and curious. Baby goat season is the BEST part of the year!

If you are in the Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) of NC or know people who are, please forward them this email and have them sign up for the newsletter. I will be looking for baby goat snugglers in the spring!

Now, I'm hoping everyone settles down for a couple of weeks and then I'd like to breed 2...maybe 3 more. You are NOT to email Brad and tell him I said that! We had agreed on 4! ;-)

Mom got her CT scan results back yesterday and the news is not good. Earlier this year, the chemo she was on was doing a good job and the cancer was 75% gone but now it's all back. It has mutated and spread. They still have a few more types of chemo to use. The doctor told her she has about a year.

To put myself in her shoes...to be told I had a year left...

And then to be in my shoes...to be told my mother has a year left...

Some days it's just too damn much. Being human can be a lot, all on it's own. But being human and losing a loved one, I don't know how we bear it. When my grandma died, my mom's mom, it was so sudden. An accident took her away in the blink of an eye. I was always grateful that she didn't suffer for a long time but those of us who were left seemed to suffer extra because it was so sudden.

Now my own mother...this is slow. I'm so sad for her and this long process she's enduring. And grateful for each moment she's still with us. I suppose grief is long and yucky whichever way it shows up—grieving before the person dies, or after. Or both. How do people go on being productive members of society when a loved one dies?

My daughter Nichole said that my mom wouldn't have it any other way, she'd want to spend as much time with us as she could. Somehow that made me feel a tiny better. As always, prayers are always appreciated.

Well, I can't leave this on such a sad note. Check out Sweetness the mini donkey with his very own window in the horse barn :-) There are two taller ones on the backside for the horses. It's being done in a most-important-thing-first way so the trim for the windows will be done later. The horses and donkey have moved into the back barn and Brad is working on the fencing around the front barn so we can move the girl goats up there. Then comes a sturdy house for the boys goats. Brad really ups his building and creating game when I start breeding, he knows those 5 months of growing babies goes by so fast!
Last weekend we had mom and dad over to watch the return of Cam Newton to the Carolina Panthers. Lucy was only interested in belly rubs by dad :-)

ManChild is off for fall break starting today! Yay! We will spend the week finishing decorating for Christmas—this weekend our tree goes up! I decided that we needed to decorate early this year because, you know, 2021 was a doozy and I wanted pretty stuff early. My brother and his partner will be coming in on Wednesday for Thanksgiving and next weekend we will hang out at mom and dad's and put up their tree for them. ManChild is loving baking and so he's going to make chocolate chip cookies at their house—won't that smell good while the tree is going up!

Go bake some cookies and fill your home with love and yumminess!

Love to all from the Mother Ranch,

Julia