Early May

Some additional sad news to report:

Little Heldig was doing well enough by one week old to accompany his Mom outside.

While never as robust and energetic as his cousins Artful and Tammy Waynette,

he was getting spunkier

and enjoyed his daily romps in the grass.
By his second week he was gaining normal weight and developing his own personality.
He liked to butt against people as if trying to knock them over
and he loved to chew on fingers

as Janet discovered.
Pants legs were a taste treat, too.

After his second week, though, Heldig suddenly weakened so much that he could stand for only a few moments at a time.
Then he was no longer able to drink from Alba. Barb tried various medications and kept him alive by feeding him milk through a tube snaked into his stomach.

The vet who examined him found that he was no longer developing any muscle. Something in his system had shut down; he couldn't support his own weight and was starting to have trouble breathing.

On the vet's recommendation, Heldig was euthanized toward the end of his third week. He will be examined by the University of Minnesota Vet School to determine the exact nature of his problem and to see if Alba can safely be bred again next year.
We miss him a lot.
On a brighter note, Artie and Tammy are doing fine.

The little hellions love to climb the hay bales in their barn

even under the disapproving stare of aunt Dream.
Tammy waits impatiently to get outdoors

where the dynamic duo sees what more trouble they can get into.
Niblet and Majority have moved to the former chicken coop
and current gentleman's club
where they're enjoying the spacious indoors facility
(note the heavy fencing meant to bear T's increasing weight)
and they especially like their extensive outdoors area
which includes a pile of stumps to play on and nibble.
They're getting along extremely well together easing our fears of what might happen when they were separated from the does and living in their own dorm.
T enjoys a rest in the shade.
Niblet tries to debark a willow tree while out for his daily walk

and then hops up onto Barb's lap, convinced that he's still a 16-pound baby instead of a 130-pound hunk of wetherhood.

Though she's not due until June 14, Dream is huge.

She may turn out to be the Octomom of the goat world.
Other critters are making our spring exciting, too, including a phoebe on the other stump pile

and bufflehead ducks on the pond.

With the soil warming, Barb fired up old Earthquake

and prepares the gardens for a bumper crop.