Meet Elanor, Lobelia, and Estella!

[dawn_felagund]

The kids are here!!! What a perfect way to celebrate Beltane. This morning, Bobby and I drove down to Stowe to pick up our two little doelings. Well ... you can see that "two" turned into "three" quite easily. We arrived to the farm and a pen of six little kids, all a week or two old: five does and a buck. The owner remarked that this is the time of year when it is hard to sell kids, so if we wanted three instead ... she then went away for three minutes, which was enough time for Bobby to look at me with eyes taking up half his face and remark how cute the little black one was for me to know: Yep. Totally going home with three.

I'm glad! They've only been here a few hours, and it is already hard to imagine not having one of them.

We named them after female Hobbits. I had initially suggested naming them after family matriarchs, but we're approaching the point where we might start selling what we produce here, so Bobby has been poking me about coming up with a name for our homestead. He would like a Tolkienish name. Naturally, I did not disagree. The Hobbit names fit better with that. Twist my arm.

So I am happy to introduce, from left to right, Estella, Elanor, and Lobelia.



Elanor and Lobelia were the two we had originally planned to buy. Elanor's mom is a champion milker. (They are Alpines, by the way, for those of you who care about breeds and such!) But when we saw Estella, the little black one, and were offered the chance to take her home too, it did not take much convincing. We named the beige one Lobelia because she is the ornery one. When we arrived, she was walking about on her back feet, trying to nibble on the heat lamp suspended from the ceiling. When Bobby posts his photos later, I'll post one he took of me: I leaned over to photograph him holding Elanor, and Lobelia clamored onto my back and stood there like I was a pile of rocks!

Estella is the smallest and very sweet. She likes to suck on our fingers. Elanor, the little white one, is also a sweetie and a little cuddlebug. Lobelia is the oldest--two whole weeks!!--which is why she is slightly bigger.

They all ascribe to the belief that, why walk somewhere when you can frolic?!

Here's Lobelia ... who thinks beards taste good! She also loves nibbling my hair. (They all do, but she was particularly enthusiastic about it!)





Cute man holding cute goats. (Left to right: Estella, Lobelia, and Elanor)




It was about an hour ride back from Stowe. I sat in the back with them to keep them from climbing into the front seat with Bobby. For 45 minutes of the car ride, all three squirmed around, trying to get into my lap/next to me. Then they all laid down and went to sleep.




First bottle-feeding is coming up in a few hours, so I'm sure there will be more pictures then! Bobby just went to hang their heat lamp, and they were all asleep, got up to see what he was doing, but then went right back to sleep. It's been a long day for such wee ones.

Comments

[hrymfaxe]

I can't even with their little antenna ears!

[dawn_felagund]

I KNOW. I asked them, "Do you get HBO? So we can watch Game of Thrones??" :D

[hrymfaxe]

Especially Estella looks like she could received some long-distance radio signals!