Paullina joined high hopes today. She is due to give birth April 5. Last year she had 3 female kids! She is 4 years old and we will post Paulinna’s photo on the web site soon so you can all meet her. Pauline is less than the perfect Nubian dairy goat as she evidently had her ears frozen at birth, and lacks the classic long ears of her kind.

Today Martin described himself as “Mr Cranky Pants” and no one argued with him. This accurate self-assessment will no doubt serve him well in the future. Besides class all morning and fetching goat, that is about the day. Tomorrow we can try to look at our outside fences and see (it won’t take long for the goat to show us) where they need a little help.

Finally got the website update/redesign finished today. Still have lots to add, but for now, it is at least a bare bones presence. Was able to get outside some with Martin. We hauled and stacked Wednesday’s woodcutting. Martin is excited to become a “goatkeeper.” Tomorrow goat arrives. We made the mistake of reading the goat book, especially the what can go wrong in labor section. It’s a good thing I read the James Herriot books long ago, so I will be prepared for any eventuality.

It’s all but official now. Permanent goat will be coming to high hopes. We have in the past performed goat-sitting, but we have just committed to buying a bred nanny. Our motivation is simple – we may nevermore run out of milk. The doe is set up to come in two days and should give birth within a month. At that time, the milking will commence. Of course, there are the minor details like building a milking stanchion and making sure the fences where goat will trod are goatproof. Daughters have promised to care for goat to best of their abilities. I’m sure this is just the first chapter of many revolving around goat.