Last week was crazy! Between a new shipment of bees, Butch the calf escaping and the rest of the goat babies having to be disbudded it made for a stressful few days. Starting with the bees. After getting the call that the bees were in at D&B, the kids and I made a mad dash to Pendleton after school. Trying to keep the bees at peace meant driving straight back home with the AC blasting and praying that they would not go exploring around the cab. After turning on cartoons and instructing Lita to make sure Charlie did not do a table dance on the dining table, I ran out to release the bees. Of course this process was not as easy as the instructional video from the bee company made it out to be. However, besides one bee sting that over the next few days swelled my wrist up and made it itch until I wanted to gnaw off my arm it was all good. It was all good at least until that night when I got a phone call that our black calf was spotted by the road, not in his pen. After a valiant attempt to find Butch by our wonderful neighbors and myself he was no where to be found. Justin being at a conference in Portland did what he could by letting people know that Butch had made a great escape. The next morning the vet showed up and it was time to disbud the kids. Holding the squirming hairballs as their poor little heads were fried was a great way to start a Friday, just kidding. After the smell of burnt flesh and hair had dissipated it was time to look for Butch again. Luckily our good friends came to the rescue and David not only found Butch, but walked him almost three miles back to his pen. By the time Justin got home from Portland I was ready to head for the hills, but instead I headed to the bad fence on Butch's hill and started stretching new wire. Needless to say I am happy that last week is in the past and that we have learned some valuable lessons about hobby farming. Lesson 1) Have the actual gloves that beekeepers use; 2) Two lines of barbed wire are not sufficient for a calf; 3) Wear ear plugs if you involve yourself in disbudding goat kids; 4) Be ever grateful for living in such a supportive and helpful community.

Trying to decide who should win the goat kid name contest was not easy! After much debate we chose one name from each of the four people who entered and decided that each person who entered should win some soap. Congrats to Susan, Gina, Heidi and Aunt Andrea! I will message the winners to get addresses if I don't already have it. Thank you again for your creativity!
Let me introduce these four crazy kids:

Here is little Jasper. He has a burnt head thanks to being disbudded last week, but it hasn't kept him from butting heads with his brother.

People have been asking lately where we came up with the name, Black Acre Farm, and the answer really goes back to my husband's law school days. As a student of law Justin became accustomed to hearing the term "blackacre." Used in common law, jurisdictions, and in legal contracts it sits as a placeholder name for fictional estates of land. Even though our farm is far from fictional (most of the time) it is a way to pay homage to Justin's years in law school. He always joked that he wanted a "real" farm or ranch named Black Acre, so now that we have one I think he may be pondering the old adage, "be careful what you wish for, it may come true!"
On another name note. We still have not came up with names for the new kids. There are three boys and a girl. One girl and boy were born on April Fool's Day. We are in search of the right names. Please let us know your ideas. To sweeten the deal, whoever comes up with the winning names I will send them a bar of our goat milk soap. 

Finally some photos of these cute little suckers. Lucky for us it seems that three are polled, so only one must go through the debudding  gauntlet. 

They're here! They're here! One of our goats, Bang, had her babies yesterday while we were gone at work. I went to check on her and Heidi Lou, and there were the babies. A doe and a buckling and hats of to Bang who did everything right even though it was her first time. We were not sure if she was letting them nurse, but after having an experienced friend come by and check on them all was well. Now it's Heidi Lou's turn! Since they were born on April Fool's we are trying to think of some appropriate trickster names. Pictures to follow.