Having not grown up in a community or family accustomed to Nannies, I have a hard time understanding what sort of characteristics to associate with Female Goats.  Now baby goats being called Kids, is highly appropriate: loud and high-pitched "MAAA!" carries across fields as though a young child has gotten himself in a tough place.  And Billies, well, now there's another subject to be addressed in the fall... Let's suffice it with a - "Wild and Crazy Guys!" - for now.

Joern came home yesterday with 3 sweet yearling Nannies, all 3/4 Nubian, 1/4 Saanen.  The hope is that our fine Billies, JarJar Binks and Chewbacca, both full blooded Nubians, will have some female companionship, and that we can start getting Farm Fresh Goat Milk next Spring (not forgetting the addition of a few spritely kids into the mix). 

The 3 little ladies came with P- names.  We altered one, who was Pickles, but is so sweet, she had her name changed to Persimmon.  The other ladies are Popcorn (all white) and Peanut, with marbled browns and whites, and a "Peanut-y" disposition.  
As sweet as they are, these little Nannies are a noisy gang.  I guess we'll give them a few days before issuing a final verdict on this, as they need some grace while adjusting to a new home -- and one with some "wild and crazy guys". 

It's April, and new life burgeons everywhere - mounds of ephemeral flowers, the golden green of new leaves, a new queen in the hive, and baby chicks!

Now these little balls of cuddly fuzz have entered their 5th week of life, having replaced the cute but impractical fuzz for mature feathers, allowing them to get out of the brooder into the chicken yard.

Eleven birds have joined Betty, Buffy, Louise & April; a mix lot of Auracana, Buff Orptingtons, & Barred Rocks. Hopefully, they will turn out to be all hens!

When thinking of Spring, ideas of New Life in all its shapes and forms fills the mind and imagination.  
A glance across the landscape whispers the lines of Robert Frost's Poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay", 
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.

 
This gold of spring is short-lived, but a wonder to behold!  

Even the preciousness of baby chicks last only for a brief moment, and then somehow they transform from the sweet, cuddly, tiny balls of fluff into wild birds.