Lemon Squeezy Farms

Tag: baby goats

  • Still Here, Just Catching Our Breath – Refocusing Life at Lemon Squeezy Farms

    There are weekends… and then there are capital – W Weekends. The kind that leave your boots by the door like they’ve retired and your muscles writing strongly worded letters the next morning. Out here at Lemon Squeezy Farms, Marc and I just lived one of those.

    First, the great hen house reset… it was time. Time to face the deep litter. If you’ve ever used the deep litter method, you know it’s a bit like a slow-building novel that ends in … a very intense final chapter. All winter long, our chickens do what chickens do, and we layer bedding over it, again and again, letting nature do its warm, composting magic. No heat lamps here, just hardy birds and a system that works with them, not against them.

    But spring? Spring calls the bills due. So out came the masks, the rakes, the shovels… and a level of determination that can only be fueled by fresh air and stubbornness. While we were at it, we tackled a pesky leak and reroofed the hen house, because apparently we enjoy adding “construction crew” to our resumes mid-clean out. And let me tell you something: There is nothing quite like that moment when you step back into a freshly cleaned coop. It’s like the whole place exhales… and so do you.

    Secondly, we’ve got goats on the move! Our barn residents were more than ready for their own upgrade. Poppy, our bottle baby Boer girl, along with Fiona and her sweet little duo, Peaches and Rosie, officially moved out into their goat space. The timing finally felt right. The air has softened just enough, and the sun has started to feel like it’s working with us again, well, when it decides to come out.

    Poppy wasted zero time making herself at home. New platform? Claimed. Big tractor tire? Playground. Open space? Sprint zone. She still shadows like a loyal little sidekick, but now with more room to bounce, leap, and show off.

    Fiona, ever the watchful mama, seemed relieved to stretch her legs and let the girls explore something bigger than stall walls. And slowly but surely, she’s softening toward Poppy. It’s not quite sisterhood yet… but we’re getting there.

    In about a week, we’ll bring the fainting goats into this enclosure too, turning it into their shared space. And as Poppy grows, she’ll eventually graduate to the larger area with Mabel, our other former bottle baby. These transitions always feel a little like watching chapter turn in real time.

    Thirdly, we’ve got fences down and plans up. We’ve stated something bigger… a full chicken restructure. That meant pulling fencing, removing runs, and reimagining how everything fits together. And can we just take a moment to appreciate the humble hero of the weekend? The t-post remover. That thing worked so slick it almost made fence pulling feel… fun. Almost.

    Fourthly, and finally, the part we don’t always say out loud. Here’s the truth tucked between all the projects and progress:

    This winter was hard.

    Not just the cold, not just the chores… but the weight of it all. The kind of season that makes you quietly wonder if you’ll come out the other side still loving what you built. Marc and I had more than a few heart-to-heart talks. The kind where you sit in the middle of it all and admit something isn’t working the way it should. Somewhere along the line, what we meant to build together started pulling us in opposite directions. That’s a hard thing to say out loud. It feels a little like failure. But maybe it’s not.

    Maybe it’s just… awareness. Adjustment. Growth with dirt still under your nails. So we’re making changes. Scaling back. Refocusing. Finding a version of this life that lets us not just run the farm… but actually live in it together. Because what’s the point of all this if we never get to sit down, breathe, and watch a North Dakota sunset side by side?

    As we look ahead, we’re sore. No question about it. We’re also proud. And a little hopeful. This weekend brings a sale, and with it, the bittersweet part of farm life. Saying goodbye never gets easy. There’s always that pull… wishing we could keep every animal, grow the herd endlessly, hold onto every story. But this isn’t just a hobby. It’s a rhythm of raising, growing, and letting go. And we’re learning to find peace in that too.

    For now, we’re catching our breath. Planning gardens. Dreaming up summer projects. Looking forward to evenings by the fire pit and keeping this little corner of the internet updated with all the life happening here.

    We make it through winter. We’re still here.

    And right now, that feels like more than enough.

  • Goat Life Chronicles: Tales of Love and Loss

    This past weekend my husband drove to an animal sale about two hours from our farm. Unfortunately I couldn’t go along but it sure made my memories start flooding! Last year at that exact sale, we purchased (among other things) our first goats. Frank, Lady, Billy, and Fiona. I never imagined we would own and care for goats much less enjoy it. When we brought them home we didn’t even have a place to put them; we didn’t plan on bringing anything but chickens home. We had three dog kennels in the back of my Subaru Outback. Frank and Lady each had their own kennel and Billy and Fiona shared one. I remember how hard my husband and I were laughing when we stopped off to get a Blizzard at Dairy Queen. The goats were bleating while he ordered in the drive-thru. It still makes me laugh. We got home late, after dark, and didn’t have much time to put our newly made plans into action. We had cattle panels and fastened them together. We were so proud of ourselves for settling up their makeshift pen while using the car’s headlights for a light source. Our son came home after work and commented on the goats. We didn’t realized right away he meant that the goats were in the yard. A couple of them had escaped! After catching a couple goats and getting them back in the enclosure, we wrapped the cattle panels with snow fencing so the goats wouldn’t be able to escape again. From humble beginnings…..

    Baptism by fire is probably the best way I can explain our goat care education. We both did lots of research and still do. One of my favorite things is how we keep learning and improving. I’ve built a couple of our goat structures, built and fashioned various ‘play equipment’ for them, and learned how to trim their hooves. We’ve also learned how and when to vaccinate. What is the most difficult, for me, to learn is dealing with the low, sad times. We’ve learned twice how quickly a goat’s health can go downhill. Billy and Frank are buried on our land, their loss was horrible but not in vain. We learned so much from each one. Frank lives on in his boy, Jack, and girl, Jill, he had with Lady and his daughter he had with Fiona. I’ve written about those sweet bundles.

    The renewal of life is the part that makes me love all the hardest days on our little farm. Heading out to check on Lady in the bitterly cold, wee hours of the morning will always be vivid in my memories.

    One of our goats did not come from a sale. Mabel was given to us. She was born one of three kids and sadly, the momma goat died. When I was asked if I was interested in a 5 week old bottle baby I didn’t even think about it. Mabel was dropped off with us and our lamancha goat education began. More importantly we learned how to feed a kid a bottle. It was so difficult to wean Mabel! She would look right at me and bleat, “MA!” I was such a sucker. Strange fact: goat formula smells just like baby formula. In my opinion; it stinks!

    I digress…. my main point was wondering how one year could feel so long and go by so quickly. This is the same stuff I wonder about when I think of how quickly my own children grew up and left us empty nesters. Time waits for no one.

    I’m proud of my husband because when he went to this past animal sale, he went to buy one thing and that is the only thing he came home with! Just a little over a year ago we began tending goats. We now have three separate structures and enclosures to house our goats. I never would have thought I’d love them the way I do. Our goats all know I keep animal crackers in my pockets for them, it’s how I make sure I remain their favorite human. Here’s to our continued journey and my continued goat chronicles!

    Our goat herd: Lady, Jill & Jack, Fiona & Button, Mabel, Gandalf, Snow White, Angelina, Bandit, Nubby, Ward, June, Ruby Junior, Thorn, Thistle, Tulip, Chub, Moondance, and Ruby.

    Mabel (she will always be my bottle baby)

  • Cute as a …

    My husband and I planned a spring break getaway long before we knew we’d have an expecting goat! But winters here are long and cold, we needed to get away. We headed south and found warmer temps during our week of vacation. Fiona was close to kidding but we were not sure when the excitement would come. We were on our way home, about one hour away from the farm, when my daughter Face Timed me. She was holding our newest addition. By the time we got home, Fiona and her baby girl were in our ‘recovery unit’ in the garage. Fiona had birthed without anyone knowing and everything went great. I worry needlessly over events like this, I need to work on that. As I write this, I realize it has been two months since that baby was born! Fiona and Lady are both amazing moms. It has been fun watching one mother two and one mother her one and only. I’m glad that Fiona had a single birth, she is such a small girl herself. It will be interesting to see in the future if she continues with single births. Our weather has warmed, we really had a beautiful spring. Fiona and her kid did not stay in the garage as long. Due to the bitter cold, I kept Lady, Jack, and Jill in the garage longer. Fiona’s little girl is quite the jumping bean and boy does she love to play! She is tiny. She is precious. She is cute as a button and that is how she got her name; Button.

    Just hours old, Button is ready for her close-up.

    Button at two months old.

  • Awaiting another Magical Goat Birth on Lemon Squeezy Farms

    Awaiting another Magical Goat Birth on Lemon Squeezy Farms

    This is Jack. Isn’t he precious? His mom, Lady, gave birth to him and his sister (Jill) on an extremely cold night on February 18th. Thanks to them arriving like they did I took a sick day from work….. thanks goats! I will never forget that magical night. On that night, two little lives were added to our farm in Northeastern North Dakota. Lady and her kids are Nigerian dwarf goats. Except for the chickens we’ve hatched, Jack and Jill are the first animals born on Lemon Squeezy Farms.

    Right now we are preparing again for an upcoming birth. This is just as exciting as the first! I don’t feel like an expert and probably never will. I read as much as I can to help with preparations. As a three-time human mom myself, I know that each pregnancy and birth are different.

    Our expecting mama is Fiona. She is a fainting pygmy goat. She is sweet but compared to the other goats, not overly friendly. Our low tonight is supposed to be 12 degrees and the high tomorrow 45. The night feels chilly but nothing compared to the negative temps we had when Jack and Jill were born. Marc built a really nice enclosure in our garage, I call it the recovery pen. It’s a great place for the mama and babies to recover and regain their strength. It’s been cleaned out and staged for our next big event. The next magical event, when will it be? I will only say, “soon.”