Socks complete! (and some new baby goats!)

I'm posting a photo of the socks as they were almost complete - I did succeed in finishing and blocking them before Christmas! I was down to the wire - and did not take a photo of both together. They turned out great. I am hooked and will knit more! This was done with the colorway abalone.
I had to concentrate pretty hard to remember the pattern throughout the first sock, but then by the second one I was on a roll!


I'm joining a small group who
are doing a sock exchange - yeah! This will be fun!
I just hooked up with this great group of folks, and can't wait to get to know them better!

Since December 16th, we've had 19 new baby goats born to our farm. Now, some of you might not know, but this is not normally the time of year one plans to have baby animals arrive. The operative word here is plan. Like all good shepherds, my husband kept the male goats (billies) away from the female goats... until one day (or maybe two) last July when one of our illustrious billy goats decided to play houdini.
He dutifully led him back to the males quarters, and thought nothing more of it.... "the books say that goats do not come into heat until the days grow shorter.." Hah! (as we all roll around on the floor laughing!) Four of the 14 females must have known it was still technically summer, and they have "waited". We expect they'll give birth sometime in March :-)
We've had several first time mama goats this year. Most of them did pretty well, and followed the more seasoned Mama's to the barn and gave birth there. Yet a few did not.
We were fortunate to have arrived just as this young new Mama was licking her newborn. We watched, and were applauding her success.. when suddenly we heard a small noise out in the middle of the field... oh my... she had two! My dear shepherd walked out, and wrapped the other baby in his fleece coat. He brought her to me, and I rubbed and rubbed her to warm her up. We coaxed the new mama into the barn cubby with her babies, and helped the little ones to begin nursing. fortunately they both lived and are now merrily bouncing around the big nursery section of the barn with the other babies!

The other exciting adventure occurred when my husband went to the barn for afternoon feeding and discovered one of the mama goats struggling to give birth - and lying on top of a newborn goat.. he rescued the one underneath, again wrapping it in his coat, and then delivered the baby goat from the mama. He thought he was done, but then out popped one more! This gal had triplets! whoa. Mama and all the babies are doing well and growing fast!
It was a rainy day when I tried to snap my photos, so there aren't too many yet. My daughter took a bunch more on Christmas day - which we will post on our website under the photogallery section about our farm. Stay tuned over the next week for updates! Baby goats are the best!