A work in progress ...

I knew that something was up with Gemma last night as soon as I pulled in the driveway.  The “guardian goat” that would normally announce my arrival just laid there in front of the loafing pen door.   She very casually rose to her feet when I got out of the car, chatted a bit, and then started wiggling her tail.  This was not a good sign - she was flagging and obviously in heat.  Unfortunately, after all of our efforts last month, Gemma was not pregnant. 

I guess we weren’t surprised that her first breeding didn’t take.  We had been expecting that we might have to take her for another ride to New York, but this time it was Joe who rose to the task.   After a short conversation with the breeder it was decided that her breeding window was at hand, and we would have to present her to her mate within hours. 

We didn’t have time to put the cap back onto the beater-truck, so we put Gemma and some hay in the back of Joe’s Escape, which is gated off in the back for the dogs.  At 8:30pm, Joe, a goat, and a couple of energy drinks headed off to New York.  They ended up hitting the snowstorm that blew through last night, but they arrived at the farm, intact, an hour before midnight.

It looks like the driveway rendezvous was once again successful.  Gemma was quite a bit more receptive to the buck on her second date.   The two goats wasted no time and got  down to business right away.   Joe and Gemma were on their way back to Massachusetts within an hour.   They arrived home, safe and sound,  around 2am. 

Lets hope that the second breeding attempt will take.  This pushes Gemma's due date out to late May.

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