Melanie -- all-black, blue-eyed doeling out of Amberly.

The Half-Pint Herd came through the winter with too many critters in the barn, and there are four new March kids here (including the most gorgeous little all-black, blue-eyed doeling). We have GOT to thin the herd.

Come look at Melanie and Mickey and Minnie and Mike, and all of our older stock — everyone is for sale and we are prepared to be very reasonable about prices.

We have three breeding bucks — they’re all free to good homes.

Amberly (doe, born April 16, 2010)

We’re settling down for our fall/winter barn preparations at Berrywood Farm, and we’re overstocked. We just have too many goats in the barn. They’re lovely, purebred specimens from excellent lines — just a few more than we want to keep around this winter.

So, if any of you feel like adding quality stock to your herd at much-reduced prices, let us know.

Here are some of the girls. We have attractive bucks as well. All priced to go to a good home.

Amelie (doe, born August 20, 2008)

Azalea (doe, born April 23, 2010)

Sasha (doe, born September 14, 2009)

New arrivals Oona and Otto, with their mom Caramella

A new doeling, Oona (above left) and her brother Otto arrived on October 27. Another October gift from Caramella, we thought, and then it occurred to us…they’ll be weaned just in time for Xmas. Stuck for a gift? These lovely kids would be the ultimate surprise.

Caramella and her new little doe Angelica

We have two more delightful April surprises: Doelings out of Caramella and Vanilla. Angelica is light reddish beige with white highlights. She was born April 18. On the 23rd, true to our prediction, Azalea made her appearance — an all white doe kid with bright blue eyes.

Half Pint Vanilla's Azalea with bright blue eyes.

Angelica is sold; Azalea is available for $350.

Amberly, born April 16, 2010

Amberly is brand new, born Friday April 16, to our doe Madeleine. Here she is at one day old. Her eyes are green now — we have mostly blue eyes in our herd, so we’ll just see how that goes. The ginger look is one we’ve seen frequently. People really seem to like it.

Caramella's new tricolor doeling

In all honesty, Caramella’s new doe kid caught us off guard. Her udder was certainly looking big, but she wasn’t. And then, this afternoon, along comes this gorgeous little blue-eyed, tricolor kid — a BIG one. A very robust specimen, romping around with the rest of the herd on her first day. Very special.

We’re looking for a girl’s name starting with O.

Vanilla brought us two new doelings and a buckling yesterday, out of Valentino — our most successful pairing ever.  They’re named Socks, Sasha and Spike. They’re mostly white, but Socks, one of the little girls, has light brown leggings.

Sasha and Socks are $350 each; Spike is $200 intact, $150 wethered.

Alamode

This is Alamode — or A La Mode. He’s way beyond tri-colored. He’s a gorgeous multi-colored kid, and a big strapping one. Here’s his brother Asher:

Asher

Dignified, isn’t he?

Alamode and Asher are both sold.

Milo (front) and Malia, Caramella's new kids

Caramella, one of the new does we added to the herd last year, gave us twins on March 6, out of Valentino. We have a lovely little buff doeling, Malia, and a buckling called Milo, who is mostly a caramel red like his mom. Here they are, about an hour old and still gooey.

Our new black lab, Bogie, just had to investigate — it’s the first kidding he’s been here to see.

Mario and Madeleine

Madeleine, Ava and Mario

Madeleine, Ava, Mario and Jubilee

…to drop off some lovely photos — the typical view from the roadside of our herd. Thanks, Sally and Colin!

Thankfully, we live in that kind of neighborhood. Friendly, and there’s always something to talk about. The other night, the police knocked on the door about 11:30 to ask whether those were our cows wandering around eating people’s foundation plantings. They weren’t — but I had a pretty good idea whose they were. We had a jolly time rounding them up.