Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

The photos below are of Nutmeg today, aged almost two years, and back in 2013 at just two weeks. The third photo is of Thyme, her mother. They really are such pretty goats. Thyme is due to kid this Thursday, 19th, and today (day 141 of her pregnancy) we wondered if we might be seeing the first signs of her starting to prepare (albeit rather early...). She has been on her own a fair bit which may mean she is starting to think about where she might want to 'nest' and give birth and interestingly, Mrs Brown (one of our sheep) has been really sniffing her - it could be that as Thyme's body changes in readiness for kidding, she is possibly giving off different smells.
Her udder is not totally bagged up mind you (really full of milk) and neither is her back end totally 'relaxed' yet (this usually happens a couple of days beforehand) so we don't think we are that close - but currently the bets are that Thyme may well be first!!!
Nutmeg (due Friday) is the smallest of all the female pygmy goats and there have been times when we have even wondered if she is pregnant!! Her udder has grown however and she is already quite slack and pink at her back end so we do believe she will be kidding soon as well.
The recent rains have made the grass quite soggy again although today was lovely and dry but for the moment we are restricting the goats to the concrete apron and their deeply filled straw stall - it's not as though any of them are able to have a good run around at the moment - more like a good waddle!!!