And More Babies!

As we were getting ready to put the animals up for the night so we could settle in to enjoy our Easter meal I noticed Sadie laying down with her legs all locked behind the chicken coop. Chris secured our meal so the dogs did not eat it and came out with towels. I sat with Sadie, in the rain, while Chris put up all the animals.

Sadie is a seasoned mom and within 20 minutes she had two beautiful girls on the ground and cleaned. I was amazed to watch her with her babies, especially with all the trouble we have been having with Lela not wanting to be with hers ... yet! The girls were having a hard time getting the milk to flow from mom so Sadie reached her neck around and started massaging her own udder with her mouth to aid in the dropping of the milk.

I will work to get pictures of Sadie's babies as well as Lela's!

Lela is bonding well with her babies. One of the boys is able to nurse from her unaided. The other boy (Duke) and the girl (April) are not yet at that point so I am assisting with bottle feeding until mom takes that over. The family was able to all sleep together for the first time last night and is spending the day walking around my basement so I can supervise and continue feeding.

Hope you all have a Happy April First!

Happy Easter!

We certainly have entered kidding season with a BANG!

This past Thursday - Petunia delivered one healthy boy and one healthy girl.

The girl is the fawn colored and the boy is the more white one.

what a great hiding place!

This Saturday - Coco delivered one healthy boy and one healthy girl.

The boy is the brown/black one and the girl is brown and white.
Coco came over to where we were working on the barn and started hollering for us to come over to her. Once we got over to her, she began having strong contractions and finally after an hour and half she had her two babies. Coco certainly prefers for us to be with her when she delivers and does whatever she can to get our attention when its time!

This Saturday - Lela, who is a first time mom, delivered 3 boys and 2 girls! - wow that's a lot of baby for one small goat! Sadly, one boy and one girl did not survive the delivery, Chris and I missed the delivery and cannot say for sure that our presence at her delivery would have changed the survival rate of the two babies. Lela is still in shock and has not yet accepted the babies as her own. Chris and I are working with Lela to make sure the babies are fed and working to get them acquainted with her. This afternoon Lela started sniffing them and began to lick them a little, so there is still hope!

Pictures of Lela's babies will be up soon!

More kiddings to come!

Barn Update!

Well due to the mild winter we have had construction of the barn has not been delayed! Three out of four sides have been framed in (the fourth has not been done yet because there is still quite a bit of material under the barn and we need a way to get it out!) Two of the sides have been sheathed!

Things are moving quickly around here and we are all getting very excited! The end feels like it is almost here!

Here are some pictures of the progress from this past weekend!

A few weeks ago we had a minor emergency with one of the goats! Mamma cracker her horn and it needed to be removed. Since she had cracked it basically all the way off, we were able to remove it quickly and she has been healing well. Here is a picture of the old girl with her new "uni-horn" look!