Another addition to our busy weekend

We thought our busy weekend was over... not so fast! On Sunday evening Jetta decided to go into labor with triplets! Yep, one of our first freshening Nubians gave birth to 2 does and one buck kid. She even tried to push 2 of them out at once. These kids are sired by our Jr herdsire: Silverwood Prince Merlin.

Eventful Weekend

Another eventful weekend around here. As the weather gets nicer and new kids arrive, more and more people want to come out and visit. This makes for some very busy weekends. We are not complaining! We love seeing friends and family, and the goats love company too. It's just that we do't get as much time to catch up on our sleep. If there is such a thing.

We knew Saturday would be a busy day. We had to get feed, go to our tax appt and we had 3 groups of people coming over in the afternoon to visit the babies. That all got a bit more hectic when Raven, one of our Nubian does, decided she was going to start kidding at 10 AM. So, Laura stayed home and Chris went to get feed and to our tax appt on his own.

Raven decided to take this process very slowly. Laura noticed the water bag emerging at 10 AM. Raven's first kid wasn't born until noon (a buck kid). Then a second one finally followed at 12:45 (another buck kid). As neighbors were getting the new babies dried off and taken care of (navel's dipped, etc.) Laura milked Raven to get colostrum. Then Raven got some nice warm water, grain and alfalfa hay. We got the babies fed and tucked in under a heat lamp. That was about the time that group of visitors #1 showed up.

As Laura was explaining about the goats, she noticed Raven grunting. Then another grunt. Thinking it was just Raven expelling the placenta, Laura didn't give it much thought. Until another grunt... that is when Raven pushed out buck kid #3! Shortly after that group of people #2 arrived. As we were drying off this kid and making sure he was taken care of... group of people #3 shows up.

All in all it was a wonderful day of visiting, but a lot of work and waiting as well. We did chores Saturday morning at 6 AM and got in about 8 AM. Then Laura went back out at 10 AM and didn't get back in the house until 4 PM. Then, both of us were back out at 6 PM for chores. Luckily Chris volunteered for the midnight feeding. We will laugh about this some day.

Kidding Season begins with Triplets!

We are so excited that kidding season has officially begun! This morning at about 9:30 AM, one of our Saanens, Sherry's C Tilly gave birth to a healthy set of triplets (2 bucks, 1 doe). Everyone is doing well - the kids all drank from a bottle right away and Tilly was thrilled to have a nice snack of alfalfa and warm water. Here's hoping that all of our kidding go as well as this one!

These kids are aslo the first kids from our first home grown buck: FSF Nitro Cosmopolitan. So far, we like what we see!

We will be keeping the doe kid, who we named Seattle. The 2 buck kids will be available for sale.

We're Back on Schedule... Maybe Not

We have a schedule for feeding the babies when they arrive.  They get fed every 6 hours (4X daily) for the first two days, then every 8 hours (3X daily) from day 3-7.  We decided to adjust all the babies to 3X feeding yesterday.  That way we feed them at 6 AM, 2 PM and 10 PM and we get to sleep like normal people!  In addition we are training them to use a lambar bucket instead of bottles.  A lambar bucket is basically a pail with about 10 nipples all the way around it.  Inside the pail, each nipple has a hose that reaches the bottom of the bucket.  This way they still suck on a nipple to drink, but it is a lot faster and easier to clean.  When they get really good at it, we can feed 10 babies at the same time in under 1 minute.  We'll post a photo of the babies using the lambar bucket soon.  All of this means we can get in the house by 10PM, have time to catch up on a few things, and crawl in bed before midnight.

That's how is should work.  Not this time.  As I was going to bed about 10:30 I checked the camera monitor in the barn.  Claira, our Nubian herd matriarch, was clearly in the process of pushing a baby out into the world.  We got our there as fast as we could and in the course of 15 minutes we welcomed 3 new babies.  Claira had 2 buck kids and 1 doe kid.  They were a little slow to drink, but after we dried them off with towels and the blow dryer and re-warmed colostrum (the first milk from the doe that contains all the good antibodies) they took right off!  All are doing well today.  By the time we got back in the house it was 12:15.  I guess we could have fed at midnight after all.  So, for now, we are in between schedules again.

Whoa Baby!

To say that Thursday, March 12th was an eventful day would be an understatement.  We started the day at 4 AM thinking that one of the goats was showing early signs of labor.  Chris went to work around 5 AM, and I (Laura) continued to watch the monitor for another hour.  Then I went out and did morning chores at 6 AM and everyone was fine.  No new babies over night.

At about 9:30 I saw Wisteria, one of our Nubians, starting to show strong contractions.  I went out to the barn, prepared for the delivery and the first kid ( a pretty black doe) was on the ground by 10.  No problem, I've got another 20 minutes before the next one comes, right?  Nope.  Try 5 minutes.  With the addition of a handsome brown and white trim buck kid, now I have 2 soaking wet babies in a barn that is 20 degrees.  So what do I do?  Call in reinforcements!  My neighbor Mary came over and helped dry off/blow dry the babies and get them fed.  All of this was in time for me to go to work by noon.

Chris came home about noon for the afternoon baby shift.  I had to be gone for the rest of the afternoon because I teach a class on Thursday nights from 6:30-9:30 PM, and had another appt at 2:30.  We asked Chris's Mom and sister if they would come over and be available to help "in case" a goat should freshen.

Well, my appt wrapped up around 4:45.  When I returned to my desk I had a message from Chris at about 3 PM that LuvBug, one of our Saanens had just given birth to twin bucks.  Everyone was doing well.  When I returned his call, he informed me that Wylie, one of our Nubians, had started showing signs of labor.  By 5 PM she had given birth to TRIPLETS!  1 doe and 2 bucks.  By this point I think he was happy to have extra help at the barn.  I was feeling a bit left out of al the action!  When I left the barn this morning, I had 7 babies, now there was 12!

By about 7:40 PM I called Chris to see how things were going.  At the start of the day we had agreed that he would bring a few babies to my class for everyone to "oooh and aaah over".  We had agreed that he would be there between 7 and 7:30.  So, I call... and he answers to tell me that he will be on his way in a couple of minutes - after he milks Tilly.  Wait... did he say Tilly??  When did she come into the mix?  Tilly is one of our Saanen does.  He then tells me that she freshened nearly effortlessly at 7 PM.  Oh my gosh!  

Chris, his mom and sister were absolute champs.  They did all of this work, and then they did bring down Tilly's twins and Wylie's triplets for the class to see.  Everyone loved them of course.  They just couldn't fathom that they had just been born a few hours before.  I am very grateful to have such an understanding, hard working spouse.  And my adopted family (in-laws) are just gems.  Who else would put up with and dive into all of this?

We now have 14 babies on the ground - and I missed the last 7!  What kind of mama am I?  As soon as I get a chance to snuggle all the new little ones and take their pictures, I will post some for you to see.  I'm sure Chris's account of all of this is different than mine.  I'm going to see if he'll jot down his thoughts sometime tomorrow so that we can compare notes.

Kidding Season Has Begun!

Well, it's official - kidding season has begun at Four Seasons Farm.  We were expecting one of our Saanens to kid yesterday, but that has not happened yet.  We actually had a surprise today.  We were in the house, both doing our own thing around 5 PM when we heard a grunt on the "baby cam".  This is quite alarming because we did not have anyone in the kidding pens to watch!  Both Chris and I rushed out to the barn expecting the Saanen that was due on Saturday to be in labor.  To our surprise - Lynn, one of our Nubians - had given birth to 1 baby and was cleaning him off!  This was a complete surprise because Lynn was not due until Tuesday!  Just to keep us on our toes, she decided to give birth to 3 babies - that's right, TRIPLETS!  She had 2 beautiful bucks and 1 very cute doe.  Everyone is doing well, and we are excited that kidding season has begun!  Now, Chris is taking a nap until the midnight feeding, and I am staying up to get some work done that I have a deadline for tomorrow.  Anytime you want to volunteer for the midnight shift, just let us know!  See you soon!