Photos, Photos, & More Photos

What is the quickest way to catch you up on what's been going on at the farm... how about a few photos?

Lynn has twins: 1 buck, 1 doe. This is the doe: Mystic.

Lynn's twins, just born.

Kids at play on the rock pile.

Big kids at play on their new ramp in their new play area.

Wisteria has twin buck kids.

Twin does arrive!

Jasmine freshened today with twin does. We are so excited to actually have does! But so tired at the same time. This means that we have had a total of 5 doe kids and 16 buck kids born so far in 2010.

A Busy & Exciting Day

Lexus's buck kid

FSF Merlin Illusion

Today turned out to be a busy day at the farm. After Wylie kidded at noon, her daughter Lexus decided to kid at 5 PM. And... drum roll please... WE GOT OUR FIRST NUBIAN DOE KID OF 2010!!! So Exciting! Lexus had 2 lovely twins, 1 buck and one doe. That means that we have had 15 kids born so far this year, and had 3 doe kids out of the whole lot.

Lexus did a fabulous job: she milks out like a dream and is eating and drinking like a champ. We are so thrilled with our new kids! We have named the little doe: "FSF Merlin Illusion".

Princess kids with twin bucks

Last Thursday, March 11, Princess (one of our Saanens) decided to kid and give birth to twin buck kids. We did have to assist in this delivery as the first kid was breach and the second kid had one front leg back. Needless to say it was an eventful evening. Especially since it made Laura late for a class she needed to be at for work!

Sundance has Twins! Congratulations Tempo!

We are so excited that one of our 2 year old Nubian's freshened this morning... even though she had twin buck kids. Sundance kidded at approximately 8 AM this morning and is off to a great start.

The reason these kids are so special is because they are sired by our Senior herd sire: CH Blissberry Wild Tempo. And - if you remember, Tempo made an emergency trip to the vet hospital last fall. Well, after getting a grim diagnosis, we brought him home to care for him the best we could. Not only has Tempo recovered tremendously, but shortly after being home he bred 2 does. And - this is one of them. These kids are miracle babies! We have never been so happy to see healthy buck kids before!

Welcome to the world little guys! This brings the kid count up to seven: 5 bucks, 2 does.

Prius gives birth to Twins!

Hi everyone!

What a great weekend we have had! Prius, one of our first freshening 2 year old Saanen does, freshened this afternoon with a set of healthy twins: 1 buck and 1 doe. We are really excited about these two - and they are extremely tall! The new kids were happy to drink from a bottle and Prius was thrilled with some alfalfa and warm water.

We did have a bit of an eventful evening. We give pre-kidding Bo-Se and CDT shots to our does to help with muscle tone, kidding and to pass immunity on to the kids. After giving a Bo-Se shot to one of or Nubian does tonight, she had a reaction. She had what seemed to be an allergic reaction. Although we were extremely scared, and she was most likely scared as well, we got her calmed down and her breathing returned to normal. We did call our vet in the process and she informed us that this can happen and the best defense is to have epinephrine in your medicine chest. Luckily this doe was able to come around after this spell. She went back to eating and socializing with the other does. I guess this just shows us that life is always unpredictable!

We are loving the chances we get to play with our new kids! Here is a shot of the group of them.

Last Set of 2009 Kids Born

On Wednesday, June 3rd - the last set of kids were born for this year at Four Seasons Farm. With all the excitement about the Buck Show this weekend, it has taken me a little while to get these posted. Sienna, our only Nubian yearling milker for 2009 had 2 very nice buck kids. All are doing well, and the new boys will be looking for homes soon. We have named them Black Velvet and Jack Daniels. These are also the only 2 buck kids we have left that are sired by Tempo in 2009.

Babies in April

Gazette was giving us little signals during morning chores that she might have her kids yesterday.  She would look at us in a far off sort of way, she was  lot more talkative or vocal and she was extremely uncomfortable.  The poor thing couldn't find a position that was comfortable.  She kept getting up, and laying down.  Only to get back up again.  All of this was enough for me to say "Okay sweetie - I'll stay home with you this morning in case those babies come."  And, she was not pulling our leg.

By about 9 AM we had another set of babies born yesterday (April 6).  Gazette, our best Saanen doe, kidded with a set of twin bucks.  I guess this just proves the point that we are having a buck year this year!  So far out of 22 kids born, we have had 7 doe kids.  I swear it is written somewhere in the universe that we are only going to have a maximum of 3 Saanen doe kids on our farm in any given year.  Gazette was our last Saanen doe to freshen this year.  I guess I should just be grateful for the 3 Saanen doe kids that we do have.

We are expecting 2 more does to kid (both first time freshening Nubians) - but not until June, so things should calm down around here for a while.  That will give us time to catch up on other chores like hoof trimming, fire wood, and a few very old recorded tv shows!  (that's a joke...)

I'll try to get photos up soon of the new kids.  We also opened up the outdoor kid play pen area which contains the rock wall we made a few years ago.  The kids were pretty amazed at how large their world had become!  We'll be sure to include a few photos of that as well.

More Babies... More Bucks

It must be the year for buck kids.  We had another  doe freshen on St. Patrick's Day around 9:30 PM.  Raven, a beautiful black Nubian doe that we purchased as a kid finally freshened with no trouble at all.  She even has a perfect udder for a first-timer.  The only problem was that she had 2 buck kids.  I had been hoping for doe kids - so badly.  She is such a beautiful girl, and I wanted to start a line in our herd with her at the beginning.  At the very least, her boys, who we have named "Guinness" and "Bailey's" in honor of the holiday are extremely handsome.  My hope is that someone will see them and want to include their great features in another herd.  

You may notice that the photos of these boys do not have the barn as a background.  That's because these 2 lucky guys got to spend the night in the laundry room so that we didn't have to trek out to the barn at midnight.  How lucky are they?!

We now have a total of 19 babies.  There are 6 does, and 13 bucks.  There is still 1, possible 2 does due from now until the beginning of April.  Then, there will be 2 more due in June.  

We have started getting a number of visitors at the farm.  We love having people out.  This is the time of year we get to see neighbors, friends and relatives that we may not see very often.  Many people want to know when the best time to visit is.  We generally ask people to come during chore time (5-7 PM) since that is the time we are milking does and feeding kids.  Also, we are already in the barn, so having people there is not an inconvenience.  We do ask that you call us first, to make sure we don't have something planned.  Sometimes we do schedule larger groups (scouts, 4-H, etc.) and would like to put a limit on the number of people at that time.  Also, we do still have to get the work done here- so sometimes we may ask you to have a second choice of visiting time in mind.  Thanks for understanding - and we look forward to seeing you!

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.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

When we woke up this morning for chores, we had quite an adjustment to make.  Overnight temps had dropped significantly and the wind was fierce!  The thermometer read -2.  Ug, we really thought we were done with all that crazy cold weather.

After a long wait, Princess decided that twins was all she was going to have.  So, we got some cute pictures of them this morning.  Now, we just have to wait patiently for the other 5 goats who are over due.

In Her Own Time...

Chris and I made a deal last night: I would stay up to do the midnight feeding, and I do morning chores since I was planning on going into work a bit later.  In return, he would get up early (4 AM) and come home by noon to feed babies and be on "Baby Watch".  Sounds good.  It was except that I couldn't sleep for various reasons - so today has been a long day!

Princess started showing the very early staged of labor at about 5 PM this evening.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  Finally at 7 PM we decided to go in the house and watch her on the camera.  Wouldn't you know - no sooner do I get in the house, get all my barn clothes off, and set the tv to record - and she decides to start pushing!  So, everything went in reverse and I ran back out to the barn.  At 7:30 she gave birth to a very big buck kid.  And as all wonderful Saanens should be - he is white as snow!  Wahoo!  

Then we waited, and waited some more and at 8:30 I decide that I should check her to make sure everything is going okay.  Well, she apparently was reading my mind, because just as I stepped in the pen to check her, she gave birth to a smaller doe kid.  This one is just cute as a button (and also white - as she should be!)

We stayed in the barn until 9:00 wondering if she was finished, or if she might have a third.  She has done this in the past...  We'll see what is waiting for us when we go out for the midnight shift.  We will post photos a little later.  The cold spell that we just got today seems to have zapped our camera batteries faster than expected.