Hard Week

8 days ago we had 2 new baby goats born on our little farm.

4 days ago we noticed our little girl goat wasn't doing well with her mom.

3 days ago we pulled her inside to care for her 24/7.

1 day ago she passed away.

Photo Credit

She was just too sick and too weak to make it. We tried everything we could to save her and it just wasn't enough. This is one of the hard times on a farm, losing a life. It's not about the potential financial loss. That's not it at all. When you bring an animal into your home or separate it from it's mother/herd to care for it intensely, you grow attached to it. You are emotionally invested in it's livelihood. You are quietly rooting for it just a bit more than for the healthy animals that are out living as they should. And, when you have kids involved in that endeavor, oh, it's so much harder. Their little hearts break.

It's a lesson we all must learn, and we don't want to shelter our children from that. But, on the other hand, we wish we could. No one wants to see their child's heart hurt in such a way, not even for an animal.

So, we took the day off and spent time together as a family. We laughed more than we have in ages. We sang, talked, and just had a fun day. It was nice, even without the reason we chose to do it. We realized it was long overdue for our family.

Our other goats are doing well. Baby boy goat is thriving. He is a climbing little monkey. I am not sure he knows how to walk because he gallops everywhere he goes in sheer excitement. Ha ha.

Our two other does are growing bigger and closer to delivery each day. Our younger one is in the waddle stage, which is amusing to watch ... especially as a woman who has had babies herself and has been in that same waddle stage of pregnancy.

We went to a large farm store (we have nice ones 40 minutes from , but drove to this one to look around). I was able to find some seeds for this year's garden (though we won't be starting them yet). This spurred my excitement and I started garden planning. We will be moving our chicken coop to it's new location soon and that will be the area for my garden this year. We will be making it much bigger than the coop area, but I am betting my best produce will come from that coop location. It always does.

Take care of your families and yourself this week. Stop and see that little things going on around you. Laugh. Sing. Smile. It really is good food for the spirits.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Barn

We were sitting outside after the snow stopped and the sun came out just enjoying the day when our very pregnant doe started to act odd. She laid down in weird positions, was nervous, did NOT want to go to pasture, and just wasn't herself. I told my husband, "bet she's going to have those babies". He replied, "nah. she just has gas today." We have a running joke that she just had gas and wasn't pregnant because she's shown us so many signs of being ready that we honestly stopped watching.

He no sooner got that out than I looked over to see something happening. I hopped off my chair, got down low, and sure enough here came a sack. 

Let me stop here. If you have never seen a goat go into labor, it is a site to behold. They look like they are all but dying and it is so loud. No, loud is not even a good word for it. It is beyond loud. 

A minute later we saw hooves. Then about 45 seconds later we saw a nose. It wasn't long before we had a little head sticking out. We kept letting her work on her own naturally, staying close by in case she got into trouble. A few minutes later we had our first little kid. 

She surprised us with her second. She stopped cleaning baby up but was totally silent for his delivery. Yes, we had a little boy on our hands. 

We helped her clean them up a bit, let her do what she needed to deal with the umbilical cord and after birth, and then started to help her get her babies up and standing. Once they were up a little bit we moved them over to the udder. The little girl figured it out fast. She is a nursing machine. The little boy was having troubles, but we got that little tail wag which means he was getting mama milk.

She is such a good mama. She is calm and confident. She allows us to help her and to handle her babies. She's very attentive. Poor thing. We walked out late last night to check on them and she was passed smooth out! She didn't even hear us walk up. 

I would like to introduce to you, Macabee (boy) and Maggie (girl) born 1/7/17 at about 4:30pm.