Spring has sprung - new baby goats today!!!!

We sent the kids out just before supper to check for eggs one more time, and Solly came running back in burbling something about a baby goat part way out, and dashed back out again!

Envision if you will, two kids grabbing shoes/boots and coats, and two parents running to grab the "goat towels" (old towels we keep just for this purpose, otherwise in the heat of the moment someone will grab my nice new towels and I will have to mourn the few nice towels that I try to keep away from the barns!), and pulling on muck boots and some sort of coat that is acceptable to possibly be unspeakably "gooey". It was sheer mayhem - three of the kids had gone in search of eggs, so were on the scene!

As I had my back to the door I heard hubby making his way out and hollered "take the camera" and of course, the smart man that he is, he already had it and ready to go! So we raced across pastures and came into the big open stall, where honestly, there were eleven goats, a miniature pony and our elderly arab all trying to figure out what was going on. There was lots of mayhem and add to that five excited kids and two adults rushing in, it didn't calm things at all.

We usually try to have our does in the "birthing stall" for the event, but they have been fooling us this year - at times we are sure it is imminent, put the doe in, and after two days of checking on her round the clock, send her back to the herd without any babies! And when we checked yesterday there were two that were producing milk, meaning soon, but no other signs. Yep, this was one of those two, and only a day overdue!

Ladybug had had one baby when the kids found her. Alex, being the resident goat keeper, desperately looking for something to start drying and warming the newborn, of course sent Solly in (how we all found out) but wouldn't you know it, Faith pulled off her sweatshirt and gave it to the baby! Heartwarming and ugh all at once!

Well, as the story goes, as Alex is kneeling and wiping off the baby, he hears this wet splash and plop, turns around right next to him, Ladybug has kindly deposited her son! Daughter was firstborn and son second. (Let me scream here - whoo-hoo! A girl, finally!!!! Lately we have only been getting bucks and a dairy goat herd has limited use for more than two bucks! We currently have FIVE.)

By the time the rest of us got there, the second baby had its face wiped so it could breathe, and given the excitement, the rise in animal intensity was huge!!! The huge white horse wanted to lick the babies, and all the other goats were milling around in an excited herd - oh, yes, and Kiley by now had made it there on her crutches!!! She broke a bone in the top of her tibia Good Friday, and having her fall would be very, very bad and could send her to the surgery we are hoping that she can avoid! Aghhhhhhh!!!! Mommy freak out time (but you cannot, CANNOT do that around animals, particularly new mommas!!!!!!).

So, after carefully herding the excited large horse out of the stall, we commenced to checking on everyone.

Let us say "spring in Wisconsin". That equals copious amounts of mud, everywhere, including in the barn the floor of which has been built up over the winter to a foot above where it usually is. Can we say a long ugly job I am not looking forward to? Ugh. Almost makes me happy that it rained this weekend and it couldn't be done!



Anyway, so baby goats, baby goat goo, mama goat, all in mud. Ugh. Not where we like our new babies.





After watching mama goats clean their babies, I have to say that I am glad not to have been born a goat - they do a good job, but wow!

And other goats have to check it out too (the bucks stay in the next half of the barn, but they had to see the show too. You should have seen the horses on that side too, trying to look over the walls to see what was going on).


Once things had calmed a slight bit, we decided that it was imperative to move the new arrivals and mama to the correct location! It was a little hard convincing mama goat that we hadn't left a baby behind, but we did manage to lead her over all the way, licking one baby pretty regularly.

Once there, heat lamp on, clean towels for cleaning up and drying off, and seven of us and the goats in the birthing stall. Only mildly less chaotic. Hmmm. Definitely an improvement, but less than desirable. After reminding everyone that we needed to calm so mama and babies could settle in, things commenced. See below:




Baby girl made it to her feet first!


Both babies:

Tired Ladybug:


Suckling reflex intact (the boy was more lethargic at first and we were worried):


Beautiful mama:


Kiley took the job of getting the little guy a jumpstart on eating - we don't bottle feed normally, but it just seemed that we needed to get him moving some more and perhaps some formula was in order.


Then he decided that maybe he should check out her face!!!


And eventually, both perked up!


So, now as Zeri so gleefully told us: "Mom, now we have 19 goats!". Yep, that is true, but hearing it really is just sort of shocking. Not like we didn't plan this, but wow, 19 goats, and kidding season is just beginning, and there is another in the fall! Oh, my! We are working our way to being a real dairy!!! I better pull out my cheese recipes and my goat milk soap recipes!

So, spring is here! Hope you enjoyed the photos. I am sure we will post more, the babies are so doggone cute!

Two more are due within days. Ha! Oh, my! Then a week for the next one! Oh, boy, what were we thinking? Tucking chickens into their henhouses, goats into their respective stalls, seedlings started in the laundry room, horses, well, being horses. And to think that less than three years ago we were urbanites! What a change can come in life. Yep, just like going from a family of five to ten in about two years, oh, yeah, like that. Oh, my. About the only joke left to be played on us is for me to find out that I am pregnant (by the way, it can't happen, so don't hold your breath!)!!! LOL! What more can happen in life? No, I take that back, I don't want to know!!! I'll just take it a day at a time.

Love to you all! Happy spring!