Catching Up

Well, this has been about three of the busiest months of my life and doesn't look like it's going to let up for a while (town work, at least).  Farm work has slowed down a bit now that all the goats (except Daisy -- another story) have given birth.  Fifteen in all, 4 sets of triplets (one died) and two sets of twins.  Now it's the cows' turn -- have had two babies born earlier this month.  Too many stories, so much has happened, so just sharing a couple of them.
Really "lost" it for a while. Pictured in my mind this eccentric, wild-eyed, white-haired woman living with all manner of livestock in her house . . .  This is Jasmine spending the night . . . in my house.  That's actually hay . . . in my house.  What you can't see are her three newborn kids who I had to bring in because she was too pooped to care for them right after delivery and they were going to die if I didn't dry them off and get them warm (thus saith the vet I called). This was during one of our cold spells toward the end of March.

Here are the three that I brought in and warmed in the bathroom, with heating pad, hot water bottle. hair dryer and space heater.

Got them dried off and warm then needed to get Jasmine's colostrum in them soon in order for them to survive.  Called Travis to come help and, thankfully, he was home and available -- school night about 7 p.m.  I lured Jasmine into the house and when she heard her babies, she went straight into the bathroom then promptly deposited what looked to be about a quart of blood on the floor.  Travis and I locked eyes and I asked it he was going to pass out, but he said he was okay.

Not enough room for everyone in my tiny bathroom, so Travis held her head right outside the door while I milked her and put it into a syringe to offer to the first kid.  Have I said before that if a kid doesn't want you sticking a hard, plastic tube in its mouth in order to squirt something foreign down its throat, they're pretty good at preventing it?  I ended up with most of the colostrum on me and maybe half a teaspoon in the kid.  Decided to give it up and hope that Mother Nature would get them together soon.

Called vet friend again and she said that if I put them back outside for the night they would die, and if I put Jasmine out for the night and kept the little ones in, I'd have three "bottle babies" to tend because after all that time, they wouldn't bond.  So, only choice was -- everyone stays inside.  Decided the easiest place to clean would be the kitchen area.  By then it was way past my bedtime and I just wanted to go to bed, so I covered the floor with newspapers, brought in some hay for Jasmine, put out water and hoped for the best. 

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You would think . . . 

that having triplets would be a positive thing -- yea, more babies!!! -- but in fact they were lots more trouble.  Many an evening would be spent reuniting one mother or another with one or all of her babies.  A kid would be asleep when the herd would move to another pasture and then suddenly wake to find everyone gone.  Or, in Jasmine's case, temporarily forgetting that she had babies until she heard them, something would kick in and the light would go off.  (I then ended up having to catch the other baby and reunite her with her mother and other two siblings.)  

One of these days I'll learn how to take better videos :)

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Sarah alert!  Gross picture coming up.

Rose was the final doe to give birth and was she ever big.  I was thinking, please no more triplets.  Thankfully, it was a weekend and Dell, my friend who tends to donkey hooves, llama and goat feet, came to work on the donkeys.  I had been watching Rose for several hours and it looked like she would start to give birth, then stand up and quit.  I was concerned that she would soon be too tired to push.

Dell is an old hand at raising goats, so after seeing the babies come partially out then go back in a couple of times, she suggested we "pull" the baby.  First one, I grabbed when there was something to grab and slowly started to pull, while Dell held Rose.  Rose was yelling so loud I didn't know whether to stop or continue.  Was I hurting her or damaging her?  I didn't know, but Dell said to keep going.  

As you can see, she started trying to have her second one, which Dell ended up grabbing as Rose turned around toward me.  Thankfully, she made it, as did two very large kids, as did I.

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 Eenie Meenie and Miney -- Moe is sleeping nearby.

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Courtney and Sarah alert!!  Sad story.

Quick one:  Came home one day to find that LuLu had her baby about a month too early.  I couldn't tell what had happened because it looked fully formed, but it was dead.  She was still licking it, drying it off and trying to make it get up.  Nuevo, Little Bit's baby, stayed nearby the whole time.  Wasn't sure what to do because she was upset and mooing and pacing around.  Decided to pull it to the other side of the fence and cover it with a towel.  LuLu kept sticking her head through the fence and nudging the calf.  The next day, when LuLu went a distance away from to graze, I decided to move it.  When LuLu saw me heading in the direction of the calf she came running and then so did I and was able to drag it down the hill and out of sight.  Thought she was going to jump the fence, but when she smelled the towel, she started following me.  I left the towel on the fence for several days and she finally quit being concerned with it.  So sad.

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Not a lovely picture, I know, but wanted to show that Ginger, a.k.a. Ann Coulter, gets to stay on the farm and live . . . at least another year.  She finally had a baby that she is tending and is now thriving.  You may remember she left the last one and it died.

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Strange looking clouds one day.

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Too much testosterone!

Three large bull calves in desperate need of castration.  They've broken out of two pastures now, to get to the ladies.



 . . . planned parenthood shot to hell again.