I was going to just load the picture of Oliver feeding the babies at the end, but realized I never told the tale of our most difficult goat delivery ever. Two Saturday mornings ago, Lady clearly went into labor. She was pretty miserable and ready as evidenced by this photo -
Her first sac broke and she pushed and carried on for over an hour; I was getting more and more nervous. At the hour mark, I called my friend the vet tech; she was out of town. I called my friend that has assisted in many goat difficulties, but neither of us had ever dealt with this situation. She and I called the vet by the 1.5 hour mark, but he was 1.5 hours away. I then called my friend's husband who has delivered sheep. He came, struggled, and suggested another vet; the phone went to voicemail. At that point, he worked really hard to rearrange the baby and found hooves. (I failed to mention that at this point, all three of us had taken turns pushing the baby back up because the hooves were stuck, and we couldn't loosen them. Once he got the hooves out, the first baby came quickly. I was emotionally prepared for her to not be alive as she had been stuck for over two hours. Thankfully, she was alive and well and we barely had her cleaned when her two sisters shot out within minutes. Triplet girls and we were all thrilled to have an alive momma and healthy babies.
Baby Fern needed a boost to lay eyes on the new babies in the fence next door -
Montana loves the baby goats, but the momma goats aren't nice to her if she is near their babies, so Selah had to sneak one out for her to meet.
Since there are three, Selah is feeding them two bottle feedings a day to supplement Lady's milk. They are taking to the bottle pretty quickly; sometimes it is a complete struggle for a full week.
It isn't hard to figure out who my dedicated goat companion of the family is!
Selah and I had some help from Oliver during chores today; everything is faster and easier with a toddler's help! He loves the baby goats though and likes to visit them frequently.
Oliver and Elijah - almost 2 and pushing 13!
Speaking of farm help, we have all kinds of exciting farm progress happening. I have a tree guy taking down some dead trees and chopping them into firewood. I have another guy clearing for goat fencing in the back area so Duke and Hans can live farther from the girl goats. JD and my son-in-law spent today laying another row of retaining wall to build up the driveway and camper parking area. I spent the day weeding and raking out all the front garden beds, but it was a beautiful day and I am very happy with all our spring progress.
Have a blessed Easer tomorrow -
