What a day!

Two of our Nigerian Dwarf goats gave birth today.  Ross and Char'le came home from a friends graduation ceremony around 2:20 and stopped by the barn before coming up to the house. As they came in the door they told us Buttercup was getting ready and there was an immediate flurry to put on barn clothes and get out there! In the few minutes they took to get dressed she already had one kid by the time they got back to her.

We were a little slower getting our littles ready so we got there just in time to see birth of the third baby. (You might think it's ridiculous to be so picky about barn clothes with such a big event going on, but I'm telling you, tick season in Missouri is no joke!) Buttercup did wonderfully and gave birth to three beautiful healthy bucklings.

Coconut heard the bleating of these new kids and came over obviously nervous and confused when they weren't hers. She's been the only momma on site for a few days! Then she started calling to her babies and couldn't seem to find them. Ross and Jacob found them asleep and brought them to their momma to calm her down.

Aren't they adorable!

*A quick side note: while we were waiting for the afterbirth to drop Chris and Ross decided to butcher a few of our roosters. We had been planning this for a while, because we have way too many for the amount of hens we have. We ordered a few different breeds of roosters with the plan to hatch specific types of chicks through breeding with different hens. Unfortunately we don't currently have a separate space for breeding to make sure the right rooster gets with the right hens. We thought it would be fine to wait until that could happen, but with so many roosters around our hens are getting over worked and losing feathers from the extra attention. So for now, it's chicken for dinner and simply ordering day old chicks until we have better facilities for breeding and hatching our own. 

Char'le watching over Buttercup and her new bucklings

It seemed to take forever for the afterbirth to come, but we wanted to wait just in case Buttercup had another kid. She had been huge compared to her daughter Coconut who had twins last week, so we thought it was a possibility. Finally, it came and she was done! Once we tied all the cords and gave Buttercup an extra snack for her good work, we put them in the barn to bond for a few hours without the other goats bothering them (because of course she chose to give birth outside rather than the dry clean birthing stall we had prepared for her.)

At this point most everyone went back to the house while Ross took a walk to check on the other mommas before finishing the roosters with Chris. Ona (our toddler) and I brought the rabbits out to their little outdoor pen to play with them and let them eat some fresh clover. (We try to do this for at least an hour once a day, but only if we can stay and watch to make sure they don't dig out.)

Peach with her doeling

We had only been sitting with them for about 5-10 minutes when we heard Ross yell from the other side of the goat pen "Peach is giving birth!" I hurried to put the rabbits away and ran to the house to tell mom and grab the gloves and towels. Again, by the time we got there she had already had one kid! This one was a little tricky because ever since we bought her last year Peach is by far the most skittish of our goats. She doesn't like to be approached and prefers the other animals to people. We weren't sure how she would do if she needed help. Thankfully everything went well.  Although why she chose to give birth on the side of a hill I'll never know.  Her poor little kid had the most adorable struggle finding her legs on the uneven ground. She did succeed though and started nursing with the most solid latch we've seen of all the babies so far! We were delighted to see that Peach's first kid was a doeling! (She's only our second this year, Coconut had one of each and Buttercup had all bucklings!) As we waited for #2 she instead dropped the afterbirth. We were shocked! Coconut had twins but she had been so tiny, we weren't even sure if she was pregnant until her udder filled up a few days before birthing. Peach's sides had bulged out so obviously we had been sure she would have at least two. She is however our shortest goat, so maybe she just doesn't have as much space in there as the others!

By the time Peach and her doeling were in the barn it was past time for evening chores, so we finished up and had a quick dinner of rice and chimichangas before everyone crashed into bed after a long day. Pumpkin is our last holdout and should be having her kids any time now. Sometime in the next week we'll go out with the camera instead of phones and get some better pictures of all the kids!

PS: I would just like to note, it is incredibly weird calling my parents by their first names. We decided everyone should use names for the blog so that no matter who is writing it's always clear who is who, but it is weird.

Planting Herbs with the Children

Before evening chores; Chris, Josiah, Ona, Jacob and I planted some Sage, Thyme, Basil, Oregano, and Cilantro seeds in the herb box on the back deck.  Here are a couple of pictures and I must say, the kids really enjoyed this opportunity.  We'll track the seeds' growth and post more pictures as the plants appear and continue to grow.
Pic 1: Josiah, Chris, and Ona are planting Sage seeds in the first row.
Pic 2: Jacob & Josiah are planting Basil in the third row.

Happy to see this blog get started, we have so much to share, as we continue to develop our property.