JASEY JOGS TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE

March 4, 2025

Woke up this morning to find a suspicious looking black object in the milkers’ pen. A few sips of coffee and the slow realization that the black lump was looking a bit too large for one of the cats. Out to the barn to find Jasey busy mothering a very cute 6.6 pound doeling. She had her baby all clean, dry, and fluffy. We scooped her baby up and took her into the milkroom. I examined her and gave her an ID collar while her colostrum warmed in a bucket of hot water.

Jasey came in and hopped up on her stand for her first ever milking. Her baby udder was quite fuzzy as were her belly and back legs. I didn’t expect her to kid until May because even though she had been in with Jethro for the month of October, she appeared to come back into heat in December. She was put back in with Jethro for the month of December.

There are a few perks to putting a group of does in with a buck: like not having to check does frequently for signs of heat, not missing heats on does who come into standing heat at night, not missing heats. There is also a big downside and that is missing breeding dates and not having an accurate due date. So, these surprises are sure to happen. I am just very relieved that all was well. Our little T-1 arrived safely and Jasey is also doing great.

So we start off the kidding journey of 2025 with a bang and a beautiful youngster. She is for sale. Her mom’s udder is very promising. She would be a nice addition to your herd 🙂

PASCA’S GREAT ADVENTURE

March 12, 2025

Checked the close-up girls last night and found that Pasca was building an udder and her ligaments were getting softer so I put her in the kidding stall that is on camera. Pasca’s buddy Sassy, joined her in the pen next door and they both settled in nicely. I watched as Pasca explored her stall, ate hay, nosed around in the straw and generally relaxed. She seemed to be content and comfortable so I headed to bed. I checked on her during the night and all was well. Did I tell you that I really love my camera system?…This morning the alarm rang much too early….My body isn’t happy with this stupid time change stuff. I groggily got my coffee and a light snack.

I watched Pasca who was lying next to the wall in her stall and seemed to be doing some light pushing. I said to myself, “Humm, looks like we will be having babies today.” Well, I continued to watch Pasca and eventually she stood up and revealed a nice, active black kid who was following her around. Pasca had delivered a nice 8.6 pound buckling, cleaned, dried and fed him. She was being the perfect little mama and her little boy was doing fine. I chuckled to myself and finished my coffee before going out to milk and check on everybody.

I got the girls milked and then Darrel brought in the new Mom and her baby. He got his check up and I offered him his first bottle….He said an emphatic, NO THANK-YOU”. He had a nice full belly. So he was tucked in with the other kids. Pasca did a really great job and seems to be very happy being a mom and a milker. She did an amazing job delivering this NICE big boy all by herself. She is looking very strong and I am looking forward to seeing her udder as it develops. The only thing she could have done better is she could have had a doe for me to put into my “keeper” pen. I guess I’ll have to give her a pass this time on that.

SASSY’S SUNNY SURPRISE

March 26, 2025

What a glorious spring day. It was sunny and 75 degrees this afternoon. The herd spent a good amount of time hanging out in the pasture today. Not much to graze on yet but they were enjoying the warmth and sunshine

Sassy showed some significant udder changes and her ligaments were gone this morning so she went back to the kidding stall for the day. I spent the day watching her as she calmly wandered around her stall, ate, drank, and rested. She was remarkably quiet and relaxed. Meanwhile I worked on bookkeeping so I can figure out my Income Taxes for 2024.

UGH… I set up things and got everything ready to proceed, then I watched Sassy for a few minutes and dozed off in my chair. 15 mins later I woke up with a start and there was Sassy standing there licking off a lively, big kid. Off to the barn I go and I dried off the big boy with Sassy’s help. After a few minutes I had Darrel hold Sassy so I could check for the second kid. I was startled when I reached into her, to find that she was very open and I had no trouble getting in. I then discovered that there was no other kid to be found. Surprise! The surprise was not that Sassy kidded today but that she only had one kid. She sure looked as if she was having twins…

The baby was lugged to the milkroom where he had his quick check up, and was dried. Momma Sassy was then brought in. She jumped up on the stand and stood perfectly for her very first ever milking! She was then returned to the kidding stall to clean and rest. Her strapping 8.5 pound baby boy drank a couple ounces of mom’s colostrum and went into the newborn TiPi where he tested his legs and rested until he came in for his bottle. The big boy was very good on his feet tonight and he quickly drank another 8-10 oz of colostrum. Sassy came in for milking and behaved like a real pro.

Back to taxes tomorrow, and very soon this boy will be off to the meat pen. Things are likely to get very busy here in the next 2 week. Stay tuned for updates.

NO FOOL’S DIFFICULT JOURNEY

March 28, 2025

I have had several years of relatively trouble free kiddings so it was bound to happen sometime and I guess it was time last Friday. No Fool has been struggling this past month, She has been reluctant to get up and move around much but until Friday she was doing OK. On Friday morning she had a discharge but it was clear and scant. I watched her closely all day and she appeared to be in labor. According to my notes and the day she went in with her buck, the earliest that she should be due was April 2. Ok, as big as she appeared and as hard as it was for her to get around, I figured she was going to deliver early and her kids would require a little extra TLC but should be fine….

She was in the kidding stall and I was watching as she started showing all the signs of hard labor… After several sessions of hard pushing, I headed out to the barn and called Darrel to help. I went through the usual procedure and prepared to check on the position of the first kid…I very quickly discovered that No Fool’s pelvis was not at all open. It took some time to finally get in to check on the kid. I found a head but front legs were not up and there was absolutely no room to push the kid back to retrieve the legs. On top of that there was not much room to pull the kid either. I immediately called my vet. It took much too long to get through and finally the vet got here.

After considerable manipulation and very strong pulling she managed to deliver the first kid. More work and the second kid was delivered. Both bucks, who had died about 3 days earlier. They were well formed and covered in a good hair coat. No Fool was in a lot of pain. We quickly turned our attention to treating her. She immediately sucked down a fair amount of Blue Brew, she got Vitamin B, Banamine, 150cc of Cal Dex sub Q, and a dose of Exceed. She spent 2 days in the kidding stall and gradually managed to get up and move around.

This morning (Sunday) she demanded to be returned to the doe pen and while she is still a bit wobbly she managed to hold her own with the greeting party. She is still not out of the woods yet. I will update.

It is not any fun to go 30+ hours without sleep and much of it in a cold barn…My stainless steel knees get pretty cold and very stiff. At 79 I am much to old for that nonsense… I slept for about 4 hours on Friday afternoon but it is taking more time to recover than I would like. I have some sore muscles from working to pull that kid and my knees are protesting a bit more than they were but I have only to think of how No Fool is feeling and all of a sudden I’m feeling a lot better.

Why the problem with No Fool’s pelvis not opening? I’m pretty sure that it is because of the dead babies. There is a complex cascade of hormones that precede and start labor. The baby signals the doe’s body that it is “cooked” enough to survive. and the doe releases hormones that relax the pelvic ligaments and all the other processes that result in a normal delivery. Since No Fool’s kids were dead, there was no signaling from the kids so the normal sequence was disrupted.

There are about 6 does due in the next several weeks. I hope and pray that their deliveries will be normal and uneventful. Sometimes things are so hard but it really makes me appreciate the unproblematic deliveries of most does.

No Fool UPDATE: last Sunday (2 days after we pulled two dead kids from her) No Fool demanded to go back into the doe pen where she was met with the usual goat greeting. She stood up to the welcoming committee and spent most of her day eating and resting. She has regained her mobility and strength and seems to be making a lot of milk. I will milk her tonight and try to convince her to take this year off from milking.

MAY DAY’S MISADVENTURES

April 4, 2025

Our Friday night excitement is making me a little crazy. Fortunately May Day didn’t require any Vet intervention. That was really good news for my bank account!

May Day has been looking huge for the past 3-4 weeks. She literally had no laterally flexibility at all. She just couldn’t bend enough to get down off the milk stand and adopted a new technique that involved hopping sideways and landing with all 4 feet at the same time and parallel to the stand….needless to say I was not a fan of the new dismount so I fed her her grain while she was standing on the floor. I had been losing sleep watching May Day and waiting for her to deliver. I must say she slept really well all the nights I was watching her. :-/

On Friday morning May Day wasn’t much interested in her grain she also had no objection to returning to the kidding stall. I watched her all day as she progressed through early labor. At about 3:30 she started stringing a bit of goo. She was a bit restless but pretty settled so I decided that I would go ahead and cook dinner and hope I would get to eat it hot and fresh. I went out to milk at the usual time and checked May Day. She was still stringing a little bit of kidding goo but was relaxed and happy to lick my hands and eat cookies.

I milked and Darrel fed the babies as well as the milkers and cows. After milking and feeding we headed to check May Day’s kid positions. Fresh gloves and a good slather of OB Lube and I very quickly found that May Day was very open and yet no kids in the birth canal… A little searching quickly found the problem. There was a kid presenting ribs first and another entangled with him in a strange position. A bit of sorting and I finally located 2 feet that I thought at first, were front legs. A bit of tugging and searching for the head, I figured out that I had back legs and the kid was upside down. It took a little tugging to get him rolled over and out because he was a very long and big boy. He tipped the scales 8.8 pounds.

Back to check on the second kid that had been entangled. I quickly found 2 feet and tugged her up into position and quickly delivered the lovely, dainty little doe, who also arrived in a posterior delivery. She sputtered and coughed a bit but soon settled into a good breathing rhythm. I returned to find the third kid waiting patiently in “Nose and Toes” position. He also was a big strapping 8.3 pound boy. May Day and I quickly evicted him and Darrel hauled the trio in to be dried and fed.

May Day immediately drained her 2 gallon bucket of Blue Brew and went to work cleaning up the kidding stall. The kids were quickly dried and warmed and fed. The boys were eager eaters but the little girl was not quite so good at it so I tube fed her about 4 ounces of colostrum in addition to the ounce or so that she sucked down. Darrel brought May Day in to be milked and I found that she had only a little bit of colostrum. It was thick like honey and really dark yellow. I had to thin it down with a bit of milk in order to feed it to the boys. We tucked the kids into the newborn Tipi and called it a night.

This morning I found 3 hungry babies standing and waiting for breakfast. The boys slugged down the rest of their colostrum and the little girl sipped hers like a lady. The girl is sold but the boys are available. May Day had cleaned and after milking she returned to the milker’s pen and is enjoying the sunshine today.

DELIGHTFUL DEMBE’S DELIVERY

April 5, 2025

Dembe is a pretty unremarkable little doe. She is just about to turn 2 years old. Last year she effortlessly delivered her first kid ever. She was a respectable milker who took her job seriously and was very business-like in the milkroom with impeccable stand manners. This year she continued to behave in the same manner. She looked as if she was going to have another single kid. She enjoyed her grain every morning, easily hopping up on the milkstand, and then leaving the milkroom nicely after her cookie.

Saturday morning she just hopped up and ate her grain as usual but her udder was fuller with her teats full and her tailhead ligaments were gone. She went quietly into the kidding stall where she relaxed, ate her hay, and hung out. Around noon she started early labor and at 3:00PM she started pushing. I checked on her and called Darrel to come and assist. Darrel was about 20 minutes away. So, I gloved up and applied lube to my hand and arm. It was a bit tricky to hold her collar with my left hand while checking kid position with my right. I quickly discovered what the hold up was.

The first kid was presenting ribs first! I managed to snag a front foot and the head and other front foot came up and into position. Soon we had a nice sized buckling on the pad and I again checked to find a second kid in good nose and toes position. I helped Dembe deliver that kid and set to making sure the kids were breathing well with their faces wiped clean of slime.

Darrel arrived and held Dembe while I quickly checked to be sure she was done…well, surprise, she had another kid presenting rear legs first so we worked to deliver the third nice sized buckling. Yep, sneaky little Dembe had triplets! Sadly they were all bucklings, but they weighed in at 6.3, 7.4, and 5.1 pounds of healthy, and active kids. We dried and fluffed and fed them and let Dembe rest and relax until evening milking. Just as I finished up feeding the new trio and Darrel tucked them in to the warm TiPi, my son and daughter (in-law) arrived along with one of my grand daughters and her guy. It was really nice to see them all. They properly snuggled the babies and we all enjoyed a lovely, warm, afternoon. Dembe returned to the “extra” kidding stall after evening milking where she cleaned and drank her Blue Brew and rested overnight. These boys will be off to the meat-man very soon.

LATTE LIVENS THINGS UP A BIT

April 6, 2025

Morning milking found me a bit stiff and sore. My knees are unhappy with me but we are getting by. After milking and feeding all the youngins, I brought in the lead feed crew and found that Latte was filling her udder nicely and there was no sign of those tailhead ligaments. She wasn’t all that interested in her grain so we let her walk around to the loafing pen with the other does while we cleaned up the milkroom. This time of year there sure are a LOT of dishes to be washed! On the way out of the barn Darrel put Latte back into the kidding stall where she spent the day rearranging the furniture and generally making her way through early labor.

At milking time she started stringing a little pre kidding goo so we headed in to milk the rest of the does and fed the starving kids. After preparing the landing zone for Latte’s kids and donning fresh gloves and applying lots of lube, I checked Latte to see what the hold up was. I found that the first kid was lying across the cervix and blocking traffic. After a little searching I finally found a head and managed to pull it up into the birth canal. The baby had his head down and to the left side of the doe. It took a bit of work to get him up into position but I was very thankful that he brought his feet up when I got his head up, so it was pretty easy to snag one front foot by slipping my hand in along side of the kid’s head.

With a lot of pushing from Latte and a good strong pull we soon had a nice big buck kid on the pad. He was stressed but soon breathing well. I turned my attention back to Latte who was pushing nicely. We quickly delivered another buckling who arrived in perfect position. I got his face cleaned off and made sure he was breathing well and then checked Latte to see if she was done…NOPE one more kid was ready to arrive, this time in a rear presentation.

A brief rest and Latte pushed like a trooper and I pulled as we very quickly got the last kid out and cleared his face so he could breathe. Yep triplet bucks ….AGAIN! Latte was greatly relieved and gave me 3+ pints of very rich yellow colostrum. Her boys ate well and Latte finally got some good rest. This morning the boys finished their colostrum, Latte gave more of the lifesaving stuff and returned to the doe pen. Her boys are strong active and eating while standing. They will soon be on the lambar and off to be raised for meat. The hefty trio weighed in at: 8.6, 8.9 and 8.6 pounds. After taking care of momma and all those kids I trudged back to the house and scrubbed the baby slime and amnionic fluid off me and fell into bed. No one was in the kidding stall so I slept pretty well…except when my knees woke me up as I turned over. We are about half way through kidding season now and really hoping for some doe kids to arrive.

JOLEE’S PAINFUL JOURNEY

April 9, 2025

Jolee spent last night in the kidding stall working her way toward delivery. This morning she was looking very close and so returned to the kidding stall for the day. It was a really nice day and I was sorry to coop her up for the day. She wasn’t a big fan either but she settled in very quickly and spent the time fluffing the straw and looking uncomfortable. At 3:00PM she started lying down and pushing lightly. She soon was stringing pre birthing goo and progressed to the thicker string of birthing goo. After watching her pushing without any kid parts appearing, I scrubbed up and put gloves on to check the kid position. Jolee’s pelvis was still quite tight but gradually opened up. No kid to be found in the birth canal. A little deeper exploration found a bumpy wad of a kid. I found the problem blocking the exit. It was a nice sized buck kid who was curled up like a pill bug and presenting backbone first.

It took some time to figure out what was what and to find a leg. All the time I was sorting out the position, poor Jolee was trying her best to evict me and the kid. Eventually I found the elusive first leg and managed to work it up into position. More searching yielded the second leg and I identified them as back legs. We had been at it for a long lime by now and I was pretty sure that the kid was dead. I finally got the little cork out of the bottle and to my amazement he was still alive and very interested in staying so!

Jolee was getting tired so I quickly checked the next kid in line and found her backwards as well. I found one back leg and as I tugged it up into position, Jolee gave a mighty push and I had a very slimy black doe in my hands. It took a minute to get her face cleared off and I put her on the pad with her brother. Jolee continued to push and soon I had feet in my hand as she pushed out a second doe. The doe was in perfect Nose and Toes position and both Jolee and I were very relieved and very tired.

This was quite a tangle and, more than once, I thought I might need to call the vet out again. It took about all of my strength to get the boy turned into position and pulled. After “Corky” was out, the two doelings were easy to move. The triplets were robust and active. They each sucked down 8 oz for their first meal and retired to the warm baby TiPi until their post milking meal at about 8:00PM. Jolee promptly downed her bucket of Blue Brew, Darrel scooped out the lake of slime in her pen and we all trudged into our respective homes to rest and eat some supper before milking at 7:00PM as usual. Jolee cleaned before milking time and returned to the doe pen. She got a dose of Banamine at morning milking and is a bit sore but doing well. Her triplets are doing great and I am upright and ambulatory and very, very thankful that I got the kids out safely. The kids weighed in at 6.3, 7.1 and 6.2 pounds. Perfect sized triplets!

SOLD!

Staying Here!

SOLD!

JADA CONTINUES THE STREAK

April 16, 2025

Jada spent the night in the kidding stall and was very content. She snacked on her hay and sipped water and mostly relaxed. Her body slowly changed throughout the day and in the early afternoon she started strong pushing. It was a beautiful, sunny day but very windy. Friends stopped by just in time to see the babies arrive. Jim went to get Darrel while I prepared for the delivery and reached in to check on the kid position.

Jada stood perfectly for me and allowed my intrusion without being held. No kid was in the birth canal so it took a little while to manage to open her pelvis and soon found out what the problem was…Yep another kid presenting ribs first. The kid was nice and long bodied so locating the feet …any feet ..was difficult. I tried to figure out where the head and tail were but soon gave up that quest and pulled the first foot I could locate. Turned out to be a back foot! Yay! back foot is good! Momma started pushing for all she was worth and I helped by pulling gently on the one back foot. Baby slipped out nicely and was sputtering on the pad in short order.

He was a nice sized little guy who really clogged up the works. A quick wipe of his face, then back to check on the next kid. This one was also a rear presentation and she quickly arrived with a little help. The last kid was in nose and toes position and she insisted on arriving with one leg back. Jada was quite open and didn’t have any trouble even though her trio all insisted that one foot is all that is need to deliver. Jada drank most of her bucket of Blue Brew and Darrel scooped out the slime while I cleaned off and dried the nice trio. The kids weighed in at 6.3, 6.6, and 6.9 pounds. Perfect sized triplets for easy delivery. Well, sort of easy delivery with the exception of Mr. Clog who insisted on gumming up the works! Both does are available.

Mr. Clog

Doeling for sale!

Doeling for sale!

JAE EASES INTO MOTHERHOOD

APRIL 30, 2025

It has been pretty quiet around here for the past two weeks. I have been closely watching Jessi and Jae as they looked ready to pop at anytime. Jae’s udder is huge as she was a precocious milker. There are two schools of thought with a precocious milker: milk them as if they have kidded or just leave them alone. I chose the leave them alone route…If it happens again, I will milk them because it looks like Jae’s udder is seriously damaged and she doesn’t milk down much at all. Live and learn…sadly for Jae.

On Tuesday evening, I checked Jae and found that her teats were full and her ligaments were not evident. She was very content to go into the kidding pen and seemed quite relaxed. I headed back to the house and prepared for what I thought might be a short night. Jae wandered around her stall munching on hay and sipping her water and generally settling in for the night. She really seemed quite chill for a first freshener. I stacked my chore clothes for easy access and crawled into my most welcome bed. I turned the monitor so I could watch Jae over night. I woke up every couple hours and watched her sleeping… I got up at 7:00 as usual, dressed and got a snack, a cup of coffee, and settled in to watch the morning news and Jae. Jae started some light pushing as I sat down.

Jae started lightly pushing as I was about 1/2 way through my cup of coffee. She had no sign of distress or nerves or anxiety. I took another sip of my coffee and watched as Jae gave two strong pushes and quickly delivered a wiggly kid. Jae immediately stood up and began tended her baby like a very experienced mom. I decided that on such a nice warm morning and an attentive mom, I would finish my coffee and snack before headed out to tend to the new baby. Jae licked her little princess clean and then, as I was heading out, carefully laid down and quickly delivered a second doe kid. Unfortunately the second kid was stillborn. I suspect a pinched or twisted umbilical cord caused her death.

I took the kid to the milkroom and dried her off and tucked her into the basket to await her first feeding, Darrel brought in a bottle of colostrum and we put it into a bucket of hot water to thaw. Then we set to doing our regular chores for the morning. I soon had the first 8 does milked and Darrel brought in the last milker and Jae. We emptied the milk bucket and put milk in to pasteurize. I happily put the milking machine on the Jae and May Day. Jae stood like a pro and returned to the kidding pen where she drank most of her Blue Brew and started eating her hay. She spent the day in the pen and worked on cleaning. She came in and hopped up on the stand for evening milking like a pro. Baby is eating well and exploring her new world.

Right side view

Left side view

JESHAIAH’S PAINFUL PROCESS

May 4, 2025

Jessi has been progressing nicely and yesterday she spent the whole day in the kidding stall. She was not a fan and stopped eating, drinking, and would not lie down. I watched her all day and she just stood in various corners. She did nibble at her grain from time to time and ultimately she did finish her morning grain. She had no discharge when I went out to milk so I had Darrel put her into the loafing pen to see if she would eat and drink and rest. She went in quickly and she took a few bites of hay then lay down to rest. I milked and I had Darrel put down a bale of straw in the loafing pen. I intended to have Jessie spend the night with the herd so she would eat and rest. A pregnant doe who is not eating can very quickly go into Ketosis and I sure didn’t want that.

As I was about to leave the barn I wanted to check on Jumanji who is also due shortly. When Darrel entered the pen to catch Jumanji, Jessi Jumped up to move away and suddenly she was stringing birthing goo. She was quickly moved to the kidding stall again. After preparing for the kids arrival and getting towels out, I put on fresh gloves and coated my hand (front and back) and arm with lube. I checked to see if the first kid was in position. I quickly discovered that Jessi was not open. Her cervix was about 1/2 open but her pelvis was still very tight. A bit of patience and stretching and I opened her cervix the rest of the way and got her pelvis open enough to get fully into the uterus. At the end of the cervix I found a kid that was not quite in position, I got both feet up and his head came up into position. I pulled his front feet out and began pulling. It was a big kid and no matter how hard I pulled and Jessi pushed, he would not move. I tried every trick I could think of and still no progress. Finally I had Darrel pull while I tried to check the head position…still nothing moved.

Finally, I added more lube and pushed the kid’s legs back. I then got my very bruised and battered hand over the top of the kid’s head and pulled it through into the birth canal. It was very painful for my old arthritic hand as well as poor Jessi. Jessi shifted around a couple times and a strong pull and hard push finally delivered a huge buck kid. I hadn’t felt the kid move for the last 20 minutes or more so I assumed he was going to be dead but he suddenly snorted and shook his head. He quickly settled into an good breathing pattern and was lying on the pad. Jessi turned around and joyfully began licking me and her baby. She was so glad to see him. We let her lick for a few minutes and then I checked for the second kid.

With the gigantic (10+ pound) brother out of the way the second kid (6+ pound) slid out easily. He also was greeted joyfully by his exhausted mom. Darrel got a bucket of warm Blue Brew and Jessi quickly sucked down a quart while we headed to the milkroom to get the boys dried and warmed up. Jessi worked on cleaning up and Darrel scooped out the lake of slime. I checked and it seemed Jessi was finished kidding. I got the boys dry and Jessi came in for milking. She had a little trouble getting on the stand but managed with some help. I milked a pint of her colostrum, gave her a shot of Oxytocin and returned her to the kidding stall where she finished her bucket of Blue Brew and started nibbling on her hay. The boys each sucked down their colostrum. 7 ozs for the little guy and 9 oz for the big brother. During the night Jessi delivered a third kid that had died 7-10 days ago. It was a doe… 🙁

This morning Jessi was running a low fever so I gave her a 2cc dose of Banamine and 4cc of Exceed (an antibiotic). She is stiff and sore but started eating when her Banamine kicked in. She gave me another 18 oz of colostrum and the boys polished it off nicely. The big guy is having trouble with his front pasterns. I am not at all surprised we put a LOT of pressure on those legs during the delivery. He is eating well and standing well. Both of the boys were pre ordered and look very correct. Unfortunately my retained doe didn’t make it. Jessi and I are very sore and tired today. But we are both plugging away. I hope Jessi makes it and heals quickly.

GWEN GETS IT DONE

May 11, 2025

Happy Mother’s Day everyone. My day started early today. After a night of waking up to check the monitor to see how Gwen was doing, I woke up and checked once again and saw a kid on the straw with Gwen licking it….I sat up, rubbed sleep from my eyes and put my glasses on. Yep that’s a kid but it isn’t moving at all. Gwen was restless and moving around always returning to sniff, nuzzle, or lick at the very still kid. I climbed into my clothes, put on my barn shoes and vest. While I was getting out to the barn, Gwen delivered her second kid.

I got into the pen and checked on the last born kid. I found that he was dead and had apparently died just prior to delivery. He landed with his head tucked under and he was still in his sack. He had made no attempt to move or lift his head so I am e off her with a towel. I toted her off to the milk room and called Darrel who came over and gave Gwen her Blue brew, put the colostrum in the hot water to thaw and scooped the slime out of the kidding pen.

I spent some time cleaning slime off the kid and warming her up with the hair dryer. She weighed in at a healthy 7.8 pounds and her brother was 8.7 pounds. Poor little Gwen was a bit sore. I fed the doeling about 4 oz of colostrum and tucked her into the warm Tipi to sleep until after milking at the usual time this morning…I trudged back to the house and crawled back into bed where I got about an hour of sleep before the coffee pot called. After morning milking the little girl sucked down 8 more ounces of her Colostrum and worked on finding her legs. Tonight she finished her 17 oz of colostrum and was wandering around her pen. She is a pretty kid and as soon as she is tattooed and disbudded she will be off to her new home. Gwen was walking a bit sprattle-legged and seemed a bit stiff and sore but she had cleaned by morning milking so she went out with the rest herd. Tonight she was moving much better.

HOSANNA HITS A HOMERUN

May 11, 2025

This afternoon my son and daughter stopped by with lunch and flowers for Mother’s Day. We enjoyed a great lunch and Glenn went out to change the plates on my car as someone had put the front plate the back and the plate with the year and month registration stickers on the front… Not sure why the dealership managed that blooper but Glenn fixed the problem for me. Joie and I were talking and watching the pen with the pregnant yearlings in it when it was evident that Hosanna was pushing.

Off to the barn and Hosanna delivered a 8.6 pound, beautiful doe kid. Hosanna is still a little yearling and this kid looked half grown but she managed with out any help and was licking her baby and looking confused. She seemed quite relieved when the kid and I went to the milk room. I got to work cleaning off the newborn while Darrel did his thing. The kid was dried and checked over, her colostrum thawed and she drank 4-5 ounces of her colostrum and was off to the tipi to nap.

Evening milking found her on her feet exploring the pen and ready to eat, She quickly sucked down about 8-9 oz of colostrum and was tucked in with her buddy for the night. Hosanna came into the milkroom and hopped up on the stand like a seasoned milker, but was pretty sure that the inflations on the milking machine were going to suck her into the machine herself. She had a nice amount of colostrum and finally figured out that she wasn’t going to get sucked into oblivion. She settled down nicely and ate her grain. She had cleaned already and was returned to the yearling pen until her buddy kids, when they will both go out with the rest of the herd. This little girl will be staying

SP’L ORDER IS A STAR

May 13,2025

I woke up at 5:30 and squinted at the monitor as it cycled through the cameras and lo and behold the yearling pen was a bit crowded. Special had a nice black doe kid who was on her feet and doing the newborn stagger. Special was doing a great job tending to her so I got my coffee and continued to watch her while I sipped. A few minutes into the coffee and another very active and colorful kid wandered into view. Special had a set of buck/doe twins. I finished my coffee and she had them all cleaned dry and fluffy.

They weighed in at 7.2 and 7.1 pounds! Of course the buck is very fancy and all chromed out. Mom has cleaned and stood quite well for milking. Babies didn’t suck very well but did manage to fill their tummies. One more to go and Jumanji is absolutely enormous. Beautiful delivery of two nice big kids. I LOVE it! The girl is sold and the fancy boy will go to be raised for meat.

JUMANJI JUMPS IN

May 17, 2025

I have been watching Jumanji carefully for the past 48 hours. That means that sleep was more like catching naps between checks. I finally got ready for bed and carefully stacked my chore clothes for a quick change just in case… I woke up at 4AM and saw the unmistakable signs of labor. I got up and dressed and by 4:30 she was pushing nicely. When I got to the barn she had a nice lively and very slimy kid on the ground and was licking him clean. I moved his little slimy self to the kidding pad and rubbed his face clean. He was a little cold and so I covered him in a towel.

I checked for another kid and found back feet in good position. Jumanji pushed and we quickly had another slimy little boy on the landing pad. I slicked his face off and snuggled him under the towel with his slimy brother. A quick check and I discovered another set of back legs, this time the hocks were presenting so I quickly grasped a back foot and carefully brought it up and into the birth canal I then found and retrieved the other back foot and Jumanji quickly pushed the third kid into my hands. I plunked her on the pad with her brothers and worked on clearing her mouth and nose. I carefully lugged the trio to the milkroom and called Darrel to lend a hand.

By this time the kids were getting a little cold so I quickly got busy drying them with my barn hair dryer. Darrel arrived and took Jumanji her bucket of Blue Brew which she eagerly attacked. He cleaned out the slime lake and I got the colostrum in the hot water to thaw and continued to dry and warm the kids. We got the kids fed about 3-4 oz of colostrum each and tucked them into the warm newborn TiPi to sleep. By now it was almost 7 so I returned to the house to grab a good hot cup of coffee and a light breakfast.

At 8:30 I headed out for morning milking. Jumanji came in with last group of milkers and I emptied the machine and milked out about 3 pints of thick, rich colostrum. She returned to the kidding stall where she drank more of her Blue Brew and rested. She cleaned and returned to the herd in the afternoon. The triplets weighed in at 5.6, 5.9 and 5.8 pounds. The boys will be off to be raised for meat and the doe will stay here.

Prinzessin makes her debut

To complete the season for babies, Prinzessin, a 5 month old Rottweiler, has come to join in. She’s calm and gentle, but quite unsure of her new surroundings. She’ll be keeping busy learning the basics of housetraining, walking on a leash, and living in a house. Plus getting to meet the goats! Welcome Princess!!

2025 Kidding Log Summary

Well, It was a long kidding season here I had a few ups and downs but I didn’t lose any does so that is, for sure, a big win. I had one doe abort and lost 3 kids during or just before kidding. I guess a 10-15% loss in a kid crop is considered normal. Not ideal but not awful either. We even managed to get through several very difficult kiddings without a C-section. So all in all it was a good season.

I had 35 kids born with 15 does and 20 bucks, freshening 16 does, one of which was an abortion so she is not in milk. I had 4 single births, 5 sets of twins, and 7 sets of triplets. I have 3 does left for sale and my keeper pen has 4 nice doelings in it. All in all a good year. Stay tuned for further adventures and next year’s breeding plans.