Kidding season is not for the faint of heart: there is plenty to do between giving birth, taking care of the moms and kids, bottle feed the babies, milk the does and feed the goats, sheep, lamas and chicken. Tonight, Derek and I are on the night watch, just like last night and our last check is at 2 a.m. so it is easier to stay awake until 2 and then go to bed. We don’t have to get up early tomorrow so hopefully we will sleep in. The last couple days my clothes I’ve been smelling like milk (thanks to the kiddies for spilling milk all over every time!) so it is about time to do laundry. And I also smell like goats. Well I can’t really smell myself but Derek smells like goats so I assume I smell like goats too : )
The hardest thing for me so far is when we take the babies away from the moms: for days they just moan and cry and it is the sound of ultimate suffering. I am not kidding, this is just horrible to be around the moms, especially when you have several going nuts for days. I hate it and I try to give them attention: I talk to them, give them little back rubbers, etc. It works for a little while until I walk away and they start going crazy again. Poor goats!
This morning I had to help for another delivery but unfortunately, the baby was dead when it came out. It did not come out fast enough and suffocated (the umbilical cord broke while the baby was still inside). I keep trying to think of what I could have done differently but I can’t think of anything. I guess it happens sometimes and there is nothing we can do. The bright side of the story is that the mom “Fleezy” had two other healthy babies so that made me feel a little better. Another little guys did not make it through the night either: after fighting 24 hours for his life, he gave up. He had liquid in his lungs, which happens sometime when you bottle feed them and they don’t really suck, it goes in the wrong way. What a day today!
Sunday morning, I had another great delivery experience where I had to go in and help pull the kid out and everything went well. It was a great feeling to relieve that goat “Silly” whose been trying hard for hours. It is also amazing to see how goats are different: some of them have a maternal instinct right away and others don’t really care much for the kids. I guess it is kind of similar with our people. “Silly” is a great mom.
Few days ago, a sheep just had triplets (2 black and 1 white lamb), which is rare for sheep, and it was interesting to see how Mother Nature works. We witnessed natural selection at its best; let me explain. We started noticing that one little gal was not getting much attention from the mother and was always put aside. When we tried to hook up this little gal to the mom, the mom would reject her, pushing her away and making weird noises. Ed told us that sometimes the mom knows that she does not have enough milk for 3 kids so she just picks one, usually the weakest, and ignores him or her until death. It sounds horrible but it is also pretty amazing to think of how smart animals can be. Why endangered 3 lives when you can just cut one short right away and save the other two? We then removed the little gal and put her with the other baby goats and we bottle-feed her. She is doing fine, adapting to her new life with her adopted brothers and sisters. Life goes on.
One of the goats, “Fantasia” is been having trouble for the last 48 hours. All the signs show that she is ready to have a baby except that nothing is happening. The poor thing looks very uncomfortable and she is not eating. Being organic, we are very limited as far as what we can give the goat to make things happen. I had to force 4 capsules of evening primrose oil into her vagina, and it was not an easy thing to do. As I am writing tonight, we are still waiting for something to happen… The funny thing is that vets in general don’t know much about goats, and what to do with them. Let’s not even talk about organic remedies: they don’t know anything about that. Vicky was telling me that regulations for an organic dairy farm are really tough, with silly rules, and that there is only 1 or 2 per states, in only 1o states. It makes me upset that they make it so hard for farmers to be organic.
We’ve had snow for the last couple days and I am surprised because Sunday and Monday where sunny and “warm” (about 40 degrees) and I thought that spring was here. We had a nice day off on Monday and went for a nice walk in the snow. We also went out for pizza in the only pizzeria in town and it was very good.
I’ve been thinking about the life of a goat: have babies and give milk. I do feel sorry for them as it feels like slavery but they seem to have a good life and are happy most of the time (except when we take the babies away…). We should have yogurt and cheese withing a couple weeks. Can’t wait for that.
We also started milking the goats by hand this week: we milk all the moms that we took the babies away twice a day. I am not too fast at milking yet but I am improving. Derek already has his favorite goat, “Silly” with enormous teats: the other kids have to really fight Derek to get access to them! It does make a difference to have a goat with tiny or big teats though; especially in the amount of time you spend milking her. And it also depends on the goats you have to milk because some are easier than others.
We also got the milking parlor (where we milk the goats) and the milking room (where we store the milk) ready for production with a spring cleaning and fresh coat of paint. But the kids, milking an taking care of the animals are taking most of our time. Friday, Saturday and sunday we are “on duty” which means we are responsible for the goats: we start at 6 am to feed all the animals, the babies, milk the does and check every two hour on the does, and do the secong milking at 6 pm. It is a long day. We split the responsabilities (day and night) between 6 people so we end up doing 3 days and two nights. And when we are not “on duty” then it does not mean that we have the day off as there is always something to do around here.
Last week after seeing the cute little lamb, I debated whether i could eat lamb again or not. Well, few days ago we had a leg of lamb for dinner, that I roasted with rosemary, and i made a curry dish with the left over. Everybody liked it but i did not care for it: i disliked the smell and the taste so it looks like no more lamb for me.
Okay, I have to stay awake one more hour before I have to check on the does…I think I can do it.
CC
