The weather has been weird: some really nice days with warm afternoons and some other cold days, with some snow. I guess typical of Spring in this area except for the snow which is usually gone by April 1st (except for this year). I appreciate not having to wear so many layers. Snow is melting fast and it is nice to be able to see the ground again; the grass is starting to grow and trees are starting to come to life. Spring has a whole different meaning when you spend 5 months in the snow! With the snow mostly gone, there are more projects to be done around the farm, which i am not thrilled about, like fixing the fences, cleaning the ditch, irrigation pipes, etc. So we still have a set schedule with chores, milking, taking care of the babies and projects to do throughout he day. The last few days we had no new moms and babies and it was nice to do only a 10 pm check….until today with new babies so it means we have to do the 2 am feeding again : (
Anyway, life as an intern is coming to end soon, with three weeks to go, and I am not sad about it. I love the life on the farm and beoing around the goats. I liked the opportunity that we had and I am grateful for all the learning and experiences we had but I am ready to move on and get started on our own. It is not always easy to work in a community type of setting, with lots of people involved. I like team work but I don’t like slackers; I have high expectations for myself and i expect people to work as hard as me, and well, it rarely happens so i get frustrated…Anyway, life is good 99% of the time : )
Someone new came to pick up the kids few days ago (about 20-ish) and I did not get a good vibe. I am not judging a book by its cover but I hope these kids are going to be okay… There was one little one that I liked very much and I wished I would have had the use for a buck so i could have kept him: he was gentle, soft and very handsome (i guess these qualities don’t really matter for a buck as all one care about is the size of his balls and how well the scrotum is attached: size matters in the goat world!). I try not to think about these kids otherwise i would be very depressed.
We have two goats in quarantine since the last few days because of staph infection. It is nasty looking: they have it on their back, the neck and all over the udder and the teats. I think right now 7 goats are infected and we are treating them so hopefully it won’t spread anymore. We are not using their milk and not even feeding the kids with it. First, we spray them with strong acid water, which is supposed to kill the bacterias. We let it dry few minutes then spray with alkaline water mixed with a bunch of essential oil (oregano, lemongrass, lavender, etc). Then, we soaked walnut shell hulls in water and use the juice to put on the infected areas so it will dry it. So far, it seems to be working and using herbal remedies, you have to do it for a long time, even when it seems to be healed. If you stop to early, it may be fatal for the goats at they may get sick again. Now, remember that being an organic dairy, we cannot use any antibiotics and we need to be careful on what we use as a lot of things are not approved. Hopefully, whatever we are doing is working and we are going to stop the spreading of the disease. It is higly contagious among the goats and humans as well : (
Another difficult birth occured few days ago and the mom is slowly recover from it. Kala was in labor for over 24 hours but nothing was happening. Ed asked me to go inside and check what was happening: well, nothing was happening and she was not even dilated! So I put a couple capsules of evening primrose oil in her vagina (it is supposed to help with dilatation) and we waited for some time. In the mid afternoon, I went inside to check again and she was still not dilated. She looked uncomfortable (laying down/standing/ making noises,etc) but not in too much pain so we decided to wait and let Mother Nature do her work. The next day, nothing was happening so Maureen, another worker, went inside to check ( i was supposed to have a day off) and Kala was still not dilated; so they gave her more evening primrose oil. She finaly started to dilate but what happened is that she has been pushing for hours, before the kids had a chance to come out, so once there was an opening they all tried to come out at the same time…and there is only room for one at a time. So Maureen spend a couple hours trying to get the kids out, unsuccessfully, and then I spent about an hour and half working on her as well. It was very dramatic: kala was suffering and she was so exhausted. I felt helpless but i kept my calm and did not get too stressed out: i knew it was in Kala’s best interest to remain calm (and for my own sake too!). It was very hard to figure out what legs belong to what body and there were so many legs! It took me a while to figure out this whole mess and once i did, I started pulling on the head and one leg and the baby finally came out, dead. Then i got the other one out, dead also. The poor mama spend over 24 hours in misery and her babies are dead. She is still recovering, and I am still recovering. It was probably the hardest delivery I had to do so far. I am not sure why she wasn’t dilating; Ed does not know either. It amazes me how often we have to intervene with birthing (I thought it would happen naturally more often).
Yesterday, we disbudded the kids we are keeping (about 15, including 1 buck). Well, i did not do it because i did not want to see or hear them scream. Derek, did it and he did not mind so it worked out well. For disbudding, you have to leave a hot iron on the horns for at least 7 seconds, on each horn; the kids don’t like it, as you can imagine, but they get over it pretty quick.
We also had to trim hooves, AGAIN! I am not complaining because this time i got away without doing any….thanks Derek for doing most of them. He does not mind doing them but it is hard on his back (I gave him a back massage and it was way easier than trimming the hooves!) You rock Derek! I guess i must have been busy doing other things…
Kids (i am talking about baby goats here). I like hanging with them and they often make me laugh. But they also push my buttons and their cries and screams get on my nerves and hurt my ears. But I am sad when they leave and I hope that who ever took them will take good care of them (until they are ready to get butcher that is). The kids we are keeping are about a month old and I am sorry to say but they are already not as cute as when they were few days old. Kind of like human kids, when they get older, they are not so cute anymore…But it is still fun to be around them, they have so much energy, it does not matter the time of the day or night! All of the keepers are feeding on their own so all we have to do with them is give them some milk at 8am, 2pm and 10pm and keep their bedding clean. I like to spend few minutes with them when I can: I sit with them and let them sniff me and climb on me. It is kind of fun!
