The Good Life

It is 11 pm and i am on night duty. My next check is supposed to be 2 am but it looks like Fawn decided otherwise as she is getting ready to give birth any time now. I will have to check every two hour so i am hoping she is going to have her babies soon. And the idea of sleeping a couple hours between my checks just went down the drain…It could be a long night.

Saturday was the first farmer’s market of the season and we went to check it out, but not to work, as it was our day off. It was pretty small, but merchants usually come later in the season, when it is warm and more people are around. There were a couple cheese makers (including Sunny pine farm), some starts and seeds for the garden, cookies and baked goods, fresh juices and natural seasonings. And then, there was the arts and crafts section, with people selling their stuff (jewelries, flower composition, wood benches, etc.). I am sure it will be better next month with more vendors. So far, my favorite farmer’s markets are the ones in Long Beach, CA and Grants Pass, OR. If you have a chance to go to either one, it is worth it.

Beautiful spring-one of my favorite season-with its clean and fresh air and its beautiful wildflowers. I am wildflowers: yellow, blue, pruple, white, etc.  I love it!

 A couple days ago we finished pruning all the fruit trees and it looks like we did a good job. I guess we should wait for the fall and see if there is any fruit growing on the trees…Who knows maybe we kill them all! I hope not. Derek read a book on pruning right before doing it and he told me what to do…so really anything is possible.

I was upset last Friday because we lost one of our kids and I had high hope for him…I took his death personally and it was very hard for me. I saw him give his last breath and he fought very hard, until his heart gave up. I could see his breathing slowing down and I could see in his eyes that it was the end; it was a very emotional moment. Let me explain why I was so attached to this little guy. Tuesday night was my night shift and when I went to check on the goats at 2 am, I saw 3 kids lying on the barn floor. It was a cold night and they could have been lying there since my last check at 10:30 pm…I jumped over the fence and quickly evaluated the situation: one kid was already dead so I grabbed the other two, who were still alive, as well as the goat standing next to them (that will be my next story…). Both kids made some noises and I thought it was a good sign. One drunk some milk and one did not but it takes awhile sometimes for them to eat and I figure they needed to recover after being left unattended for hours. Both were very weak: probably from the cold but also from selenium deficiency (weak legs and neck). One was looking better than the other one. Anyway, the one that did not look good died sometime before 9 am and the other one hang in there for a couple days, getting better and stronger every hour. He was looking good, staying on his 4 legs for some time (but not walking), sucking on his mama’s teats and it made me so happy just watching him. He was looking so much better that I almost wanted to cry: it was beautiful to see him like that after being almost dead. The sad part was that his mama totally ignored him and I had to tie her down to feed the kid. It happens often with first time moms: they don’t know what to do and they want nothing to do with these things sucking on their teats. Back to my friend. He did well all day until around 10 pm when he refused to eat; I fed him some around 8:30 pm so I thought he was still full and his stomach did not feel empty so I did not worry. At 2 am, he still refused to eat and I thought that was weird, so I used the baby bottle and forced some milk into his mouth (you want to be careful not to have the milk going in the wrong pipe, straight into the lungs). He was still standing fine and looked okay. The next morning, when I checked around 10 am, he was not looking good, still not eating, laying down very weak, his tongue sticking out weird. That’s when Derek and I decided to do something; it was going to be his last chance and it was probably already too late. We gave him an energy boost, took him in the sun to warm him up, massaged him and tried to stimulate him by rubbing his back and trying to get a reaction from him. Ed thought that he could be constipated (it happens often that kids get plugged up and die from it; that’s why we clean up kids butts often with warm water). We gave him a bunch of a molasses, cayenne, and garlic mixture (great stimulants for goats) and more milk. He looked weaker and weaker as time went by and by 3 pm he was dead. The sad thing is that I don’t know why he died. Is there something we could have done differently to save him? No one knows. I think it is harder for me because I am the one who found him, fought for him from the get go and thought for sure he was going to make it…Anyway, I carried his little lifeless body outside and buried him in the compost pile. I was feeling pretty bad so I decided to go see the other kids that we just put out in the outside pen. It was a good thing to do because right away they put a smile on my face; they were just running around, bleating, jumping over rocks and fallen tree limbs, doing flips in the air…so refreshing and uplifting. No need to worry now, I got through this and I am feeling better now. And i still check on the kids on a daily basis because they are so fun to watch.

Now I would like to go back to my 2 am check on Tuesday night (when I found the babies on the floor). The situation was quiet dramatic but something funny happened. It is a bit embarrassing but it probably won’t kill me to tell you. Please, keep in mind that it was 2 am, I just had gotten out of bed and all I wanted to do was check on the goats and go back to bed…well it did not happened quiet like that!

Tuesday all day I thought May (a black and white goat with an orange collar) was ready to give birth: she was showing signs that made me thought she was ready. So when I got to the barn and saw the kids lying on the ground, i thought for sure it was May’s and of course, I felt guilty for not bringing her inside the barn, where it is a bit more protected from the elements. So I grabbed a black and white goat with an orange collar that was standing next to the kids, pulling on the goat’s collar while holding the babies with my other arm, rushing past the goats lying on the ground. Once inside the barn I put the kids in a small pen and brought the goat in. She kept escaping outside the pen and I was staring to get annoyed, thinking: “geez, come take care of your kids lady”! After few escapes, I closed the pen, dried the babies, rubbed and frictioned them, dipped the umbilical cords and started feeding the kids. The goat was not letting me do it so I tied her down and finally got some milk into the kid’s stomach (not much but it was good enough for a start). The goat’s behavior was not that unusual and often you have to tie the goat down so she stops moving around an dlet the kids nurse. I noticed her teats were kind of orange (like the iodine dip with use when milking). It took several minutes before it hit me that I had the wrong goat…I checked her name tag and sure enough I had Ramen, who gave birth a couple weeks ago…I had the wrong goat! No wonder she did not seem to like the kids nursing her. But she was nice enough to the them, sniffing them and even licking one of them. I felt stupid and wondered how I was going to find the goat now. So I let Ramen out and she was bleating, looking at me with her big eyes, probably wondering what in the world just happened to her. I started my mission to find the real mom…The only way was to check the butts of the possible mothers and it took me only a couple minutes to find the good one, who was just standing there, looking like she did not know what was happening to her. I grabbed her and brought her inside the pen with the kids but she showed no interests in them at all. I wondered if it took too long for a bonding between with the kids and the mom (it usually happens right away-or not) or if I just blew it up by bringing in the wrong goat and putting another goat’s smell on the kids? I like to think that they did not bond because Rana is not the motherly type, not because I brought the wrong goat in : )

Now whenever I see Ramen (the wrong goat), I think about that night and how good of a sport she was! Thinking about it now, I think it is hysterical, especially when I play the scene in my head again… The real mom, Rana, is the worst mother out of all the moms we had so far. She had very little contact with the kid (a sniff once in a while), would not sleep next to him, would not lick him and would let him nurse only when tied to the fence. But she did not seem to be happy when we took the kid away and send her back out with the other goats. Maybe this is why this little kid was so special to me, what a story! I did not tell this story to anybody at the farm because I think it is embarrassing. I wondered how many times someone brought the wrong goat in! 

Just thought I would end the blog with a funny story as I started with a sad one…

Three weeks to go: Final countdown. Anybody remembers that song “final countdown” from the band Europe? If any one likes the 80’s, that was very…well 80’s!

Ed is a really nice, caring person and it is good for me to be around him. I wish i was like him in many ways. He really cares for his goats; he is always so calm around them and nice to them. I hope i will become more like him.

Take care,

CC

Lake Chelan is about an hour away from Twisp. Saturday was a nice day so we decided to go check it out and go hiking. There is no road to go around the lake and I think you can drive only about twenty miles before the road stops. There are many houses on that lake and the only way to access them is by boat. Lake Chelan is about 55 miles long and one of deepest lake i the US (about 1400 feet deep). Beautiful mountains surrounding it. We found a hiking trail with difficulty and started hiking without knowing how long it would be or what kind of trail it was. We just liked the name so we went for it: Pot Peak trail head. Anyway, it was steep and covered with snow at the top and trees were burnt…not the best kike we ever done. We did not even get a view! It was nice to be out hiking though; i love hiking and being out in nature. We went out to an old diner, the “Red Apple” or something like, that and it was fun. We don’t go out for dinner often ( I like the quality of home cooked meals better than restaurants ones) but i enjoyed my steak and Derek enjoyed his biscuit and gravy! This boy is funny because he was so excited to get biscuit and gravy for dinner : )

Some of the pictures may not be great because I broke the screen of our camera so I have no way to see what i am taking ( i don’t have a view finder either so it is a lot of guess work) and until we get a new camera (sometime soon) it will have to do it.

Hope your Spring is beautiful. As for us, we are going to be right on time for Lilac season.

CC

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!

Just wanted to share some pictures of the area so you can all appreciate the natural beauty around here.

CC

Spring does not look the same everywhere: some may be fortunate to spend a day at the beach and others may go skiing. On the first day of Spring we woke up to 4 inches of snow. Whenever I think winter is over, Mother Nature reminds me that I have no power over the weather! Usually, snow melts by April 1st so we shall see how it goes this year.

Twisp is a pretty unique place: a tight community, friendly people (younger or older people), natural beauty with mountains, rivers and lakes. We met a couple people that just came to visit Twisp and never left. The rumor has it that once one comes to Twisp, one never leaves….I actually heard several people tell this story and only time will say if it is true or not for us.

On Saturday we had two mama sheep gave birth, almost at the same time, with three kids and we had we trying to figure out who was who. The plan was that I would hold the lamb and have the mom follow me to a separate pen… Well, of course it did not work out like that because sheep do not like to get close to humans (at least ours are very wild) and in my opinion, sheep are not too bright, too wild and stinky, and the only good thing as far i am concerned is that their milk makes great cheese (sheep have tiny teats and it is not easy too milk!). I do not care for sheep at all (but the cute, tame lamb are okay). Back to my story. I was holding the lamb while Derek, Ed and another guy, Eors, were trying to catch the sheep. I have to say that it was hysterical watching these guys slip in the mud, dive onto the sheep, launch in the air…Derek did a great dive and got the sheep.  It was one of the funniest thing I’ve ever seen! I wish I would have a recording of it! Anyway, we figured out the moms and the kids, but one of the mom was rejecting one of her kids…not enough milk for both so we moved the lamb with the goats and after a couple days it seems to be doing good in its new environment. 

Another 25 kids left on Sunday and I still hate separating the moms and kids. Kids need to be at least 12 hours to be sold but on sunday we gave away a little guy that was barely 8 hours old…so little time with its mama : (

We do lots of natural care for the goats using herbal teas and essential oils. Right now we are treating a case of mastitis, which means we can’t use the milk for drinking or making cheese. This is why it is important to test the milk regularly so you don’t contaminate the whole batch. We feed the goats grains twice a day and some of them  are getting too much of it so their udder gets big and hard. The solution: cut off the grains and massage of the udders with special oil. They seem to like it very much and I don’t blame them.

Anyway, Vicky made some yogurt and cheese yesterday and it was delicious. We had garlic/black pepper and ginger/chili chevre: they were both delicious, with almond-rice crackers…yummy. We pretty much can eat all the cheese we want and drink all the milk we want…can one survive on cheese, milk and yogurt?

Here’s some pictures taken this week:

When we got to about 25 goats needing to be milked, with switch from hand milking to automated milking. Milking is a huge part of the day on a dairy farm and it takes about 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening, for two people, to get it down. We usually start at 6 am, take the goats to the barn down below, search for the ones that don’t get grains and separate then from the others, give grain to half and start milking them, then do the other half. We have to hand milk the goats that gave birth within 10 days (because of the colostrum in the milk, we cannot use it) and feed it to the kids. It takes quiet some time to hand milk and by the end my hands are pretty tired. The funny thing is that I am so much better milking with my left hand, go figure why. The procedure for milking using the machine is pretty easy. First, you squirt some milk from both teats for each goat in a cup with a strainer to make sure everything looks okay (no chunks, blood, etc.). Then you dip each teats in an iodine solution for  30 seconds, dry with a clean paper towel and either hand milk or hook up the machine to the teats. When we are done milking the goats (we do 8 at a time), we massage their udder with essential oil (they really enjoy it), dip their teats in another iodine solution (without drying this time) and send them free. Then cleaning up duties start: in  the milking parlor, in the milk room, scooping out poop in the barn, feeding the older kids. It takes about 3 hours. Twice a day. Seven days a week. For over 300 days a year. And it is only the milking part. It does not include birthing, taking care of the animals, cheese-making or selling of the produce. Honestly, i can’t really see myself doing it. But at the same time i love being around the goats and i know better to not say “i will never do that” so i will keep my mouth shout for now…

Saturday was an interesting day in a lot of ways. I was not on the schedule so I was planning on taking it easy and maybe work in the greenhouse or something like that. Anyway, I was sleeping in when I heard a knock on the door and Ed telling me he needed help with a goat (sometimes, having small hands is not always good). I was not too thrilled but sometimes you have no choice; and honestly, I am happy to help delivering babies (i wish the goats would chose a better time to give birth though!). When I got to the goat, the situation did not look too good: she’s been having contractions for at least a couple hours but nothing was happening. Usually, it is not a good sign and lots of bad things have time to happen inside: umbilical cord breaking, baby getting tangled up,etc. Anyway, the goat, “Salina”, was not dilated so first i had to put some evening primrose oil inside her vagina to help with dilatation. And it is not easy to get inside a goat when she is not dilated. After about 15 minutes, i went inside her (the oil worked great!) and felt that the baby was shoulder first and head back (last time that happened the baby died) and was at a lower position in the stomach, so it did not look good. Somehow, I found the front leg and the head (it is so hard to feel anything and to figure out what is what) and tried to pull them forward. The poor mom was already exhausted so i gave her a few minute to rest and somehow during that time, the baby came closer to the exit. I am not sure how that happened but when i went in again i had three legs and the head wanting to come out at the same time: this is just not possible. By that time, i was not sure what to do, i was feeling helpless and i had no hope for that kid. I took a guess about the front legs, pushed the back one inside, all while the goat is trying so hard to push me out of her. After what seems like an eternity, the baby came out dead. I let Salina rest for few more minutes and went in again to check for another baby. I found a lumpy little leg and knew right away that it was dead. When i pulled it out, the baby was not totally formed: there was no fur and the eyes were missing. Who knows how that happened: one was not formed and one was! The placenta was weird looking too and Ed said he has never seen that before. Salina was having trouble passing the after birth so we gave her a special herbal tea for retained placenta, and after about 24 hours, she passed it. Usually goats pass the placenta within few hours of the birth and they get pretty  uncomfortable until they pass it. It is really serious and you have to monitor very well whether they pass it or not because it is deadly for the goats if they don’t. The whole birthing experience took about 1 1/2 hours and it was VERY traumatic, for me and Salina. What a way to start a day, especially before coffee!

Fantasia, the russian princess that i mentioned in an earlier blog, also passed away few days ago. She was not feeling well and had a tough 2 weeks. It could have been complication from birthing (the baby died inside and she got an infection) or pneiumonia, which is very common among goats. Anyway, we don’t know why she died and it is kind of upsetting because you can’t really prevent something from happening if you don’t know what the problem was. Rest in peace, Fantasia. I am also finding out that veterinarian don’t know much about goats. They know about cats and dogs and cows and pigs but they don’t know shit about goats. Or organic ways of treating them. I find it so interesting and wondered why it is like that. Are goats so different? At the farm, they try to use the vet as little as possible because first, it is very expensive, and second, the vet has very little knowledge about goats. When they have questions, Ed and Vicky have a couple people they can turn to, people with years of experience, and one of the lady is a goat consultant and charge a small fee for advice. It sounds like a better deal than paying hundred of dollars for someone that is incompetent.

I don’t want to say that you get used to kids dying or to death in general but it happens so often on an animal farm that you kind of don’t get so upset everytime. I mean i am a sensitive person so it bothers me everytime but I let go pretty quick of this sad feeling and don’t let it put me down: I would be too depressed otherwise! Dying of kids is sad but that’s how it goes when you have a dairy farm: life and death, the cycle of life.

After pulling a 24-hour shift and having a couple hours of sleep, I am hoping that my cup of coffee is going to do miracles for me today: I was on milking duties in the morning and evening, and I was on night patrol too. When we made the schedule last week, I thought it was a great idea to have a couple days of morning and night shift on the same days, as usually, night is pretty mellow….well, until last night that is! One of the goat has been on the watch list for a few days but it was pretty sure she was going to have it yesterday. When i went to check at 2 a.m. I noticed she was having contractions so I assumed that it shouldn’t be too long; i should have remembered what assuming does! Over an hour and a half, later, the kid finaly came out on its own (i was afraid that i would have to help, because usually it does not take that long for the goat to push the baby out). What a relief. By that time, I was very cold, my fingers were numb and I sat waiting with the goat, in the pen, under the heat lamp, for what seems like an eternity. It took a while to hook the kid up to the mom but i keep remimding myself that boys are slower than girls, that’s how it goes…I knew one kid was still inside so i was hoping to get it over with quickly. Finally, an hour later, at 4:30 am, I see two back legs (this is not the way it is supposed) so I gear up and try to go inside the goat to see what’s happening. Now, the goat does not like that and she keeps moving around, which makes it very difficult to do anything, so I finally attached her because I did not want  to go get someone just to hold the goat still. The breech position (back legs and butt first) is not great but it usually comes out okay as long as both legs are out at the same time. All i had to do was to pull on the legs and here it went! This little guy pushed my buttons though, and it probably was because i was exhausted by that time but he would not eat: he would not drink from the bottle, or from the teat (he would not swallow anything!). My first reaction was just to let go and be as stuborn as he was ( you will eat when you’re hungry type of reaction!) but it is very important that the kids get the colostrum asap so i spend quiet some time trying to get him to eat a tiny bit. Stuborn goat! Let me tell you that goats are teaching me patience, everyday, but they also make me laugh everyday so i guess it is a good balance!

Maria, who is a great mom, gave birth to a girl that was very week yesterday, especially her head and neck. The kid could not stand up or even lift her head up. It was heart breaking because you could tell that she wanted to try so bad. I think she has selenium deficiency, which makes the muscles very weak, and you can prevent this problem by making sure you give adequate selenium to your goats. We’ve had  lots of cases with selenium defficiency this year. I hope this little gal is goinbg to make it; she is such a fighter that she deserves to make it in this world. It is sad to see her just laying there and not being able to do anything. I will make a special prayer for her. Derek was around for the delivery so he’s been taking extra care of her. He’s such a good hearted man, coaching her, spending lots of time massaging her neck, doing “physical therapy” and trying to have her stand up and lift her head up. I think he takes it very personaly so I hope she is going to make it. I am finding out that my husband is patient (with the goats that is!) and is such a wonderful, caring man. He would be a great coach or teacher. I think he’s a natural.

Updates: I just went to check  on Miss Lela at 2 p.m., who we thought, still had a baby inside. She started labor before 2 a.m. and was done birthing at 3 p.m., what an experience! Anyhow, i went inside her and felt that the baby’s head was backward and that the shoulders were first (not good!). I spend quiet some time trying to pull the head forward and trying to find a leg to bring forward as well. I was successful pulling the baby out but it came out dead and the eyeballs were missing. Who knows how long it’s been dead. We started cleaning up when after few minutes she started pushing again: 2 back legs first…and a little girl came out. We had to swing her around a bit to help her breath but she seems okay and she has a voice, let me tell you. Pretty amazing that she stayed alive after all this time. 3 out of 4, not bad. It is pretty rare to have four babies and all of them alive.  The mom seems to be going well, as well as you can expect for being in labor for so long. Hopefully, that’s it for Lela : )

The little gal with the weak neck and front legs is also doing better. She can stand on her own but still has some trouble keeping her head up for a long time. I do see some progress, which is great.

Derek and I are on the schedule for Friday/Saturday/Sunday during the day and Tuesday/Wednesday during the night (1o pm, 12 am and 2 am) but it does not mean that we get the rest of the time off, as there is always something that needs to be done around the farm. I am going to try to describe in a most accurate way the tasks that we have to accomplish during, let’s say,  a friday.

The day starts at 6 am. Derek and I split the tasks and I usually stay at the main barn while Derek goes to the barn down below. First we both feed the new borns, which we have to do every four hour, and the time we spend doing that depends on how many kids we have in the nursery. Then, Derek takes the goats to the lower barn to feed them grain and start milking them. As of today, we have 23 goats to milk by hand, and we get about 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon per goat. While Derek gets started with the milking, I put a new layer of straw for the goats’ bedding, feed hay to the goats, sheep and bucks, and refill the water for everyone. I give special care to the goats with special needs (some needs a massage of the udder with essential oil, a couple need essential oil and sulfur massage for their skin issues, etc.). Then, I meet Derek and help milking if necessary. We split the cleaning duties (milking room, milking parlor, etc.) and then bottle feed the older kids. When we are done with that, we go check on the chikens (refill water, feed them and collect the eggs). By then, it is around 10 am and before we take a break, we go check on the does and the babies to see if everything is okay. If we are lucky, we then take a break and get something to eat. I’ve been really liking oatmeal, steamed apples, walnuts and honey for breakfast. I can’t get enough of it. If we are not so lucky, a goat is about to have babies, so breakfast will have to wait…. Sometimes we get 1 hour break, sometime 10 minutes. The last 3 days, we just had 29 kids and we were busy from 6 am until 8 pm, with only a short amount of time to grab something to eat. We start the evening chores around 4:30 or 5 pm, and usually a goat waits for that time to have a kid, so it pushes everything back.  Then we do it all over again. Feed the new born. Derek takes the goat for grains and milking. I feed the goats, sheep and bucks. Put a fresh coat of straw for bedding. Refill water. Go down to help with milking and cleaning up. Botttle feed the babies. Go back up to check on the new borns and feed them. Hopefully, no one is about to have a baby so we can call it quit for the day…. After 8 pm we come home, get cleaned up, eat something and by that time, I am pooped ready for bed. And we start all over again the next day. By the third day, I am exhausted and we usually sleep in the morning and take monday off. Doing the chores and delivering babies at the same time is a lot of work!

Our days are busy but it does not even include making cheese! The life of a dairy farmer is a busy one and I think you need to be really passionate about what you do to keep doing it. Unfortuanately, besides long hours, love of the animals, cheese and the lifestyle, financial success is not always present. Sometimes, love and passion are not enough because saddly, it does mot pay the bills : )

Farmers are awesome and they deserve a lot more credit for what they do. They rock!

CC

Well, I thought last week was busy but I hadn’t seen anything yet: the last three days have been VERY busy (working from 6 am until 8pm) and it seems like the goats wait for Derek and I to be on duty to give birth! We had 29 kids in the last three days and another traumatic experience (and I am sure it was also traumatic for the goat!). Sandy, the goat, was having contractions for a long time without any luck. Her first kid came out well but she was having trouble with the second one so I decided to gear up and checked out what was going on. I could feel two legs and what felt like the bottom but the truth is I think I was feeling the neck. The baby came out shoulder/neck/legs first while the head was twisted backward: ite was dead coming out, either from suffocation  or broken neck…The  bright side of the story is that we saved the mom, which is the number one rule:  save the mom at all cost. I felt bad because I  wondered if I did everything I could to save this little life. 

Here’s the procedure to follow when a kid is born. First, we clear the mucus from mouth and nose so the kid can breath; it is very important to be fast and do a great job because if some mucus goes into the lungs, the kid is a goner (it happened to one few days ago and it died within 24 hours). Then, we dry the kid with a towel and friction its little body/head vigourously. We put it close to the mom so they can bond: the mom starts licking the baby all over and sometimes eats the umbilical cord and/or any left over mucus on the kid. We also dip the left over umbilical cord and the navel in an iodine solution to prevent any infection. We put on a paper collar around its neck with the mom’s name, the date, female or male and draw special markings if the kid is a keeper (so we can identify it more easily among the other kids). Then, we write in the 2011 kidding season log: the time of birth, date, mom’s name, number of kids, detailed description of the kids, any important information regarding the birth such as easy or assisted birth, if the mom passed the after birth, if the kid’s position was weird, etc. Within fiften minutes of the birth we try to hook up the baby to the teats: some get it fast and some are a little slower. I have to say that the girls are usually smarter than the boys, no offense guys. That way, the kid gets the colostrum right away with all the good stuff in it (the colostrum is usually produce during the first three days)and it helps to boost the kid’s immune system right away. 

We also had another crazy birthing experience where the first kid came out dead (I did not kill that one, I swear!) and the second one came out barely breathing. Derek is a hero. I wish you could have seen him swing this little guy around to try to clear the airways and blow in its nose and mouth. If the situation would not have been so critical it would have been pretty funny to see it. Anyway, Derek saved the kid and it ended up being a strong little one. Sometimes, the umbilocal cord breaks before the baby comes out and the kid end up suffocating with the mucus. You don’t really have a way to know if the cord breaks and you want the goat to give natural birth as much as possible so I always wonder how much you wait before it is too late to help?

We have goat milk! I’ve been drinking so much of it already: it is delicious, rich (between 3.5 and 6%), sweet and creamy. And it makes the best lattes. I’ve been trying to quit drinking coffee since we’ve been here and I was doing well until a couple days ago…Now, I just don’t want to give it up anymore: I haven’t been able to find a good enough reason to stop drinking it and I enjoy it soo much (that is a good reason for me to keep drinking it). It is official: I am now hooked on raw goat milk. In the next couple days we are going to make yogurt and next week we should start making cheese.  If you guys have a chance to try goat milk, please do, you won’t be disapointed. Plus, it is easier to digest than cow milk and it does not taste “goaty” at all (well, if you get it fresh it does not; older one is “goaty” tasting).

I still have some issues with separating the moms and the kids and I am trying hard to keep the thoughts in my head from making me go insane (and trying to not hear the mama goats screaming for their babies). I feel like a terrible person to take their babies away especialy when I know that the kids are going to end up in taco meat.. Some of the moms don’t cry, they just look at you with this special look, and I am not sure what I hate the most: the cries or the depressed look in their eyes.  I try not to get attached to the babies, but I am only a human being, a very sensitive one, and I do have my little favorites. Yesterday, we sold 36 kids to the goat meat lady and it was not easy for me. The only bright side is that we won’t have to feed 36 kids at 2 am. Anyway, life goes on, but it gets me thinking that I am not sure I want to be a dairy goat farmer: I want to do something that I am comfortable with and I am not sure I will be happy sending kids to the slaughterhouse, which you have to do when you have a dairy goat farm, because you don’t want to keep 110 kids, unless you are crazy! It takes a special person to do it and it is not me.

The weather is warming up -in the high 40’s- and the snow is starting to melt. It is great news, exept that it still freezes during the night and it is nasty in the morning. I love my Sorel boots because they work great in the snow but they are useless on the ice: it is like going ice-skating with rubber boots! I had a couple nasty falls on friday and ended up hurting myself pretty bad ( fortunately, I fell on my butt and I have a good booty so the fall could have been worse than just a big bruise). Ed got us some special traction to put on our shoes that day and no more falls since then. Thank you Ed!

CC