Barn Chore Helpers!

Our home fellowship group met at our place last night and Janessa and I had lots of helpers doing our barn chores. Our last momma doe kidded a week ago and she has "orphaned" her twin kids, so we have bottle duty here four times a day right now. The kids enjoyed helping us give our barn "kids" their bottles. Our newest kids are "orphan" Annie and Andie. The momma was pushing the little doe away but would let the buck near her, now she is letting both of them sleep near her and is not being mean to the little doe, yeah! But, she won't let either of them nurse. Janessa and I have been busy milking her (she's finally getting used to that!) and then feeding her kids.

Anna (in back)

Elsa, Ashley, Cora, Nella, Isaac, Anika & Janessa

Plenty of little helpers

AnnaNella and Mom (Sarah)

Elsa (and Ashley & Isaac hiding)

Janessa giving Anika a milking lesson

Anika milking Holly

Anika did a good job milking our doe!

Little hands can do the job!

Hi, I'm Elsa and I milked a goat last night!

Mary's twins

On Sunday evening Mary had twins, a buck and a doe. The black and white one is the buck, the brown and white one the doe. We had company over on Sunday and we knew she was in labor but every time we checked her nothing was happening. She was just standing and staring off and seemed to be concentrating real hard. I checked her a few times in the early evening and then when I checked at 10:15 she was laying down and bellowing, with the first kid part way out. It appeared to be stuck and after watching her for three contractions I decided I better go inside and scrub up in case I needed to help. I don't know how long she was trying to push the first kid out. Ken and Janessa stayed with Mary and I ran inside, praying hard that by the time I got back out to the barn the kid would be out, and he was!! The second one came shortly after and she barely had to push. Both momma does and their kids are doing fine! We have three bucks and two does right now...I wonder what our last doe will have!

Our first kids of the season arrived!

Well, it has been a busy week here with our little herd of goats. I have been sick with a very back cold/respiratory thing going on and Janessa has been doing chores for me for about a week. She did help me finish cleaning out our birthing pen last week, so we were done in plenty of time for our first batch of kids that arrived. We have a couple more does to kid this month, so we will continue to be busy. Someone mentioned s - n - o - w to me tonight, we may have flurries??? tomorrow? It is raining here now, hopefully the temp doesn't drop too much! Well, I just checked and it is currently 36 degrees, so it doesn't have too far to drop!! Well, all the does and the new kids are snuggled warm in the barn.

Janessa with our newest little doeling

This is our little doe in the bunch. The other two are bucks. We still need to name her. Since her mother is Melody I was thinking Music, Janessa doesn't agree. Tonight when we came in from chores I was thinking April, since this is our first year we had April kids??

Janessa and Peanut

Janessa is a little attached to the littlest new kid on the farm!

Melody and her triplets - born April 30th

Melody surprised us with three little ones on Wednesday. After the second one was born I thought she was all done and I was waiting for the afterbirth. But, much to my surprise out popped #3. We still need to give two of them names. The brown one is the smallest goat we've ever had born here, we did name him...Peanut!