Kids. Kids. Kids.... and broken fences....

I'm sitting here trying to remember some details.. Last December 2020 we started to kid.  Dec. 25th to be more exact... Then in January 2021 we had a few more.  I have to check my notes because the difficulty to remember is huge right now. I hope it comes back. 

Giving birth is usually such a whirlwind of excitement around here. Getting the stalls ready. Cleaning them. Bedding them. Getting the molasses and the towels put in place. Making sure i have all the things needed in case of a problem... This year not so much. I'm tired. Sick. In pain alot. Still dealing with symptoms of Covid and it's long haul status. Luckily, 2 does kidded out easily. I walked outside and voila babies on the ground. And so thankful for it.  Had zero strength and constantly dizzy... 

Fern started to give birth and all that changed. It was about an hour of me trying to untangle kids. Adrenaline rushing i realized later I was going to be down for days afterwards... Nothing I was doing was working. I needed brute force at this point. to save Fern. I knew the kids were likely dead already.  Luck would have it a friend was coming over. I got her involved in pulling out what we knew were already deceased kids. When kids are alive they do help in the process of birthing. Their heads don't waggle all over the place. You can put your finger in their mouths and feel the tongue move. You can re-arrange them still inside and their heads won't wobble back. Or their feet won't disappear again... But with this birth they were tangled, and likely dead a day or two. It was very upsetting Fern is 10 years old this year. I wanted this to be her last kidding. And based on the difficulty it will be. It was in my opinion one of my more terrible births. I am convinced the kids were dead prior to her first push. But still doesn't take that sting away. I think she might have been head butted by one of the others a few days before. 

This picture popped up on my memories in FB. 11 years ago.
My friend Liz is holding Fern as a baby. 

All in all a somewhat uneventful birthing. 3 goats. 6 doelings (2 that died). 1 buckling.  I weaned them uneventfully. One died from unknown reasons. One sold. 3 of them are still here. Today, they are hitting 7 months old. Healthy and doing well. 

This would normally be the end of the 'birthing season post' ... ha.... in typical farming fashion...  the unexpected happened... and yes, being ill is a part of it.. Charles my buck decided he was going to break thru a few fences back in February. While i tried to contain. And fix. I was no match for him this year.  Especially back then... The fencing is far too old and he is far too big and... 

Part two of birthing commences...  Carolina gave birth to again 2 healthy doelings. And Wild Child gave birth as well, to 2 doelings.  Both of them gave birth easily and without any help from me. These 4 babies are still in the house. Video below. I have to say how much I love birthing season. But twice in one year is just too much. On me. On the goats. On their udders that were slowly drying them off early. I love their wide eyed looks. Antics. Cries. Even the parrots get involved and start calling for the little ones.

What am I going to do with Charles. And the fencing. Right now I have him stuck in the back. For how long till he breaks thru that fencing ... Time will tell. It's now become urgent I do something drastic to keep him away from the girls. 

If this year wasn't such a blurred mess with me getting sick -it would have been stellar. 8 doelings. 1 buck. out of 5 birthing. I would call that the goat trifecta. Bucks are so difficult to sell. Does aren't. 

They really are the cutest with the elf ears.  Charles is a purebred Nubian. 

Both Dams are 50/50 Lamancha/Nubians. This makes the babies ears a tad longer. And if you see I have one with beautiful Nubian ears - and to standard - below the nose. 

 

Lost TIME

Desdemona letting the 2019 kids eat from her bowl.
Not every dam would be so kind.

Time it seems... has gotten away from me. It's been over a year since I've posted a blog post. And before that it's been sporadic at best. 1 year at 4 months nothing between 2018 and 2019. I recount why below..

It's more then likely because not much has gone right. No one wants to hear about the bad stuff... 

Some years are like that. 

But, for me to realize, i've not posted in over a year is crazy. 

Here is a quick or not so quick timeline of life. 

In 2018, I had a part time job that made things worse not better in terms of what I was trying to do with it. That snowballed into, I need to get a full time job to make ends meet better. I was trying to supplement income to save money to do needed repairs around the farm.  This homestead is 20 years old.  (but that didn't pan out with the lack of hourly wage promised). The part time job just became too timely. And the full time job became too caustic. 

The full time job lasted till September of 2019,  and i was relieved it was over. Sad, but relieved. It was a learning year. And i learned a lot. About me. About others. Before this job, it had been almost 18 years working in another office setting. I walked away learning a great deal. But no better off. Both jobs left me worse then when I started. Things were not going well.

Then came another seasonal job for the livestock shows at the fair grounds which lasted till mid January 2020. Huge endeavor. I was proud of the work... and again, great learning experience, on how an entire livestock calendar for 2 weeks is created, staged, implemented. Aside from the politics, it was so interesting. I woke up every morning excited to go to work.  But, it was seasonal only and it was over. Just in time for the pandemic to start. 

In between all this - I started a book design project and 200 pages later and 1 year, still working on it. It was put on hold for months with the height of pandemic lockdown. 

Because of the working outside the farm, there was not much milk in 2018 and 2019. I tried. But just wasn't in the cards. I had 4 of my seniors die that year. I was deflated and defeated. My fault for keeping so many of the same age first fresheners. 2 died mysteriously. 2 died of old age and parasite related reasons. And time was not on my side. It's difficult to be gone all day and then tend farm at night. 

It was the first time in 17 years of milking that i dried the girls off earlier then 305 days, and i went once a day till July 2019,  and then just realized, I can't do it all. In that time, I tried to get a buckling from a friend up North, who also died early in his development. And realized again, I can't do it all alone, and work full time. 

2020 rolls in and Covid -19 takes over. Lets just start out with the worst of it.... I got the virus in late February. I still have issues from it, today. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, you don't want this. I am what they call a 'long hauler'.. And, it's a corona coaster of symptoms and pains, and illness. I'm just not well. And its migrated around my body for months. 

Because of being so ill - I dried the girls off in April 2020. I just couldn't do it. First time, and they were not happy. I was not happy. Back then was a blur... Actually, from April to today was a blur. One giant sleep fest, sickness and pain. 

I buried "Iggy the piggy" he was 17 years old. I buried Thatcher he was 11. Both blurs and both devastating. Thatcher had a tumor growth near his anus, and within weeks of seeing it, he had died. May was a terrible month for me. I couldn't even dig the hole, I was so sick. I remember that. Feeling guilty, I couldn't even dig a hole.

In August, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. And my A1c was 11.8. which is crazy high. Blood sugar was 570 range. And i was heading to the hospital.  Scared at the thought of spending any time in a hospital full of Covid patients, worried I would be re-infected. I dug in, and changed everything. Lost 15 lbs. Took Metformin, and ate a low carb. low histamine. low calorie ... And by November,  my A1c was back to normal. 5.4 and BS was 134. I'm off the meds, but not out of these woods. I guess I never will be. 

Feeling a bit better, I was offered a buck and jumped at the chance of new bloodlines and a new start.... Charles my new buck came to stay, he's one gorgeous boy. He was here about a week before he jumped the fence and bred all the goats. Christmas week, we kidded.  I have 5 gorgeous kids (4 does. 1 buck). I'm milking 3 healthy goats. Not the numbers of what I normally milk (between 8 and 11 goats), but, enough for the time being, and my lack of energy, still with issues from the virus. And once a day. I'm not making cheese or soap at the moment. But preparing for it soon. 

My life is in dis-order. The house. The farm. All in disorder and its going to take some time to come back from all this. If, I can come back from all this. The pandemic. The lockdown. The lack of income. The deaths. My farm business. My health. I'm trying is all i can say about it. 

Which leads me to friends. If it wasn't for them - various times this year of helping out, I don't know what i would have done without them. Bringing food. Supplies. Getting me hay. Helping me kid. The list of things are just so enormous.  I can't even begin to say how thankful for them. 

So, that leads me up till today. The purpose of this blog (in the beginning) was to document my life journey with the goats. Up until the 2019 time frame, I had been so diligent with this goal.  

Hopefully, this will be a turning point for me. Wish us luck. I hope that time is on my side in 2021. 

I'm Back

I'm Baaack! 

yes. 

So Excited. 

After a nice break 

(too long in my opinion) 

the goats are in milk.

I might even have things 

to post about again. 

See you soon!

~jojo

Growing Up Kids...

I don't normally pay so much attention to how quickly they grow. 

This year I decided to keep all the girls. 5 of them. 

(so far...)

Usually, I pick one or two, sell the rest.

 I can see so much...

I can see how two sisters who came out together grow differently. 

The first two shots are at 5 days old. 2nd two shots of them now at 7 weeks.

At 5 days old could barely get them out of the stall. 

7 weeks I can't get them back in.  

I see how the two wombats are inches above the Nubians. 

But only 4 days older. 

I see that Sable's daughter is whiney, and capricious, 

and all about her even at this age. Just like her dam.

I can see the runt is almost half the size of her sister. 

And see why her sister is twice the size of her. She is a fighter. 

And she likes stealing from the others. 

But, if her sister calls from far away she is the first to come to her aid.

I see the runt take advantage of it, too.

The runt,  I might add is just wonderfully sweet... and getting so much 

attention only wants to hang with humans. 

She bides her time and puts up with the others, till I go out again.

I see them play all day. I see them roam further on their own then I like.

I see the leader of the pack stick up for them when Gimpy comes to menace.

I see the dams sniff them but, meh, not interested in them. 

But then give a side glance.

I see all the conformational stuff, too. 

But, this is more fun.

desi #1 triplet.

Fern #1 and #2 and both are cute as can be. Sweet just like their dam.

Runt always last to know which way they go.

Potential herd queen in the making. Queen of the kids. She is the bold one.

left to right Desi#1. Fern #2. Sable #1. Fern#1. Runt (Desi #3)

Pitter Patter...

I love getting the cards.

I had two school groups here the past month. To learn about the small farm and milking goats, and to bring me some chicks.  As a thank you, the children from St. Andrews private school and Sea Star Academy sent these lovely cards to me again this year. Both schools are set in urban settings, and sometimes this is the first time they get to see outside of a petting zoo setting what these animals are meant to do. Why I do it, etc.

What we've been doing is sending over some hatchable eggs to the school. They do all the work. I enjoy the spoils.  As a treat once the eggs have hatched. And its not a given they will. They can come here and bring them back. And we set up the coop for them. 8 Chicks were hatched for me this year. The kids learn about embryology. I get free chicks. It's always fun to see how little minds think. The questions they ask. And what they remember most. Best of all are these cards.

It was fun to read them all. And see what stood out to them on their visit.

Gobble. Gobble. Bob the Turkey has been memorialized.

St. Andrews kids made me this group card. 

Yes! Now they are EGGsperts. How cute.