Penelope started off our kidding season on Wednesday about 6:00 p.m. with two boys and a girl. Kati midwifed solo and did a fabulous job getting the kids dried off and warmed up in the frigid 0 degree weather. Needless to say, the kids are spending a lot of time in their heat barrel.
Champagne delivered triplets on the afternoon of March 12th. Kati was the primary mid-wife and she did a fine job getting all the kids off to a good start. Champagne is proving to be a good mom – attentive but not overly obsessed.
We’re excited to see how she does on milk test and are planning to retain a doeling from this breeding, but have not yet finalized our decision. We are limiting the number of kids we keep this year so our final choices will need to wait until we get the rest of the kids on the ground.
For the second year in a row, Dolly delivered right on her due date. I wish they all did that! Dolly was also very cooperative in that she delivered at 2:30 in the afternoon instead of the dreaded 2:30 a.m. delivery. Both Kati and Clayton were home from school just in time to oversee getting the kids cleaned up and make sure they were nursing well.
Dolly gave us all bucklings this year and I think we might be saving a couple as buck prospects.
Buckling #1 is a flashy buckskin with white overlay. We’ve nicknamed him “Ovaltine” because he has a perfect oval on his side and he is the color of chocolate milk. 
Buckling #2 is an equally flashy black and white boy with moon spots. He’s discovered the joy of jumping and is almost impossible to get a photo of because he’s always launching himself into the air as soon as you try to take a photo.
Buckling #3 is a very dairy buckskin with moon spots. His color is more subdued than his brothers but he makes up for it with his sweet personality and his refined dairy character.
Here’s a few bonus photos just because they are so darned cute…
Glory delivered two very nice moon spotted bucklings this afternoon. (Hmmm…I wonder if the excitement of yesterday’s ultrasound adventure helped things along?) One bucking is a very unique and lovely smoke gray color. And yes, we’ve nicknamed him “Smoke”. Maybe his brother will get tagged “Coal”?
These guys are so sweet and already loving people. They’ll snuggle up to us just as quickly as they snuggle up to their mom. They’ve even developed a fondness for being scratched at only six hours old. (Please pardon Glory’s rather scruffy look in the photo below. She’s still shedding her cashmere and we didn’t take the time to brush her off before taking photos of the kids.)
We always provide the girls with a bucket of warm molasses water after they give birth. It’s great for restoring energy and the girls always seem grateful for the offering.
This is the last kidding of the year for us. While I’m rejoicing at being able to sleep 
though the night again, (no more 1 a.m. goat checks!) it’s sad to know it will be almost a year before we have more sweet, soft, snuggly kids to dote upon. In a few short weeks we’ll be sending most of this year’s babies off to their new homes-another bittersweet time. If only we could keep a few more each year, … but we’d soon run out room so we must say goodbye to more than we’d like. It makes it just a bit easier knowing that they will be going to new homes where they will surely bring joy to others.
Kidding season means excitement, anticipation, joy, anxiety and interrupted sleep. As the does near their kidding dates, we try to check on them about every 4 hours around the clock so we can be there for the kidding. There are usually signs that a doe is getting close to kidding but not always. When I checked Nibbles last night, she didn’t show any signs of labor and her ligaments were not loose enough to signal an immanent birth so I felt like it would be safe to sleep through the night.
This morning we woke up to find she had delivered triplets during the night. Two adorable doelings and, unfortunately, a buckling that didn’t make it. We’ll never know if being there would have made a difference for him or not. While I love raising livestock, losses are inevitable and always a cause for sadness.
But there isn’t time to linger on what ifs and should haves because there are umbilical cords to dip in iodine, kids to weigh, does to milk, and records to be written. It’s better to pause for a moment of reflection then keep moving forward while giving thanks for the precious, healthy kids snuggled in the hay.
Chloe delivered twin doelings Friday afternoon. While both girls are technically buckskin in color, they are very 
different in the way they look. The littlest one is a miniature model of Chloe herself, mostly dark with a few white specks. The bigger sister is mostly white with cute little brown and black speckles.
The white twin, nicknamed “Speckles”, had some difficulty with wobbly back legs the first day but she’s looking much better today. Sometimes a kid is just scrunched up in the womb and needs time to stretch out and strengthen it’s muscles and tendons.
Both of these little cuties are getting lots of attention and they are loving every minute of it, just like their mom. They both love to snuggle, climb on laps and give “sniffy kisses”. I had a heck of a time trying to get photos because as soon as I’d lie down to get on their level, they’d come running over to say hi. I finally had to recruit Kati to help distract them long enough to get some photos!
I remember when we brought home Chloe and her baby. The first order of business was to name the sweet little doeling. Considering her registered name was Liberty Star Acres Annabelle, it probably seems like Annabelle would have been the obvious choice. But we already had an Annabelle-a beautiful, extremely rare American Milking Devon calf. So our little doeling became “Dolly”.
This year our two Annabelles coordinated their efforts and both presented us with babies on Sunday, just hours apart. Annabelle the cow delivered a healthy, friendly heifer calf and Annabelle the goat (Dolly) delivered bouncing twin bucklings.
It was truly a Sunday filled with blessings of the sweetest kind!
