Kids are everywhere!

Only Six more does to kid, and this kidding season will be over with!  This has been the most challenging one I've ever had in the 11 years I've had goats.  There are 20 kids out there now.  12 cashmere and 8 dairy crosses.  Lost three kids, two were aborted, and one was too big to come of the doe, so we took her to the vet and they couldn't get it out either, so they cut it's head off and pulled out the pieces.  ick.  Glad it was a boy and not a girl.  Then the poor doe was so traumatized by the whole ordeal, plus an overdose of oxytocin that kept her having contractions for 24 hours, she died the next night.  Poor April.  There wasn't anything I could do to stop the dang contractions.  I called the vet a couple of times and they said they would fade away and quit.  Well, they didn't.  They wore her out and she died.  Lost my highest cashmere yielding doe!  I got 6.2 ounces of dehaired fiber off of her fleece from last year.  Glad I got this year's combed off before this ordeal.  That's a picture of April above, having a discussion with Sophie.  At least she has one daughter out there that has just as nice of cashmere as April did.  Just not quite as much.

  April was also the orneriest goat out there, so I don't think anyone is really missing her that much, except maybe her daughter Oreo, who just had a kid and doesn't have grandma to babysit like she used to. :-)

  I've also had to really pull hard to get a couple of the kids out.  They did come out in good order, though.  The boy/girl ratio is even, too.  So there are good things in with the not so good.

  On the dairy side, I'm dealing with a bad case of mastitis, which I've never had before, either.   What a year!  At least I'm learning a lot, and so are H&C.  They are getting to experience just about everything, both good and bad, to do with raising goats.  I do have a really good looking kid crop, though.  Some of the best I've had come yet.  I think I have a replacement cashmere buck in there, too.  He's a cream colored one, so that will be a nice contrast to the two black bucks I have now.  He's a very solid nice looking kid!  We'll see what he looks like as he gets older.

  I'll be getting some good pictures of all the kids on the computer one of these days.  They are on the camera, I just haven't taken the time to get them on here, yet.  One of these days.....