Here is Mariah with her very first kid born today at 12:30pm. It was a nice warm sunny day today. A good day to come into the world. She's a nice healthy girl I named Mimi. Mariah wasn't going to be a good mom at first, she didn't want anything to do with her. But, I held her and got the kid cleaned up and up to her to drink, and after about an hour and a few times of nursing, she accepted the kid completely and all is well.
Here are Poppy and Lupine, two of the three bottle babies I have this year. I had to put down two does this year, both from a congested udder that I could not get uncongested, no matter what I did. Both does were the only two that didn't drink their warm molasses water after kidding, and they were the only two that had any problems.
Here's Whiteout, he was born in the blizzard we had last week, hence the name. ☺ He's got one little brown spot on his cheek. Other than that, he's all white.
All together there are 22 kids out there, and 76 goats total! I haven't had this many for quite a few years. 14 girls and 8 boys. I've decided this year I'm not keeping any of the boys as bucks, they are all going to get "wetherized". There are a couple that might make good bucks, but I don't need any more now, and I don't know of anyone who is really wanting one, so they will all be wethers and used for their fiber.
We are enjoying a spell of sunny warm weather now. We've even had a couple of thunder storms this week that dumped a decent amount of rain. I really need to get out there and mow and weed-eat now. The garden is deer-proofed now, so I should have a good harvest this year. I ate my first helping of asparagus out of the garden last night. YUM!
I hiked up to the Rocks the other day and cleared a good trail that anyone should be able to follow now. The ticks are out. I had one on me that I discovered in the middle of the night when I woke up and felt something crawling on my neck. Ick! Glad it didn't attach itself to me! I think I will wait awhile to go up there again. I'll wait till the ticks go away again. In the Spring when one goes up to the Rocks and stands still, you can look down and see the ticks crawling up your legs. It's enough to freak a person out!
I'm slowly getting the fleeces dehaired. I'm getting behind on my self-imposed schedule. There are just too many things that need done around here this time of year to spend all day in the dehairing room. So I do one fleece a day in the afternoon and try to get all the other things done in the mornings and then after I'm done with the dehairing for the day. So to all my customers, I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll have the cashmere ready to ship when I said I would. It won't be a whole lot longer, but it won't be right when I said it would. I hope you understand.
Well, it's 10:30 at night and I haven't had dinner yet, it's almost ready now, so I think I'll go eat and then hit the sack and start over again tomorrow....
Wow, Annie, you have had yourself a busy kidding season! Glad Mariah decided to be a good mom; that's always a relief, isn't it? Very sorry about the two does you had to put down. Sounds like you think the molasses (or lack of) may have contributed to the udder problems?
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing the way a doe will just suck up a half gallon (or more) of warm molasses water right after giving birth, but have no interest in it at other times of physical stress. At least, that's been my experience so far.
I'm with you 100% on the ticks. Ugh. Lyme is a big deal here.
Thank-you. I do think the molasses water had something to do with the udder issues. That is the only difference between all the moms, these two were the only ones that didn't drink it. Mariah drank hers and her udder is nice and soft. You can bet I'm checking it a couple of times a day! :-) She's one of my special does. I don't want to lose her.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure glad Lyme isn't much of a concern around here. This area is known for it's tick population. Some years it's worse than others. I'm going to have to get more guineas, I'm down to one. She's getting pretty old and doesn't go out "on tour" like they used to when there were more. They are the best tick eaters around even if they are pretty noisy sometimes.