#9 Birth a goat, Wean a goat, Milk a goat

I did it. I assisted in the birthing of another living thing.

We came home Friday night April 1 from running around getting things ready for our library and the goats were making a fuss. Now goats usually make a fuss when they need something....they say things like...no one fed me today or...my food is all gone... or excuse me no water...or my hay is wet and yucky. But this noise was more of a whine a cry for help if you will. So I asked the girls to run down and see if everything was alright and they came back screaming there's a baby, there's a baby.

I put on my farming shoes (my snow boots) and grabbed a coat. Our black and white goat Smoothie...or Bulls Eye (depending on the day) had already had one baby and was working on cleaning it off. Our white goat Fluffy was the one making noise. Isn't it amazing that even in the animal world they look after each other. While I was there she began laboring to have a second baby..which surprised us because she was much smaller than Fluffy so we assumed she was only having one baby. I yelled to the kids to grab some towels...which they furiously did. The little babies were shivering up a storm...all babies shiver, it's just so warm inside a mama, but it had snowed and was especially cold this day so we also grabbed the blow dryer to aid mama and the towel in the drying process. Mama was still laboring so much that I was worried she might have another but then we called grandpa and figured that she was just having a difficult time with the afterbirth **grossness ahead** so I actually had to grab the afterbirth and help her to get it out. I even used my bare hands. It really isn't so bad as I thought it would be.

Smoothie had two babies. They look almost identical...same size, same color, both have a prominent black stripe down the middle of their backs but one has four black feet....Chipper named this one Black Feet (male) and Dude named his Stripe (because of the stripe down it's back) it has three white feet and one black foot and is a girl.

It is amazing how fast the labor was and how quickly the animals are up and moving.

Smoothie would not let Fluffy back in the pen that night so we made a little fortress outside for her against the snow and wind but in the morning Smoothie had let Fluffy back in and she was having a baby.

The girls again went outside at my urging...weird sounds again....and Moo peered inside and saw a little baby. By the time I got dressed and "suited" up again she had birthed her second baby but she had not noticed it so it was still in it's sack. **grossness again** so I had to rip the sack open and clean out the babies mouth so that it could breath. Then I put the baby in front of the momma so she could see both of them. Then she took turns cleaning them up...More towels and more blow drying. Fluffy was bigger for a reason because a little while later she had her third kid.

Fluffies babies all look different. The first one looks almost exactly like Smoothie's babies except it is a little lighter brown. Her second one is all a light tan color...off white. And her third one is the darkest color of them all. Moo has named her dark one Chalky after Choclate (girl). Chip has named her's Crystal (girl)...don't ask me why and I got to have the off white one. I thought sugar was a good name but then we found out she is a boy so it is now Sugar Daddy.

Chip is so sad every time we mention that we cannot keep 7 goats in the middle of the city. I told her she should start praying so we can move to a farm and then she can keep her goats. Someday........(sigh) in the mean time anybody want a goat? :)