The things that strike fear in a person's heart!

It's amazing the things that can strike fear in a grown woman's heart!! Tonight while we were feeding goats I was participating in my daily ritual for this time of year. Copping a feel to see which does were starting to bag up. Last week I told Richard with some excitment that I thought when we moved does to maternity this week we would probably have at least 15 to move. I was pretty happy and excited about that since these Jan/Feb kids will be the prime candidates for show kids for 4-H and FFA. Tonight though...as I walked around checking for bags and calling out names as I felt that small pooch that meant their time was coming...I started to feel a small stab of anxiety that rose to outright terror as the list continued to grow. I soon realized that the list of does that needed to move to maternity pretty much included all of them!!! As the number grew I begin to feel outright terror...my heavens what are we going to do with 40 does kidding within 6 weeks! I'm sure all those fat girls were laughing at my quivering voice as I called out their names, I just hope they are still laughing when there are babies babies everywhere and not a kidding pen free!
If anybody wants to see a sea of fat little babies they should come see me in Feb!
Maybe I'll have quit trembling by then.

older picture of Violet with a bottle baby

We have had 22 babies in June! Still have 2 or 3 does left to go and then no more babies till the end of Nov!

Kidding thrills and chills...

My last year's bottle baby is going to kid...just any time.
Yesterday her udder was strutted and she was calling her kid. That should have meant she would kid within 24 hours but I guess her mother didn't tell her how this business was supposed to work....oh wait, that would be me!!!
So knowing that she might be a bit under prepared since she was a bottle baby and spent the first month of her life in my living room and all the other rooms once she learned to escape her crate...I've been checking on her regularly, at least once an hour.
I've decided the old adage about a "watched pot never boils" is true. However, there are still benefits to my attention to her needs.
This just happens to be the day we decided to clean the main barn for the first time since Winter has passed. Now our barn is 40X80 and while much of it can be cleaned by tractor there are the kidding pens, all the edges and small areas that have to be cleaned the old-fashioned way...with a pitchfork, barn shovel, and 2 foot metal rake and since I have chosen not to learn to drive the tractor guess who gets the privilege of manning the pitchfork!
But since I "had" to go spend a few minutes watching Isis, the mother-to-be, each hour to make sure she wasn't showing any signs of labor, I managed to sneak in a short break that my loving husband missed. I think that is only fair since I'm older than he is! :)
Amazing that even with all those breaks my poor old body feels like someone beat me up when I wasn't looking. And tomorrow will probably be even worse! Gotta learn to drive that tractor or potty train these goats!! :)

Feb-Mar Kidding Season Ends

It's sad when even kidding runs behind like the rest of my life. We finished up our Feb./Mar. kidding season April 1st when Vanna White had twin solid white girls! I couldn't decide if she was just trying to be on schedule with the rest of my life or if that was her idea of an April Fools joke. Anyway, the girls are wonderful! Twinkie twins that look like fluffy little furballs.
I am thinking that we should consider having all our kids in Feb. we've had 43 kids this kidding season and I realized when a customer called looking for a Feb. wether that ours are about all sold! It's amazing..they aren't even weaned yet and people have already paid for them. It's a strange thing, we're so busy during kidding that we both stay about 1/2 rumdum but I realized looking at the kidding page that the available Feb. kids are disappearing like snow on a warm day! Good thing I didn't have time to get attached to them or I would be sad. Instead all I can do is heave a hugh sigh of relief that perhaps soon it won't require a tractor and bushhog to feed the goats. Yes, I know that makes no sense but as the number of goats multiplied so did the amount of feed required. We have been feeding 300 lbs of feed a day and after graduating from 5 gal. buckets to 33 gal. tubs that required a dolly to move them from pen to pen...we've finally moved on up to the heavy equipment. We just load the bulk bags on the front forks of the tractor which Richard drives...the 33 gal. tubs...well they make a great seat for yours truly on the bushhog!
Guess I better get going, I hear the tractor starting, don't wanna miss my ride!