Winter

We got a little bit of winter weather this week and it really makes me miss spring and summer.  We only have one outside tap and in cold weather we can't use it.  So we have to get water from the house.  This is a huge pain in the butt.  Since our property use to have a mobile home with septic about 50ft from the barn there has to be another water line somewhere.

All our young does are a little unsure what to do since the older girls are in the barn with their babies.  So they have been sleeping by the bucks or on our front step.   We usually have to push them out of the way with the door they really want in the house.   When we do night check they follow us around.  Last night we had to go out because we heard the coyotes going crazy from inside the house.  As we have no lgd we check to make sure they are not too close to the fence and the goats are safe.  Even though they were close we never saw any by the fences. 

Before next winter I really hope we have water in the barn and power out there.  I also need to find a solar option to keep our water unfrozen.  I don't really want to use extension cords.  We also need to fence in at least 2 more acres to spread out the goats more so we can rotate pastures.  

Insanity

Let me preface this very first post by saying it has been a crazy and yet amazing 6 weeks.  I had 3 does due to kid feb 4th through the 11th and was due with my own baby on march 13th.  Well I had my baby on Jan 5th and spent the next 4 weeks in the nicu all day while recovering from surgery.  On feb 2nd our oldest doe and herd matriarch tried to kid early.  It was frigid at 12 degrees and she was not making progress. I assisted her and found her kid had its head back and after trying to get it out for over an hour it finally came out and was dead.  The next one was also head back but twisted and I could not get it out so we loaded the goat in the back of our jeep and hauled her to a vet who pulled the 2 remaining kids.  They were doing good, a big doeling and a buckling however the vet never really checked the mom even though I asked him to.  We got her home and she was to weak to take care of her kids and passed shortly there after.  I was devastated and overwhelmed I had a baby in the Nicu and no time for bottle baby goats.  I went to the Nicu to spend time with my baby girl but cried on and off all day about the doe.  I know these things happen in farming but I firmly believe that had I not been stretched so thin. I would have noticed the signs she was sick and she would have been fine. Luckily my husband was able to find someone to take over the care of the orphans which took an enormous load off of me.  We were able to bring our daughter home on feb 6th at 35 weeks still 5 full weeks early.  We still had 2 does to kid and I was terrified of having more problems during kidding.  On Monday we let our other two pregnant does out of the barn for a little sun because they had zero sign of labor.  We left for an hour and when we came home one of the does had kids, a dappled doe and a little buck in the yard perfectly healthy and no problems.  On Wednesday I looked out the back window to see the other doe that was pregnant had her kid a single little buckling in the yard not even an hour since I checked her. I never saw either of them in labor. So I have my own beautiful little girl and 3 cute little baby goats.  Thankfully I have no more goats due until July.