And It Begins...

Wow! What a ride! The past 3 days have surely been hectic! We added 5 kidsd to our herd over the last three days. The first two were born on the coldest day of the month. The other three born in somewhat milder conditions this morning.

The first two, whom we have yet to really name, were born on Wednesday morning. The temps were in the teens and we were not expecting them to arrive then. Mama goat gave no indications that she was anywhere near labor. So I trotted off to work. I had my son check on the goat's water (it had frozen solid and I did not have time before work to change it out). My mom had driven him over to the barn, but was soon alerted that we had issues--two very chilled little goats that needed to be warmed...and warmed FAST. The larger of the two was really struggling. He was barely breathing and needed warmth fast. Mom and my son took the babies in the house to finish getting dried off and warmed up. It took a while, but they warmed up nicely. I left work to come and milk the mom so we could bottle feed the babies. As you can see they are cute little boogers...the four-legged kids, that is. The two-legged kids are pretty cute as well;)

Daughter with new babies

Son with new babies...lying on his bed, no less!

Well that was Wednesday. Thursday came and went with no happenings. Then along comes Friday! I went out early to milk the mom of the first babies and give them their morning milk. I opened the gate to the barn, and, lo and behold, there stood a new baby goat! I rushed around and took care of the other babies, since it looked like the new little guy was doing fine. Next, I took the new mom to the milk stand to get the ever-important colostrum (first milk that includes antibodies and enzymes necessary for the little ones to thrive) from her. She did OK, but not as well as I had hoped. She gave me enough to get the new guy started out OK, though. I scooped up the new little guy and wrapped him in a towel and ran into the house. Got my wife out of bed to help get the little guy to take a bottle (important note: dear wife is NOT a morning person, NOR a great animal lover :) while I took a shower...could not be late for work! My wife did great with the little one, but could not get him to take the bottle. My dear mom came over a bit later to help so my wife could get to work. I got to work and started my day when the phone call came..."We have more babies!" So I made arrangements to take another 4 hours of vacation time...I would have to hurry to get things done before I had to be back to work. Got home and made sure all the new babies had their colostrum and were warm and situated in their warming hut in the barn. By the time I left, they were doing just fine, as you can see.

In the Warming Hut, under the heat lamp

"Can't you see I just want to take a nap?"

It really does make you think about how precious life is. It is also a reminder that, in another time and another place, these little cuties could have been destined to go up in smoke on the Great Altar...all for mine and your misdeeds. Bless the LORD for taking my place!

And so the journey starts anew for this budding little goat farm. With blessings from the Father like these, we are sure to grow just as these little guys will. I will try to keep this blog really updated from now on. Until next time...

Oh, and Shabbat Shalom!