It's Twins!

A little over two weeks ago we were again blessed with more kids. This time I was prepared and had recognized that our older doe Darcia was in labor while I was doing the morning chores.

I noticed a discharge about 6 AM on Sunday 3/29. I watched her very closely while doing the rest of my chores and while preparing breakfast but she seemed to just be acting normal, grazing and allowing our first kid Blessing to "goat surf" on her back. So we continued our day and finished breakfast about 9 AM.

I checked on her again and still did not notice any contractions or odd behavior. However not more than an hour later the kids once again told me that Darcia was giving birth in the pen! This time I had everything ready and was already scrubbed so I ran out the door and into the field.

Joucing Joppa aka JoJo arrived first and was as cute as a bug! She was again another doeling and I felt such joy that the Lord again blessed us with another doe! Scott, who is not known for being an opptimist made me check several times before he finally realized that yes indeed God had given us another doeling!

I cleaned her up, administered Nutri drench to both JoJo and Darcia and put on the cord clamp. Things were much smoother this time and Scott was even home to watch! Lilli my seven year old was such a good helper and brought everything I asked her for to me very quickly. We used old feed sacks to cover the pen floor and we needed way more than I thought and the paper towels went very quickly as well.

After a while Darcia began to lay down again and let us know that she was not done! Pretty soon thereafter I saw another snout this time with the teeth showing like a silly smile. Everthing appeared to be fine so I just stayed back and let Darcia do her job. A few minutes later Jumping Jebediah aka Jeb was born. Obviously this little guy was a buckling and quite a bit larger than his big sister. They both began standing and nursing a little slower than Blessing but within about 10 minutes they were both nursing well. Again things went very swiftly and without complication execpt for my running out of paper towels. Next time I will lay in a huge Costco sized supply before kidding season!

As for the clean up well, thanks to the feed sacks and paper towels all I really needed to do was add everything to a trash bag. I did have to fight Darcia for the after birth but I won and got to throw it away. At that point I was also feeling very thankful that I was a human being and did not have to clean up after my own births! Darcia did not seem to mine however so I will assume that God also blessed the animals with an amazing instinct to do what needs to be done no matter how nasty it is!

So in the end once again the Lord was so good to us again! Out of three kids born two of them are doelings and will remain on our farm. Unfortunatly since Jeb is related to two of our does he will have to become a herd sire at another very fortunate farm. He is a glorious boy with beautiful conformation like his sire and a very very sweet disposition. I know that Lilli especially will find it hard to let him go because he follows her around like a puppy and loves for her to hold him. JoJo will also be sad to see him go as they never seem to be apart from each other but in no time at all he will begin to think only about breeding and would not be able to be with her anyway. We pray the good Lord blesses us again and allows us to purchase a new buckling from great milk lines so that we will be able to continue improving our herd. I know that whomever is blessed with Jeb will improve be getting not only a handsome fellow but his dam is milking like a dream and had the best udder I have seen.

We will continue to be thankful every day for our blessings and pray that they will multiply as well! However we are content with what we have already been given and if we are not able to find a buckling then we know that there is a reason and we will wait.

Unexpected Blessing

Well it has been a while so I will update my blog with what has been going on since February. I can not possibly tell about everything but I will hit the highlights.

First it turned out that our yearling doe Scarlett was indeed bred. I had written her breeding date correctly in my journal and then crossed it out and written another date, I still have no idea why I did that. So I was a month ahead of schedule but Scarlett was not and she gave birth right on time!

Our first kid was a total suprise obviously and thankfully she kidded in the middle of the afteroon. At the time I was actually "locked" out of the house because there was a wasp inside of which I am terribly afraid of! Since it was about 3 PM and my husband was to be home around 3:45 I decided to sit outside and wait. Well, not too long after I sat down and was talking to a friend on the phone my daughters ran and told me something was wrong with Scarlett. They looked over and they said she had a "bubble" coming out of her backside. I looked over myself, quickly got off the phone and ran inside for my birthing kit. I never saw the wasp but in my hurry I had forgotten about it anyway so it could have been on my shoulder and I would not have paid any attention.

So, by the time I grabbed my kit, scrubbed up and gathered some clean towels the birth was over! It was less than 10 minutes from the time the girls saw the "bubble" and my getting to the field but none the less I missed it. All I was able to do was clean the baby up and administer some nutri drench and put on the cord clamp. Later after the kid began to nurse I also gave her some probios. Scarlett only gave us one kid but she was huge for a Nigerian and beautiful!

The girls said she was a blessing so that became her name. We are retaining her of course because she will always have the honor of being our very first kid and thankfully she was a doeling! It was totally unexpeted and so easy! I was not prepared to not have any complications but it was so glorious to be so pleasantly suprised! The Lord blessed us for sure. I think I was riding a wave of joy for days afterwards. God is so good to bless us with animals, they make every day a new experience, sometimes a joy and sometimes a sorrow but always different and never boring!