Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Surprise, Surprise!

The surprise was wonderful, but just a little distressing. It was exciting, but disappointing. It was expected, but unexpected. And we were unprepared. Very unprepared.

Let me explain.

I told you last week that Bess was due soon. And she was. However, we were expecting her to be overdue, because she really wasn't showing any signs of being close. We're not experts on goats yet (a fact which this whole experience so perfectly proves), and we were very foolishly expecting Bess to be a lot like Betty. Not that we thought Bess would be exactly like Betty, but we were using Betty as our standard since that was all we had ever experienced. Let's just say that Bess was very different.

Like I said, Bess had been showing pretty much zero signs of being anywhere near giving birth. Yesterday morning, Mom and I went shopping and left Isaac at home. It was around three in the afternoon, and we were almost home when we got a call from Isaac saying that he had gone out to check on the goats and found Bess with two babies! We had absolutely no idea that she would be kidding so soon, and we were all completely shocked. Oh, did I mention that she was two days earlier than her due date as well?  There's not much more of the story to tell really. She had twins, a boy and a girl. We sure were happy that everything was okay and that she delivered just fine on her own, but I was disappointed to have missed the birth. I can't emphasize enough how surprised we were. I think I'm still kind of in shock over it all.

Okay, enough jabbering; I'm sure you want to see pictures of our two newest adorable babies!







Aren't they adorable?  They look very much alike in my opinion; only their colors are different.  The white and black one is the girl, and the brown and black is the boy.







We haven't named them yet.  Isaac very kindly gave me the privilege of naming the little girl, but I haven't been able to think of one that seems fitting.  Got any suggestions?

~Kiah

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

We just can't seem to get all our ducks in a row...

...and we only have four of them!


Mamma and Daddy went shopping by themselves last Saturday, and when they came back they had a very pleasant surprise for us!  Ducklings on a buy-one-get-one-free sale?  Really, who can pass that up?


These little guys are called Khaki Campbells.  From what I understand, they are one of the best layers of all duck breeds.  Apparently, and I didn't know this before, this breed of ducks lays an average of 300 eggs in a 365 day year.  That is even more than a chicken!  


I had never had ducks before Saturday, and I was naively unprepared for their behavior.  I suppose I shouldn't have been expecting them to act like chicks, but somehow I was surprised when, instead of drinking water while standing outside of the dish, the little duckling plopped right down into the dish of water and began drinking!  Silly me, ducks are ducks--not chickens!  :)


In other news...

Betty's kids are finally weaned and looking extremely fat in my opinion.  They have grown so much!



Bess is due to have her own kids in 9 days!


And I really couldn't resist posting this picture.  Doesn't S'more look just like a little puppy?


~Kiah

P.S.  I almost forgot to mention that I've finally reached my 100th post!  Don't congratulate me.  It only took me three and a half years to make it here.