Another Adventure on the Farm (In which we decide that three baby goats just wasn't enough)

Well, I'm very sorry if you are growing tired of posts about the farm; however, that seems to be our life just now.  Today I'm posting about our newest adventure--Boer goats!

We got an opportunity last week to take two baby Boer (Boer is a meat breed) goats for free. The people we got them from have over 300 Boer goats that live on thousands of acres and live off of the land.  Once in a while during kidding season, the owners have to go through the herd and make sure there are no little babies that are sickly or may not make it in the wild.  Last week they had found two of these--one buck who was the runt of triplets, and one baby girl who was abandoned.  They both were very sickly and could not walk when they found them, so they brought them to their house and began to take care of them.  We got them when they were approximately four days old. They both had several different problems and we were not sure if they would make it or not.  They are doing much better now though, and we think that they will be just fine.

This is S'more.  He had a sore on his leg which I think he had rubbed raw by crawling.  That is much better now, and out of the two, he is the healthier.  He's the one you will see running and jumping around just like a little goat kid should.  (By the way, S'more's eyes are not really blue; they were just reflecting that way in the picture.)

 
This is Bordeaux.  She is still a little frail, but adorable nonetheless.  She has a little raspy cough occasionally and one cloudy eye that it seems will simply not get better.  We are afraid she might be blind in the one eye, but we are not sure.

These little guys are simply adorable.  They are living in the house for now until they get a little stronger, and I think we've spoiled them because of it.  But we can't help it!  S'more simply loves to be held and cuddled, so much so that we call him the lap goat.  He will cuddle right into your lap and either sleep or just rest, completely content.  You can see the truth of this from the pictures below.

 Bordeaux and S'more are not related, but they've lived together since the first or second day after they were born, so they are absolutely inseparable.  If we let them out (which we do occasionally) and S'more realizes that Bordeaux has wandered off and he can't see her, he will start wailing and running around looking for her until he finds her.  It is the cutest thing to see.

Here, both Daddy and S'more fell asleep in the chair and I just couldn't pass up this shot!  Talk about spoiled, huh?

 On a side note, I want to announce that spring is here!  We are definitely having warmer weather and it would be lovely if only the wind would let us enjoy it!  Unfortunately, the wind is unrelenting--at least for now.  Hopefully it will let up enough for us to enjoy the beautiful spring time soon.

~Kiah

Guess what we found today?

 Our very first eggs!  Hooray!  I can think of about a thousand things I can't wait to make with our very own eggs!  Mmmm...

~Kiah

Kiddos!

Tertius - white and black

Adah - brown and black  (she had a goofy little floppy ear for a while, but that's better now)

Apollos - black and brown with white boots

~Kiah

What a day it has been!

Praise God, our days of waiting are over! Betty gave birth to beautiful, healthy triplets today!  Here's how it all went down:

It just so happened that both Mom and Dad left early this morning to go visit my Grandma who lives two hours away.  Isaac and I stayed at home just in case Betty delivered.  About 8:00 am Betty started showing some serious signs of impending labor.  Isaac and I gathered all we needed, went out to be with her, and called Mom and Dad to let them know that Betty was going into labor.  We thought we were going to go through the delivery by ourselves, but Mom and Dad surprised us about an hour later by showing up.  They had decided to turn around and come home.  That turned out to be a major blessing, as it would have been much more difficult had we been by ourselves.

Isaac did a terrific job through the whole labor.  You would have thought he had done this hundreds of times!  Betty too, was a trooper!  This was her 4th freshening, and she did a great job through the whole thing.

By about 10:00 we knew for sure those babies were coming soon.  Betty was losing a lot of fluids, pawing the ground, and lying down then standing up repeatedly.  We didn't have to wait very long.  At 11:00 there were two little hooves and one little black nose sticking out.  At 11:05 the whole body followed and we found that Betty's first kid was a little girl!  She was in perfect position, and Isaac just helped out a little by pulling on the feet as Betty pushed.  Isaac named her Adah.  I want to pause here for just a moment to say what a miracle this was to watch!  It is such a wondrous thing to watch a life that God has created come into the world, even when it is just a little goat.  I couldn't stop smiling through the whole delivery.  It was just so amazing to see!

We were still cleaning up the first kid when Betty began having more contractions.  This next one came out very quickly, so quickly in fact that Mom and Dad didn't even know she was having another one until it was delivered.  This second kid, born at 11:22 was a buck, which Isaac named Apollos.

Now we were busy cleaning and drying the babies.  We were all in awe at everything we had just seen.  There is a technique called "bouncing" in which you can sort of feel if there are any more babies inside the doe.  Isaac tried this on Betty and initially said that he thought he felt something in there and thought she might have another one.  Time passed, however, and when Betty showed no signs of another kid coming, we decided that she was only having twins, which we were all completely fine with!

We had called some friends when Betty had first gone into labor and they decided to come over (and that's saying something since they live an hour and a half away!).  They arrived about 20 minutes after the second kid was born.  About this time, Isaac milked Betty out and then we bottle-fed the babies. 

 

 

    

After at least an hour of being out there with the kids and Betty, we decided to head inside to get some food.  Before the food was ready to eat, Isaac and Rylee and Trent (our friends) went out to check on the kids.  When they got to the goat pen they received a surprise!  There was a little hoof sticking out of Betty!  Isaac realized that it was a back hoof and there was only one.  This means that the baby was coming out backwards and had one leg bent back.  He thought that he was going to have to reach inside Betty to help her, and he was concerned that the baby might be dead, because the hoof was cold and he didn't know how long it had been there.  It only took a few pulls on that little hoof, however, and Betty's third kid came into this world, alive and well!  This was at 1:35, about 2 hours after the second kid was born.  I'm sure you can imagine how shocked and delighted we all were at the arrival of this third little kid!  I still can't believe it.

When we began thinking of names several days ago, we had found several names that we liked.  One of these, Tertius, meant "third" and so we decided that if we had a buck that was the third kid, we would name him that.  Agrippa means "feet first" so we determined to name a buck that came out with his back feet first Agrippa.  Betty's third kid qualified for both!  Therefore, his name is Tertius Agrippa.  :)

 Adah

Apollos

 

 Tertius Agrippa

Yes, our days of waiting are over (at least until Bess is due!), but our days of waking up in the middle of the night to bottle feed kids have just begun!  Fun, fun... :)

~Kiah

We're expecting...

Betty is due to give birth any day now!  Words cannot tell how excited we all are.  We have many questions running through our minds right now.  How many kids will there be?  One?  Two?  Three?  What will they look like?  Will they be black like their mamma or brown and black like their papa?  Will they be boys or girls?  And the question that most often is in my mind: When will they come?!  I must admit that I'm not very patient when it comes to waiting for something as exciting as this.  Every time I go out to see Betty and check on her I find myself imploring her to "please have your babies right now!"  And perhaps the worst part about it is that I can do nothing to hurry it up and neither can Betty.  It is simply a waiting game, and one that I find very difficult.

Nevertheless, the birth must come eventually and we are all in a state of expectancy and excitement.  You may expect to see pictures of adorable baby goats very soon!

~Kiah

And the winner is...

Well, the naming of our roosters is official.  With five votes, the names Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley overwhelmed the other three options and won their rightful place as belonging to our two roosters.  Though my choice did not win, I certainly cannot say that I am unhappy with the results.  :)

I want to say thank you to all those who participated in our little poll!  We sure had fun.

~Kiah

A Naming Dilemma (in which we ask a favor)

These are our two roosters.  I would introduce them to you, except that they don't have names yet.  And that's a problem, at least in my mind.  Names are very important to me and they always have been, even when their owners are only chickens (or stuffed animals).  So, we need your help on this one.  You see, we were trying to name them today and were having a bit of trouble.  Each member of the family put out their suggestion, but we couldn't make up our minds.

Isaac's suggestion:  Luther and Calvin  (My immediate reaction to this one was, "Oh, please no."  Isaac, however, loves the idea.)
My suggestion:  Tertius and Felix  (Names from the Bible)
Dad's suggestion:  Tony and Ray  (You can really only understand this one if you watch a show by Living Waters called On the Box, which we love.)
Mom's suggestion:  Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley  (If you know my mom, her suggestion doesn't surprise you a bit.)

After a bit of discussion, Isaac said, "I know!  Kiah, you put a poll on your blog and let your readers decide."  So that's what I'm doing.  And now, if you would please vote on the poll to the right we would all be very indebted to you.  We are placing the (oh so important!) decision of naming our roosters in your hands.  None of us will vote, and we will name the roosters whichever set of names you choose.  So, dear readers, please vote!  Right now!

~Kiah