Goat babies!!

Last Saturday on the 9th our smallest goat in the middle of the night had one does. We went to go check on the goats and saw our two other pregnant goats, we couldn't see her.  Benjamin and I were joking "where is she?" "She's with her baby goat". Benjamin rounded the corner and I said where is she, uh with her baby. What an easy delivery for us! She had her all cleaned up by the morning. She has been an excellent mamma. Her own mother had rejected her, so to see her step up and be so protective and attentive is quite fun to witness. The second goat who has been a mother before delivered her 3 babies an hour after church got out, last Sunday the 10th. The kids got home checked on the goats then went inside. Meanwhile I got home from a meeting an hour later and as I am driving up I see two more babies in the stall. I go and get the kids and we were oohing and aahing over their cuteness when low and behold a third baby comes! It was a quiet and relatively quick experience. Seeing her birth made us all think that goats births must be easy.... Not so. Our poor last pregnant goat looked so ready to pop. She had the biggest belly, we for sure thought she had at least 3 babies. Her delivery happened yesterday, the 16th, in the afternoon. She was hollering! She was not happy and it was taking forever. We had a  torrential downpour earlier in the day and the kids took off to go check on the wash to see if it was flowing. They wanted out of the birthing experience! I texted my goat friends and one came on over in case there was a problem. While my friend was driving, the goat finally delivered. This buck was huge!! He was already bigger than his cousins who are a week older. No wonder she was struggling!! Sometime passed and my friend was worried she had another one inside that might be struggling. So she told Benjamin and I that one of us had to go in and check... I reluctantly volunteered because my hands are smaller. I put gloves on and lubed up...I didn't hesitate and got right in. No more babies just the one. I felt like such a ranching badass. I reached veterinarian status in one disgusting act.  So now we have 3 adult does, 3 baby bucks and 2 baby does.. Benjamin was asking me yesterday "how long are we going to do this goat thing?" Good question, for now the babies sure are fun 😁

First doe the easiest birth!

The first two births of our second goat

The one we watched that wasn't traumatic

 Because this birth happened on a Sunday there were a lot of well-dressed goat attendants, they look Amish :)