Yesterday 5 new baby goats were born at The Little Farm – two of them at midnight – and their mommy Julia, didn’t want them so she kicked them, tried to stand on them – and so we had to take them away from her and then – over the next two hours until 2am – teach her how to be a mommy. Finally she accepted them – we had to do a lot of nasty stuff – eg rub the placenta all over them after I had held them for an hour to try to warm them up. It was one of the coldest nights of the year – 39 degrees – and they were of course born wet – and were shivering away – so we have made little coats for them and dried them off, covered them up and then I held them until they stopped shaking.
This morning Julia is being a better mom and allowing them to suck – and we are supplementing that with colostrum from the other goat Cami. WHEW what a job – but such cute little critters – here they are! And in about 6 weeks we will start making cheese again – once the babies are getting ALL the milk they need – and we start taking a little each day so that the goats’ milk production increases and there is enough for everyone! Happy time at the Little Farm – the miracle of life.