Home Grown

When it started snowing in the wee hours of Saturday morning sunrise made it clear it was weather unfit for man or beast. The goats came out a few times but quickly retreated to the barn. The day passed with the girls inside entertaining themselves with various diversions and movies. Steve and Steven played video games until they got to arguing and Steven began crying and that put that there to an end for several hours.

We cooked. We ate. We movie watched. We napped.

When Steven braved the snow for the evening barn check it was business as usual.

Until he came jumping over fences and not using gates and began to pound on the back door, which was locked, like the hounds of hell were on his ass and scared the living tar out of me.

Once I got the door open the only words he said as he gasped between deep breaths, “Babies. Barn. Baies everywhere.”

Holy crap!

The girls threw on barn clothes and coats and dashed as fast as they could through six inches of snow racing to the barn with towels and blankets.

Two came in stone cold and barely breathing. A flurry of defrosting colostrum and heating towels and blanket and stoking the fire to a raging inferno began. It was a slim chance these would live.

A third baby was bleeting and feisty. As soon as the milk was ready it hungrily drank a half a cup and soon settled down to sleep in a laundry basket my the fire.

The girls and I sat with two limp babies. We each prayed for them and asked for God’s will. We slid a heating pad under blankets and towels. We wrapped them in towels we rotated in and out of the drier. Two hours later we had babies who suddenly became alert and struggled to stand.

The girls took the night shift and set their alarms for every two hours to bottle feed the babies and help them gain strength.

Yesterday the babies spent most of the day sleeping by the fire.

I slugged out through the snow to the barn and with Steve and Colby’s help we milked two does and got one and a half gallons of colostrum. w00t!!

This morning they are alert and active. They have eaten a full bottle, pooped more than I want to clean up at any given time and are currently, once again, sleeping by the fire.

Now, for the rest of the story (que Paul Harvey) ….

These babies will soon be going to a wonderful new home in the Virginia Blue Ridge. Penny and her husband are putting together a goat barn and fencing a small paddock for these girls to enjoy.

Pop over to Penny’s place and read about all the excitement of this soon-to-be goat mommy.

I’ll add some more photos of the babies later today.

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