Kids Almost Three Weeks Old

and I feel like I'm goin on 80! Questioning if I'm cut out for this venture. Probably nothing a little Xanax wouldn't cure ;-) Hope seems to be having a time of it keeping all four kids looking well fed so I've started supplementing a couple of them. Of course the one little doe Khloe is the smallest of the foursome and she thank goodness took to the bottle without hesitation. She was finding it kinda hard to knock her brothers off one of the TWO boobies when a couple are twice her size. So it's twenty some trips a day to the barn to gorge Hope with grain/herbs (in an attempt to keep her producing enough) and bottle feed the other two. The whole time I've got pubescent Gizmo who is attempting to show the world that even IF he doesn't have the family jewels anymore, that he is indeed a BUCK! Try and explain that politically correct to guests who come out to look at the sweet baby goats (usually with their own babies in tow). And then there is his OTHER new little caper of anytime I look like I'm going to sit down, he sneaks up from behind and if I have my hair in a ponytail, he YANKS it about clean out of my head! In between all the suckin, humpin and thumpin the kids have been totally entertaining. Still amazed at their rapid development at such a young age. Its like they were born ready to roll! Spring loaded and quick as greased lightening! I can foresee next weeks scenerio already... being out LONG after the sun goes down....trying to herd the miniature antelopes into their foot and a half wide by two foot tall barn door. Wonder if I could teach Weeny to do it?? ;-)

Haven't had much time to take pic's but above is grandson Ty Parker when he visited last weekend with his buddy Socks.

They're here!

What an experience!!! I've been a midwife of sorts to several litters of puppies and kitties, and recently the tub birth of my granddaughter, but nothing prepared me for the birthing of 4...count em!...4 Nigerian Dwarf kids!! It was a slow go the first part of day 145 with a lot of rolling around on the ground. Hope didn't seem so happy in her newly built kidding pen so I let her roam the big pen the better part of the morning. Once she got the little gyppers where she wanted them in the shoot, it was Katy Bar The Door! They came out at the speed of sound. I no sooner got the first one dry and the second one came....I didn't even have the second one's umbilical cord completely out and the third one arrived! I was up to my elbows in goats when the forth one made his appearance. By the time I got the forth one dried the first one was on his feet bouncing around on top of ME to find a boobie ;-) It was just amazing! Hope did a wonderful job cleaning them up and slowly got back on her feet. I had called Randy home from work earlier, as I knew Hope was getting close and I had the granddaughter for the day and knew I couldn't handle it all. I told him when she started popping them out I would holler at him in the monitor to come out. He had put the granddaughter down for a nap and had just stepped out to potty our 14 year old Afghan who doesn't potty so quick anymore. Hope started kidded with me softly chortling Randy....Raandy....Raaandy towards the monitor. No Randy. Which soon became RANDY, OMG another one....RANDY.....OMG another one....RAAAANDY!! When he finally made it out to the barn all four were dry and on their feet. The look on his face when he spotted us all was just priceless. He did manage to help me get their umbilical cords dipped and moved into the kidding pen where we watched them get started at the milk bar. We ended up with three bucks and one little doe. All seem to be doing well at one week today, as I try to cram in as fast as I can, what comes next and when ;-) Kinda like the birth itself!


Pictured is the new herd at ten minutes old.