Tuesday, March 10, 2015

February to March: Anniversaries to Baby Goats...

Strange title, I know...but I will explain.  February was a tough month in that the anniversary of the passing of our baby, Francis Marie was on the 6th and Mary Grace's anniversary was the 28th.  So the month was sort of bookended by these anniversaries.  I don't know if I adequately grieved Francis Marie, but I felt particularly sad on the 6th.  The 28th was full of snow and ice, but we made it to the cemetery on the 29th and it happened to be a miserable, cold, wet day.

But February and March kept us busy, because it is now kidding season for our goats.  And as this was our first kidding season, it has been full of anticipation, excitement and a bit of nervousness. 

These are our two mama goats:


 Amaretto
 

and Cameo.
 
 
 
Cameo went into labor first.  Poor girl. 12 hours of pressing her head against the wall.
 


She delivered two bucklings around 7am.


 


This is one of her bucklings below (yet to be named).

 
And Ian has started calling her other buckling "Snow Runner" (below).
 
 
That same evening, Amaretto went into labor and her labor was even longer; ending around 11am with the delivery of triplets!
 
 
Ian was really excited because he and Rob were home to help deliver these babies; just the two of them!




 
The kids were tuckered out their first day of life.

 
But two days later they have lots of energy!
Here is a picture of Amaretto's only doeling (below), still unnamed.

 
And one of the bucklings; Isabel has named this one Charlie.
 
 
Close up of Charlie.
 

 
And the third triplet (second buckling), still unnamed.
 
 
Charlie and his sister (below).

 
Our two "teenagers" were worn out after babysitting all the "babies".
 

 
 

Caroline doesn't mind the newest babies, but the teenagers are starting to get a little rough for her.
She was sipping "seashell tea" from a dog food bowl here. 
Yum.
 
Below:  All the kids for this year (7 total) together.
 

 
It's really tricky to get pictures with these little goats, because at first there is only one.
 
 
And then there are...well, more than one.

 
And nobody wants to stand still!