Our Farm is 15.3 acres near Bastrop TX, with goats, chickens, cats dogs and other assorted animals. We raise gourds, herbs,flowers and a kitchen garden. We will chronicle our adventures here warts and all. Mostly warts I think.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

And another

Friday (the 30th), 216 kidded... but we weren't there (out picking up feed and other stuff) and one of the twins she bore died... it was born with the pileus still around its body and probably suffocated in it. Mike and I are very sad when these things happen to our goats... we weren't there but should have been to remove the caul and let the kid breathe. But we can't always be home.

But the other one, the one that survived is doing well.

Yesterday, we cleaned the barn's walls (filled with nasty, dusty cobweb-like things and just plain dirt) and did maintenance to the stalls like attaching new wire on some of them. Mike also fixed and affixed the four feeders we bought last month and installed them on the doors of the stalls. I put wire on the outside of them so that goats couldn't get to the feeders from the outside. They all can eat side-by-side, now. I hope.

But in the process of doing a lot of work in the barn, Mike left the stall door open (not latched) and early this morning, apparently, when he went to unstick yet another kid that got stuck in the hay feeder, many goats were milling about 216's stall, probably eating all her hay and feed, as well. Her release date wasn't until Monday (three days to allow moms to recover and to bond with their kid(s) is the norm).

This morning, all the goats seemed to take their kids out and around to the dogleg -- you could see the newly-born ones jumping and running around like crazy. It's a great time of year for us.

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