Sunday - first batch of kids born on the farm! Katie seemed very ready to have them. Dad and Paula were visiting and I felt bad leaving them at the outdoor train station while I raced home to check on Katie. I half expected to walk into the barn and see goat babies. There were none. But, the third half hour check-in had Katie down on her side, panting, legs all splayed. So I rush back inside to tell Jackie it's finally happening. We both try to keep our cools but my heart was racing and I am moving around like a crack addict. I try real hard to keep a cool demeanor as I kneel next to Katie. She is starting to push and I can see the beginnings of a goat baby starting to appear. Eventually some body part comes out and it's not the front hooves like all the pictures showed. It's upside down feet, feet that look an awful lot like they are attached to hind legs. So, she keeps pushing and eventually this little guy is mostly born, up to the shoulders. At this point his legs touch the ground and he starts kicking around, struggling. The only problem is his head and front legs are still inside his mom. I wait until Katie pushes and help yard him out. We hold him upside down to drain any fluid that he may have (did) inhale. We halfway towel him off and hand him over to mama. She immediately focuses on him and ignores whatever labor pains she may or may not be feeling. We finally end up taking him away so she can focus on having the rest of her babies. She gets down to it after about 20 minutes. This next one comes out ass backwards too but rear first, not hooves. Its a breech birth and poor old Katie is yelling like I've never heard a goat yell. I am petting her and telling her she's doing great and thinking how I am never having kids. This next little guys comes out but his umbilical cord is still attached to mom on the inside. Jackie puts down baby number 1 and starts toweling off baby number 2 while I get the floss and scissors to tie off and cut the cord. Then Jackie shouts and a third baby shoots out in a slip and slide of amniotic fluid. We are quickly becoming inundated with goat kids. We tie off and cut the cord of number 2 and each grab one of the kids to dry them off and hand them over to Katie. She seems restless still and after licking the kids for a few minutes she lays back down and I am thinking there is no way she is still going. But, she is. And she does and we are four deep in goat babies by the time all is said and done. The last came out backwards as well but Katie was a champion and powered through all of it. She mowed down the placenta before I could think if that was something I wanted her to be doing. We dipped the umbilical cords and raced seeing who could get their goat to start nursing first. Turns out trying to get a baby goat to take it's first drink of milk is a fairly frustrating activity but we had all four going strong within a half hour. At that point we left them with mama and went inside to warm up and feel proud of her and us for a such a strong showing.
Monday - Arden helped me big time today and we bucked and split the whole load of logs (minus the rotten one) that the logging company dropped off. Jackie joined in when she got home on her break and we ended up getting over a cord of wood bucked, split and stacked.
Tuesday - New Years eve. Had an awesome evening with Chris and Carly, Al, Dan and Mom and Jackie. Met up with the rugby team for a bit but really enjoyed a weird and wild night at the house that involved three cars pulling over on the way home for New Years kissing and quite a few empty bottles on the counter by the morning.
Wednesday - New Years Day kid disbudding. Met a fellow on Facebook (Oregon Homestead Classifieds group) who came over and disbudding the three bucklings. It was awful. I have not been so tense for so long. This guy was so generous with his time, patient with the kids and very kind to spend his day off helping a total stranger. But, it was a terrible thing to witness. The kids screamed like crazy and the smell was not just burnt hair but singed flesh. I am going to look into a more humane way to do this. I believe it's the right thing to do but if someone even touched me with that disbudding iron I'd punch them, let alone if they held it to my head for 8 seconds. Poor little dudes. This gave me bad dreams.
Thursday - Mom and Al helped me get the garden started today. We went from bare land covered in xmas tree stumps and stickers to something that sort of looks like it may turn into a garden. Mom also clipped the grape vine back which made the whole area look way less junky and wild.
Friday - finally went back to work.
Saturday - more gardening today, finished another bed. And spent more than a little bit of time with the goats. Went to the honky tonk in town tonight. Met a man named Wolf. Danced a lot. Paid for it.
Sunday - no more drinking.
