Mom, Emery, Fletcher, Greyden and I were at the house, washing barn towels and catching chickens. We let our chickens roam the property at home, but we wanted to bring them (and their coop) up to the new place. So Mom and I were showering while the boys caught the chickens and the laundry was going, and as soon as they were done they were going to come shower so we could get back to Scottsburg.

Mom, Fletcher and I had showered, the barn towels were clean, and we had just put the goat clothes in the dryer when we got the call.

“Hummer is going to kid soon. If you don’t want to miss it, get up here.”

Mom asked me if we wanted to get up there. “Of course! Why wouldn’t we?”

“Okay. Get your brothers and lets go. Make sure they have the chickens, and we’re going to need the towels.”

I ran outside to find the boys. “EMERY? GREYDEN! LETS GO! HUMMER’S KIDDING!”

They didn’t answer. I ran through the house to the back porch and repeated it.

“What? We’re leaving? But I didn’t get to shower!” Emery sounded upset.

“Sorry, but too bad. Hummer’s kidding – we need to get back now. Get the chickens loaded and grab the towels in the laundry room.”

I ran into the laundry room with a box that I’d found on the back porch. I needed my goat clothes, and they were all still in the dryer. I could hang them up in the soaproom – there was no way I was leaving them.

As soon as I had everything, I ran to the car. Everyone got in and we headed down the road.

We got onto the interstate and almost immediately got stuck behind two eighteen-wheelers. Mom groaned. “Go ahead, take your time. It’s not like I’m trying to get to a birth or anything.”

We got up to Scottsburg, bypassing the soaproom and heading straight for the barn. Colter came out to meet us.

“You’ve got time – she probable won’t go for another ten minutes or so.”

I glared at him. “You mean we did all that, and she’s not even going?!? I could have let my laundry dry! I’m freezing right now, and all my clothes are still wet. Which is not going to help!” I headed into the barn. I needed a clean towel to wrap around my shoulders.

So I was standing there with a towel around my shoulders, freezing my butt off. Dad looked at me and said “Why do you have a towel? Where’s your sweatshirts?”

“They’re all still wet. They would just make me even colder.”

“You do know we have a hair dryer back in the soaproom, right? You could help them dry with that. And don’t worry about Hummer – you’ve got at least ten minutes. “

I headed to the soaproom with my box of wet clothes. When I got there, I found my fleece, which was mostly dry. I laid everything else out to dry, grabbed the camera, and headed back out. Dad had said that I had ten minutes, but I didn’t want to take a chance.

When I arrived in the barn, I sat with Jade until Hummer started pushing.

Then I gave the camera to Hewitt and helped hold Hummer.

A couple of minutes later, we had our first baby.

“It’s a girl!”

After much discussion, we decided on Hazelnut. We let her stay in the stall for a while, letting Hummer lick her.

When Hummer started pushing again, we took Hazel into the milk room. A couple of minutes later, they brought in another baby. “It’s a boy, and his name is Hercules!” they announced.

Hercules

Maybe twenty minutes after that, they brought the last baby in. “This is Hibiscus!” Emery said, setting her down before going to get molasses water for Hummer.

Greyden got out the iodine and sprayed the umbilical cords. The iodine is supposed to protect them from infection.

When I was done feeding Hazel, I went back up to the soaproom. While my fleece was drier than my other sweatshirts, it was still damp, and it was cold in the barn!

The next day I went out to get profile pictures of each of them.

 

 

With Humming Bird done, we were half way through kidding season!

More in this series:

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