I was lying in my nice warm bed, pretending I didn’t have to get up. It was the first night we’d been home in over two weeks, and it was so good to be home. I’d taken a nice long shower the night before and then fallen into bed, falling asleep immediately.

I heard someone pushing on my door (it’s a little sticky) and hid under the covers.

“Brett, honey, it’s time to get up. Dad and the boys are already up in Scottsburg, and there’s a new baby.”

I sat right up. “Who – Pegasus or Tesla?”

“Pegasus. Sundgau doeling – Bathsheba.”

She’s Blackjack Pegasus, so her babies would be B. (If you want to know, Blackjack is the name of Percy Jackson’s pegasus. :D)

When I got up to the soaproom I went to meet her and take her pictures. She was standing up in the stall, staring at me when I arrived. I took her out to the run and dropped her off at the end, running back to the front of it. As she came running towards me I took her picture.

When I was done, I brought her back into the stall. She was still a little cold, and it was windy out. Then I went back to the soaproom and created her profile page on the website. 🙂

We only have one goat left to kid – Tesla. We think she must have caught the second cycle, which means she won’t kid for a while. Hopefully it will be soon though, so we can get back to normal! 🙂

I arrived in the barn for my shift, computer and internet cord in hand. I was hoping to get three blog posts written in my three hour shift, and I needed the internet to upload them.

Dad came around the corner of the stall. “Hey.” He leaned against the stall, watching the kids.

I set my stuff down on the chair and stood next to him. “Are you going to bed? You’ve got the 12-4 shift – you’ve gotta get some sleep if you’re going to.”

He shook his head. “I think Red Bird’s going. I’m going to sit with her.”

I looked around the barn, trying to locate Red. There she was – in the stall that I couldn’t see her from if I was using the internet. I sighed – it looked like I wouldn’t be getting my posts written.

Mom and the boys came out and sat with us for a couple of minutes. Dad sent them all to bed. “We’ll come get you. Go to bed.”

I pleaded with Red Bird. “Red, sweetie, listen. If you’re going to kid, either go now, so I can get to bed as soon as my shift is over, or wait until after midnight, so Mom can have birthday goats. Okay? Can you do that for me?”

Her response was a groan.

Dad sat down in the corner (so she wouldn’t be able to) and Red decided that sitting next to him would be a good idea. Dad grimaced as she settled down. “Um, thanks Red. That’s exactly what I wanted.”

Dad and Red

 At eleven, we could tell that something had changed. Dad gloved up and went in to check everything out. I was holding Red, which didn’t go so well. Every time she pushed I slid another inch down the wall. Finally I couldn’t go any farther – my leg was pinned against a beam.

Fortunately, that beam made it easier to hold her. After a couple of minutes, Dad said “The babies are tangled. Call Mom and tell her to come down here.”

I pulled out my phone and waited for Mom to answer. “She’s not answering. I’m going to go wake her up.”

I ran to the soaproom, woke her up, and went to get a banana. I was hungry, and I didn’t know how long this would take.

When I got back down there I looked at my watch. “Okay Red, you’ve got 27 minutes until Mom’s birthday. Do you think you can wait?”

Dad started rearranging the babies once Mom got there, and soon we were ready to go. Five minutes later we had a little black baby on the ground. (There’s no pictures because I was needed to help.)

“It’s a boy.”

Well, that was disappointing. We were going to keep a girl out of Red.

“Raleigh?”

“Randal?”

“Rainbow?”

“Rambling.

“Rambo!”

“Okay, I like Rambo.”

The moment we were done decided his name, the second baby was coming out. I caught it and brought it over next to Rambo.

“Another boy.”

I looked at my watch.

“Seriously, Red? You couldn’t wait FOUR minutes?”

“It’s 11:56?”

“Yeah. Well, that stinks. I wanted Mom to have a birthday goat! And so did Indigo!”

After a couple of minutes, we decided on the name Rebel and Mom sent me to wake up Colter.

I walked into the milk room and shook Colter. “Colter?” I whispered, not wanted to wake up the other boys.

He didn’t do anything. He didn’t even move.

I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight app, covering the light with my hand. Then I found his face, moved my hand and shone the light full force into his face.

He might have been a little mad at me. 😀

It didn’t really matter though, because Mom came through the door with Rebel and turned the light on. Emery and Greyden woke up and they took care of the babies.

Greyden with Rambo

Rebel standing up for the first time

Rebel

I went to bed then – it was almost 12:30 and I was SO tired!

A week later I went to take their pictures:

Rambo

Rebel

We were SO close to being done with kidding season!

It was a Saturday morning, and we were in full “goat preparation” mode. We had five baby goats going home that day, so we had to get them ready. We’d tattooed and de-horned them the day before, but I still had to get paperwork ready for three of them.

I was in the middle of printing out the paperwork for the first one when Mom came running out of the green screen room.  “Belle’s kidding!” she said. Well, that was a good thing. Every once in a while there is a goat that we don’t have a due date on – Belle was that goat. So the fact that she was kidding before our last one meant we wouldn’t be waiting on her.

“How long do I have? Do I have time to finish Sandy’s paperwork?”

“I have no idea. You’d better come down to the barn.”

I sighed and pulled the SD card out of the computer. Sticking it in the camera, I grabbed my sweatshirts and headed out the door. It had gotten really warm! The weather was beautiful! A perfect day for babies to go to their new homes.

“So… is she actually doing anything?” I asked as I walked in the barn door. Sometimes these first fresheners took a while to actually get going.

“Yeah, she’s doing something. But you probably have time to go finish what you were doing.”

I ran back to the soaproom and finished the kid papers. The moment I was done  I ran back to the barn with the goat notebook clutched to my chest.

Belle was panting, pawing at the ground. When goats are in labor they gather a big pile of hay/straw for their babies to be born into. Since it was Belle’s first time, she wasn’t doing as good a job as a second or third freshener might, but she was still getting a pretty good pile!

We had Red Bird and Ivy in the stall with us, and Red Bird kept coming over to annoy Belle. After a while we finally got her to go away.

Twenty minutes later, Belle actually got going. There’re a couple new pictures up on the birth pictures page, if any of you want to see those. 🙂

“This is the biggest baby we’ve had in a while! Look how big his head is!”

“His?”

It’s kinda funny, but it almost always works. Someone will say “Oh, look how big his hooves are!” or Dad will say “Let’s get you turned around, baby girl.” We don’t do it on purpose – if we did, we’d always say girl. But it’s what comes out, and it’s usually right. I don’t know how that works. LOL

Sure enough, it was a boy. Someone asked “what letter is Belle?” “She’s Y – she’s Yellow Belle.”

“Okay… so Yak?”

“Yabba Dabba Do?”

“Yaccident?”

“Yale?”

“Yarn?”

Red Bird came over and started sniffing the baby.

Red sniffing the baby

“Okay, we need to figure this out. I like Yale.”

“Yale works.”

“So his name’s Yale? Because I need to know to write out his collar.”

“Yep, it’s Yale.”

Yale taking his first steps

I headed into the milk room with Yale and got his collar written out. As I came out, a family came into the barn, ready to pick up their new baby goat. I could hear Mom talking to them. “Oh, you should have come twenty minutes ago – you just missed the birth!”

Emery came running into the soaproom. “I’m getting a drink and going back out. I think Zenith is going to be kidding soon!”

I finished the order I was working on and got the camera out of the office. I checked to make sure the SD card was in and grabbed my fleece and sweatshirts. I found my boots and sat down to tie them, scooting out of Emery’s way as he came running through the soaproom.

When I got down to the barn I scanned the stalls, locating Zenith. She was in the stall next to the babies, all the way at the end. As I walked down there I pulled a ponytail off of my wrist and put my hair up.

I got to the stall and stepped inside, turning on the camera just in time to catch this shot:

Emery mimicking a goat

“Emery? What are you doing?” He looked at me and blushed. “Um… just mimicking Zenith. She keeps making that face, so I was showing her how ridiculous she looked.”

Whatever he was doing, it was enough to get her to start pushing. A couple of minutes later, we had our first baby.

“It’s a girl!”

“She’s Zenith’s Light, so L names.”

“Lady.”

“Lavinia?”

“Lanie.”

“No, I don’t like those…” Mom said. “Hmm. Layla?”

“Mom – call her Larken. Then we can call her Lark.”

Everyone agreed that was a fine name. So we took Larken into the milk room. A few minutes later, they brought her brother in. “His name is Leonardo!”

Drying Larken and Leonardo off

They were the smallest babies we’d had in a while – not as small as Sandy, but close!

Normally we’ll take the new babies out to join the others relatively quickly. But because these two were so small (and they were cold) we kept them in the milk room a bit longer. We put them together in a bin so they could snuggle and warm each other up. 🙂

Lark and Leo in the bin in the milk room

About a week later I went to take their pictures. Don’t they look cute? 😀

Larken

Leonardo

We only had five does left to kid! We were so close!

I had been out checking on the goats twenty minutes earlier, and it looked like nothing had been happening. But apparently something had been happening, because we got the phone call.

“Um, Brett? I think Persephone’s kidding. There’s goo, but nothing else is really happening. Can you have Mom come check? She doesn’t have her phone again. I’d ask Dad, but he’s still asleep, right?”

Mom is infamous for leaving her phone on her desk. I get calls and texts all the time asking me to relay information to her, because she almost never has her phone with her.

 “Yeah Em, Dad’s still asleep. He took a really long shift last night. I’ll try to find Mom and send her down there.”

I found Mom and held out her phone. “Emery wants you down in the barn. He thinks Persephone might be kidding.”

Mom took her phone and went down to the barn. A couple of minutes later she called me. “Go ahead and bring the camera down here. She’ll be going soon.”

Emery helping Persephone

An hour or so later, we had our first baby. It was a girl, and we decided to name her Pandora.

Mom handing Pandora to Fletcher

 Less than a few minutes later, we had another baby on the ground. It was another girl!

“Penny?”

“Penelope?”

“Pela.”

Mom looked bothered. “I don’t like any of these. How about Pembrooke?”

Pembrooke? No, not Pembrooke. I started grinning as I looked at Mom and suggested “Pemberley.”

Mom laughed and said “That’s perfect!”

The boys were looking at us like we were crazy. “What is Pemberley, or who is it, and why is it perfect?”

Mom explained. “Pemberley is where Mr. Darcy lives in Pride and Prejudice. It’s the perfect name for her! Pemberley is special and so is this little one – she’s a sundgau doeling out of Persephone!”

Sundgau is one of our favorite colorings. It means that she’s black with certain white markings. And Persephone is one of our top does – she’s the dam of our herdsire Panini. So this was a great doeling, and we were planning on keeping her.

Persephone licking Pemberley

 I brought them into the milk room and rubbed Pemberley down.

Me helping Pemberley stand

 I helped her stand up and take a few steps, then laughed hysterically when her legs went out from under her.

Pemberley doing the splits

Pandora was already standing up, running around the milk room. She kept getting stuck under the milk stand. 😀

Pandora

The next day I took their pictures (at the same time I took Waverly’s).

Pandora

Pemberley

I just had to post this one. I was sitting down and a bunch of babies were crawling all over me. Except Pemberley. She was staring at me, and I couldn’t resist taking a picture. I love her floppy ear! It’s already straightening – they don’t last long. They’re so adorable though!

Pemberley

We had 27 baby goats – we were hoping for 35+. Were we going to make it?

One evening I was taking pictures of the babies when Greyden said they needed me to feed Waverly. I set the camera down on the window sill and headed into the milk room.

When I was done feeding Waverly I brought her to the kid pen. I looked over into the other pen and saw Dad sitting there with Fantasmic.

“Is she going soon?” I asked, peering at her butt.

“Yep. There’s two hooves and a nose. I’ve called Mom and the boys.”

I plodded over to the window and grabbed the camera. It was only seven – that meant by the time I was done dealing with Fantasmic’s kids, it would be time for my shift.

When Mom and the boys got there, Fantasmic had just started pushing. “What letter is she?” Emery asked. I had to think about that one. We had started running out of letters when we were naming this years first fresheners. Some of them had been relatively easy, but when we got to Fantasmic we only had vowels, X and J left.

“She’s Jazzy Tazzy. J.”

Mom started laughing. “Look at her, being all melodramatic. Woe is me!”

Fantasmic being melodramatic

I don’t know if you can see it, but in this picture she’s got one leg up covering her face.

After a couple of minutes she started wailing. “Wow – we haven’t had a girl complain like this since Zipporah. We expected it from here, but I didn’t expect it from Tazzy.” Colter said.

During the wailing, she got the baby out.

Fantasmic licking her baby

“Well? Girl or boy?”

“It’s a girl!”

“Wow – another girl? We’ve had more girls this year…”

“She’s J? Jane.”

“Janelle?”

“Janisa.”

Everyone was talking over each other, and I don’t think anyone really heard anything but their own suggestions.

“How about Jalapeno?”

When no one heard him, Colter said it again, but louder. “How about Jalapeno?”

We all stopped talking and looked at him. “I like it!” Mom said. So that was that.

Once the naming was done I left the barn. I had an hour before my shift started, and I still had to get ready. I wanted to get a snack and a bunch of warm layers before heading down a bit early. 🙂

Two or three days later, I took profile pictures of the newest babies. Isn’t Jalapeno cute? 😀

Jalapeno

We were almost two thirds of the way done. Which was good – the shifts and the sleeping arrangement’s were making us cranky.

Emery called me. “Brett, I think Vera’s going into labor. Are you coming?”

“I’m really not feeling well – I feel like I’m about to puke. So, no.”

“Okay. Come down if you feel better.”

A half an hour later, Mom got called. “Mom, Vera’s going. C’mon!”

Mom called me over. “Brett, Vera’s kidding. Grab the camera!”

Okay, so I didn’t have a choice. I grabbed the camera and headed for the barn, checking for the SD card as I walked out the door.

“Maaaaaaaaaaaa!” I was greeted with the sounds of a goat in pain. Yeah, she was definitely in labor.

A couple of minutes later, we had a baby. There weren’t any complications, everything went exactly like it should.

Checking to see if it’s a boy or girl

“It’s a girl!”

Vera’s letter is W – she’s Vera Wang.

Drying the baby off

“Wanda!

“Wanderer?”

“Waverly. Let’s call her Waverly.”

After a couple of minutes of that Mom sighed. “We can’t come up with anything better than Wanderer or Waverly? Okay then. Waverly it is.”

Dad checked, and there weren’t any more kids. Since I still wasn’t feeling well, I went back up to the soaproom. The next day I went out to take her profile picture. None of the other babies were cooperating – Colter and Emery had to help me lock them all in the stall so I could get decent pictures. 😀

Waverly

We were just over half way there, and we were all exhausted. I was starting to wonder if we were going to make it without breaking down.

I was called down to the barn one afternoon, by a little sibling who ran past and yelled “Fashion’s in labor!”

Grabbing the camera I ran out the door. I had no idea how far along she was, but I didn’t want to miss the birth! I got down to the barn and turned the camera on, taking a picture of Fashion. Except… the picture wouldn’t take. I glanced at the display and saw “No SD card inserted”.

I groaned and ran back up to the soaproom to get the SD card. When I take the SD card out of the camera, I leave it open so I know that there’s no SD card inside. But someone had closed the flap, so I had left the soaproom thinking that it was ready to go.

When I got back, Fashion had just started pushing.

Greyden getting ready to catch the baby

She seemed to be progressing quickly, and in no time there was a baby!

I was standing there taking pictures, and from my side the baby looked like a normal cou blanc – a baby with white or gray front, and a black back. But Emery and Mom were on the other side drying her off, and Emery was very excited.

Everyone watching what was going on

“Oh my gosh, look at that! That is so pretty! Please be a girl, oh please be a girl! That is so gorgeous! I love it! Can we keep it if it’s a girl, Mom, please? Look at that!”

I’m sitting on my heels wondering what on earth he’s talking about. Then she turned around and I saw the big white splash on her side.

Fashion licking the baby

“It’s a girl!”

“Fabulous!”

We all looked at Dad and grinned. Fabulous it was!

I love the look on Greyden’s face here. I have no idea what he’s laughing at, but it must have been pretty funny!

Fashion licking Fabulous

Since there aren’t any pictures of the next kid’s birth, I’m guessing I went into the milk room with Fab. So they would have brought the next kid in, dropping it on the towel and telling us that it was a boy without a name.

Eventually we decided to call him Festive, but if you ask Hewitt, he’s Festus. 😀

The twins

When I went out the next day to get their profile pictures for the website, I made sure to highlight Fabulous’s white spot. It’s so unusual, and I think it’s pretty cute!

Fabulous

Festive

We were over half way done, and finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

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.

Me and Jade waiting for the birth

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

Holding Hummer while Dad checks her out

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

Me holding Hummer

“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.

Hummer licking Hazelnut

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.

Hazelnut and Hercules

Hazelnut

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.

Spraying Iodine on their umbilical cords to stop 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.

Hazelnut

Hercules

Hibiscus

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

Click here to read the first week’s log.

Day Eight

We had twin girls born today, the goat named Carina preforming admirably. No problems with the birth.

Day Nine

Nothing happened today. This is rather boring. I’m sure headquarters wants a more detailed log, but there really isn’t anything to write about.

Day Ten

Today was the same as yesterday. We send someone out to check on the animals every hour or so, but no one looks like they will actually get to work. Animals are a pain.

Day Eleven

Why would they do anything today? It’s not like we have anything else that we should be doing – we are free to take as long as we want on this assignment. This is ridiculous.

Day Twelve

There are three goats that look as if they could go. Knowing these stubborn animals, they won’t.

I do have to admit, the offspring are a joy to be with. They’re messy creatures, but they are also adorable and funny.

Day Thirteen

I’ve given up. We’re never going to be done with this assignment. I’ve gotten up early every day this week, and not a single thing has happened.

Day Fourteen

Hallelujah! The Colonel says we should see something happen tomorrow. I hope that she’s right. If she’s not, I’m going to be extremely unhappy.

Colonel = Mom

*And I’m just covering my butt here, but this post is not meant to make fun of anyone or anything. It’s just something I thought would be fun to do. Sorry if none of it makes any sense, because I’m ridiculously overtired right now. Several days of getting up at 3AM and not getting to bed until 10 or 11 at night will do that to you. :)*

I hadn’t gotten to sleep until 12:30 the night before, because of Zuzu, so I was not happy to wake up at 7:30 the next morning. But Dad was talking on the phone, and that woke me up.

I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but I heard him get out of bed and saw him gesturing to Mom. They were in the media room and I was in the office, so when Dad passed me on his way out I said “Dad?”

He nodded at me and I got off of the seats I’d been sleeping on. I pulled my jeans on and threw on my sweatshirt, heading for the bathroom. On my way to the door I made a detour back into the office to grab the camera. I didn’t know what stage this birth was at, but I knew I wanted to have the camera!

Mom and I walked down to the barn together. I wanted to run on ahead, but since she was talking to me it would have been impolite. We got into the milk processing room and heard a baby crying. Well, that was a bummer. I’d missed that one!

I opened the milk room door and stared in shock. Not one, but three babies were standing on towels. Two browns and a Sundgau, which is black with certain white patterns. It’s one of our favorite colorings, and we hadn’t had any born that year!

Greyden picked up the Sundgau. “This is Thalia’s baby, and the other two are Charm’s. We weren’t there for the birth, but Colter thinks the bigger one is the older one. “

So we had Ca, Ce, and Ta.

“Are they boys or girls?”

“All three of them are girls.”

Mom came into the milk room. “We need to name these babies. What letters do we have?” I pointed at each baby as I said their letters. “There’s Ca, Ce, and Ta. What do you think about Celeste for Ce?”

Mom said “That sounds ok.”

Eventually we decided on names for them all. Cabernet, Celeste, and Tangled. 🙂

Cabernet

Celeste

Celeste (left) and Cabernet (right)

Cabernet (left) and Celeste (right)

Celeste (front) and Cabernet (back)

Tangled

With Charm and Thalia done, we were almost half way through kidding season!

For the past week, we’ve been sleeping at the soaproom. It started last Tuesday when there was going to be a bad storm, and the webcam we had set up wasn’t going to work at home because there wouldn’t be internet. So we went home that afternoon and gathered things like pajamas, blankets, pillows, and clothes for the next day.

The first night I slept out in the shipping area, by all of my stuff. But the second night I moved into the office, and I’ve been there since. The little girls, Mom, Dad, Fletcher and Hewitt all sleep in the media room, and Colter, Emery and Greyden sleep out in the milk room.

I sleep on the seat we took out of the Hulk. It’s not too bad, and I’ve learned how to sleep so I avoid the lumps.

My bed in the shipping area

Everyone who sleeps in the media room has piles of blankets they sleep on/under.

The kids in the media room

Hewitt’s bed

Indigo and Jade’s bed

The boys in the milk room have changed the way they sleep. For the first couple of nights Emery and Greyden slept on these lounges we have, and Colter slept on some feed sacks.

Emery’s first bed

Greyden’s bed

Colter’s first bed

But the goats needed the oats he was sleeping on, so he was slowly replacing his bed with the puppy food, which isn’t nearly as comfortable. Then Dad bought feed, and everything changed.

Colter built himself this bed that’s almost the size of a queen bed, made out of two rows of oats. Emery mimicked him, but his is only one row. And Greyden still has his lounge.

Sleeping in the soaproom has been a very interesting experience. Occasionally some of us will go home and get more things, and if we have time we’ll shower. We’ll bring home the barn towels that we’ve used for baby goats and wash them. If we’re lucky, we’ll even get to wash our goat clothes! But that doesn’t happen very often – I’ve only washed my goat clothes twice since I started wearing them. It’s a good thing they’re only goat clothes! 😀

I love baby goats, but I will be very glad when kidding season is over. Because I’m ready to start sleeping in my own bed again. 😀

It was almost nine at night, but I asked Mom if I could watch a movie anyway. I knew that Zuzu was going to have her kids soon, and I’d rather be awake and dressed when that happens. We were still at the soaproom  (it was the fourth night we had spent there).

She gave me permission, so I sat down with a laptop and Grandma’s netflix account to watch Mirror Mirror. I had just reached the credits when my phone rang.

“Hey Dad, what’s up?”

“Zuzu will be kidding soon. C’mon down here.”

“Ok. I’ll be there in a bit.”

I hung up and headed for the break room. I grabbed a handful of cashews and took a drink, preparing to be down in the barn for an hour or two. My phone vibrated and I checked it – I had a text from Colter.

“Zuzu is going soon. Got a nose.”

I ran as fast as I could to get my sweatshirts and ran down to the barn. She was kidding, and I wanted to be there! I arrived in the barn and found Zuzu, who was standing up in the stall moaning. She was not lying on the ground pushing, and there wasn’t a baby there.

I groaned and leaned against the wall, catching my breath.

My running wasn’t in vain though. A few minutes later she started pushing, and then we had a baby! There’s some pictures of that birth here.

We checked and it was a boy. We had to come up with a “Za” boy name. After about two minutes, we came up with Zamboni.

A couple of minutes later, there was another baby, this time a girl. After much discussion, we decided on the name Zeyda.

Zuzu licking Zeyda off

Cleaning Zeyda off

Greyden took Zeyda into the milk room, while the rest of us waited. Dad had felt another kid, so we knew there was another one coming. Dad told Mom “If the kid isn’t out in ten minutes, I’m going in.”

Thankfully, it didn’t come to that.  About five minutes later, we had a third baby, another girl, lying on the ground getting dried off.  When we finally agreed on a name, it was Zinnia.

When we brought her into the milk room, the other two were standing up and yelling at us. They were all hungry!  Colter got his pail and went out to milk Zuzu.

It was midnight, and we still had to feed babies. I was so tired – I wanted to go to bed! But the babies were more important. So we fed them. And at 12:30 I finally went to bed. But I wouldn’t get to sleep long – there were more babies the next morning!

The triplets

Zamboni

Zeyda

Zinnia

We weren’t even half way yet, and we were all getting really exhausted. The goats had to get a move on, if they expected any of us to be able to do anything at the end of Kidding Season!