somewhat wordy wednesday

I'm sorry about the recent lack of updates - cashmere harvesting is well underway, and it's been a challenge just keeping up with daily chores. I've been trying to write ever since I posted that one photograph of Azalea with her newborn girl, but more than once in the past week I have actually fallen asleep while uploading photographs. Jolting awake because you start to fall over in your seat is a very unpleasant sensation, and I don't recommend it!

Anyway...

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Azalea and her little girl,

on the baby's first outing in the barn paddock at 3 days old:

And here is another picture of them, taken this morning:

I wonder what has captured their attention?

Could it be...

 ...another kid?

Vinca's boy was born Monday evening.

Today, both mamas brought their babies out of the barn and into the bright sunshine.

It was still below freezing, but the day gradually warmed up to around 40F.

The girl isn't wearing her jacket because she runs around like crazy outside.

She still wears it at night, though - it's gotten down as low at 18F this week. 

In case you are wondering about names, so am I!

As I've mentioned before, all the goats born here have been named for something that was either blooming or leafing out when they were born.

You can imagine the difficulty I'm having in coming up with suitable names for these two, with the ground still mostly frozen.

Will I have to change my naming system?

I'd rather not.

Feel free to make suggestions.

I'm thinking of calling my BFF (Best Forester Friend) and asking if he's seen something I've missed. Even bud-break would qualify at this point!

Meanwhile, right on schedule at 10 days old,

Azalea's daughter tackled Goat Mountain for the first time:

And at not even 2 days old, Vinca's boy was doing extremely well learning to manage those long legs while climbing around the many obstacles in the paddock:

When Vinca was calling him this evening, I pointed out that

her baby had already put himself to bed in the barn.

He must have had the most exciting day of his life :)

~~~~~

iris

Iris, Vinca, Rocket

My Very Occasional Helper was here for 3 hours yesterday,

so together we made a little progress on the barn.

Iris was also a Big Help.

Although I couldn't help feeling that she had questions about the whole idea of turning the airy, spacious barn into four narrow cubicles.

Not exactly cubicles; more like slip stalls.

Rectanguloids?

"Why? WHYYYY?"

Lately I've been noticing that tiny Iris has grown.

There have even been a couple of times when she was standing apart from the other goats - so, no frame of reference - I wasn't sure if I was looking at Iris or her brother, the chunky Rocket.

"Now I am a BIG goat!"

But then I see her next to an average-size human,

and she immediately becomes tiny again.

Big on personality, though!

That's one thing that hasn't changed since the day she was born.

~~~~~

goats unplugged

I got a decent night's sleep last night, and am sufficiently energized to give you the follow-up on Mallow and Rocket.

 Today they are both looking pretty chipper. FINALLY.

Thursday was not Our Favorite Day. They had their surgeries around noon, and I stayed in the barn to be there when they came out of the anesthesia, which, based on past experience, I expected to be within a half-hour. The actual procedure is very quick - my vet is efficient and has done this many times. I fully expected that by 1 PM the boys would have been up for a while, walking around in their stalls and nibbling at hay, and I could get on with my day.

While they were out, propped up on their sternums to help prevent bloat, and with noses pointed down to keep mucous draining in the right direction, I took the opportunity to make a little sketch. Here is is.

It's called: Mallow Being Still For The First Time In His Life.

One hour turned into two, without a blink or a twitch. Then three hours. I didn't want to call the vet, who already seems to think I am a fretful softie who worries about nothing. But I certainly would have felt happier to see the boys up and moving. And when, after three and a half hours they finally wobbled to their feet looking very dazed, they were too uncomfortable to move around and keep themselves warm. Both goats began shivering so hard I could see it from ten feet away.

Then I called the vet, who suggested making oatmeal for them.

This is not a painting of the oatmeal I made on Thursday. This is oatmeal I painted several months ago. But Thursday's oatmeal looked very similar and an image may break up this long story a bit, so here you go:

Unfortunately, Rocket and Mallow were still too out of it to want to eat, even lovely warm oatmeal. Vinca and Azalea, their mamas, thought being fed oatmeal on a spoon was great, though. They think we should do this more often, and not just on special occasions.

I did everything I could think of to try to get Rocket and Mallow thoroughly warm, so that keeping coats on them would then be enough to help them maintain their body temperature. But "everything I could think of" wasn't really that much. Using a heater in the barn is a fire hazard. These goats aren't like dogs or cats who will snug up next to a person and stay there, benefiting from their body warmth. And before you ask...no, I couldn't bring them into the house. Perfectly reasonable question though!

Rocket under my coat, seen through a hay manger.

Here's an enlarged view of Rocket's eye.
This is not the eye of a comfortable goat.

I got my extra-large electric heating pad from the house, and - being very careful to monitor how much warmth it was generating on the lowest setting - began putting it on each goat in turn like a saddle blanket, then covering the goat with one of my old barn coats which I am finally proven justified in keeping, so there's that.

I have only one heating pad, so I would put it on one goat until he had stopped shivering for a while, and keep an eye on the other goat. When the second goat started shivering again, it was his turn, and if the goat who was losing the heating pad was lying down, he could have the hot water bottle against his side, under his coat.

Rocket was up and down at long intervals, so the hot water bottle was a helpful back-up for him. But poor Mallow got up once and then could not lay down again, though he tried and tried and tried. He was so tired he was literally propping himself up against the wall of the barn. When he would try to lay down he would get his front end folded under properly but then, as soon as he tried to tuck his hind end down, he must have felt enough of a painful twinge that he would wearily straighten back up again. This happened every few minutes for hours. I cannot convey in words how sorry I felt for him.

The heating pad was at first swapped from goat to goat every 20 minutes or so, but the interval gradually stretched to an hour or longer. I didn't dare stop monitoring them, because the "unplugged" goat eventually started shivering badly again, every time.

By the middle of the night, both goats were occasionally nibbling a few blades of the hay, which was one load off my mind. As you goat-fans know, it is critical that goats keep their complex digestive systems in action.

Mallow in my old fleece jacket, nibbling a bite of hay. 

It was a cold night. Below freezing. I can't stand, or sit in a chair, for very long, and the boys weren't in the part of the barn that has a bench. So I was lying on the floor of Mallow's stall, where I could keep both boys in my line of vision - they were in adjacent stalls with a stockpanel divider between. I stole one of Piper's old mats (which is fair because she stole it from one of my chaises last year) and brought out a wedge cushion for a back support, and had an old lightweight sleeping bag to wrap up in. I was wearing two fleeces and a rainjacket and corduroy trews and gloves and a wooly earwarmer. My laptop was on hand to help pass the time "just in case I have to be out there for a while," but I couldn't listen to an audiobook because strange voices would have made ALL the goats, even the ones in the other barn, more upset than they already were.

When I took the heating pad off Rocket at 4 AM, he was cuddled up in a corner under his jacket, dozing. Mallow was still standing, so I gave him the heating pad again and went into the house to warm up and get a couple of hours sleep. At dawn I found Rocket moving around in his stall, with slightly runny eyes but a clear nose. Mallow was still standing and looking pretty sad.

I brought their mamas - and Rocket's sister Iris - into the stalls with them. They had been in the next stall over, where they could all see each other through the night but where the patients could not get pushed around or accidentally knocked down.

And then as the sky was getting light, I fed and watered everybody else - half the herd had been standing huddled together in the next paddock staring at the "recovery room" all night - and came back in to feed Piper and the cats and put the hot water bottle on my own back for a while. I had very good company.

Later, during the warmer part of Friday, both boys were allowed out for a while. But I kept Azalea and Mallow in a paddock next to the rest of the herd, and gave Mallow a little bit of pain medication to make him more comfortable.

Friday it didn't rain.
It was like some kind of crazy miracle.

Over the weekend it's been a gradual return to something like normality. Rocket's recovery has been straightforward, but without the repeated "reheating" throughout Thursday night, that may not been the case. I simply couldn't risk it - even a tough little monkey like Rocket is not designed for 12 hours of constant shivering.

I've kept Mallow and Azalea locked in a stall each night, so Mallow couldn't get pushed out of a shelter during the constant cold, dank weather we've had since Friday. Today is the first day he is looking more bright-eyed, and I saw him wave a horn at Azalea when the two were sharing a manger full of hay. It is always a relief when you see a poorly animal feeling cocky again. If it isn't raining tomorrow, I think we'll be back to our regular routine. How glad I will be!

And on we go.

~~~~~

sunday afternoon

It didn't rain.
The humidity fell.
The sky was blue.
There was an occasional breeze.

I literally could have wept with relief.

The goats were so pleased with the change in weather, three of them would not even come into the barn for their buckets.

For the first time in many weeks, I took a sketchbook outside. Dusted the latest muddy hoofprints off the lawn chair - because they were dry and I could dust them off! - and settled down in the south paddock to Draw August.

There was company.

Lots of company.

The silver goat is Fern, and she is leaning against my chair.

There was close interest in the artistic process.

There was distraction. 

(Iris is trying to untie my shoe because I wouldn't let her jump into the chair.)

There was oversight.

There was drama!

(Bashing heads. This is a mother and daughter. I make no further comment.)

 ~

And eventually, there was Day 19 of Drawing August,

which is also #231 of Daily Markmaking 2018.

I had to come in and flatten out my spine for a couple of hours,

but it's still clear and pleasant outside.

It will be a genuine pleasure to do evening chores tonight.

~~~~~

barn check

Just stepping out to the barn for a moment, to see how everyone is doing.

Would you care to join me?

Here are the charming Azalea and her mum, Lily of the Valley. Azalea seems to have forgiven me for trimming her hooves this morning. I want to be sure they are flat and smooth well before the 26th. I try to make sure the does' hooves aren't sharp-edged or jagged when they are due to kid. A mamagoat will often paw at a newborn kid with a degree of enthusiasm that will put the heart across you.

In the other side of the barn, we find Vinca having a nice snooze.

That little dark shape off Vinca's starboard hoof is Iris. 

See?

And then we turn around to see this:

Rocket, in the old chair kept handy for visitors.

Goatherd hand for scale.

 Twelve days old.

Little Big Goat.

~~~~~

day six

  

~~~~~

barn visit

I still haven't got really good photographs of the kids, I'm afraid...just hundreds of blurry ones! But I'm going to post a few anyway, because Time Goes Fast.

The above picture was taken early yesterday morning. Less than 24 hours old and both kids were already leaping straight up into the air their full height, and also scrambling up the Big Kid Rock by the barn.

In fact, the little girl toddled up to the base of Goat Mountain and cast an appraising eye when she was less than one hour old:

Enough mountaineering immediately after birth!
Back to Mama for more washing and drying.

Likewise, when he was only a few minutes old, her brother managed to wiggle half his body through a 6-inch fence opening before I could reach over and extricate him. His mama did something very similar when she was exactly the same "age" - 

I had to laugh!

If you've been following my gang o' goats for a while, you may know that every goat born here is named after something that was blooming or leafing out at the time. So...allow me to introduce:

Rocket

and 

Iris

Rocket, the boy, was the firstborn.

And that unusual white marking helped me tell the two kids apart right from the start. He also has one white foot, one white toe, and a little light spot beneath his mouth.

 Iris, the girl, is a tiny bit smaller than Rocket, and solid black except for a few white hairs right in the center of her forehead.

Interesting!

Mama is solid black and the buck is solid white.

The replacement barncams are a total bust, to my great frustration. They don't work At All in the barns and I'm missing a lot of interesting observation and fun. So I've been spending some time just visiting the big barn, which is where Vinca moved her babies the night they were born.

After chores and gardening were done today, I brought my sketching chair to the barn for my daily markmaking while enjoying the sights and sounds of the new family group.

I plucked one troubled little stalk of campion from the path to the barn and did a few pen sketches.

Vinca came over and asked if there happened to be any peanuts (there were) and then hopped up onto the bench. She hopped effortlessly - you'd never know to look at her that she was heavily pregnant two days ago.

Well, until you notice her udder. Just like her own Mama, LeShodu, Vinca has an udder that I would be pleased with on a dairy goat.

I am so happy with the way she's attentive and caring to her kids while being laid-back and unstressed about it. In this picture, for example, Vinca is having a little think and maybe a little snooze, but she's got both the kids tucked under the bench.

Vinca is the Cool Mom.

~~~~~

the twelve-legged goat

Just a quick post to show you the first-ever photograph of a twelve-legged goat. I know, it's a bit murky and it's hard to see all the legs, but there are definitely twelve. This is an eye-witness account, and you heard it here first.

Yes, Vinca had her babies this morning! A boy at about 1030 and a girl about 9 minutes later. All are doing well, and Vinca - a first-time mama at the age of 4 - is being just wonderful. A natural.

They are having lots of quiet, private bonding time today, but you may expect one or two pictures of cashmere kids in the near future.

~~~
P.S.

Afternoon update:
I got a reasonably clear snap of the babies.
You may have to click to embiggen; lots of black plush there.
I

Boy on left, girl on right.
Mama out of frame, but only about four inches away.

~~~~~

wednesday with words

Well, at least the forecast was accurate.

Heavy snow, beginning in the morning.

And continuing for several hours.

In case you are wondering, these goats and several others were standing out in the falling snow by choice. They were standing next to the stilt barn, which was empty. The Clubhouse - the space under the stilt barn where even the biggest goats can shelter comfortably - was also empty.

Don't ask me - I don't know. I checked in case there was a monster or a demon or a cranky raccoon in the barn but found nothing amiss.

So I distributed more hay indoors and out before returning to my own little shelter.

In the afternoon, the snow changed to sleet - again, as predicted - and evening chores were done in a world where every exposed surface was covered with a glistening coat of ice. Slippery for critters and dangerous for trees. It's pretty to look at, but that's the only nice thing I can think of to say about it. Tomorrow's forecast is cold but sunny, and my fingers are crossed that the sun will melt the ice from the trees before a wind comes up or more snow falls.

I'll leave you with this not-very-good picture,

taken as I was coming in from evening chores tonight:

Does it make you feel like you are right here with me?

If so, better dress warm.

~~~~~