Monday, March 31, 2008

Mini Nubians have arrived!

Yes, our newest Doe, Wroxy, a mini Nubian finally got down to business after 11:30 p.m last night and delivered triplets ... one buck before midnight, a doe right after midnight, and a stillborn buck a while later. I would have guessed two kids or the possibility of one larger one but never three! She carried them down low and not too wide apparently so it was harder to tell.

She seemed a little distracted Sunday a.m. but we left her out anyway while we were gone in the morning. Early afternoon, however, we decided it was time to convert one of the horse stalls into a kidding stall. She roomed there all evening with a dry yearling to keep her company, but we could tell she would kid that night ... arching her back and stretching ... milk bag filling very full ... calling more than normal.

Just after getting a heat light set up along with a cot for Megan to spend the night and the rest of us getting ready for bed, Wroxy decided she would have her kids that night. After several serious pushes, it became evident that there was a lot of pressure going on. While inspecting her, the bag broke and relieved that pressure. It was then apparent that the kid wasn’t lined up right. But before we could think about it, she pushed out that kid butt first! A little buck, probably no bigger than three pounds. She didn’t take to licking him right away … a new mom thing … but finally got the hang of it. Pretty soon another round of pushes brought a little larger doe presented the correct way, thankfully. While concentrating on getting these two dry in the freezing temperatures, we realized that she wasn’t getting up to let them nurse. I began to think that there just might be a third. She did finally begin another series of pushes and delivered a stillborn buckling even larger than the doeling. Looking back, we probably should have gotten her up and “bounced” her to see if there was another kid and assisted in getting it out sooner as she didn’t deliver it right away. But, as with everything, you are always learning.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Round Two Coming

Our mini Nubian, Wroxy, is due on April 1 so ... the next post from here may be one of her kids. Hoping for an uneventful event!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

OHSET Photos Are Finally Here!

Well, it took about three weeks, but the DVD just came in last night with the long-awaited photos from the Equestrian Team meet in February. It's amazing to see the stride-by-stride shots and the expressions. We're fortunate to have a professional photographer come and capture their rides. He ran a special last month whereby we could purchase in advance DVD's containing all of the pictures from all three meets. We didn't take him up on the offer last year, but this being Nicole's last year, it seemed to make sense.

Here's the link to shutterfly.com where they are at:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0BZtG7lw0bMWFN&notag=1

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Time Flies

Well time flies, and the kids are already a week old. Just about time to start thinking about disbudding. I'm thinking it would be a good idea to get them advertised on Craig's List so that if anyone would like to keep the one little frosted guy as a buck, we could make those arrangements before banding them. The club 4H meeting is tomorrow night, and we'll bring photos to show just in case someone is looking for more goats to add to their herd.

We have another doe ready to kid in 2-3 weeks, so we'll be starting the cycle all over again real soon!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

First Kids of the Year are Here!

Well, Kari our mini-Toggenburg just delivered four kids this morning right on her due date. There are two bucklings and two doelings weighing around 4 lbs. each. Kidding went easy for the doe and quick being her second freshening. So far everyone looks healthy and strong. Our oldest daughter was at an early a.m. FFA meeting so Megan was the midwife this time around and did a great job.

Cut and paste link below to view video of the birth:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-31489220763991882&hl=en

Cut and past link below to access photos on Shutterfly:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0BZtG7lw0bMWEr&notag=1
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