Busy morning

So I have had a long morning.  I was concerned about Angie, our boringly named Angora doe, all night.  She was standing all night, squatting frequently, and showing a lot of movement over her uterus but never showed signs of contractions or a water bag.  So finally this morning I examined her and thought I felt a head but no water bag.  Then I got really concerned and watched her for 30 minutes.  No progress so then I examined her again- this time I felt two sets of front feet and they both felt like they were in a bag with water.  So then Ifelt a little better, left her for another 30 minutes during which time she finally starting contracting.  Here's a photo of her just before she delivered- I have never seen a goat so huge.

Then she delivered her fist kid- it looks to be a dark brown doeling  but there's a patch of missing skin on her side.  I do not think my exams should have caused this.  I know that with people you can have cutis aplasia, but it looks  more like an injury to me.  I am just not sure how she could have been injured like this.
Then Angie delivered her second kid, and it's what I have always wanted- a red fiber goat!  I have been coveting red Angora goats for a long time but never found one for sale.  I have tried now three times to breed Angie to produce a red kid and have gotten black and brown instead.  So I am absolutely thrilled.  It's a little buckling so that leads to the decision of whether to keep him intact or not.  I do not see a need at his time to breed him in my herd but at least I have some weeks to decide what to do.
Angie took good care of both of them, but they could not figure out how to nurse so finally I milked one side out and bottle fed Mr. D. (the red buckling).  While I was doing this Lady Jane (the brown doeling) figured out how to latch on with a little help.  So both should be just fine.  

I was surprised Angie only had two kids but since each one is about 3 times the size of Saphie's kids that probably explains Angie's large abdomen.  I took more photos when they were dried off and cuter, but I guess they did not come out.  I will eat some breakfast and try again.  Sleep deprivation is not a wonderful thing.  I will post their new photos on the goat web page at

http://www.schoonoverfarm.com/Goats

Colostrum and blue eyes

As expected, Saphie did not have enough milk for all four kids.  I dug around in the freezer and found goat colostum from 2002 and sheep colostrum from last year.  I thawed both- the goat colostrum was like cheese but the sheep's looked normal.  So I fed the sheep colostrum to the kids that weren't getting enough- hopefully that will suffice in addition to what they are able to nurse from their mother.  Note to self- need to collect goat and sheep colostrum this year and put in freezer.

Another issue I am having is trying to determine who has blue eyes versus brown eyes.  It's been difficult with the low light conditions of the laundry room and then the barn.  I took these flash photos to see and they all seem to have blue eyes.  What do you all think?  To those not familiar with goat eye color genetics, it is autosomal dominant, but Saphie's dam appears to have brown eyes so she should be able to produce both blue and brown eyes.

The last issue of the day is how many kids are we going to have.  Check out the size of our pregnant does.
And check out how wide Saphie was yesterday morning before she had quads.
I am concerned there may be more bottle feeding in my future!

UPDATE- It is a sunny day, and I took each kid into the light, and they all have blue eyes.  Now statistically each kid has a 50-50% chance of having blue eyes, but Saphie has produced now a total of 6 kids all with blue eyes.

I should not have complained

because now I have my work cut out for me.  Saphie, our blue-eyed black Nigerian Dwarf doe, gave birth to quads tonight.  She normally nurses only 2 kids at a time and is not well endowed. So looks like I will have 1-2 bottle babies.  Initially she was not taking care of them- not licking them or trying to get them to nurse.  Plus it's 36 degrees and dropping.  Initially I put them in enclosed pen but then decided to bring them into the house- the laundry room.  I got the kids dried off and warmed up.  They still would not nurse and Saphie was not cooperating so I milked her, place the colostrum into a bottle and fed all four of them.  Now they are up and about better and trying harder to nurse.  And Saphie seems to be settling down taking care of them.  So in the morning I will need to get goat milk and diapers.

 So here's the new additions:

Sugar Magnolia

Sophia

Shortcake

Sherlock

Welcome to the world (or at least the laundry room)!

April Fool....

...is apparently me since I have taken one week off of work to slog through the mud in torrential downpours every 2-3 hours day and night to stare at fat sheep butts!

Today though I had this view of our ringneck pheasant on our feed shed roof while I was slogging through the mud:

Este Blog investe e acredita na... PROXIMIDADE!

I received this award from Michelle:
"I received this award from two dear blogpals, first MiniKat and then Sharon. I wasn't going to post about it, since it's given to blogs that "invest and believe in the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!” See that little line, "not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement"? How do you accept an award without appearing interested in self-aggrandizement? But when it came my way a second time, it seemed rude to ignore the kind gestures of these two ladies, and not pass the award on to eight others. When I looked through the list of blogs I follow, I realized I've had the fun of meeting nine of them (not counting my sister, neighbor, and the proprietors of two local yarn shops). So although this award is not necessarily for those with whom one has shared a physical proximity, these bloggers fit the other descriptions, too. Tina, Allena, Karla, Franna, Tammy, Donna, Lois, Shannon, and Tammy - consider yourselves awarded!"

So in considering this, I chose 6 bloggers that have relative proximity in relationships and in physical location who have charming blogs.  (There are two repeats from the above.) They are:

Al
Dave

Tina

Denise

Franna

Ondra