Candie and Natalia!

Yesterday morning I noticed Candie had let down her milk but no one really check on her at all during the day. It was raining and nasty here so we were all just holing up in the house. I went out to the pole barn to feed the kid and calf around 2:30 and Dad went down to the dairy barn to do some work out there. Rebekah had gone down with him but came running back to tell me that Candie was kidding! I finished up feeding and went down to the barn. I spread some fresh straw since she hadn't been moved to a kidding pen and moved the other goats out of her pen. Only about 5 minutes later she started pushing so I grabbed a glove and went in (it our new "thing" since we lost Mandie's kid from not pulling soon enough) and found one front leg and a nose. The other leg was back so I just pulled. It was a nice big buck kid! We got him all dried off and I headed in for the second. I put my hand in and she gave a great big push (probably to get my hand out) and a little doe kid practically came flying out! They are both very nice and healthy kids!

I came inside to get the bucket so I could milk her and when I came back out to the barn, Natalia was kidding! I grabbed some more gloves and pulled out a doe first, then a buck. Then I handed them over to the waiting girls and went back to milking. This was about 4:00.

After that I came in and got all the milk equipment ready and did chores. I finished feeding the newest kids around 7:00. Dad, Ben and I watched Tora, Tora, Tora which is a movie about the bombing of Pearl Harbor (great movie for those who enjoy history!) which is about 3 hours long. By the time it was done and I had fed all the kids and calf again it was 11:30. I was back up at 4:30 this morning. I'm thinking it time for a nap....:) Mom says I am going to get sick if I keep this up and I don't doubt it.
Mandie's kid "Movin' On Up" aka "Movie"
Zoe's kid "George" (I think, Rebekah chose the name for her market weather and she might used Candie's buck)
Natalia's buck kid...no name yet
All the kids born yesterday. From front: Candie's buck, Natalia's buck, Natalia's doe, Candie's doe.

So, we are now at a total of 13 kids and I am milking 8 plus a cow. Chores take me about 3 hours start to finish including feeding kids and taking care of milk. It's lots of work but loads of fun! Let's just hope I can hold out. Maybe getting to bed earlier would help...lol!




Here is a video of Candie kidding. I think it's the best one so far. You can see the second kid "pop" out! Note how much bigger the 1st is and how much more masculine he is! He is totally all boy! :)

In Christ,
~Bethany~