Busy Days

It's been a very very busy past couple of days here!

Friday afternoon MoReen gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. The girl is the grey one - she looks like a donkey, I think... but she's still pretty cute!

After getting home a little late Friday evening, one of the Boer kids had gotten her foot stuck in a feeder (we found out why thankfully - something had been placed by it so she could jump into the feeder - bad idea), and her back leg was broken. Poor thing. She is just 6 weeks old. The break wasn't that bad, so I think she will heal up pretty quickly. Got her all splinted up and put back out with her momma.

Really early Saturday morning me and 11 friends of mine got up and headed out to Oklahoma City for the Ron Paul rally. I did a few chores before leaving (at 6am) and left the rest for Mom to deal with (thank you!!). It was a really great day. The turnout was awesome - the estimates were anywhere from 1700 to 3000 people being there. Either way, the crowd was large and the cheers and chants for Ron Paul were really great. First time I have actually seen him speak in person - pretty cool!! We got there a lot earlier than most folks, and were put in charge of taking all the official campaign donations and selling shirts/bumper stickers/etc. Wasn't expecting to do that, but it kept us busy all day long! We got home after dark Saturday evening, sunburned and very tired. It was well worth it though!!

the Oklahoma state capital after all the crowds left. . . we were the very last people to leave!

While I was gone Saturday, one of our Nubian does, Target, gave birth to twins - a buck and doe. They are out of our Nubian buck Hershey.

the boy is the bigger one,

Sunday I was exhausted, but ranch life goes on. I was busy cleaning stalls late that morning and heard a kid screaming at the back of the barn. I looked out, and one of our Saanen does, Blizzard, had dropped a buckling! I don't have a due date for any of them, as they were running with a Boer buck at someone else's place.

A few minutes later, she had another large buckling. Thankfully she had NO trouble getting them out!

Blizzard (Saanen) on the left cleaning her own kid, and since Target (right) had kidded the day before she still had motherly instincts and wanted to help clean the babies off!

This morning I was up early, and Rosie (Nubian doe) was in labor. I was able to bottle all the kids, and then she had triplets. I put one of my sister's in charge of cleaning them off while I milked all the does, went back to feed these new babies (2 boys and a girl - girl is the black one on the right).

I was able to get a few other things done and then Kamryn (another Nubian doe) kidded to twins, a buckling and doeling.

Whew! Busy weekend. Today besides birthing and feeding kids, I am busy catching up from the weekend on lots and lots of stuff.

So, Friday a doe kidded, Saturday a doe kidded, Sunday a doe kidded, Monday 2 does kidded and there are many more does that look like they are going to kid any minute!

I think my vacation time is OVER! :)!

Well, it's time for evening chores. Have a good evening everyone!!

Suriyah

Kid Pics!

I don't have pictures of all the kids, but here's the few that I do have. Enjoy!

LaWanda's buckling,

one of LaWanda's doelings - she went to a new home yesterday,

Verona's buckling, who was 2 1/2 lbs at birth. He's doing great though!

One of Verona's doelings. . . she's now at her new home as well.

And no, these LaMancha kids are NOT mine. Not having any LaMancha kids this year. But, they are a good friend's and they were here the other day. I think they are pretty cute!

Hope you all have a good Friday!

Suriyah

Kidding Season has begun! 2 sets of triplets!

Kidding season here on the ranch has started! Friday afternoon the first doe kidded, and another doe kidded yesterday afternoon. Both MiniNubians! Both were sets of triplets! There's about 5 more due within the next week, and then lots more after that.

The first doe was PawPawNin LaWanda. She was bred by our buck Pugsy, a MiniNubian buckling we retained last year. She had 2 doelings and a buckling. Beautiful babies. At the moment I don't have any pictures of any of the kids uploaded onto the computer. Will have to get some!

Yesterday evening I was out getting the milkers, and heard a kid scream. I looked through the herd, didn't find anything. Looked in the barn - nothing. Still heard the faint sound of a newborn kid crying. I figured maybe it was a lamb, so I headed that way. As I was walking down there I passed a set of dog houses and there was a goat in there with tiny triplets! It was PawPawNin Verona, a MiniNubian doe who I bred last year and completely forgot to write a due date down on (the only one I didn't write down!)...oops. She had 2 doelings and a buckling also. Due to her being so small, her kids are always SO petite. She is the doe who had our famous little "Tic-Tac" last year - go here and here to see some adorable pictures of him!
This year, the little buckling is 2 1/2 lbs (just half a pound bigger than Tic-Tac was), and the two doelings are just slightly heavier - 3 1/2 to 4 lbs each. All are doing very good though, praise the Lord!

Well, hopefully I can get some pictures up here soon.

Have a good day y'all!

Suriyah

Stuck lambs

Around 4:30am I was awoke. My Mom, my brother and sister were up checking on a ewe, who had 2 very stuck lambs. They were both at least 10 lbs and both were trying to come out at once. No bueno.

Both lambs tongues were hanging to the side. The ewe was pretty exhausted.
My mom probably wouldn't have been strong enough. My brother doesn't have the experience, and the same for my sister. Plus both of them are a little "wimpy" when it comes to pulling kids and lambs out. So, I am the elected kid and lamb "puller".

Mom runs up the stairs and says, "Suriyah, wake up. We need your help. There are 2 dead lambs trying to come out at once."
I say, "Ok, I'm coming".
Under my breath tho I say "oh great".
Grab a sweatshirt, walk downstairs, get my boots. All the while praying that God would give me strength to do this.

By the time I get out there (just a couple minutes), one lamb's head had been pushed back but just barely. Of course, I know what to do. One lamb was a lot further down in the birth canal than the other. This ewe is huge, I mean huge, for a sheep. Which was a very good thing cause I had plenty of room to move things around.

First, I had to figure out whose legs were whose. That was pretty easy.

Next, with literally most of my strength, I had to go in, grab the top lamb's head and shove it back out of the birth canal. Of course, the ewe is contracting thru all of this making things that much harder. Once that lamb was out of the way, I was able to grab the dead lamb (whose head was pretty swollen from hanging out for awhile) and pull him out. He was large and dead. Had we found the problem sooner, we probably could have saved him. But, that didn't happen and such is life.

So, I flopped him to the side. Went back in and grabbed the 2nd "dead" lamb. Pulled her out and amazingly she was alive, but very floppy and lethargic (not surprising). We started rubbing on her, the ewe was licking her. She ended up being fine, it just took her awhile.

I look back a minute later and there was another lamb's head hanging out. Slipped that one out - another ewe lamb. She was very spunky, very much alive and well.

The ewe cannot stand. Probably birthing trauma. Hopefully she recovers. The crazy ewe lamb has learned to nurse off of her laying down mother. The other lamb is being bottle fed for now.

What a crazy morning.

Have a good evening everyone!

Suriyah

p.s. - this was typed on my iPod so please forgive any spelling errors.

New Stalls & Pregnant Bellies!

In the new barn, lots of construction has been going on. 3 of the 6 stalls are completely finished, now to start on the other 3 :). Each of the stalls is 10x10, and a 10 foot isle will be in the middle. Thanks to my brothers! I think they did an awesome job.

The stalls finished and occupied!

The other day I grabbed the camera and snapped a few photos of some of the pregnant bellies out in the doe yard... kidding season is getting close!!

Prissy (PB Nubian) and Baby (Grade Nubian),

Shelby (unregistered Alpine),

Chicci (F3 experimental MiniNubian),

Doris (F1) and her daughter, DD (F2 MiniNubian),

Helena (Saanen/Nubian),

Niniel (registered Alpine),

Hope you all are having an awesome weekend!

Suriyah

Break Time - on a ranch?

Believe it or not, right now is break time for me. What I call "break time" is not what most folks would consider a "break", but it is for me. And with the weather... it feels like spring break! It's really been nice.

Why is it break time for me? Here's a few reasons why:

- for one, there are NO does due for a few more weeks.
- for two, I have NO bottle baby right now. Now THAT is odd, because I have had some kind of bottle baby constantly for a very long time. The last bottle baby went to a new home, so that leaves me with no bottle baby to spoil (of any kind - no kids, no calves)! Don't worry, I'm not missing it that much.
- all the does are bred and settled, so there's no breeding to be done.
- there are only 6 does currently in milk. That means milking time only takes about 10 minutes.
- the weather has been awesome, which means there have been no ice buckets to break, etc... no extra chores that come with freezing weather.
- I am completely out of hay to sell most likely until we cut hay again... which means I have no hay to load - what am I going to do?!
- all the animals seem to be healthy and doing very well - that I am very thankful for.

That's all I can think of for now. So, what's a farm girl to do? Well, there is still plenty to do, but I am not super busy like I probably will be in the coming weeks and months. Here's a few things:

- Normal feeding, cleaning and watering chores to do that come along with having a rather large herd of goats and sheep.
- milking the 6 does in milk. I really am looking forward to when we have 50 or so does in milk!
- With the new barn, there is plenty of construction going on in there getting the kidding/lambing stalls ready, and organizing the barn.
- With the drought last year and lack of nutrition (especially vitamin A) from it in hays and pastures, all the pregnant does are getting a vitamin A&D shot a month prior to their due date to balance things out.
- Been trimming a lot of hooves - catching up on this chore since in a month I won't have much time to do it.
- Getting inside chores done
- And of course, this leaves more time for bookkeeping, schoolwork, working out and such - which is really great.

So, that's it for now. I'd better go get some stuff done :).

Have a great afternoon everyone!

Suriyah