April 1 dawned with
another of Mother Nature's little jokes:
a fresh blanket of spring snow.
Finding no fresh greens for breakfast in his grazing area,
a disgusted Mr. T heads back to the Gentlemen's Club to watch ESPN on his 52-inch plasma TV.
Two days later (April 3) a little jokester arrives.
Lassi's doe stuck her head out of Mom, looked around, and decided not to come out any farther.
Barb had to go in after the rest of her, which was not much fun for anyone involved.
But little Juju-dhau is doing fine
(in keeping with Lassi's yogurt-based theme, she's named after "Delicious creamy curd from Bhaktapur, a must at all feasts. Juju Dhau literally means 'king curd.'")
and Lassi is proving an exemplary mother. Here the two cuddle together the morning after the birth. Sire is Dodger's Chief.
And then around sunset that evening (April 4), Kona went into labor.
This little jokester with the big noggin didn't even want to poke his head out.
Kona worked toward exhaustion and Barb tugged away to help her
until he finally popped out, feisty and strong from the start.
While Lassi showers Juju with constant attention
Kona feeds and bathes her boy regularly, but prefers to stay away from him much of the time.
Fortunately the two newbies get along famously
and love to cozy together like any pair of womb-mates.
So the recent deliveries didn't go as easily as in years past, but all the babies are doing fine.
They were like so many human twenty-somethings these days; they just didn't want to leave the warm and safe comforts of their first home.
Mr. T is justly proud of his latest progeny (Alba's Terra and Freya and Kona's Boy)
and Dream is proud of her grandchildren, the triplets
Dream's daughter Desiree delivered at Kirsten and Chad's place:
two doelings
and a buckling.
Meanwhile, across the barn, Terra and Freya
survived the disbudding iron and are getting bigger and stronger each day.
They love to get outside
and see who can spend
the least amount of time
touching ground.
Back inside the barn they climb on anything that's elevated
eat hay with Mom
and crash together for a few rare moments of rest.
Freya has the same cute bug eyes that Alba had as a doeling
and Terra does a mean imitation of Yoda.
In non-goat critter news
deer are boldly hanging around the house in broad daylight
and watching to see when the gardens will get planted.
Occasionally pairs of geese check out the still frozen front pond
honk to keep intruders away
and then move along. "We'll be in Key West; tweet us if spring ever arrives on the Farm."
2 comments:
Very nice Steve!
Well done and well documented!
Probably just as well we aren't coming up this weekend, I would want to take one of those little cuties home.
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