Pioneers! O Pioneers!

 While waiting for bundles of joy to descend from Goat Heaven

 Santa’s Busiest Elf ® crafted more batches of soap

 

 and finished work on the renovated kitchen

 

 installing a gorgeous back splash

 

 and painting & decorating the remaining walls (with generous help from friend Laura).

 Cheeky and Reenie were both due on March 2, but the pioneers they were incubating decided to wait until March 4th to march forth – or “debouch,” as Walt Whitman would say.

 First came Meadowwild Mojo's Tzini (a doeling) without any trouble.  Her obstinate brother and sister, however, refused to budge. 

 So in went fearless doula Barb to rearrange positioning of the breach babies and convince first the buckling Meadowwild Mojo's Doodh ("milk" in Hindi) to come out

 and then the other doeling, Meadowwild Mojo's Tzimmes.

Cheeky started right in with her maternal duties:

 All three kids were quickly up and about.

 Cheeky's daughter Reenie kept a close eye on the excitement 

 

 and a short while later delivered with no problems at all her own pair of boys:

 Meadowwild Chill's Caliph

 and Meadowwild Chill's Monarch.

 They too were soon up on spindly little legs and even climbing

 with only the occasional face plant.

 All was going smoothly until later in the evening, when squeals of distress came over the barn radio monitor.

 For some reason Cheeky suddenly rejected Doodh and was butting him away and biting his ears when he tried to nurse from her.

 Barb had to take over as surrogate mom and feed him by bottle every few hours.

 

 A boy and a girl from Cheeky had been promised to a farm in Wisconsin.  Under the circumstances, their new goat mom graciously agreed to accept them sooner than planned

 

 so on March 7 Doodh and Tzini climbed into the Goatmobile and traveled to their new home.

Vigilant Cat keeps a lookout for the next arrivals

 which Ahni will supply any moment now.

 

 MeadowWild Farm is again awash in fresh goats' milk

 to the delight of feral Momma Kitty, who gets some in her bowl each time Barb milks.

The Farmers are mourning another premature departure: our neighbor's barn, which has been deteriorating for a number of years and must be taken down.

It has been a favorite subject for photographs in all seasons.

Demolition began on March 5

with removal of the cupola and a panel of roofing.

The barn is scheduled to fade gradually away during the rest of the month.

Not currently slated for demolition is another favorite photographic subject.

We conclude this post with a portfolio titled "The Many Moods of Dustin":