More Goaties

I found one of my beautiful black does under the bunny cages with two brown doe kids tonight. They were so dirty, born in the bunny poop. Mom was digging a hole around them, covering them with more gunk. At least she didn't have them outside in the icy mud. I could tell at first glance they were hardy, although small. Now they are in their pen, with sweaters I took off lambs earlier and washed, and bellies full of mom's milk. They're so beautiful. I figure three more does to go, at least, and maybe two sheep. I'm exhausted. I hope all this birthing is done this coming week, as Matt is starting his new job and won't be able to take night duty. He'll be gone for 12 hours a day I think. Maggie will have the major part of the workload. All these babies have to be watched carefully. It will be much easier when they are out of their pens, but babies lose their moms and vice versa. They walk around screaming, waiting for mom to appear. Sometimes I think she ignores the noise, thinking if she can hear them they are close by and she can keep on eating. We picked up and unloaded eight round bales today. Two rolled off track and down into the gully next to the barn. Nothing we could do. The sheep are getting their feet wet while eating and don't seem to mind. The moms in pens get a better quality hay in square bales. Matt hands me flakes over the stanchion fence in the barn and I have to run them over to the pens quickly before the sheep knock me down. They bend the fence panels to get the mom's hay. Oddly, the mothers don't mind being surrounded by sheep trying to get their food. They just eat the hay, too. The newborns just try to stay out of the way. I'm knitting another lamb sweater. It's snowing outside, not too cold, about 28-30F. There's a great show on about the Little Ice Age in medieval Europe, which followed the medieval warming period which gave them incredible prosperity. The ice age stopped all the growth and people started to starve and perish from diseases. Scary to think of how vulnerable we are to climate changes. This time last year we had a few feet of snow. When I walked the White Boys up the hill today I saw a lot of grass where the snow had melted. Go figure!