Recovering, bred goats, cattle report, goats bred, littering

Mama was sick all weekend. Saturday was the apex of the symptoms and she spent almost the entire day in bed. Sunday was better for her but not by much. For me, Sunday was bad. I woke up with horrible pains in my colon and they increased through the very early morning. Neither of us made it to church. By about 8 pm Sunday night I was feeling some relief and Mama’s fever was breaking. She will stay home today. I will drive to Lake Jackson, TX to teach what may be my last class for the year.

Saturday, I was not feeling too badly but I was noticing more intestinal pain than throughout the previous week. I took care of the early feeding and spent the remainder of the morning putting the linoleum in the birthing center. I got the flooring repairs done Friday evening, so it was only a matter of cutting the linoleum and fitting it to the floor where Victoria was going to put Kobe for the birthing. I warmed up the enclosure to help make the linoleum more pliable, but it was not necessary since what Victoria bought was the foam backed kind that is not as stiff as the industrial grade. It all went in well enough and as requested, I made sure it went up the the walls a few inches – at least, on three sides.

I worked on the back of the shop for a couple hours before I hooked the Sequoia to the trailer and headed to Bowie to get our bred goats. Fortunately for me, Rick’s son was available to help me load the goats. It was somewhat easier to get them into the cages on the trailer than it would have been to get them into the cages in the back of the truck – which is still in the shop – but it was still a struggle to pull the resistant animals up onto the trailer and into the cages. At the farm end of the journey, Victoria was available to help me get them out of the cages, off the trailer and into the enclosure. They were, despite all the struggle of getting them there, happy to be home.

Also on Saturday, Wayne called to tell Mama that he had finally identified the calf that goes with Daisy. He had taken all the calves to be tagged and when he let them back out at his lease, he watched the little heifer go straight to Daisy and nurse. He recommended keeping her on the lease another month to make sure she has the opportunity to get bred. His thought was that the calf is only about six weeks old and Daisy may not have come into heat since its birth. The extra month will give her that time. Mama and I were thankful for his generosity. With the small herd we have it is vital to capture every opportunity to have our heifers bred.

While we were out feeding yesterday evening I watch Solomon breed one of the little nanny’s we got from Bro. Daniel. The oldest nanny, and the only one with a name, Sugar, started rubbing her head against the neck and head of the young Billy in their amorous ritual leading to the female coming into heat. As Mama and I hoped, all of the goats should be bred by Thanksgiving. By Christmas or New Years, I will have a new enclosure set up for them. Mama wants to keep the two breeds separate for now.

On a final note, Kobe started “littering” late Sunday afternoon; and, boy did she make a mess. The first pup took over four hours to come. Each of the successive pups took about two hours each. I was standing duty when the second pup was born. It is a fascinating process to witness. There is a total of five pups. I am not sure of the count of the sexes among the pups, but they are all beautifully marked – from nearly solid black to brindled white, grey and brown. Dam and pups are all doing well.

Victoria was well pleased.