Bottle feeding, the swap meet, leaf removal

Friday morning was the first time to include bottle feeding to our routine. We started early but Victoria was up to let the dogs out and she took one of the babies in that early feeding. The first night we had the babies we kept them in the pig building.  I was opposed to keeping them in the house and the pig building was a good stopgap. To facilitate the morning feeding, the three babies were placed the kennel box the Burn’s had used for puppies last year, set up in the sunroom. It is large enough for the three tiny goats and just tall enough to keep them contained. Two of the babies are over a week old and are almost jumping high enough to escape the enclosure. Anyway, having them close made it easy for Grandma to help in future feedings. She enjoys the exuberance with which the tiny goats try to empty the contents of their bottles. It helps to be able to do all three at once.

Mama has largely succeeded in feeding the babies five time per day. Those feedings start at about 6:30 am and end with a last feeding at about 9 pm. Three hours, more or less, between bottles. Overnight they are on their own – even though Mama worried over them through the night. So far we have kept them in the little puppy box in the sunroom, abandoning the pig building because of the cool overnight temperatures, but Mama is talking about putting the three in the pig building through the day. That will necessitate Mama having to do the three late morning and afternoon feedings by herself. I am not sure if she is ready for that, but I do agree that the little ones need some time in a larger area through the day and the pig building will allow for more activity on their part. Unfortunately, our days have been wet and cool for the past week and the pig yard is a bit slimy. (The duck area is a mess because of the weather – and they like it that way.)  I am not sure if Mama wants to deal with that messiness either when it comes to the close quarters required to hold the baby goats during feeding. We will see.

I have limited times to help Mama because of a pressing work schedule. In the office Monday. Teaching classes Tuesday and Thursday. Although, I waited a bit longer at the house this morning to help Mama through the first feeding. I still managed to get to the office at a comfortable time, so it was something we may try to keep up on the mornings when I have to meet my office attendance and teaching schedule. I do enjoy the feeding times, so it is nice to crowd in as many feedings as possible. It will not be required for much longer. Four weeks more at the most and the babies will be on solid food alone. At that point we can begin to integrate them into the herd.

Grandma has helped a little in the feeding, but she lacks the strength to do much on her own, so it is actually more work on Mama when Grandma participates. Mama allows the inconvenience to encourage Grandma, but Mama has to be very careful that Grandma does not put herself in jeopardy but trying to handle the baby she is feeding in any other way than to hold the tiny one in her lap during she feeding. Grandma cannot bend over while standing to pick up the baby goat, neither can she safely bend over in her chair to feed the baby. She has no core strength and therefore no balance. Once Grandma barely caught herself as she began to fall forward trying to get hold of a little one. That would not be a good thing for either Mama or Grandma.

I spent Saturday morning at the swap meet with our pastor and another man from the church. I spent only two hours there because I had not dressed warmly enough to endure for much longer than that. When three more men from the church showed up, I bailed out. Not before my throat got a little scratchy and I was thoroughly chilled. However, in that two plus hours I passed out fifty Bibles, talked with many Spanish speakers showing them how to follow the plan of salvation as outlined in the New Testaments we were handing out and one of my fellow laborers got to lead someone though the plan of salvation and pray with him to receive the Lord! Pastor had the opportunity to share the plan of salvation with two vendors earlier Saturday morning. Both of them asked the Lord to save them! It was time well spent.

Once back at the farm, I dressed much more warmly and began raking leaves into piles in the garden and setting those piles on fire. I was careful in doing so, but all the piles burned thoroughly and safely – all thirteen of them. That work virtually emptied the garden of leaves. Outside the garden, at the well house, I was able to create five mounds of leaves and burn them, clearing that area as well. Over the next several night, if it does not rain too much, I will continue down our fence and into the nanny goat paddock. Slowly the ground is being revealed under the seven or eight inches of accumulated leaves, and I am giving the soil in the burned spots access to the ash that will enrich it more than the rotting leaves would have. A win-win.

Sunday, I felt exhausted. It had been a long week. Many early mornings with several late nights. Maybe this week will be somewhat more near normal.