The Lord works in mysterious ways. His timing can’t be beat. When I was home alone — the kids in California and Jeff also out of town — Piper went into labor. She is the goat who we never saw go into heat. We felt she must be pregnant but we had no idea when she would give birth.

At the evening milking and feeding on Tuesday, I noticed her udder was full. Also, she wasn’t interested in food. A few hours later, when I was locking up the ducks for the night, I found Piper all alone in the barn, backed into a corner, arching her back and looking uncomfortable.

Pipe was doing just what Buttercup did last week, whose labor produced a (stillborn) kid. I recognized Piper in labor because we had been through it before. God had prepared me, I now recognize.

I was nervous about being alone with a birthing kid, yes, but I leaned hard on the Lord. I knew that Piper was a strong goat and should birth easily. I hoped anyway.

I put Piper in the birthing stall with a bed of straw, plenty of alfalfa for munching, and water. I got a lawn chair, my camera, my phone (to call Jeff), a water bottle, and towels, and camped out. The contractions came sporadically, and she labored standing up for the most part. She moaned just softly and was not nearly as vocal as Buttercup had been.

Then she laid down and kept falling asleep. I would see contractions maybe every 10 minutes. It seemed like she was progressing, but it also seemed like it was going to be a long time.

I went to bed and left her sleeping. It was about 11:30 pm. I woke up at 4:30 am, very confused. I couldn’t remember why I was supposed to get up. God reminded me. I got out of bed so fast and went to the barn in my pjs and a sweatshirt…

…to find Piper standing and screaming her head off and two newborn kids on the ground, under the warm heating lamp. One (who I later found out to be a male) was trying to stand up. The other (a female) was probably just barely out of the womb; she wasn’t trying to do anything. I figured I’d help her, as Piper was not interested in her kids yet and the little boy seemed to be doing just fine on his own. Piper was still screaming for her herd or from the drama.

I rubbed the little doeling and wiped some goop from her face so she could breathe freely, and I nudged her to stand. She started working on it. Too cute! The little buckling was up and on his feet by now, though unsteady. I brought Piper to the babies; she didn’t want anything to do with them. I tried putting them to nurse. She brushed them away and moved away every time.

I had no choice; I chained Piper up. I put the hobble on her. I showed the babies where to nurse and they grabbed on. As soon as they did, Piper’s maternal instinct kicked it. I could feel it. She turned her head to them and started licking the buckling. I unchained and unhobbled Piper. When she finished getting to know and cleaning up the buckling, she got to know her daughter. The kids nursed off and on, and she kept licking and loving them. So miraculous!

When I thought things were going well and sat back, I noticed two things. First, the kids were shivering. They were still quite wet and goopy. I dried them more and put towels over them off and on. Our barn is quite breezy. Piper kept licking and cleaning them.

Second, the straw underneath where the buckling was standing was bright red. He was bleeding! His cord was going drip-drip-drip. I applied pressure and it wouldn’t stop.

I came inside to look up on the internet what to do. Suggestions were to tie it off with dental floss. I got some floss, but before I went back, I tweeted @Nika7k for advice. She knows goats. She eased my mind by and confirmed the steps I should take.

Back at the barn, I tied off his umbilical cord. The bleeding slowed, but still the cord dripped for an hour before the blood dried up.

Both kids were pretty wobbly on their feet for the rest of the day, and I felt the buckling took a downturn. He was not as energetic or active as his sister, even though he started the day with more strength than she. I am guessing that he lost enough blood  to zap his strength. They slept alot yesterday.

When Jeff got home yesterday evening, we took stock together. Just like a kid (human), Jeff couldn’t wait to get home to see them. Our visit to the barn left us feeling that they were doing well. Piper is a great mom. They nurse often and well, as far as I can tell.

And the twins love each other!

Now, today, the twins are just over a day old. The buckling has so much more strength today — I am glad! The little doeling is just the cutest thing ever. I can tell she’s mischievous. Stubborn, too; she does not want any help nursing and finding the nipple. And, she’s friendly. She follows me and wants to leave the birthing stall when I do. She calls for me when I leave.

The buckling has had the stickiest first poops. It was like hard candy stuck all over him. I had to bathe him this morning to unclog that mess. All better now.

My kids will be home tomorrow to find these cute gifts from God waiting for them! Even though they’re not here, my girls have already blogged about this event with the pictures I emailed them: Haniya’s post and Naomi’s post.

I am alternately baffled, overwhelmed and thrilled by the events of the past day. I think I know some of what God wanted to teach me: to trust in His design. His creations  birth and raise their young successfully because He made them to do it. I know I helped Piper’s birth, but I think can’t help thinking that it all would have been fine if I hadn’t been there, too.

I feel privileged to have witness a miracle of birth on our own little farm. God is good and His works are beautiful.

I’m sharing this post in “Simple Lives Thursday,” a blog carnival which I co-host at GNOWFGLINS. “Consume less, produce more.”

The third day we had the Muscovies, one of the hens disappeared. No idea where she went, or if she was taken.

The Drake was just plain mean, stalking us, and very possessive of his hens. When the two hens which were left started setting on eggs, he went ballistic. Poor guy was lonely, I know. But it is hard to feel sympathetic when he was so mean. When we milked in the barn, we’d have to cage him up or carry a stick. He would get so mad we were in his territory he would literally shake with rage.

Did you notice I said “The Drake was just plain mean”? Yes. The Drake is a Was. He has gone bye-bye.

Here’s the story. The sweet little hens hatched out seven of the cutest ducklings you ever saw.

The Drake ate three of them. We didn’t realize he was our culprit until Mikah caught him red-handed (or red-beaked) eating the third one.

Lest you wonder – yes, we did keep the ducklings and hens separate from The Drake. But, the ducklings would get out and The Drake would be waiting to gobble them up. They must have provided a substantial meal because he only ate every couple of days.

We found out about his strange diet last Thursday. (No, we don’t think he ate the first hen who disappeared.) Jeff left work early to come home and butcher The Drake. It was bloody and tiring and hopefully we will get better at processing ducks. Yes, I’m reminding myself, we are raising these ducks for meat. So we better get good at it.

So now The Drake is in the freezer. I have to figure out how to cook him.

The remaining four ducklings and the two hens are still the sweetest. One of the little ducklings, Angel, is smaller than the others, and she seems cold. We hope she makes it. We decided not to nurture her inside the house because we want the ducks to raise themselves. If she doesn’t make it, that’s a sad fact of life. Yes, we will cry. But it will be okay.

Next up: Khaki Campbell ducks for eggs. They’re on order…

Pegs (first shown) has doubled her milk supply since we put up the hay rack. It could also be that she’s weaning her daughter, Piper. In any case, it is amazing to finally have a goat giving good yields. She is more full each morning!

We figured we needed a hay rack, because otherwise the goats would eat their (expensive) alfalfa hay in a big bin in the center of the barn. Most of it would end up on the floor.

After Jeff thought awhile, he decided to part ways from the plans and do it his own way.

We had cattle panels along one wall of the barn anyway – the wall doesn’t go all the way to the ground yet. We ran out of time to build up the floor of the barn this season, so the cattle panels block the hole. We also would hook the goats up to this “wall” for their feeding stations.

Jeff put up another row of cattle panels and t-posts just inside the current wall of panels. A fence within a fence. He put plywood leaning from the bottom of the inner fence to the top of the outer fence. And we put the hay between the plywood and the inner fence. The goats reach through the cattle panel holes to get the hay. They can’t waste so much of it because the hay pretty much stays put.

Now we hook the goats up to the inner fence – just for their supplemental grain feeding, not when they’re eating free choice hay.

Hallelujah!

• Paisley – She troubles me no longer. She’s sweet and docile and loves attention. The issue in the left teat didn’t ever resolve, though I’m 100% certain she never had mastitis. I’ve tested leaving her milk in the fridge for at least 10 days without any off smell or blood precipitating out. At this point, the left teat is blocked and I can get only a tiny bit of milk out at milking times. It does not pain her at all. The right side gives quite a bit of milk, about 3 cups at each milking.
• Gingham – (Paisley’s sister) She’s become the trouble maker. Those sisters just switched places. But I can still handle Gingham, so we’re getting her milk and her submission. I really don’t know what gets her stirred up. Being in heat could explain some of her moods, moving to the new barn could, too. But this all started when we went on vacation to Montana. She gave our friend (who milked the goats) a really hard time, and she has kept it up ever since.
• Trimming Hooves – Naomi helped me trim the big goats’ hooves last week. It was a job, but that’s because I was late getting to it. Immediately, Gingham and Paisley got up easier on the stand. Which makes me wonder if their hooves were paining them when they’d previously get up there.
• New Home – the goats took a few days to adjust to the new barn. Especially Gingham. Boy, she can be a pain! But they’re used to it now.
• Breeding – We need to get our milk goats pregnant. But we have no buck. Nor do we know of one. He must be a Nubian, as we want to keep our creamy milk, thank-you-very-much. This is a matter for prayer and further research. Does he come here? (We’re not set up for a buck yet.) Do we take the does to him? (We have no trailer and their heat cycles are probably all different.) Do we breed the does who were born this spring? (One of them is quite big and probably will get fat if she doesn’t get pregnant.)
• Belle – We had to put Silver Belle down. She is no longer. She is the first goat we got. From Shipping Fever Complex, she got pneumonia. It was pretty bad, and her lungs got damaged such that she never again breathed without difficulty. We wanted her to hang on long enough to give her babies six months of nursing and that she did, admirably. Over the weekend, Jeff and the kids did the deed. I didn’t want to be there. They examined her and found strange lungs that didn’t seem healthy.

I didn’t take pictures of everything we did, but here’s a rundown: finish siding the back, add corner trim and door trim, stack the lumber inside, make finishing connections for the water system, fill trenches with dirt, create animal stalls, move feed and milking stand to new barn, move fences, create corridor for animals to enter and exit, add gate to keep animals from leaving the wrong way and down the driveway, dirt work to prevent water running into the barn, and turn on the new water system.

Click on any picture for a larger view.

We felt so good last night, even though it was late when we came in. Jeff had taken most of yesterday (Monday) off so we could finish. We hoped we would. It was the last sunny day. God worked it out – helped us finish. We got the animals moved in the nick of time – as last night it started raining!

The milking is going well. For the moment...

Even though these pictures won’t show it, things are going better with Paisley. The first five minutes of milking is always pleasant and peaceful. Paisley eats happily. Then, for whatever reason, she decides that she’s done with milking. Well, I’m not done yet, so I don’t let her off the hook.

I have to use my left shoulder and arm (on the right in the pictures) to hold her up while my two hands do the milking. Her being off-balance prevents her from kicking. We stop milking when I say we stop. Then she gets down and eats the rest of her feed happily. See what I mean? There’s no problem with the food, she just doesn’t want to be up there on the stand! (Ironically, she gets up there herself voluntarily at the beginning.)

She's saying she's done... see her head twisting? I'm having to hold her body up while milking.

Trying to get under her to milk; she's wanting to sit down on the job.

Okay, I'm tired, taking a rest from having to hold her up while milking...

Also, even though I don’t believe she has mastitis, that’s how I’m treating her. I explained the other day how one teat is clogged and has a lump. Well, I’ve been pouring through books and internet information and couldn’t find anything until I read in Pat Coleby’s “Natural Goat Care” that lumps can be a sign of mastitis. I don’t think she has mastitis because there are no clumps in her milk and it doesn’t go “off’,” but since I don’t have anything else to try at this point, I’m going with the treatment in this book.

Which is: supplementation with dolomite (for calcium and magnesium) and vitamin C. I mix it into her feed, along with kelp, apple cider vinegar, and molasses/water. I also massage her udder when I wash it prior to milking. I think she likes the warm water and the massage. After washing, I rub castor oil onto the teats, too. I always do this as an udder balm (to reduce friction burn), but now I take some extra time with massaging it in. I think she likes this, too.

I started doing the supplementation on Monday, so it has now been three full days. I feel that the teat is less clogged. There isn’t that much milk in that side anymore – perhaps the amount will go back up? But I would say that teat is 75% clear now, instead of 25% clear. I hope this means she is improving. The lump is still there.

We’ve been up and down with Paisley, one of our milking goats. She’s an edgy goat. We never know what will set her off. When she goes off, she does things like this – get spooked easily (from sounds, unfamiliar people or animals), try to sit down while I milk her, generally be uncooperative during milking, be uninterested in food, buck and kick during milking,  and/or not come readily to the barn for milking/feeding. Frequently, all these things happen during the same milking hour.

But I do love her and I want her to fully settle in here. She may not, though. She’s more than 3 years old and probably this is her personality. Which begs the question, is temperament passed on through breeding? I really don’t want any kids like her!

There’s so much I could say about her and the recent ups and downs. I’ll try to categorize.

1. Changing feed – I realized the molasses coated grains I was buying also have loads of preservatives. Ick. Not buying those anymore. So I served only dry grains (previously I was mixing dry and sweet, for a good balance). Right away, Paisley stopped eating. So did the others, but she was the worst. After about three days, she would nibble at it, instead of throwing fits. When I say throw fits, I mean that she would move her head viciously in her bowl and literally knock it off the stand or tip it over. Finally she stopped doing that.
2. Molasses – We drizzled our own molasses on the grain. Nope. The goats wouldn’t have that. Especially not Paisley. Then I watered down the molasses (three parts water, one part molasses) and drizzled it sparingly over the grains/seeds and mixed it all up. That they would eat. *relief* Praise the Lord!
3. Out of raw apple cider vinegar – I ran out of ACV for about two weeks. I pour some of that on their food also. It is good for supplying phosphorous and also overall support of the rumen. Well, they like how it tastes, so it being missing contributed to the overall food-rejection level.  I’ve been at my wit’s end lately with this pickiness!
4. Out of kelp – We give organic kelp (Thorvin brand via Azure Standard) free-choice to the animals as their whole food vitamin & mineral source. It is amazing the transformation in their coats for just one example! Some of the Nigerian Dwarf goats who have always had rougher coats are soft and smooth now. We ran out for about two weeks. We’re back in stock now, and the goats (and steer) keeping chowing down!
5. Small orifice & bump in one teat – With regard to Paisley, one of her teats started getting difficult to milk at the same time we ran out of kelp and apple cider vinegar. It isn’t mastitis, or I don’t think it is, but the orifice all of a sudden was small and very little milk would come out, even with me having a perpetually sore hand working it so hard. There’s a little bump inside the teat and also it seems like the inside udder bag is descended somewhat into that teat. So in order to pinch off the top of the teat, I have to lift the inside udder bag out of the way fully before closing my thumb and forefinger on the milk in the teat – I don’t want to burst any tissues inside! Anyway, this all started happened when we ran out of kelp (although she’s always had that little bump inside the teat). When we got kelp and ACV back on the menu, the milking improved and the milk began flowing freely, but then I changed up the feed (#1, #2, and #3) and so now it is all worse again.
6. Behavior – With all these changes, Paisley has been downright difficult on the milk stand. She wouldn’t eat on the stand, but then she would eat when down and not being milked. So even though I know the food change didn’t excite her too much, I knew she was mostly being stubborn. During milking, she would kick, buck, or try to sit down. I would have to not only deal with a very sore left hand from milking the one difficult teat, but I’d have to use my whole body to restrain her just to complete the milking. I refused to give in to her. But she continued to fight me. I can’t tell you how many times I threatened her with going in the freezer (like she could understand)! One day I came in and said to Jeff, “I’ve had it!” We decided that when she misbehaves, I would instantly take her food away, milk her out anyway, and then march her out to pasture. She would miss out on: being with the other goats (being with the herd is very important), finishing her grain, munching on dry alfalfa, love and attention. I enacted this discipline three times, not all in a row. And since then, we have had three docile milkings from her (though the one teat/udder is still hard to milk).

I’m sharing all this, without really knowing what is going to happen from here… should I stop milking Paisley? Should she go in the freezer? Is milking her (even though I am being very, very careful) making whatever is wrong on the one side worse? How can I go off to Montana in three weeks and leave someone else with the responsibility of a cranky goat? If you have any advice, I’d love to hear it! Thanks for listening.

This video shows the wild turkeys – hens and chicks – who are sleeping in the barn at night. They hang out on the property alot during the day, too. We often find them with the goats. This morning, when I went to do the milking, three hens and just as many chicks were still nesting in beds of hay in the milking area. There is lots of dropped hay on the floor and I guess they think it is pretty comfortable.