May 2018 Goat kids!!

Pearl gave birth to Biscuit sometime the day of Sunday, 6 May. The kids went down in the evening to check on the animals and came tearing back up the hill, "PEARL HAD A BABY!!!!!!!!!!!" 

We were all concerned--Pearl just wouldn't let Biscuit nurse. She was really agitated and jumpy, and since she was a first-time mom, and we were first-timers as well,...

...Elise...

...and Mason cozied up in the clean straw and bedded down for the night. My neighbor, who has milk cows, came over after his work shift and was able to help Biscuit latch on. So the human kids didn't end up spending the night at the barn--when my neighbor got there, Elise woke up and headed back to the house, with Mason following close behind her.

The next day we got Pearl on the milking stand, 

...and Biscuit was able to latch on. I don't think I've ever been so relieved in my life! Turns out, maybe the reason Pearl was so jittery the previous night was that she had another baby in there. Sadly, it didn't make it. We weren't there when it was born, and it was cold by the time Trevor noticed it on the ground under the straw. I nearly threw up, I was so mortified. This circle of life thing is understandable in theory, but heartbreaking in practice.

But Biscuit was thriving!

Trevor named him.

On Monday, 7 May, while we were down with Pearl and Biscuit, Lincoln noticed Ruby acting strange. Soon she gave birth to a little doeling.

And then another doeling!

And then a buckling! Triplets!!

She was such a good mama, cleaning them right up and nuzzling them.

She let them nurse within an hour after birth. 

We locked Pearl in the milking stand several times a day for the first week or so she and Biscuit could get used to each other. Grain helped with that training!

Elise named Ruby's babies Aster, Begonia, and Cosmos.

Out on pasture for the first time, 26 May.

We started milking them about 4 weeks after birth, more for us to learn how to do it than to actually get milk. The ladies didn't take too kindly to milking, hence the tied up back legs. We had to tie Pearl's legs for months and months, but Ruby got used to it quickly.

The triplets have always been a little scrawnier than Biscuit--he was twice the size of them in just a few months--no competition for him!