Jumping the Moon Dairy - the next chapter

[Baymule]

H&R makes a great point... As busy as you are, you'll be doubly so right at the time you'll need to be selling them. Perhaps you can start taking deposits now on a 1st come, 1st served basis?

This is a great idea! What about advertising for bottle feeders? Find 2-3 people to come bottle feed for you and they get paid with a baby goat!

 

[babsbag]

@Senile_Texas_Aggie I haven't heard anything about the insurance but I did hear that some insurance companies had gone broke over the losses in these fires. I don't think that home loan lenders would be real happy about that, not sure how they would deal with that.

My friend's parents died within 36 hours of each other. Her father had Alzheimer's as well but when her mother got cancer and they sent her home with hospice they made her father go to a care facility. He was only there for a few days and 36 hours after his wife died, he died. He was not physically ill prior...life (and death) can sure be a mystery. She has tried to find help but for some reason the county has been unable to give her any and I don't believe that her aunt has insurance or the means to pay for private help. It is tough.

 

[babsbag]

@Baymule That isn't a bad idea. I do advertise early but I don't take deposits, that gets too complicated. Last year most of the LaManchas were spoken for prior to birth and I kept all of the Alpine doelings...not doing that this year, only keeping a few.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Miss @babsbag,

Any news you'd like to share?

 

[babsbag]

@Senile_Texas_Aggie LOL.... the question should be "any news that you have time to share"? There is always news around here. Probably the biggest is this: We bought a bigger trailer to build a bigger processing room. One more remodel job on the horizon. I will use what I have for this year but in the meantime we will be remodeling a 10x40 office trailer with plans of moving into it next winter. I currently have an 8x30 and it's tight. My current processing trailer will replace my office/lab/restroom trailer and that trailer will be sold. This will give me room to have some freezers and refrigerators near my dairy instead of them being in my garage. It will also get them out of the garage, which will be nice. Of course that means installing a restroom but at this point my attitude is "whatever". I can always move the current trailer housing the restroom to another close by location and use that until the new one is built. I don't use it anyways, it is just for code compliance. It is 100' to my house so if I need the facilities I go to my house, don't want to mess with a holding tank to empty. Life is never boring around here.

I had a set of mini Alpine twin bucklings born a week ago, that was a total surprise. My first doe is set to kid the end of Jan. and then the fun begins again. I am trying to get my house in order, cleaning and donating as fast as I can. I am having (or doing) a new laminate floor so all my nick-knaks and china need to be packed up too. I collect Nativity sets and I have two curio cabinets full of them plus my husband has a fire engine collection in another cabinet. This is going to be fun.

Mia is in heat again and living in the house/backyard. She does not do well in here at night. Fortunately I have a very secure dog run in my yard and she doesn't mind that at all but I do hear her howling/talking to the LGDs in the barn. She gets along pretty well with my house dogs and the cats which is a huge plus; I was worried about that. She is very dominant and one of my house dogs thinks that she is the dominant dog so I have to watch that. And of course I keep the food separated. Mia isn't eating much right now but I still watch that. I will be happy when this is over; probably another week to be sure.

Never boring.

 

[Latestarter]

Good to hear from you! Glad it isn't completely crazy (yet).

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Life seems to be a roller coaster

 

[babsbag]

And so it begins...I had a first the other night and it wasn't a good one. I lost a doe and 3 of her 4 kids. She had toxemia and I pulled out all the tricks to get her through, and we both lost. I induced labor, which took 36 long long hours. When labor finally did start she had been down for 24 hours. She delivered 2 kids, both DOA, and then labor stopped. I knew that there were more kids as I could feel them high on her right side. I took a quick break and then went "fishing". I could feel a hoof, I was in up to my elbow, and all I could get was a foot. I finally found another hoof and decided that they belonged to the same kid but no head...the headless goat, every breeders nightmare. There was no way I could reach and turn the head. I was laying on my belly, reaching for all I was worth and pushing on her abdomen from the outside trying to move the kid even an inch closer to me. It just wasn't happening. So I pulled. These kids were small, thank goodness. I got the kid out, DOA. I was wondering if it had been alive and suffocated as I was just too slow trying to pull it through the birth canal. So in I went again and felt another kid in the same position, head back as well. I was still up to my elbow and I just couldn't reach any farther. I felt the kid move so I decided that I would just pull and pray. So I grabbed a leg and inched it forward a little and found the other leg and I pulled hard and fast. Kid came out gasping but he is alive and well and living in my kitchen. The dam died later that day. What a night.

I had another doe deliver a big single buckling last night. They are both doing fine. Four more are due this week.

 

[Mike CHS]

That was not a fun way to start but Congrats on salvaging something from a terrible situation.

 

[Mini Horses]

Sorry for the lost doe & kids. One of those situations we all have nightmares over & then -- bam! It's never easy. Glad the next was uneventful -- you needed that!

Hoping the rest of your kidding goes well. We all know it's going to be busier than most any of us will be. Yeah, you're crazy...just so you know what you are thinking is real!