Triplets, mulching, gardening

Saturday morning was an early morning; sort of. Friday night it was pretty obvious that Lilly was going to have her kids this weekend and Mama was fretting over the birthing. So, Saturday morning she popped out of bed a little after 7 am and looked out our bedroom window to check on the goats. What she saw put her into immediate action. Lilly was in the paddock giving birth – there was already one kid on the ground that Mama could see from the window. By the time we got out to her, she had given birth to her third tiny kid. Two males and one female. The female, the doe, is marked just like her father. Both of the bucklings are the black and white Mama favors. It started off our morning with a flurry of activity.

The first issue was that Millie, the matron of the herd, butted Lilly away from her newly born kids. None of the little ones had even been thoroughly cleaned yet and all of them needed to nurse at some point, but the older Nanny would not let the mommy near her babies. Mama and I had to get a leash, catch Millie and drag her out of the paddock so Lilly could take care of her little ones. That caused us a problem because we chose to put Millie in the coop area which abuts the Nubian goat’s enclosure. Millie and Sugar, the matron in that little herd, decided to but each other through the wire gate that separates the two areas. So, Mama and I had to herd the Nubian goats into the pig lot, close them up and hang a sheet over the shorter fence on that side of the enclosure so the goats could not see each other. Hopefully, we can put Millie back into the paddock this afternoon. Rick told us that the aggression on the part of the older goats only lasts a day or two. We will test that carefully.

After we got the goats situated, Mama and I went to the feed store to get bales of alfalfa for Daisy and the goats. Since Daisy it corralled in the barn, she has to be tended to every day. Getting the portions of feed correct for her has been a challenge. She will eat whatever we give her, and we want to help her gain her weight back, but we do not want to go broke trying to do so. We are still learning how much of what she actually needs to thrive while we wean her calf. Getting the one hundred-pound bales placed where we needed them took some time. One went in the cow barn with Daisy. The other went into the loft of the goat barn. Thankfully we have a tractor to help us get all that done. By that time, we were ready for breakfast, so we ate the sausage kolaches we picked up in Chico when we were getting feed.

Mama and I worked in the garden after getting the cows taken care of. We got her mower and used it to mulch the accumulated leaves so we could start to prepare the garden for some plants. The leaves took a bit of work even with the mower to mulch them, but we got the chore done in about an hour. After which, I started the tiller and got some rows ready to plant. I already had onions in the raised bed, but we needed a lot more soil added to plant anything else. Early in the afternoon, we made our trip to Lowes and to Decatur Garden Center. Lowes for soil. Decatur Garden Center for plants. By the time we got all that done, our evening chores done, and everything put away properly, it was almost 6 pm.

As of last night, all the kids were doing well. The little doe still has not gotten to where she walks properly. She still curls her hoofs under her as she tries to walk. We will see if that works itself out as she gains strength and coordination. When Mama and I checked on them late last night, the three were in the Igloo dog house we have in the goat barn, with Lilly standing guard at the opening. The dogs were on duty and well aware of the new kids. Mama could relax and go to bed.

Sunday was going to be equally busy.