Snow still covers the ground in much of the country, but at Swan View Ranch, spring has arrived!
Think you need warm temperatures for a spring state of mind? Not necessarily! How about 30-plus little kids running and jumping around the place? That’s what we have so far, and our moms aren’t finished yet.
So far we’ve had 13 does freshen with a total of 31 babies. We can’t believe the multiple births this year. Our ladies are really outdoing themselves! Tweedles, our top mama, held her position as herd mother by having four—the most yet. Several others have followed with three each, including Audra, daughter of Lexus, who gave birth to three beautiful does—Adelyne, Abby, and Amelia.
Gerald’s favorite—Christina—had two sweet does, Julia and Jennifer. You can see them
here snuggling up together, but what we’re really tickled about is those long ears! We’re wondering if, with the aid of a long feather, they might be able to fly?
Meanwhile, while we’re excited, we’re exhausted! Tending to all these mamas is a lot of work. We’ve had a few babies that were born not quite ready for the world. We stayed up all night with one making sure he got the milk he needed, as he just couldn’t quite figure out the whole “eating” routine. For all the others, we’ve been busy shifting pens. The new ones go into pens by themselves where they can have a few days to adjust (and the benefit of the heat lamp), while the older ones go out into the barnyard where they can stretch their legs.
All these goats in all these pens means that we’re carrying buckets of water back and forth every day. It may feel like spring, but the overnight temperatures are still cold enough to freeze the water in most of the buckets, so we’ve been busy hammering out the ice and then refilling and restocking all the pens with water—every day! We’re also hauling hay from the stockyard into the barnyard so everyone gets fed. Boy will we be glad when they’re all strong enough to go back out onto the field! All the while we’re keeping a sharp eye on the expecting moms that haven’t yet birthed. Fortunately, we’re getting close—only five mamas left.
This is a special time, though, as we watch the young families bond with one another and see the little kids springing up from the ground like Pop Tarts. There’s nothing that can leap straight up in the air quite as well as a baby goat! Pop, pop, pop, they’re much more exciting to watch than any bowl of Rice Krispies. Some prefer snuggling in our laps to the rambunctious play, and for these we hold a special place in our hearts. No surprise that Tweedle’s babies are some of our favorite lap goats. (Gerald is holding Gwen and Grace in this picture.)
So while the storms continue to blow over our nation and the frost to gather on our windows, we know that it’s not long now before the flowers will be blooming and the birds chirping. Our little weather forecasters tell us everyday that the time for holing up in our caves is over—spring is here.
Let’s go play!
