And Baby Makes 8

About 45 minutes old

Yummmmmmmmmmy in my tummy

This morning Heidi put an official end to the kidding season. Baby buck was born. He is a healthy, big boy. I am actually thankful that Heidi had only a single birth. When my husband and I first started out in the goat business we did not know a whole lot. How much could a girl born in the suburbs of Long Island know about goats? It seems Heidi had, what is known as a precocious udder. Which means that her udder developed without being pregnant. Before we new it, she was huge. It developed into a mastitis condition which ended up causing scar tissue to be formed in the udder. She has a beautiful udder from the outside but it will only hold about half the amount of milk she should be producing. It also makes milking her a little difficult. Needless to say, she had twins last season and could only feed 1 of her kids. The buck, who was the stronger of the two kids, pushed his sister (who I named Carmela) aside. Carmela became my bottle baby and to this day tries to crawl into my lap like a little baby. Except she now weighs about 60 lbs!

Maggie and Bo welcoming the newest addition to the farm

Thankfully all my goats are very tolerant of the dogs around their kids. And as a result all the kids are very fond of the dogs.

Poor Rocky - Not the baby anymore!

Well that makes 4 does and 4 bucks this time around. It takes a lot of jostling around everyone in the evening (I separate the kids from their moms at night) but it is well worth it. The moms need a break from their kids (they can still see and hear each other) and I get enough milk in the morning to make my soaps and cheese. Planting time is fast approaching. The Farmer's Market is only 3 months away!