Still no baby goats - really hoping today is the day (because tomorrow is all day Zoom meetings)
The plus side of having to go out to the barn at 2am to check on pregnant goats is that there were faint auroras (which actually must have been pretty bright just to compete with the nearly-fully moon), and I heard 2 great horned owls calling back and forth to each other.
No baby goats yet, but it's nice to see all the animals enjoying the warm sun. That goat in the middle of the picture using the other goat as a pillow might be the most blissfully comfortable creature in the world.
...still no baby goats. But it's actually been kind of nice to force myself to go outside and check on the very pregnant one every hour or so during all these meetings!
Still no babies! That poor mama goat is huge and her udder is so big it is painful to look at.
Starting to get a bit worried, but she's not quite late enough for it to be likely there are any problems (also there are no vets at all anywhere around here who work on goats, so I'm on my own whatever happens ☹️ )
But I did get to watch the llama and the livestock guardian dog having an extremely chill disagreement about whether this hay bale is a comfy watchtower or a delicious snack.
STILL no babies! I was so sure she was going to have them last night I turned on the heat lamp for her. Only to find a very comfortable, very pregnant goat, basking under the heat lamp when I checked on her at 2am and 6am (man I am tired...) Last year one of my goats was 5 days late and all the babies had severe nutritional problems, which I worked really hard to not have this year...ugh farming is hard.
Anyway...the baby chicks are doing great! (Definitely in their "awkward stage" though)
I'm reasonably sure the mama goat is finally in labour! I'm going to go sit in the barn with my tablet and read a neutrino PhD thesis while keeping her company and making sure everything goes smoothly.
@CedarTea Yeah no kidding! I was wearing an N95 mask while I was looking for towels at the thrift store so I didn't notice how absurdly potent it was 😬
Babies and mama are looking great (the mama passed the placenta with no trouble, yay).
They will get spoiled with a heat lamp tonight (even though it's not even getting below freezing tonight), and tomorrow night I think they'll be just fine with snuggle-warmth.
I think I can safely sleep through the night tonight without a 2am barn check, but I have 2 more goats due in the next few days, so I'll make sure to fully enjoy my uninterrupted night's sleep tonight
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