Around the Farm #1 – BABY GOATS

*jumps into room*

HELLOOOOO MY FRIENDS! I AM ALIIIIIIIIIVE! First off, I want to apologize for being absent for so long… secondly I want to introduce a new SERIEEEEEES!

Around the Farm

Around the Farm will be a series to catch you up on new animals, crazy stories, and more! And I will also have tons of pictures!!!!
Guys…. like… SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED!

So

You will NEVER believe what I got this winter/spring!!!!!!!

BABY GOATS!!!!!!!

It’s a sweet and endearing story that melted my heart as in unfolded and I hope will melt yours as well. (in the best way possible)

It was a cold February day when I went to go do chores… stepping into the barn, I spotted two BRAND new BABY GOATS lying in the hay. They were wet and shivering, and their mother wasn’t taking care of them…  she was a new mother and not friendly at all… so I sadly this isn’t too rare of a situation if you live on a farm… but with two wet newborn baby goats out in the below freezing cold, I had to take action. So I brought them inside and warmed them by the fire, using a towel to dry them as good as I could. One of them was more energetic in little time, but the other one was too weak to even lift it’s head.

first time bringing them inside

After they were dry, warm, and moving around on their own, I attempted multiple times to repair them with the mother… but she wouldn’t take care of them… and every time I checked on them they were worse off than before.

So that left only one option….. Be their mother myself!

So that’s exactly what I did! They wore diapers, lived in a playpen in my room, and got fed a bottle (BY ME) every four hours…then every six… eventually only twice a day.

I gave them baths so they wouldn’t stink up my room, I cleaned their play pen, and I was always cleaning up their messes around the house when their diapers fell off. I finally knew a bit of the pain of having kids.

BUT

I absolutely loved it!

“Mommmmm”

If only a picture could capture how fast that tail wagged when she drank her bottle!!!

Milli being a show and tell model at co-op for the kid’s science lesson that mentioned split hooves…. what a surprise for them!

No, I didn’t like rolling over at two am and waking up babies so that they bleated at the top of their lungs til I fed them milk. No, I didn’t like cleaning up diarrhea all over their pen and washing it off of them. No, I didn’t like having to stay out of my room during their “nap time” when they’d finally be quiet at one pm every single day….

BUT… I LOVED the cuddles when they were wrapped in a towel after their baths. I LOVED them jumping around and following me through the house. I LOVED their tiny noises whenever I’d start making their milk. And I LOVED having baby goats inside.

Eventually they got older, and it warmed up outside… and they moved into the barn.

The sad part of the story is that…. I had to sell them. They were a different breed than our other goats and hence were smaller… therefore they wouldn’t have gotten along well … there were other reasons too, but it all boiled down to the fact that they needed a new home. 😦 Thankfully we found a good home for them to some kids who would truly show them the same love and care that I did. And I know they are living a good life now with those kids. I kept them til they were probably four months old.

It was an amazing experience…. and one I will NEVER forget.

Dear little Amelia (Milli)…

And dear little Agnes (Nessi)…

 

But ……that’s not all…

THERE WERE MORE BABIES

CRAZY, RIGHT!??????

So the story behind this is basically…

My friend’s grandpa owned a 250+ goat farm. I’ve helped her out there quite a bit, and knew all of the goats quite well. But her grandpa got in a car accident and it left him unable to walk very well and now he can’t do the chores out there… so he had to sell the farm. Which is super sad.

BUT, while he was in the hospital I helped my friend at the farm a TON. And there were two darling little baby goats born. This is where Gabriella (Gabbi) Ginger and Georgina (Georgi) Rose enter the story… where they entered my life. My two babies. Their mom has CAE (basically a disease of sorts that will turn into arthritis. The babies get it from the milk if they drink it.) so they had to be taken from the mom right after birth. But my friend’s family was too busy at the hospital to feed them every four hours…. SO they asked me if I would take care of them! I gladly said YES (after clearing it with my parents, of course).

These were now my SECOND pair of indoor baby goats. They also lived in a playpen in my room and got fed every four hours. They wore diapers most of the time and I’d let them out to play and have fun… Well…. when it came time to give them back to their rightful family…I didn’t want to say goodbye… And since the family wanted to repay me somehow for helping them with the farm…

THEY GAVE ME THE BABIES!!!!!

They are still with me today and are nearly seven months old!!!! They are beautiful and weigh about 70 pounds each! However, no matter how big they get they will ALWAYS be my babies.

Here are pictures of Gabbi and Georgi:

Four happy friends!

My dear baby Gabbi:

Dear baby Georgi:

This is the most recent picture

They are already finding their place in the world ❤

These baby goats have given me a new and fun experience this year. Although… they are getting older and bigger and I can hardly even call them babies anymore!

Come back next week to see #2 of this series about…. *drumroll*

O’Malley!

Who is O’Malley, you may ask? Well…. come back next week to find out. 😉

Miss you all so much! Please talk to me in the comments and let me know how you’ve been! How was your thanksgiving?

Sincerely,

K.A