Bekah had her final visit with the hand surgeon this morning.  He was very pleased with how thoroughly she is healing.   After only six weeks you can barely see where the injury was on her finger and the palm area where the skin graft came from is healing up nicely too.

This afternoon I let Bekah use my camera (under very close supervision) so she could take some pictures with an eye to entering them this year at the county fair.  She did a great job with the rooster and the daisy!

The rest of the pictures were taken while we were hanging out in the pasture with the babies.   Astro sure does love to play hide and seek with Ari.

After much deliberation I have decided to put Rio up for sale.  Now that I am down to just six does I don't really "need" to have three bucks.  On the other hand Rio is a gentleman, has an impressive pedigree, and produced very correct looking kids for us this year.   So I may very well end up talking myself out of this decision.  :)

The black stripe on his back makes his rump look high, but he actually has a wide and slightly up hill stance.  Below are two of the buck kids he produced this year.  I forgot to get a picture of his doe kid when I saw her yesterday, but she is a dark chocolate and very dairy looking.

*** Update:  The buyer for the two buck kids pictured here backed out of the sale at the last minute, so both of them are once again available. ***

Millie's boy has been sold as a bottle baby and will be going to his new home on Sunday.  Because we only had the one wether available I put the buyer in touch with my friend and mentor over at Mac's Rainbow Nigerians and they purchased a second wether from her.   That kid is now sharing a pen here with Millie's boy so that the two of them can bond before going to their new home.   They seem to be enjoying each others company, and they were both having a grand time running around the front yard with Ari & Bekah yesterday.

Millie and her new buck kid seem to be doing just fine.  He is a very lively fellow and loves to kick up his heels!  He will be available as a pet wether.

Bekah also loves to kick up her heels and this morning she got the cast off her hand.  She now has just a little removable brace to provide some protection for her finger and is she is scheduled to start physical therapy next week.

For the moment she is being very cautious about using that hand, but I'm sure it will be just a matter of hours before we are futilely reminding her to take it easy.

Millie started hollering about 2pm this afternoon and at 6pm finally started pushing.   The first kid born was a buck who weighed in at a whopping 3.8lbs!   He was on his feet and nursing in no time and Millie was wonderfully attentive to him.

She eventually started pushing on the second kid, but all we could see was a single foot.  After noting the lack of progress I tried a tentative feel and found a foot back.  I straightened that out but unfortunately that wasn't enough.  So I finally put a whole hand in but couldn't find a head.  I could not tell which way the kid was facing and as she had been in labor for 90 minutes at that point I tried calling my goat mentor.  When I couldn't reach her I called the vet.  The vet said she was on her way but she was at least an hour out.   I eventually got in contact with my mentor who arrived before the vet and went to work getting the kid turned.  He had his head back over his shoulder.  Sarah managed to get him out around  8pm,  just as the vet was pulling into the driveway.   He was a strapping 2.7lb boy with markings very much like his sire.  Unfortunately he did not survive the long wait to be born. 

Through out the ordeal, Millie remained attentive to her first kid.   He has nursed several times and is already trying to jump around.

Today is day 142 for Millie and she is looking positively ready to pop.  She has been losing her plug off and on for a couple of weeks now just like she did last year when she kidded on the afternoon of day 142.

Poor girl can't find a comfortable position to lay in and huffs and puffs, grunts and groans and is constantly shifting position any time she tries to settle herself.   It's hard to keep the children from constantly running out to check on her, but their boisterousness is not conducive to a peaceful birthing environment.   So I'm trying to keep the kidding checks to only every two hours.

Since it appears Mystery came into heat last week, this will unfortunately be our last kidding of the year.   I could have tried breeding Mystery again, but I really don't want kids arriving at the start of winter.  So the plan now is to bred her to kid at the end of February.   And hopefully she will have lost some weight by then and be in better condition to conceive.

My friend Sarah at Mac's Rainbow Nigerians had two does that were due to kid the same day as Millie - June 9th.  One of them kidded yesterday, and the other who was bred to Sunny, kidded this morning with twin doe kids.  Unfortunately only one survived, quite probably because Libby was a first time mom who didn't know what to do with the kids.

The birth of these two does means that Sunny has a 50/50 doe/buck ratio for the second year in a row.   While I would prefer a higher doe ratio, I'm happy that it isn't higher on the buck side.  And the fact that he throws a lot of color is a bonus!  This doe kid reminds me of last years buck kid out of Sunny x Millie, who like Libby is black and white.  The doe kid that didn't survive had flashy markings very similar to Sunny's half sister Mystery.

I gave Millie a stern talking to this morning about not following Dahlia's and Libby's example and told her she should wait until at least this weekend to kid.   Of course having done that she will either kid early herself, or hold out until well past her due date.  Hmmm..... I think I might just head back out to the barn and get the kidding stall ready just in case.

The skin graft on Bekah's finger seems to be working well and the doctor is pleased with the way she is healing.   He noted the shape her bandages were in after just a few days and decided that it would be safest to put her hand in a cast, a decision I whole heartedly agreed with.   She goes back for another check on the 11th of June and if she has healed enough she will be scheduled for a bit of therapy at that time.

Bekah was a little freaked out before the appointment and fussed a bit when they cut off the bandages, but before long her usual curiosity kicked in and she just had to look.   She was also happy that she got to pick out the color for her cast.  She has had very little pain after this surgery and is getting along fine with just an occasional dose of ibuprofen.

The bear in the above picture was given to her by the surgery staff just before her last surgery and it has been her constant companion every since.  They even let her take it into surgery with her and it came out with a little hair net and face mask on.