The folks buying the cows drove down yesterday from north of Spokane and we loaded up the milk stanchion, cows and Oscar this morning.   I was surprised at how much weight Oscar has gained in the two weeks since he was born.  When he was first minutes old I easily picked him up and carried him, but I had to have help this morning and he still felt very heavy.

I know they are going to a good home, and Maggy will be happy they have a bull there for her.  But it was still hard to say good bye to them, especially Matilda who was my favorite from the moment I saw her.  

We can see the big pasture from the house and I am in the habit of glancing out the window to check on them several times a day.    Caught myself glancing out there more than once today.   Eventually the majority of the goat herd will move into that pasture I will be glancing out the window to check on them.  But for now its just an empty pasture with only memories.

Maggy, Matilda & Oscar in the corral yesterday evening

Monday afternoon, just before the brand inspector arrived Maggy broker her halter, when I had her tied and was trying to apply fly spray.  So as soon as the inspection was over I ran to the feed store to get her a new one.   Then I tried to catch her again, but she was having none of that.  Guess she figured she was going to get sprayed again if I did catch her.

Went out again this morning and managed to get the lead rope snapped on to the damaged halter that was still on her and tied her up.   Took a bit of doing to get the new halter on and adjusted, but she is now sporting a pretty green halter.

The vet inspection went fine this morning and the milking stanchion that is going with them was dragged to the top of the hill with hubby's help.   Hopefully getting it up and into the buyers trailer will go well.

So we are all set for them to move along to their new home up near Spokane this weekend.  I sure am going to miss them, but I know it will work better for the family as a whole when their pasture is devoted to the goats and the children can romp around out there with the goat kids.

This morning I cleared out the playhouse from the last round of kidding, and then spread fresh straw down and moved Jasmine into the play yard and house that double as the kidding shed and pen.  

If she was bred when her previous owners think she was then her due date is the 31st of July, and I want her to have some time to get used to the new quarters.  And the 31st due date is based on a 150 day gestation cycle and Nigerian Dwraf's actually have a "normal" kidding range of 145-150 days, so she could kid sooner than two weeks.

Of course if she wasn't bred when they thought she was, her due date changes to sometime between the end of August and the end of September.  Right now she doesn't look all that pregnant to me, but she does have a nice long body with plenty of room to hide a kid or two.  And she is starting to show fullness in her udder so I am really hoping that she is set to kid at the end of the month.

I put Ramie in with Jasmine to give her some company.  Ramie is used to that pen since she was born and raised in there until just recently.  Hopefully she will be enough company to keep Jasmine from getting lonely.   If not, then I will move Mame' over and put Ramie back in with the rest of the herd. 

Jasmine & Ramie exploring their new quarters

Well after the rough start to the mother-son relationship last night, Matilda and Oscar seem to finally be bonded and Matilda is keeping a very watchful eye on him.

Sometime during the night Maggy broke the gate into the corral and let Matilda & Oscar out into the main pasture.   When I realized what had happened I figured Matilda would hide Oscar in the bushes and I might not see him for a few days.  But she brought him up the corral when she saw me outside and has kept him there so far today, even with the gate open.

She has not objected to my petting him through the fence and even tolerated a gaggle of young children peering over the fence at them.   So far motherhood seems to have mellowed her even more. 

After the brief milking I gave her last night I am really looking forward to milking her in a couple of weeks.   Very smooth and easy to milk.   Of course she may well be sold by then.

A mother's love

About 7:30pm Bekah came in the house and said "Mom if you go outside, Matilda will have her baby."    So went and checked and sure enough Matilda was in active labor. 

Fortunately we had a good friend visiting who was able to help out with the kids, picture taking and general moral support.   Once the hooves appeared it seemed to take forever and lots of walking around before she finally laid down for good and got to the heavy part of her labor.   I think the calf was finally born around 8:30pm.

I was in the corral area with her, and she didn't seem to mind my presence too much so when the baby was born I was able to get in close for long enough to get its nose cleared and check to see the gender.   Definitely a bull calf.

Once the baby was born she didn't seem to know quite what to do, and was head butting him before she started cleaning him up.   He was born next to the corral fence, so aunt Maggy was right there getting acquainted.

Matilda wouldn't let me get close, so I went around to the outside of the fence and reached through to help get him dried off since he was shivering.  He kept trying to stand, but his feet were getting caught in the fence, and the ground where he was at wasn't very level.   So I went back into the corral and my friend managed to shoo Matilda away long enough that I was able to move the calf to more level ground and dry him off a little bit more.

jBekah was watching the whole thing, and called out that we should name him "Oscar" so tTohat is what he is going to be called.    This is the second birthing she has gotten to witness this year and she thinks it is "so cool!"

Once Oscar was on his feet, he went looking for his first meal but Matilda was having none of that.   Anytime he got close to a teat she would kick him.  I finally got a lead rope on her and tied her to a tree, and tried to get her to let Oscar nurse.  She let me milk her but wouldn't let him close.  (All that stanchion work before hand definitely paid off!)   So I got her into the stanchion and milked a bottles worth of colostrum from her, with hardly a protest. 

I brought Oscar over and she let him nurse briefly while my hand was on her, but the minute I tried to let him go at it alone she started kicking again.   By that time it was well past time for me to milk Mame' so I left the two of them alone and figured I would come back in a few minutes and if they were getting along any better or if I was going to have to bottle feed.   Fortunately, when I came back to check on them I could hear him slurping away in the dark, even before I could see him in the beam of the flashlight. 

To see larger images of the pictures below, just click on the picture.

The milk stand for the goats sits on a covered patio about 50 ft away from the goats pasture.   Allie loves to be milked and any chance she gets will run and get on the milk stand.    No worries about her running off at all.

The two first fresheners aren't quite so keen on the whole "getting milked" thing.  I started off by carrying them from the pasture to the milk stand.  But carrying 50lbs of goat uphill isn't so easy on the back.   Last week Millie finally graduated to getting to the general vicinity of the milk stand without assistance and today she jumped up on the milk stand herself for the first time! 

Mame is also making progress, she used to not want to be touched or to leave the pasture.   Then she moved on to wanting to leave, but running off.  So we got a collar and lead on her.   And she promptly planted all four feet and refused to be lead.   A couple of days ago she started walking along behind me to the milkstand, but waited to be lifted up.   Tried taking her to the milk stand without the lead today and that didn't work.   But once Bekah caught her, and we snapped the lead on she very dutifully followed us to the milkstand.  So progress is being made, and I have hopes that by next year either she will have the whole idea down pat, or I will have a real barn.