The past 5 days have been unbelievably busy. All 6 of our does chose to deliver within a 3 day period. Two delivered through the middle of the night so we had to pull an all-nighter. We're still trying to catch up on sleep and nap whenever possible. But 6 does must be milked out twice a day, and the 13 babies must be bottle-fed 4 times a day. We just added it up last night and realized within a month these babies are going to require 5 gallons of milk a day. Some must be sold. We're going to do a photo shoot of all the kids this afternoon and put up ads.
Rachel and I have switched to a new system to handle the workload - she does the milking, and moves from doe to doe. I get them on the stand; groom them; filter, weigh, label, and put up the milk in the ice water bath, and write down the specific amount; keep her udder wash water hot; make sure the does finish their fodder, and put them up; fill the mangers with hay; wash the feed buckets, and top off and warm the does' water. This way we get the whole process of hand-milking 6 does done in under an hour. We nurse the babies by collar color, going from oldest to youngest, and get that done in under 20 minutes. We also work together on fodder, her washing grain and traying up, me washing trays and doing the rinsing.
Most of the deliveries went fine, with not too much assistance - though there were a few with malpresentation where Rachel had to straighten things out. The babies are all very healthy and have great vitality. They're all currently living up in the goat house. We've got the duck box, a bin on its side, lots of hay, and a large kennel draped with blankets inside the old coop for additional warmth. Though we've had day after day of snow and cold the babies are doing fine. I also took two old cold frames that were falling apart, cut the plexiglass, and made windows for the old coop so it's completely draft-free. It stays much warmer in there than outside in the attached stall:
Our first freshener Samanchas all had twins - one doeling, one buckling, except Pinkie - she had two doelings. We only expected twins from Pinkie, so twins from all of them is a great sign. And they've all nearly already made the first freshener cut of 1/2 a gallon of milk a day, just a few days into milking. We hope to get 3/4 a gallon of milk a day from each doe when they're at peak production.
Here is Pinkie and Shadow's mother, Marley, our top milker. This is a photo of her bagged up just before delivery - her udder is bigger than a basketball! And she coolly delivered triplet doelings. She's got a great pedigree:
She's looking a little ragged as she overproduces and we'll fight to keep her weight up all year. We've started this year milking her out 3 times a day to resolve her severely congested udder. Tomorrow we're switching her to 2 times a day as it's nearly cleared up. 4 days into milking, she's already producing a gallon a day. Last year she peaked at 5 quarts.
Cayenne and Sprite both had sets of large beautiful twins, one buckling, one doeling, in each set. Cayenne and Sprite are already over 3/4 a gallon a day and hopefully soon will make the gallon-a-day cut for a mature milker.
I've got the trailer working, and hauled back a last round of scrap boards for the garden:
The interior of the garden is now finally finished. I tore apart the old concrete block fireplace and used the blocks for retaining walls around the perimeter. This whole project only cost the price of the screws - maybe $30. But it did take 2 months of labor:
The beds along the perimeter where not taken up with perennials will be used for herbs.
The next project is clearing the fence line for the creek pasture, and putting in the electric fence. This next pasture should be easily over an acre, and it will be the lushest pasture in browse we've got.
20 degrees this morning, after 3 days of snow. Anybody sick of winter yet?
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