I suppose that you could say our kidding season for 2011 was fast and furious. The first twins arrived just at the end of January with a brisk freeze to send them straight into the house to spend the night. Less than a week later, we were facing a forecast of several nights in the twenties and teens. On Groundhog Day, we quickly prepared a heated stall in the horse trailer for Marie and her soon-to-be-born triplets. We also realized that something was terribly wrong with Annie.
Annie has never done well in cold weather. If the wind is blowing too briskly, she preferred to stay in the barn and out of it. After all, the Nubian is better suited for heat than cold. Last winter was fairly cold, and she certainly was happy to see the warm Summer. In December, she lost her pregnancy early and certainly lost a bit of sparkle in her eye. This winter had been colder still, and kept her in at times so she could spend the days in the sheltered sunshine of the dairy goat barn. As we prepared for the Arctic blast, I tried various coats on her to help keep her warmer, but even adding a heat lamp in the stall and four or five warm bodies cuddled up to her I realized that she was failing fast. My sweet Annie passed away that night.
The next two days were some of the coldest I remember seeing in Texas. Three days of 12 degree wind chill and frozen pipes, a half-inch of ice on the troughs each morning, and our stock tank in the front field froze completely across. That might sound like regular winter weather for some folks, but we live 40 miles south of San Antonio because we like it warm, y’all.
In those frigid days we also saw three of our two-year-old does deliver their first kids. Bay Laurel, Hyacinth and Camo had a total of five between them – all within eighteen hours of each other. They each did such a marvelous job with quick deliveries and are so mature in both their physical and mental health that I won’t hesitate now to hold all of my young does’ breeding until they are two years of age at the first kidding. I can also happily see that the influence of Jack’s Nubian siring has provided wonderful dairy influence on each of the Boer and Spanish does to which he was bred. Any of these young does could be brought into hand as smaller-framed milk goats, and I will certainly look forward to more of them.
As Saturday dawned we looked forward to thawing out, but then my heart sank to see that Charlotte was in the barn and wasn’t able to stand up. We began to treat her for milk fever, as this stress in the last days of pregnancy can cause weakness in the muscles. She remained in good spirits, and took her round-the-clock treatments in stride. JW and I lifted her periodically to help her stretch and move her legs. Just ahead though, another three-day blast of arctic air would set upon us. On Charlotte’s fourth morning down, the front blew in and she went into labor. Fully expecting the kids to be lost, I was amazed as I helped her deliver a live set of twins. Charlotte had just enough energy to nicker to each of them before her as I rushed to dry them in the cold. The kids were brought to a warm kennel in the house, and Charlotte was moved to the same heated stall in the trailer where Marie had nestled with her kids just a week before. As the night descended with the drop again into the teens, I found myself facing the realization that Charlotte would now be lost to me too. She had held on valiantly to her kids, but undoubtedly the strain of the the labor had been too much for her weakened state and heart and she died that night.
With three more days of our world frozen, that week saw eleven more kids arrive. In the midst of more chaos of heat lamps and freezing rain, my darling Mango Pango picked the break between storms to have her own kids. On a sunny afternoon, she busily set about and brought forth a girl, and then a boy… and then another girl. 😉 My silly bottle-baby-triplet delivered triplets herself the first time out. As JW said, “She was the star of the show.”
All in all, we had 22 kids in a healthy crop this year and are another year wiser. You can be sure that I won’t want kids born in cold February again! We are looking forward to Spring now as it has certainly begun to warm up. As always, we would like a little more rain down here in Texas. It is nice to be thankful for memories of the spectacular bluebonnets that we had last year. We are also thankful to have had lovely Annie Oakleaf as our inspiration for the Sugarplums here in Floresville, as well as her old friend Charlotte, who simply cannot be replaced as the staunch Field Captain (often to be seen kid-sitting any number of little ones in the shade of a tree.) Indeed, her own little week-old granddaughter was so attached to her in the barn that when Charlotte departed, we brought her to be raised along with Charlotte’s little black doeling. They make quite a pair, and are just the sort of girls to bring a smile to your face at the end of a chilly winter.
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