We're Kidding, No Kidding 2012 Commences

Foolish, foolish, FOOLISH me.

I knew better than to let on that i was ready for babies.

Now we have two.

We were outside doing a little fleece-up on the dairy barn before the expected four days of rain, coz, ya know, the nastier it is outside the happier the does are to share the love.  We had finished up, and Ellie May and Jethro went inside to clean themselves up, and i took a last inspection sortie, finding Cherry Blossom in the corner of the doe barn with a dazed and confused (more so than normal) look on her beak, and a mass of goo right behind her.  I ran in the house to send Ellie out to midwife, and had to pull Jethro out of the shower (i know, how wrong is it to have to pull a 10 year old boy out of a shower???)

At approximately 6:45pm yesterday, Cherry gave us a 4 pound buckling (for now) named Bing Cherry and a 3 pound doeling (for ever) named Cherry Tart.

They are both VERY tiny, and premature, although viable.  Tart is having a rather slow start, but we think she is gonna be just fine. 

Becky was puttin' on a real show while we were working in the barn, and Susan suspects that Cherry got T-Boned, which put her into premature labor.  Which would explain why there were no signs or indications that it was "Time," other than the appearance of the Cherry Bombs.

Jethro was delighted, although he tried not to effuse...isn't manly.  But he stepped right up to his obligations and took a stab at milking. 

We joked about Dosidoe having "mouse teats" when she first freshened, but Cherry has her beat, she has "flea teats."  Her udder wasn't "bagged up" the way they do when they go full term.  Hopefully everything will stretch out a bit in a couple of days.

Everything went off without a hitch for this year's first kidding, except for the towel issue.  I had not pulled the box of kid towels out of the Dead Bathroom closet, and in the heat of the moment, overlooked them, so we killed several more of the family towels.  As soon all the excitement was over, i found the box.  Guess somebody put them back in the closet while we were doing cord care.

Also during the heat of the moment, Jethro put some grain in the doe yard to occupy the other girlz and keep them out of the doe barn while Ellie and Cherry were doing their thing.  Apparently Splendora, upon realizing that the grain bucket was empty, took it upon herself to ask for a refill.  We had a little trouble understanding her at first, because her voice was kinda muffled, but we figured it out.

And so it begins.
Again.

Many thanks to Susan Dear Susan for the big bag of collostrum.  Always deeper in your debt, Ma'am.

Bing and Tart pictures to come.