The sound of rain woke me up this morning. It is wonderful seeing the pond full and the fields green. Even so, I have to stifle a few qualms as I ponder yet another delay in planting garden. It still had not dried out yesterday. Now we have even more soggy mud to deal with. Oh well, goat babies have been consuming every spare moment, just about, so the garden would have to wait anyway.
We were so happy that Portia decided to wait and have babies when Rachel was here and our dear friend, Max. Max arrived in Charlottesville on the Amtrak. His first solo journey to Virginia. What joy to have him back on the farm!
In between royal council meetings, exchanging amazing homemade gifts, picnics by the pond, doing of chores, and other assortment of important farm visit stuff, Portia went into a very long, unusually long labor. Usually she walks around, pushes, pops out babies. Yesterday one of the babies had a foot tangled the wrong direction. After the troubles we had the other day, of course we were a bit apprehensive. After much effort and some assistance, Baby Number One was delivered. Very quickly afterward, Number 2 and Number 3 popped out with no troubles whatsoever.
Portia is a Mini-Nubian, one of our best milkers. She gives the creamiest milk, and to be so petite, she gives copious amounts. Her triplets were quite large and apparently there was no room in the belly for them to readjust themselves, as they typically do. She did a great job, and got those babies pushed out. They are a bit floppy, due to the oxygen deficit during the traumatic delivery, but otherwise healthy and hungry. That makes 11 babies, with two more mamas yet to deliver.
Our friend, Donna at Brambleberry has over 50 babies. We are small potatoes. Even so, it looks like baby goats are everywhere! Seeing them tumble and hop and leap makes me laugh out loud. If you have troubles these days, I recommend you find some baby goats to watch. Baby Goat Laughter Therapy. Hmmm. Maybe we should head out to the barn and work on a proposal. Line up with some therapist' office. Instead of charging money for the therapy session, we could charge farm labor hours. Which would also be good therapy. I have never shoveled manure without sensing a definite improvement in my mental health.
Back to the rain, I guess we will shift gears for todays' activities. The boys told me yesterday they had prayed for sunshine the whole week of Max's trip. Maybe the sun will poke his head out a bit later. I guess we will talk about the fact that sometimes when we pray for something, there is a greater good that needs to occur. Like bring an end to drought. Wish it could rain at nighttime while we all slept. Maybe kids better bake cookies while it rains so they can have them on a hike when it quits.
Max, we are soooo glad you are here for spring break. We love you so dearly. I hope you enjoy your visit to the Kingdom/farm. Rain or shine!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment