But they came back for the 4th of July with everyone there... and I just took a few pictures of doing fireworks.
It was one of Gage's cousins birthday on the 4th of July (Camden?) so Emily gave him a sword firework (forgot it was his birthday so we had to scramble to find presents to give). Jared had one for Gage so they lit them at the same time.
Sword of Truth!
Well.. I think they had fun.
I tried to get a picture with our little fireworks in the street and our neighbors fireworks exploding in the sky :)
It is very loud in Utah for the 4th of July.. or anytime they are allowed to set fire to stuff.
It was enjoyed by all our pyrotechnical minded family..
Two days later Gage jumped on the trampoline with a mattress.
In preparation for visitors coming to stay on their way to the Family Reunion!
I want to have at least one post this month... So here is a bunch of pictures...
I had a birthday (shout hooray!)
Emily gave me lots of good things for our house
And of course, who doesn't need a dagger?
Aaron gave me a new ironing board and Jenny gave me a new clothes drying rack. It was a good haul.
My coworkers sometimes give me food to give to the goats. Susan especially likes to give goat offerings so I took a picture of Spots begging for the grapes.
They love grapes! Tulip says give them to me now!
I also took a couple videos but they were just for Susan to enjoy.
I passed my California PE tests! BOTH on the first try! *mic drop*
Got my fingerprints taken and now I just have to wait for them to get to CA and they process them. Apparently it can takes months. Sigh.
The dogs like to get into the front seat while I'm in the library... are not even ashamed when I get back.
For Memorial Weekend we went and looked at some graves Sunday at the Salt Lake City.
We found Gage's relatives.. he kinda looks like them, huh?
Jared and Amy posing.
We also found some of Dad's too... again.
The wives were listed on the back.
For actual Memorial Day we went over to participate in the little ceremony they hold at the Bluffdale cemetery.
Very nice... short and sweet.
Then Aaron had a birthday!
Shout Hooray!
Alot of the presents didn't come in time for him to open so he had to open pictures... of course, then it was the birthday that just kept giving!
Mom and her sisters came by before they went to a cousins reunion there in SLC. Then Mom spent some days with us.
Aaron taught Mom how to play his new game.
Its fun to make the Panda's eat bamboo.
Jared Amy and Gage (JAG) went camping one weekend and had smores... so I wanted some too! But I'm too lazy to build a fire (Emily was late home from work and she's our fire starter) so we did the next best thing...
S'mores over the Stove! Its so good with the chocolate melted in the toaster oven so the graham cracker gets nice and crispy... Emily likes nutella on one side and peanut butter on the other.
The dogs thought they should have some too but Emily said no...
I took some video one evening of the baby goats.. they are getting so big.
They were clowning around a bit until I came out there... and they are more wild in the mornings..
Jared and Aaron rolled these stumps out for them but nobody has tried (that I've seen) to get to the top.
And then Jared had a birthday, shout hooray! We had gone out to eat so his "cake" was a hamburger bun..
He got presents but I didn't take any pictures of that.
Last Sunday as we ate desert together with Jenny and family, Angela, Mom and Dad, and Alec and Jalyn, I was looking around for presents to wrap... what with the birthdays, fathers day, and closing day we sure had a bunch of parties!
This weekend JAG are moving out... but don't worry, they will be back to celebrate the 4th with us :)
Spots had her baby last Thursday night/Friday morning (may 5-6). Ended up being a nice birthday present, although it started out rather rough. Spots had just the one, which was part of the stress... This is going to be a longish boringish birth story but I wanted it on my blog anyways. You can always just look at the pictures and skip the text. There are some videos at the end :)
These pictures were taken by Emily, you can see me in the doorway...
Thursday morning Emily saw that Spots udder had filled with milk and that she was uncomfortable along with a couple other signs. Amy and then Aaron watched her all day but it didn't look like anything was progressing.
I got home rather late from work and so did Emily but we spent the rest of the evening sitting out in the pasture/barn with her. Emily tried timing her contractions to see if they were getting closer and/or longer but they were so random and it was hard to tell when they started and stopped.
You might remember last year that Spots lost her baby and had a C-Section partly because she never went into full on labor. Its always dangerous to have a VBAC anyways and coupling that with not really knowing why last years went so bad...needless to say we were all rather stressed. Emily had already decided she wouldn't put Spots though another C-Section (she never fully recovered until Tulip had her babies and Spots had a bigger herd to protect) and would instead put her out of her misery if it went wrong...
Around 10pm there was too much stress and we went to bed. Unbeknownst to me, Emily checked on her at 1130 and all was very calm in the goat shed. Tulip was quiet (she essentially snores) and Spots was laying down trying to sleep. Poor tired goaty having been in labor all day. This made Emily feel better so she could really sleep. I woke up at about 1230 and went out to check. Spots was having major contractions pretty close together and was trying to lay down between them and sleep but they were too close together. I watched her for a bit, getting more and more upset thinking she would have to endure this all night until we could get a vet in...
I came inside somewhat overwrought, especially now that Spots had started whimpering. Before waking up Emily, I decided to time her contractions to convince her it was worth the money for a nightime vet visit. Her contractions were every 3 minutes lasting about 2 minutes long.. I counted through 2 (with Spots getting more pathetic in her bleating) and on the 3rd her water broke... wait, that's good! I went in to get Emily.
Like I said, I was a bit overwrought with no sleep and stress :) Emily was very calm especially compared to my emotional state. I went back out while Emily was getting dressed and Spots was definitely progressing. Emily saw the hooves but realized they were upside down meaning the baby was breech. Emily said "good thing I just read about this", grabbed a towel to wrap around the slippery legs and started pulling. It felt like she was pulling for 10 minutes with Spots bleating and struggling on the ground (Tulip wouldn't lay down and Spots wouldn't get up). Halfway through Emily checked her phone to make sure she was doing it right. She saw the tail which meant the baby was crouched with her legs tucked up which is part of the reason she was stuck. I wanted to help but Emily said we didn't want to pull harder and break anything so I just tried supporting Spots on the ground. Eventually the legs kicked out (Emily was worried she had pulled the legs off) and now that the baby was long and skinny she was pushed through with one more contraction... Emily thought she was dead with all the stress (she was so big and heavy) but she twitched and started coughing once Emily got the goop off of her.
There was obvious meconium so the poor baby was definitely in distress... Emily had saved two lives that night.
And what a night it had been.
Spots loved her baby but wasn't sure why she wanted anything to do with her udder. This is the first time Spots has been able to keep her baby and its like she is a first time mom. We had to hold Spots in place trying to distract her with raisins, cookies, sugary vinegar water while the baby nursed.
We (mostly Emily) had to force the issue every four hours holding Spots still so she could nurse and eventually by Saturday evening Spots was finally letting her nurse on her own.
These pictures are from Friday Morning (May 6)... Spots is so protective.
One of the side effects of not all getting milk as she needed, and a really big baby was that the knuckle on her front legs would curl under instead of supporting her. One leg eventually got better but she was favoring the other so Emily splinted it with a popsicle stick. She was jumping around even more after that but we don't know if it was her getting stronger or the splint. The next day Emily took the splint off and her leg was fine... well, at least we didn't hurt it :)
Last night (Wed May 12th) I took Spots baby (Dot) out to be with Tulip and the other kids to see if Spots would graze. She is so spastic and protective she won't leave the baby alone for a minute to go out and eat. Tulip would put the kids down for a nap in the shed and then head out to graze... especially if we were there to watch them. Spots is not that type of mother (helicopter parent.. sigh). Once we were out there she did graze a bit.
Spots gazing out into the distance...
Emily came to join me and Dot was so tired. I took a video of her "grazing" while lying down but it is sideways... so here is a different video.
Our nursing kids are so unfriendly... :)
FYI, its common practice to take the babies away and bottle feed them. They do it for many different reasons, I.E. so disease is not passed from mom to baby, it maximizes milk production (take all the milk the mother can make rather than just how much the kids need), you can sell the babies right away, and it supposedly make them more friendly to humans.
Emily has tested the goats for CAE each year, and we are not interested in maximizing milk production or selling the babies right away. And I think the kids are fairly used to humans :)
Its funny to watch Tulips kids interact with Dot... They butt her to play and then run off. She tries to run after but then can't find them cuz she's not as fast given the 3 week age difference. They come back and run circles around her. Then Spots gets nervous cuz she can't tell which is hers. She smells them all until she finds Dot and then nips at the rest to get them to leave. Then Dot goes off to play with them again and it happens all over again. Helicopter mom...
P.S. Everybody is welcome to come play with our (Tulips and Spots) kids! Text, Call, IM or Facebook :)
The triplets birth story. Scroll down to the bottom for cute jumping videos :)
I got home a little later Wednesday night (April 13th) and when Emily came in after taking care of the animals she said Tulip was in labor... she said they would probably be twin bucklings. Apparenlty bucks are born earlier than does.
After pacing for a bit, Emily set the timer for 25 minutes before going out to check on Tulip. Since I hadn't been out yet, I got dressed in my overalls and boots and went out.
Tulip was very uncomfortable wandering in the shed. (These first few pictures are without a flash cuz I didn't think about it till Emily used her flash :)
After a bit, she had a contraction and her water broke. Poor girl! I went back in to tell Emily what had happened and she said "She's going to have them!" and ran around getting towels and water and such things. She mentioned the twin bucklings again and I said "maybe she's early cuz she's having triplets!". I didn't believe it but wanted Ems to feel better :).
Spots guarded the door...
While waiting I went in and out getting raisins and recovery drink since I didn't mind missing the birth :). After Jared, Amy and Gage got home (and turned off the beeping oven timer), Gage waited with Emily. I came back out just as Tulip had her first little kid.
It was a doe (Snowdrop)! Emily swung her cuz she was having a little trouble breathing but then she was coughing so we knew she was good.
Emily rubbed her down good using almost all the towels :)
Here she is nursing, I love the little tail wagging... see the flash from Emily's camera?
I went in and got more towels. Maybe next time we can use paper towels?
Snowdrop looks huge here but its just the angle.
Tulip eventually had contractions again and after pushing out the buckling she kept pushing and out came the littlest doeling right after, both born in their sacks. We got them uncovered of goop and used all the rest of the towels to try and dry them off...
I took a couple of more pictures but they are all blurry (and a little gross)... this is the best one which I posted on facebook.
We kept brushing Tulip to calm her and rubbed her chin alot during the birth cuz last time she cried and strained so hard she burst blood vessels. The blood pooled under her chin which made it look like worm bloom which was a bit scary. This time she just had a little bump under her chin. I hope that means this was an easier birth.
The next morning I told Emily and Amy to send me pictures since I couldn't be there! Ems posted a bunch on the internet but here are some more...
Bud (the buckling)
The doelings Apricot and Snowdrop.
All three protected by their mother
They are almost a week old as of today and are very active in the morning.. .this morning I went out and took a couple videos.
Poor things had their horns burned yesterday (Tuesday) but are jumping around today so I guess they kinda recovered.
Snowdrop is queen of the mountain!
Spots wanted to get in on the action so I tried to take a pregnancy glamour shot... I think Emily will have to do it thought cuz she does a better job :)
I bet Emily had cookies when she did Tulip :).
Transferred with my company up to SLC because of course my lovely sister Emily lives here. Emily is farming to her hearts content and I am certainly enjoying the earth's bounty she has coaxed from the soil... Jared, Amy, and Gage have come to our household and we are enjoying having a husband and wife :) Hopefully I will feel like making time to train as a triathlete again... owning a house takes a lot of time!
