Screaming Meemie Monsters

A couple of weeks ago - July 1st, in fact - we had triplet goats born to this Hillbilly Hill farm

Not to go off on a tangent but - we're thinking of changing the name of our farm to "Aspirin Acres" - because it's the best thing for a headache. We could hang a big "Tylenol" over the front gate and all....

It kinda rolls off the tongue....Aspirin Acres....Aspirin Acres....

Might even have to get a sign for my pickup.

Anyhoo - back to the goats.

Usually, when triplets are born, the mom decides that one is the "runt" and refuses to feed or care for it. It's sort of a sacrifice of one to ensure the others survive. Well, THIS mom decided on something novel - she'd not take care of ANY of them. She had some problems from the start and figured I'd be a better mom than she would have been, so she up and died a few days later.

Stupid goat.

She WAS one of our favorites - until she pulled that stunt.

So now, we have three little monsters that come bounding down the hill to chew on your pant legs, every time you set foot in the barnyard.



Two of them - all three are girls - are black, like dad (although one has some dark brown in her), and the other is about half white and half black. They are ALL con artists, though.

We take a couple of the other goat moms into the stanchion every day and "force feed" the three hooligans. By force feed, I actually mean force the MOM to feed them. This is done by locking the poor goat's head in the stanchion and letting the troops nurse on her where she can't fend them off nor get away.

It works to some extent. One of the moms has even taken to allowing one of the youngsters to nurse one her during the day. She hasn't ADOPTED the thing, but she has begun to let the "drive by nursings" become longer and more often.

This does NOT, however mean I'm off the hook....I still have to feed the greedy fiends with a bottle every day. At least they are getting SOME goat milk, straight from the "tap", the rest of the time they settle for cow milk.

Last Tuesday (13 July 2010) we finally had the cow - Daisy - have her calf. It turned out to be a bouncing baby boy. She went into labor at about 10:00 am, and delivered - with our help - at right at 1:00 pm. The baby is part Angus, but he is a Mahogany red/brown right now.



It was an odd set of circumstances - we had our 12 year old niece visiting, and she almost went home on Sunday. At the last minute, she stayed - along with our 23 year old niece.

If they hadn't changed plans, they would have missed the "big event". As it was, this was the first time for either of them to witness the birth of any animal. Abbie, the 23 year old, even jumped in and helped me pull the calf! She grabbed a slime covered leg and helped me pull the baby.



All-in-all, it was a good experience for them.

We only had ONE problem....

While we were watching, waiting, and helping the calf being born, we forgot something...

I walked into the barn at about 3:30 that afternoon, on a mission the check on things. I opened the gate to where the goats are and spotted the little Black and White Monster. She was standing there with an irritated look on her face, angrily chewing her lips. I knew INSTANTLY, that I was in trouble.

It was almost as if she was standing there, hands on hips, saying "WELL? Did you FORGET SOMETHING"?

Whatever her intent, I got the message REAL quick, that she was NOT happy about missing lunch.

That girl is all about attitude.

When we have the foster mom in the stanchion, the three of them fight over the two teats on mom. If this little "lady" gets shoved off her lunch wagon, she stiffens up, stares the offending sister down and lets out a LOUD yell in their ear - as if to say "That was MINE"! Then the shoving match starts all over.

They can be a handful at times, but they sure are cute!