Foxglove's First Freshening!
On Friday, April 4, my daughter's youngest kid gave birth to two healthy kids! At 8pm, the first arrived, weighing in at 10.5 pounds. My wife assisted in the delivery. Two hours later, his brother was born at the same weight, breech, with assistance from my daughter. I "helped" at the head, giving encouragement and snapping the occasional photo.
The boys are as adorable as their mother! Saturday morning, their names were Gerry and Harry. By evening, their names had changed to You're-a-Cute-Tomato and Yrrebelkcuh. We'll shorten the first to "Tom", and since the latter arrived breech, we'll pronounce his name "Huckleberry".
Foxglove, their mother, had a bit of trouble delivering such hefty boys, but happily joined us for short walk the next day, snacking from the fresh greens growing around the community gardens. Both mom and the young bucks are healthy and happy in their temporary private quarters at the 4-H Ranch.
Now, what are we going to do with these bouncing Oberhasli boys? The 4-H Dairy Goat Project does not allow bucks, even wethered bucks, to stay with the does. But if we can start that project for pack goats we've been talking about, we have some justification to continue to house these beauties at the ranch. Still weighing our options...
In the meantime, we're looking forward to a day soon when the boys are weaned and Foxglove adds fresh goat milk to the family whole food supplies!
Originally published Monday, April 7, 2008 on SPARKPEOPLE.com
