The forecast for today's weather was a high temperature of 59 degrees F. The good news is that it actually got well up into the 60s. The bad news is that we hardly took advantage of it the way we had planned. We had planned to clean out the barn. We wound up cleaning out the basement, because it flooded.
Mike has been putting up walls in the basement, and he unplugged the sump pump a week ago because he was going to put up the wall where the electrical box was located. He didn't get the wall up, and he didn't plug the sump back in. Those high temperatures meant lots of melting snow, which then flooded the basement.
Then there was this poor guy coming to pick up a goat. I gave him directions and said, "Go six or seven miles." He thought I said 57, so he went an hour past us! I felt terrible, but he seemed to handle it better than me. Maybe because his basement was not flooded, and he didn't have blood on his jeans and a goat with three kids that weren't looking great.
Yeah, Charlotte's kids are not gaining weight like they should be. They look downright skinny, and their bellies don't feel full. Her udder looks huge, but hardly any milk comes out. I checked her temperature to see if she had mastitis, but it was 102.4, which is normal. We've given the kids some extra milk, and we keep trying to milk Charlotte, but I'm not sure if we're making a lot of progress. The blood on my jeans was from crawling around in the straw trying to look under Charlotte and see if the kids are nursing correctly. One is definitely not doing a very good job. The other two seem more clued in. The blood wasn't mine; it was from Charlotte's birth. I didn't see it in the straw, but I certainly felt it when I sat in it. Cold!
When doing chores this afternoon and when walking Joy half an hour ago, I heard the sheep making lots of noise. They were certainly not "quiet as a lamb." Mike went out there this afternoon to find a ram lamb with his head stuck in the fence. I had discovered one stuck in the fence yesterday. Then tonight when I heard a lamb screaming, I came back into the house and said, "Who wants to go save a lamb?" Katherine volunteered. We've never had this problem before. I think it might be because I wethered them between one and two months of age, so their horns are small enough that they can stick their head through the fence, but then they hook the fence when trying to pull their heads back out again. My only question is, why are they doing this all of a sudden!
I am very happy to see this day end and hoping tomorrow will be better!
5 comments:
Oh, Deborah! This is NOT good news. Does Charlotte's milk flow freely when you milk her? This isn't how it's supposed to go. Once the waiting is over and the kids are born healthy, you're supposed to relax and enjoy watching them grow!
Keeping my fingers crossed for those precious, little girls...
Oh dear me, not so good to hear. I cannot imagine what your basement must be like. Ugh. Having to dry everything out in the cold weather will be a bear.
Sorry to hear about the kids too. I hope they will improve soon.
The fifty seven miles thing made me laugh, although I felt sorry for the guy. I hope he liked the goat that he got!
I think there is something exciting on the other side of the fence that must not have been there before...maybe some kind of distraction/attraction thing? That's why they put their heads through - to try to see it better!
Nancy -- You're right! It's not supposed to be like this. Her milk is coming out in a needle-thin stream, which is different than last year. She was our favorite first freshener last year, and that doesn't happen unless a goat has good (big) orifices. I know human breasts can get swollen when the mom's milk first comes in, and that swelling can compress the milk ducts, making it hard for the milk to come out. It's a Catch 22. I've never seen this in a goat though.
Claire -- We got a decent start on drying out the carpets on our deck yesterday with the sunshine and warm weather. Last night, we put them in the shed to continue drying because we were supposed to get rain. It's not sunny at all today though and not warm. Will be a while for those rugs to get dry. I'm glad they're just remnants that we could pick up and take outside.
Ugh, what a day! Wish I could grant you a "do-over". Sorry to hear the basement woes, and I hope all goes well with the babies.
Oh my, sorry to hear about your basement. It's a good thing that you have a sump pump, but too bad it was unplugged. Hope things get better with the kids.
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