I’m not as good as some at a few things and better than most at some other stuff. But one of the things that I can do is count. After checking does about 1:30 AM, I knew that something was going on with tag 152. At 2:20 AM, I decided I better investigate a little closer. OB glove on, two fingers slid in, then a little farther…yep, there’s some feet. Time to get serious.
I haltered tag 152 and tied her to the fence. This is to keep her from biting and head butting, which she had already proven herself succesful at doing. Once, she was haltered. Two OB gloves and a set of pulling chains were in my prepared hands. I did the finger scrunch to make my hand as slender as possible. Entry was made. I now used my fingers to count. One foot, two, three, one head, four feet, five..(now think Scooby Doo), “ruhdt rho!” One of the things that I do know is that goats have four feet. Quick Kelln math and I realized that there were two goats trying to exit this incubator at the same time.
Now, I had to figure out what feet went to what goat and maneuver them around. This took a bit of time and I wasn’t quite sure that I had it quite right, but my patience was about done and I knew that they needed to get out. I wrapped a chain around a front leg and pulled. I changed the angle of the pull and pulled again, here it came. Not a hard pull, but a pull none-the-less. Splat.
Got that kid laid over to the side. He looks done. I looked back at the exit of tag 152 and there was two feet of the next one. I grabbed those feet and pulled. Here it came. This one was sputtering and making noise. I cleaned his mouth, nose and held him upside down. This dude was raring to go. I laid him under the heat lamp. Turned to look at the first one….and…he was trying to breathe! I just knew that he was just like this semester….DONE! I was wrong. I cleaned his mouth, nose and then shook him like Nicki Minaj shaking her a..donkey. He was starting to fire.
I thought, “Self, we’ve already been invasive. Let’s make sure that there isn’t anything else in there. All clear.” So, I took the halter off tag 152. I stripped her teats. I got bit. I wish I would have waited to take that halter off that rip. I then checked more does. Made sure that these two BUCK kids were acting right and then stumbled to the house to catch what was left of Law & Order:SVU. It was 3:45 AM. I tried to go to sleep but didn’t.
Now, let me tell how I like to deliver kids. I can do this real good. Check the barn at 4:30 PM. Come back to do chores about 5:30 pm. Well, lookey there. Old LIsa had dropped triplets. Two does, 1 buck. Cleaned off and firing. I cleaned out the bedding, stripped her teats and went to doing chores. That, my friends, is how the good LORD intended goats to be raised. This doe is a proven maternal machine. Her mom is proven, her aunt is proven, her cousins are proven, grandma was proven. A thing that I can do to advance the genetics of Kelln Livestock is to keep at least one of these doe kids out of Lisa.
Another thing that I can do is add dollars. And I have noticed, that in the goat business, that no matter how good they might be, live goats ALWAYS out sell dead goats. You build a herd from the maternal side. Kind of like a 401K plan, you just keep investing, keeping it safe and right down the middle. You gamble with the male genetics. Find what clicks. I’m pretty sure that this was Tammy’s plan. Most can’t be as lucky as her and get a stud to sire a daughter like Kela and a future herd sire like Duke.
One more thing that I can do, is realize that it is time for me to quit. Have a good day and a better tomorrow. Here’s to horseshoes and shamrocks for all of you.
