I Can’t Take It

This morning, while trying to take some things from my house to my soap room, I kept getting run over by Mary and Maisie and their babies wanting bottles.  I decided it was time for them to leave the garage.

Adonis, Apollo, Mary, Diana, and Artemis

Of course, the first thing was fighting.

Maisie and Dolly

For some reason, Dolly was being just nasty.  For crying out loud, she’s ten-years-old.  She needs to quit doing that stuff.

Joani was happy to be out with her little girl, Persephone.

Persephone and Joani

Clover’s kids were also enjoying running around and meeting the other kids.

Ares, Brigit (well, her tail) and Clover

Mary and her girls were enjoying the sunshine.

Punkin, Diana, and Mary with Sky in the background

I did warn her photobomber stalker that he better not think of touching any of those kids.

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A Muddy Mess

With our recent snows and rain and ice, we are a muddy mess.  They are working really hard at eating their second round bale.

It’s just a mess.  I hate making them be out in this stuff.  Even the kids are muddy.

Wanda’s girl, Zephyr

I feel really bad that they have to be in that.  I haven’t even had the heart to kick out my four moms out of the garage.

Maisie with her boys: Adonis and Apollo

Really.  How can I kick this cute little Punkin’ out in the mud?

Artemis (aka Punkin)

I thought about letting them out with Aurora, but every time I make a change with who is in there with her she loses weight again.  She’s still trying to catch up from the last change when I put my old girls in there.

Aurora

And I’m pretty sure Pistol is going to have oopsie babies soon.

Pistol

She doesn’t need anyone fighting with her.  Joani and Clover keep fighting with a fence in between them.

Joani (back) and Clover (front)

I am just ready for better weather.  Seriously.

The Last 48 Hours: Part V

So back to the craziness.  I still had Joani to have babies, so it was going to be another night of getting up to check on her.  I was so exhausted after two nights of basically no sleep, and I was sure I’d be asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. But the smell from the floor sealer was not good.  I was getting a headache.  I tried using the sheet as a mask.  I tried opening the window right by my bed.  Nothing helped.  Any other time, I would had just gone to a relative’s house and crashed, but I still had to check Joani.  I did the only thing I could do.

Now my couch is old and not even comfortable as a couch anymore, and it was worse as a cot on the soap room floor.  It was however the best I could do.  I once again tried to sleep, but then I started feeling guilty because I still had three cats in the house.  I got up and went in and got them.

Leo, Noelle, and Rocky

Sky, Snickers and Bob were just kicked outside for the night.  Don’t get me wrong, I did have to come in the house and let Snickers in the upstairs window twice in the night.  The first time I kicked him right back out, but the second time he alluded me, and he spent the last couple of hours in the house.

By about 1:00 am, I had to check Joani again.  She was standing with her tail up.  I decided it was better to haul her to the garage now rather than later when she was in serious labor.  I put her with Clover and her kids.  It was a big space.  It should work.

But as soon as I made it back into the soap room and laid done on the couch cushions again, I heard the serious clink of horn on horn.  Yep.  They were fighting.  I grabbed Clover and her kids and put them in with Aurora and the other goats who were shut in the buck pen for the night.

Clover and babies

Well, the middle of the night was a perfect time to see how Aurora would react to meeting the kids.  Right?

Aurora checking out Cinnamon’s doe, Athena

I noticed when I picked up Clover’s girl that she was a bit thin, so while I was supervising the meeting, I decided to help her nurse.  I started a slow dance around the buck room with Clover trying to eat the alfalfa hay off the floor with an occasional head threat to Aurora who was trying to sniff Clover’s boy who was bouncing all over while I kept trying to put her big teat into her little girl’s mouth.  Seriously.

I finally decided that was not going to work, but at least Clover’s girl got to eat.  I put the kids back in the pen where they had just come from and led Clover through it to the panel that I had tied across the Ranger stall to give Cinnamon her own pen and held her while I untied my twine.  I let go of Clover for two seconds to grab the babies and carry them in.  Then I shoved Clover in and begged Cinnamon to be good.  It actually worked.  I have no idea why.

Finally, back to the couch cushions in the soap room.  It was a long night.  I had three cats that didn’t want to be there.  Actually, Leo just kept wanting to find a way to sleep with me and sneezing in my face.  Noelle kept laying on my chest and legs so I couldn’t move.  Rocky was the one that kept freaking out and randomly meowing.

Rocky

That kept waking me up.  Then I’d get cozy and about fall asleep and I’d hear a kid crying, or I’d hear a mom talking to a baby, or I’d hear the mice on top of the soap room ceiling.  I seriously need to figure out how to get rid of the mice in the garage.  Occasionally, I’d hear Daisy’s tail thumping against the metal milk room door.  It was not a good night.

Leo

Want to know the kicker–as of the writing of this post (Thursday night), I’m still waiting for Joani to have her kids.

But when I finally drug myself off the couch cushions in the morning, that crazy forty-eight hours ended, and it was time to start getting back to a more normal level of chaos.  Luckily, our weather was beautiful, and I could open the house up to air it out and we all got to move back in.