Just moments after the second one was born.
I was already out in my chair and heard Pam coming down the hall from the bedroom. "I hear noises down in the goat barn." The bedroom end of MoHo is nearest the barn and the windows were open.
I put on my barn boots and went down to find Sundae licking at a brand new baby goat lying in a puddle of fluid on the straw. I quickly got the towels we already had in the cupboard down there and started drying it off while Sundae continued to lick. Female!
This went on for about 50 minutes when we (Pam had joined me by now) could see Sundae was having more contractions and something dark brown would begin to emerge and then disappear back inside her. Goats are supposed to come out front feet first and that was definitely not a pair of hooves, so I called Marta, woke her up, and she agreed to come over.
By 5 a.m., about 10 minutes before Marta arrived, Sundae pushed another kid, a male, out onto the straw.
It's a good doe that can push out a kid head first!
It was still in the amniotic sac so I broke that open (whooosh of fluid!) and began drying it off.
Pam helped me get umbilical cords cut and dipped in iodine
Sundae was still busy licking the first one and didn't even seem to care she had another in greater need so I did my best, but was sure glad to hear Marta pull in. Mostly she checked things out and pronounced them in good order and said nature would prevail. After about 30 minutes the little guy started bellowing with surprising volume, and that kicked Sundae into action. She began liking him dry.
The firstborn, a doeling, weighed in at 10 lbs. and has been named Apples, and the buckling weighed 9 lb., 5 oz., and is Burrito. Those are healthy weights, though they sure look fragile to me. As I type this it's 11:30 a.m. and I've just come up from the barn. Apples is asleep in the corner of the birthing suite and Burrito is figuring out where meals come from.
EDIT: Upon closer inspection it turns out we have two males, bucklings. The older, with darker brown head is AppleJack (AJ), and the younger with what I think is a very pretty light brown head is Burrito. Ten months from now we'll have Burritos and AppleJacks for dinner.
What? You thought these were pets??
Note: Itzhak and Stella are clearly a bit bothered by all of this. Goats are herd animals and 1/3 of the heard, the boss, just disappeared behind a wall. They can hear the noises in there but can't figure things out. They're both being very vocal.
Craziest deal! Mama licks a kid's butt and that stimulates them to suck. Marta showed us how to duplicate that to get them started, and sure enough, it works. Rub their butt with one hand and with the other guide their mouth to a teat. Just now I watched as Burrito went to a teat and then Sundae licked his rear end. Go figure!
About 11 a.m. Pam went into town to launder 5 bath towels including the one she uses (the others were old extras). I was very surprised at the amount of fluid involved in a goat birth! Next time we'll have more towels (Goodwill) ready.
Took Sally down for gas and to stop at the hardware store and didn't make it. She died at the second stop sign and Would. Not. Start. Grrrrr. It's a fuel problem; when I finally got her going she'd only run under throttle, not at idle. Turned around and came home. I'll start digging tomorrow, starting with the fuel filter. Could also be fouled plugs from running rich for so long.
Old people and old cars have lots of problems.
It's dinner time. After that I'll go pull Sally's plugs to see how they look. Tomorrow morning I'll remove the fuel filter and go get a replacement and then see how she does.
Please let that fix things.
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