Snowflake and Farm Life

Well, it's spring and with spring comes busyness on a farm. A little over a week ago our favorite milk goat, Snowflake went into labor. It was an exciting day. I kept going out to check on her, wanting to be sure to get to see the kids born. I had never actually seen a kid born. I tend to always show up just as they've been born and are all wet and sticky. As evening arrived and still no kids I began to worry. I wasn't sure how long goats were normally in labor for, but I knew that it seemed quick since I don't normally even notice them in labor! I talked to another farmer on the phone, then decided Snowflake was probably okay. I kept checking on her until about midnight, then went to bed and set my internal alarm clock to 2:30 a.m. At 2:30 a.m. I got up, put my jacket and boots on, grabbed my flashlight and went out into the night. I don't like going out into the night/dark ever. You know I loved that goat since I was willing to do that. I always figure a mountain lion will pounce on me in the dark or I'll run into a grizzly bear or a rabid raccoon. None of those happened, though! I climbed over the fence after grabbing a long stick (for keeping the big ram, Alex at a distance in case he wanted to get friendly or rough with me) and crept into the goat house. Snowflake was still laboring, but now the kid was in the birth canal. I had brought my oil and poured some of this on my clean hand, then worked my hand in to check the position of the kid. That's when I heard a loud noise right above and behind me. I quickly turned my flashlight towards the sound and got to see my llama's tail lifted as he, Oscar, passed gas right by me! How rude! As soon as I realized it was harmless (so to say) I turned back to Snowflake, who I was pretty sure had been in labor a little too long now. As I checked for the kid's position I found what seemed to be a bottom with no tail. It couldn't be a head, I decided, because there was no nose, eyes, mouth, ears... nothing like that. I tried to find something to grip so I could help pull it out, but didn't find much. After struggling with it for awhile I decided I had to wake Brad up and ask for help. After getting him up he came out and was able to pull the kid out. It was awful to watch. I coaxed him to go slow and easy as I petted Snowflake and told her how good she was doing. It looked painful. She had to be stretched more than normal to get that kid out. As Brad pulled the kid out I saw what the problem had been. It had had its head between it's front, bent legs. Apparently it had been in the birth canal too long and was dead. It was the biggest kid ever to be born on our farm, which made me believe it must have been overdue - just as I had suspected. Brad went in the house and Snowflake began cleaning up her kid. It didn't take her too long to realize it was dead. She looked so sad and depressed as she laid back down. I was pretty sure there was another kid in her, but hoped she would be able to birth that one out naturally. I knew that if it wasn't born within 45 minutes it wouldn't be alive. I figured it was probably already dead since its sibling had been stuck so long, looked overdue, and things weren't going well. I felt pretty sad for Snowflake and began crying as I looked at the sky full of stars. After my little cry, I went in, and went back to bed. The next morning Brad came in to tell me Snowflake hadn't birthed the second kid on her own, that its head was partially out, so he had just pulled that one out, too. It, too, was dead. They were both females. Snowflake was really depressed, but I was glad she was alive. If we hadn't helped her during the night she would have died with that kid stuck in the birth canal. I had seen that happen to my husband's buddy's goat and I would have felt awful if that happened to one of our goats!

As the days passed after the horrible night with Snowflake we noticed she wasn't eating or possibly drinking. Early on the fourth morning we found her dead. Maybe there was a complication we couldn't detect or maybe she was just so sad over the loss of her kids. Whatever it was, we lost our favorite, best milk goat around here. That was a really sad day for me. It's still hard for me to believe she isn't out there in the goat pen. She was our first milk goat, the goat Brad and I learned how to milk on about 4 years ago. We also had my sister, Kara learn how to milk on that goat. She was a great beginner goat. She had a great personality, a great build for milking, great genetics, and great mothering instincts. She'll be missed.

On the same day Snowflake went into labor our younger goat, Cocoa had her first kid. I still haven't come up with the perfect name for this little kid, but it is probably the cutest kid born on this farm (besides Cocoa last year)! Here's a picture of her:

It isn't the best picture of her, but I don't usually go into the pen and bother them until they're over a day old. This was taken on the day she was born. That's Cocoa standing next to her.

Now, the other thing I mentioned was 'hides'. We've been wanting a Scottish Highland cowhide rug. We told the man who we buy beef from that we would like to get one and he kept promising us he would get one made for us. I guess the butcher kept either giving the hides away or throwing them away, so finally Brad volunteered to go pick it up on the day the steer was butchered. Last week he went to the butcher the day they butchered some Highland steers and he ended up bringing home three wet hides. I helped him carry each of them downstairs (they weighed about 100 pounds each) where he "fleshed" them (scraped off the bits of meat the butcher didn't get off), laid them out flat, and salted them. The salt helps them to dry out quickly. It took about 200-250 pounds of salt to cover those three hides. It was, as you can imagine, a messy job. Pretty gross. As much as I try to be a good wife, I couldn't make myself volunteer to flesh those for Brad! Ewww! However, the following day when we found blood all over the place I did mop it up. They're now dried out and ready to be sent to the tanner. They should come back as nice, hairy rugs. I'm sure glad I'm not a butcher or tanner after this little experience! :)