Tuesday, April 14, 2009

There's gold in these hills.....


This is Mysty.

A couple of weeks ago before she kidded, we took pictures of her while she was in early labor- she was so huge that we thought she would have quads!

I've always loved her udder and the way she milks- she is wonderful on the milk stand and always a lady, to be sure.

Now, this story isn't really about Mysty- it is about Winsome and her triplets.

Winnie is one of my Guernsey girls. She came from Joan Stump in PA in January and is not a pushy goat- she also has been very polite, so much so, that I feared she would not hold her pregnancy. When Winnie arrived, she became frightened and ran, until we gave her some cookies and then she was just fine. She even found she had friends in the herd from her old home.

So, this last Tuesday, Winnie decided it was finally 'time', so I got her out and made her a place in the shed. Last Tuesday was also a big weather day as well- alternating sun, cold, snow, rain, wind and back again. After two hours of practice pushing and insisting she needed to go back into the barn instead of this nice dry hay to kid on, I let her back in and went into the house for some chicken soup.

After about a half hour, my husband walked into the door and said that there was somone making a huge racket in the port-o-huts. I stepped outside and heard Chicago-

....rubbing his scur violently against the metal. And then I heard a different new baby voice- so we hoofed it out there quick and found Winnie standing wide eyed over three tiny goo covered babies. husband ran for towls and we brought them into the house. Now, Winnie looked like she had one in there- where in the world did she hide three!

And I was very proud of Chicago for being such a good daddy goat and taking care of Winnie by sounding the alarm when the babies needed help!

Winnie is HB1 level BGS Guernsey and these babies are BH2 level BGS Guernsey. Their sire is a purebred BGS Golden Guernsey named S'wind Pendragon, so their names lend themsleves to their mythos- Guinevere, Morgainne, andTaliesin. I tried to get Tally to accept the name Arthur, as it would be a natural progression, but he said he wanted to be Taliesin. After all, he has a 'star on his brow'. :-)

These babies are our first HB2 level kids to be born here, and I could not be happier. Welcome home babies- it makes me really happy to know that my little grandson William will be able to grow up with them and be their friend.

No comments: