New Grand Kids in the Brine Family

Well.... in the goat world anyway.

As of the 17th of August 2008 at around about 2-3pm in the afternoon we had 2 new little arrivals. What a sight, they are gorgeous. It puts all my queries and wonderings about whether Jill was really pregnant or I was imagining things.

We had spent the day at the Salamanca Markets in Hobart and mum, dad and myself had been for a scenic drive home and as we do every day we checked on Cheeky and Jill to feed them and make sure that they were ok, also they love the company and know that there are always treats for them when we come to the block.

As we drove up the long and steep driveway we got to the opening of our main driveway and I looked over at the goat pens and could not believe my eyes, there we two tiny little goats walking around. I raced out of the car because I was dying to see the new additions, pity the boys and Jamahl were not there to see them but I was soon on the phone to tell them of the good news.

I think that literally they had only been born about 2 hours as they were still a little wet and looking very sleepy. Cheeky must have thought that he was the dad as he was bouncing around his pen and bleeting madly when I went up to him. I had to pick the little ones up because they had wandered over to him probably thinking that he was mum and were trying to get something to eat that wasnt really there.

I checked Jill and boy was she hungry, which is an understatement, she ate everything in sight that I gave her and while she was doing that I made sure that everything was ok and the little ones were aswell. They were so cute and one was bigger than that other one. One is pretty much pure white and the other one has a couple of brown patches over each eye. I could not see just yet what sex they were but I would wait for this.

Mum and dad were pretty impressed and were madly taking photos, it was good that they got to witness the occasion aswell.

Well after a week of getting to know the little ones the boys are wrapped now that they have started to move around, we thought that it was now time to name them. The pure white ones name is Supergirl (named by Kai) and the second one is Shya (named by Tao) the reason for these names are that the white one jumps everywhere and does not walk and flies through the air and the other one is really timid and shy. They are now starting to roam further away from mum and getting alot of confidence up and are now starting to eat the hay and the grass around the place.

I am on a steep learning curve with this. I have found a vet that I can ring anytime that will answer my questions that seem to me to be worrying ones but always turn out that the problem is normal and thanks to Miranda Jill had a blocked teat but that is now clear. I am going to leave the babies on her for a little while as we are not set up yet for milking but in a couple of months when we build a new goat pen for them with a milking stand for me to milk on then we will start getting our own milk, that is going to be pretty exciting.

Anyway, here are some photos of the new little ones and I will post some more in due course as more news comes to light.

If anyone has had any experience with goats and raising them and would like to comment please do, or if you have anything to else to say.

See ya.