Goat Cesarean on Halloween
On Friday, Coco, Dante’s goat went into labor. We’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for her to go into labor. She did not progress at all. Her water broke at 9:15 and there was no progression after 2 hours. I decided to check her to see if I could tell if the baby was stuck or something. She was not dilated at all and I could not even feel the baby. We decided to take her into the vet. He ended up doing a Cesarean section and the baby was already dead. It was breech and not engaging, so her cervix would not dilate. He felt the baby had died the day before, as the placenta was already turning brown. It was very sad. The kid (a buckling) was perfectly formed and full term. Dante brought him home to bury here. Coco is doing well. Dante has been milking her and she seems to be feeling better. She will be on antibiotics for a total of 7 days. After we got home, it was time to milk and then get ready to go to a Halloween party for Dante.
Saturday had the normal routine chores. We got out a little late for some reason. For breakfast we had leftover blueberry oatmeal and ham. During milking, Mom-Mom (my mom) showed up to give Dante condolences. She also brought us Obama signs for our yard. After chores, I skimmed 14.25 gallons of milk. I got 3 large and 1 small butter churns full of cream, and I had 7 pints of cream for shareholders. I don’t know exactly how many quarts of clabber either. That was 29 bottles of milk in the fridge - no wonder it was getting very tight in there. Janie and Molly are each giving right around 2.5 gallons of milk a day. After I got the milk skimmed and the clabber and cream set out to culture, I got the roast in the oven. After evening milking chores, I got the potatoes going and rototilled the garden again. It still did not get wet enough, so I planned to set out the sprinkler again on Sunday. While dinner was being finished, The Bourne Identity came on, so David and I watched it while finishing dinner and then we (gasp) ate in front of the TV. The boys didn’t want to join us.
Today - Sunday, David (DH) got the sprinkler going in our garden before I started milking. Today my apprentice came to work. She is a shareholder who will be working one day a week and 2 weeks a year for her share but she is just apprenticing right now - working wtih me to learn all the routine and how to milk and things like that. She normally comes on Fridays, but she needed to switch days this week. She is getting better and better at milking, building up her stamina. After we milked, I showed her how to churn butter. Once of my butterchurns had a break in the wires, so it would only work if the cord was held in a certain position. It quit running, so I took it out of the churn, and of course, the wire connected right then and splattered the milk room and me with butter and buttermilk. David and I fixed it. We had to take the motor off of the lid and find the break. We used a butt connector to fix it and then put it all together again. That will make butter making easier. I do have 3 motorized butter churns now, and today I used them all at the same time, and still needed to use one again in another churn (all the cream cultured from the day before).
After the churn fix, David and I took down the elm and mullberry that were growing under the house in the front. We also trimmed up the lilac in front of the house (got all the dead wood out and shaped it a little). We got the boys to help us take all the branches with leaves to the goats and cows. After that, we tackled the apple trees. I’ve been wanting to cut out the dead branches in those trees since we moved in here. David decided he wanted to take down the dead pine tree in front of the house. At first he started to climb up it, and was going to top it and then we would cut down the rest. Well, after he started climbing, he didn’t feel that was a good idea. We decided on cutting it down about 4-5 feet up. That way, hopefully, it would not take out the wall separating our yard from our driveway. Actually, that part of it was my idea. It worked! The tree went down into the driveway. It was propped up on its branches, so it was fairly easy for David to cut up into logs. He would cut away the branches for a few feet, which I piled up as he cut them off. Then he would cut that section into logs, which I also piled up as they came off. He repeated this process until the top looked like a branch itself. After this was cleaned up for the most part, I departed for the ease of computer work. I did the shareholder billing today (2 days late). Then, of course, it was milking time again. After milking, the boys and David moved the pile of branches into the back yard. We will use some for kindling and some for a bonfire. While I was milking, David got dinner going (leftover roast, mashed potatoes, and gravy from last night). By the time I bottled the milk, washed the milking equipment, and rinsed the sprouts, dinner was on the table. Wow!
After dinner we decided to play Scrabble. It was a fun game. Dante trounced us with 128 points; I came in second with 123 points; third place we to Andre with 112 points; and David got 89 points.
Now, it’s time to bathe and go to bed (I hope).