Parenting Fifth Avenue Style

So. Tierra has decided to up and take an interest. I didn't know if maybe it was a fluke this morning when she did it, but when she again came into the stall while I was bottle feeding her girls tonight, I paid attention. She came right in like she had every right in the world, and was licking their butts and fussing over them like she'd never purposefully forgotten their existence. I mean, she has never so much as even looked through the slats of their stall until now. Now all of a sudden she thinks she's a soccer mom and oh-aren't-my-babies-wonderful-and-cute. That is, she is fussing all over them as a certain somebody ELSE (ah-hem!) is feeding them HER milk from a bottle. Her milk that this certain somebody just spent the last 15 minutes wringing from her body. When she came into the stall this morning I saw Gypsy down on her knees just about to get a teat in her mouth, and Tierra just stood there and let her. !!!!!! I had already milked her at that point so her teats were a do-able size and at a better height for nursing, and Gypsy was soooooooo close. She was licking and sucking all over it, but just couldn't quite figure out how to get the darn thing in her mouth. I waited for as long as I could for her to find it, because I would love for even just one of them to figure out how to nurse from her, but the clock was ticking and I had to get to work, so when Gypsy gave up I went ahead and gave her the bottle. So this is what I'm thinking. I am going to continue to let Tierra come in and spend as much time as possible with the girls while I'm there to make sure nobody passes out in the middle of the floor and gets stepped on. You think I'm paranoid, don't you? Well, this is what gets strewn all about the stall:Its like a mine-field in there, they just fall where they stand. And Tierra is less than graceful. The last thing I need to be thinking about lying in bed at night is a 175 lb. goat blundering around ontop of my sweet babies. Besides, this parenting from a distance thing seems to be suiting both Tierra and I, and as soon as Tiny is big enough and spry enough I will turn them all three out to be with Tierra. I think it'll be great for them to grow up with a "mom" (Let me get this straight, moms do generally FEED their children, right? I mean, isn't that one of the basic rules of if you're going to have children, its your responsibility to feed them? Am I wrong here?). She can teach them the mysterious tenets of goat wisdom, such as how to properly head-butt Puck and the most inconvenient places to poop.

Ok, so I am feeling more than a little guilty about my lack of attention paid to Harmony's sweet babies, Mumble and Poe. With the thrilling and goo-filled arrival of Tierra's babies, and then the subsequent storm of bad parenting and rage on my part, I have not even stepped foot in their stall! Everybody is fed and watered, of course, but I have not spent even one moment with the little boogers or Mother of the Year, Harmony. I guess its the age old predicament, that the way to get the most attention is to be horrible. Seriously, though. I haven't even mentioned in my blog that I DISBUDDED THEM! This is how neglectful I have been. I mean, that was one of the most traumatic things I have ever had to do, and its been 4 days and I haven't even breathed a word of it. What it boils down to, is that I had planned to do it Saturday, but then Tierra finally decided to have her babies and it was postponed until that evening. So, exhausted and still quite stinky from playing midwife, Mom, Dustin, and I undertook our first disbudding. You're probably wondering why on earth we would choose such a time to do this, but all I can say is that you're really supposed to do it when they're 5 days old, and by Saturday they were 8. I just couldn't bring myself to do it until they were a little bigger! Mumble's horn buds had just started to come in good, and Poe's were definitely on their way. First we shaved the top of their heads, which I think is just adding insult to injury, literally. Then we wrapped them in a towel and Mom and Dustin held them down one-by-one on the picnic table with a folded towel under their chin. I put my inner-ear headphones deep down into my ears and cranked up some angry girl music, and commenced to burn a ring around each horn bud for a quick count of 10 with my disbudding iron, turning it in a circular motion the whole time. You want a nice copper ring around the circumfrence of the horn bud, and then you also sear the circle in the middle with the edge of the iron. This is not a photo of one of my goats, but just a photo I found online showing what I am talking about. Disbudding is one of the few farm-related things I have ever NOT wanted to capture for my readers. I felt bad enough about it, the last thing I felt like doing was running for a camera. I know some of you out there think I am a monster right now, and those of you can read this and at least make an informed decision. It was really not as bad as my shaking hands led me to believe it would be. The second we were done they were fine and went in and nursed. Thirty minutes later they were up and playing harder than ever, if anything. I'll try to get a picture of them tomorrow. They're having a little adventure tonight. It's raining cats and dogs out there, and all the goats were hanging out in the barn anyway, so I went ahead and opened up Harmony and her babies' stall so they could mingle with the rest of the herd for the night, then I locked the door to the barn. I don't trust Mumble and Poe outside by themselves yet because they're so tiny I'm afraid a hawk will fly off with them. I saw a hawk attempt that with my chickens last week and it scared the bejezzes out of me. They're so fast now, though, that I think they'll handle themselves just fine with Tierra, Lucy, Louie, Harmony, Sahara, and Puck. Wow, it's getting crowded in there!