The Goatherd Experience

The weather's nice and so I've been letting the goats out to graze about every day. The first day I let all the goats out of the barnyard except Clover and the kids. I let them into the barnyard. I gave that up quickly though because the kids kept getting through the holes in the fence and Clover would freak out. So now I just let them all out. Mom held Clover yesterday while I attempted to milk her. We don't have good supplies so we can drink the milk yet but it was interesting to milk her anyway. We didn't milk her all out either.

It's so much fun to let all seven of the goats out because I truly feel like a goat herder!

Okay so we were pretty sure that Clover was pregnant. The same with Ellie and Ebbie. I got home from driving school and dad told me mom said we had to go down to the barn to see if Elliie's udder was filling to see if she was pregnant. After a bit of grumbling (it's cold and dark after all) I consented and we trooped our way down. The first thing I noticed was that Clover was missing. "dad, Clover's gone." I had Ellie and I handed her to him "could you hold her for a second." I gazed around the goat pen and didn't see her. I then tried to see if Ellie was pregnant but she kept squirming around. Finally I was like "just let her go. I can't tell" I was worried about Clover. I was wondering if we'd have to go looking for her in the dark. Finally I looked in the other goat pen that we hadn't been using and there she was! I thought it was kind of odd that she was in there and what's more is that someone appeared to have put her there on purpose. Dad asked "do you want to make sure she's okay?" I said sure and he opened the gate. I walked in and was petting her. I moved around to her other side and stopped. There was something in the straw! At first I thought it was a cat because the pen was dark and the thing was curled up in the straw. All of a sudden I realized what it was. But that was impossible! We didn't think Clover was due until late may! "Daddy...I think she had kids!" Ah the joy and wonder of seeing those kids for the first time is indescribable! They're so soft and small! It's just the neatest thing in the world! We are officially Centerbrook Farm! The kids have come!

P.s. We think Ellie will be due soon and we're pretty sure Ebbie is preggers too!