Must Be Farm Life

We did something tonight that I didn't think I would ever do: Brought a newborn goat kid into the house. She was born earlier this evening, and was so weak that the mom just left it and concentrated on the healthy one. We waited a bit to see if she would go back and clean up the weak one, but finally we brought the kid into the house to dry it off and see what we could do. The boys have attempted to milk the mom for colostrum and then are feeding it to the kid with an eyedropper. So far she is still alive, but I wonder what will happen during the night. The plan is to take turns so that every hour someone will milk the mom for some colostrum and feed it to the kid.

We also have a bird hatchery in here ... Every time the boys found an egg they would bring it into the house and place it in the incubator, so these eggs are all hatching at different times. So far we have 3 fully fluffed out chicks, and another one is soon to emerge from another egg. There are quite a few left in there, and the incubator is starting to emit a nasty odor. I am wondering if there is a rotten one, but the boys tried candling a couple of nights ago and thought they had removed all the bad ones.

The puppies will be 6 weeks old on Friday, and today Peter went to town with Jim with updated posters for town. The kittens will be 5 weeks on Friday as well, and we may have one spoken for already.

Somehow we lost a female turkey today. The boys were going to figure out a pen for the 2 males and 3 females, but couldn't find one female. We are hoping she is nesting somewhere and did not meet the same fate as one other one we had. This spring we found a pile of feathers in the woods, so something must have gotten her.

I guess this is what you call farm life!