Life, death and health problems

Hatti trying to kid

August 2.15

We are not out of the woods when it comes to illness yet.  Silky is crook, though, we have no confirmed diagnosis yet and Edd is having more surgery on his legs next Wednesday. This time it is to fix his varicose veins, which have to be sorted out before any more can be done on his knees. We are now into a new stage of the year because the first lamb has arrived this morning and the first goat kidded on Friday. This makes handing over the work here much harder. At least one goat needs milking twice a day and the sheep will probably all lamb soon.

The goat, Hatti, was in labour all day and it became apparent in the evening that intervention was needed. I managed to get my hand in and find the kids front feet and head. It was obviously stuck and I had to basically pull it out. Unfortunately, the huge male kid was already dead but Hatti seems to have recovered well. I once tried getting the vet out in this situation but I ended up loosing both the kids and the goat so I just deal with it myself now.

It has been pretty miserable weather wise. The news tells us that we are had the coldest July for 20 years and I believe them. The goats are spending most of their day in the shed and Edd and I have portioned it off into different areas so that we have kidding pens. I have advertised the male goats and the ram to try and cut down on work but I am not sure that they will sell fast at this stage of the year.

Edd has been working out what seeds he needs to start going and has pruned the raspberries. We are also collecting up what ever we can find in the way of pine posts so that we can put up a fence for the next chook run close to the dairy. At the moment we let the new chooks in that shed out for a supervised run later in the day but this is not ideal and they are in danger from foxes, which is a worry.

My next job is to grout the wall tiles in the bathroom. I would have done that today but I do not seem to have a sponge and the small buckets I brought have disappeared. I will have to get more organised before I can start. Al is now back from the UK so I am hoping he will find time to help us put the next layer on the shower walls. It would be so great to get that job done.