05/30/2026
It has been a long week filled with many late nights. This past week has been a reminder that farming is not for the faint of heart.
Last Friday, while doing chores, I heard a yell from the goat pen. It was definitely the sound of labor. I rushed over to find one of our girls delivering her kids almost a week early. Unfortunately, both babies were dead on arrival. Mom was devastated and has been calling for them ever since.
I don’t know if her stress and constant cries affected our final doe of the season, but she also went into labor nearly a week early.
Tuesday evening, while we were away at a softball game, her labor began. We had checked the cameras earlier in the day and saw no signs. On our way home, we checked again and were heartbroken to see a baby already dead in the stall. We called my sister-in-law for reinforcements and talked her through everything while watching through our live cameras.
Of course, the second baby arrived when we had no cell service. When we finally got signal back, we saw a picture of my sister-in-law helping that baby fight for its life — our little house goat that we posted about the other day.
We made it home in time for the third kid. That baby came out strong, was up quickly, and trying to nurse. Thinking she was finished, we stepped away to do a few chores. While moving our minis to the other barn, we stopped to check on her. She let out a loud labor yell, and we rushed in to find her delivering two kids at once. One was dead on arrival, while the other was weak but eventually came around.
It was a very late night as we worked to get everyone standing, warm, and nursing. One baby came into the house with us.
We thought we were finally in the clear.
Then Thursday, just two days later, we came home to find mom had taken a terrible turn. We tried everything we could, put in a call to the vet, and stayed with her through it all. But by 10:30 last night, we lost her.
She was one of our previous bottle babies and one of the sweetest goats we’ve ever had. 💔
Now we are mourning her loss while taking on the task of bottle-feeding her three surviving babies.
The farm has given us some hard lessons this week. There have been tears, exhaustion, heartbreak, and many sleepless nights.
We’re hoping that as we catch up on some sleep, we can start sharing more of the positive side again — the cute pictures, funny videos, and joyful moments that these babies bring.
For now, we’re just taking it one feeding at a time. ❤️