Ground hog day - No kidding.

No seriously - thats my update so far so good, no kidding!  Meaning my little goatie friend who tried to die by hanging herself from the feeder (yikes!) really looks like she is getting close to having her goatie babies (kids)... the process called "kidding."

So I went out this morning all chipper and happy and....there she was. Her udder is getting HUGE. This is called 'bagging up' and is a sign that soon the babies will be here.. Oh. My. Gosh.

I thought that I'd have until the end of February... but if its true, like someone just told me, that La Manchas kid a week early, and if we were all wrong about when the neighbor's buck gave her 'the business'.... and if there is any chance that her hanging from the feeder may have moved things along.....

Gulp.

She might be havin' them babies sooner than we expected.

And here's the kicker. Tomorrow morning I'm going 'off farm' for a couple days!!



I've well advised The Big Man to keep checking on her and to call the neighbors if anything 'funny' happens. Mercifully, in our district, "farm emergencies" are a perfectly legitimate excuse to yank 4H kids out of school -- so we have our neighbor gal on high alert.

I may have been accused, by The Big Man, of a nefarious plot to plan my outing whilst the babies arrive. Which is not true. Entirely. Lets just say we'll see how it rolls. The Big Man is perfectly capable and is good in a crisis.

And its a well know joke among the neighbors that the only medical attention that will be required during this joyous kidding season will be for me - when I pass out.

Butchering? Sure. I"ll gut and skin just about anything that isn't looking at me. Livestock birth? Not so much....

To quote Butterfly McQueen in her immortal role as Prissy.... I dont know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies.

I'm not sure what I was thinking.. but honestly I had hoped to avoid all of this and magically little kids would jus show up one morning in the barn. Leastwise, that was my plan.

Now, golly, I think I'd better get my ducks in a row. See? Ducks are EASY, they hatch. No problems!

Well, I didn't think I could build a duck garage, butcher a pig, give a chicken a foot surgery, or help pip a turkey poult out of an egg.. so I guess I can do this. Hopefully. I'll just... I"ll just.....

*thinks about the miracle of birth and passes out*

I think I'm going to need a lot of tequila for this..... yikes!!