Our goat Bailey was due to kid on the 15th. Today is the 19th and so far no sign of labor. So this morning we head back into the house to shower and get ready for the day and, of course, Bailey had her babies. Aby has been sleeping with a baby monitor for weeks. We have been nervous to leave the farm for too long and then WE MISS IT. We went back out to the barn at 10:30 and there is Bailey with 4 brand new baby goats around her. We missed it by minutes. They were covered in goo. They were cold and they were curious. So we cleaned them up and set them under heat lamps and they warmed up enough to want to nurse. They are so cute and cuddly. They are the size of your hand. We have twin boys who we named Myco and Rhizal. Get it? Mycorrhizal. I know, we are total dorks. Our goats are a play on mushroom morphology. Mycorrhizal , as in mushroom roots. The other two are girls but we haven’t come up with names for them yet. We may continue the mushroom theme or we may not.
The best part of today was that some of our CSA customers were bringing out their grandkids to see the farm today and they showed up an hour after the babies were born. What a great surprise for those kids? It reaffirmed for me why we are doing this: to connect people to their food and to excite and educate children. How cool is it that these people have a relationship with their farmer and that because of that relationship their grandchildren were present for something very few of us get to experience? It helped that these kids were ridiculously cute and excited to meet all of the farm animals. Our original big plan was to take them to collect chicken eggs and instead they got to meet newborn goats. Life is great sometimes. If you are reading this and you are in Portland, get out here to see these babies. You have never seen anything as cute as a baby goat.
The best part of today was that some of our CSA customers were bringing out their grandkids to see the farm today and they showed up an hour after the babies were born. What a great surprise for those kids? It reaffirmed for me why we are doing this: to connect people to their food and to excite and educate children. How cool is it that these people have a relationship with their farmer and that because of that relationship their grandchildren were present for something very few of us get to experience? It helped that these kids were ridiculously cute and excited to meet all of the farm animals. Our original big plan was to take them to collect chicken eggs and instead they got to meet newborn goats. Life is great sometimes. If you are reading this and you are in Portland, get out here to see these babies. You have never seen anything as cute as a baby goat.