Another day off and after the last two days of work it's nice to relax!  Monday I spent most of the day cleaning out two of the four Hansi's shoveling out old alfalfa hay and dirt.  It took 8 buckets per Hansi!  The kids are building up their rumens and eating grain and alfalfa rather than just drinking milk.  We make sure they always have access to alfalfa hay on their pallets in there but with 14 of them they end up pushing it off and then it piles up and gets old.  They love laying on their pallets and in turn make quite a mess haha.  Between that chores and giving all 56 Hansi kids corid treatment the day was over before I knew it.

Yesterday was probably the most stressful day I've had at the farm.  It was so long!!  I can't sleep in anymore being used to waking up early so I was up around 7 or so even though I didn't work till 10.  It was Erin and Teo working in the morning and both don't like birth stuff so I happened to be making breakfast and Erin comes in the milk room and says "Darcy's having babies!" so I helped her out and supervised her birth in case she had a difficult one.  She had two boys, one with ears and one without.  When I started work a few hours later I had a lot to do being outside alone and Erin going in the dairy while Teo left for deliveries, meaning I had all the morning chores to do.  I had just took care of Gloria, cleaned up the milk stand, mixed grain, and swept up the goat walk when the two newborns started crying for milk.  After feeding them I though I'd better check on the yearlings and see if they needed to be herded to orchard.  Sure enough I see Lilly right outside the gate to orchard with a baby.  She had given birth in the pasture...shoot!! That means I got a long journey to make bringing her in with the baby.  I finally got her to the milk stand and Erin helped me with the newbie while I dewormed mama and milked her out.  I took her back to Soho so she could hang with the others and Darcy for the rest of the day since the milking herd she would join in the evening was all the way in Little Italy.  So I herded the rest of the yearlings into orchard and realized Frankenstini (named that because of her one waddle that's all the way up by her ear) wasn't around.  Grrrr she was in the shelter and had given birth to a kid!!  So I had to grab that baby and head back to the milk stand.  Is this really happening?!  All this happened in the hour before noon feeding so by time I got back Erin took over feeding the newborns (now we're up to 4!) and I went to feed all the other kids.  Normally feeding is pretty quick but we had four kids training on the pipe and two bowl training.  Bowl training didn't go so well.  I couldn't get them to get the hang of it and had to use my finger : (   It took quite a bit of time.  By this time it was getting later in the day and I had to do hay and corid still.  After a ten minute lunch I did hay and checked waters then rushed to get the herds for milking.  Because we split the herd in two we're starting milking half and hour earlier than before.  I started milking and the babies were crying again to be fed.  AHHH!!!! I cant' do this all alone.  Erin had been helping me so much (a woman came to buy a pet goat while I was milking as well) I ended up grabbing Daniel who was off that day and had him help feed.  I hate having to ask for help, I've realized while being here for the last 7-8 months, so it was a frustrating day.  I can't help but feel like a failure when I can't do everything that needs to be done alone.  Erin and Daniel were so great to help me out though so I'm thankful.  So I'm milking and Jo-lynn comes over with the head count for the evening chore tour (where tourists get to hand milk a goat) and it's 33!!! Are you serious?!  Of all days of course today would be the day we have such a huge tour haha.  So I had Jo-lynn milk Norberta with kids while I milked Jacqui with the adults.  It still took a good half hour with such a large tour but I somehow managed to get done with milking at a decent time.  Erin herded them back to Sunset while I rushed down to Hansi to do corid treatment before the evening feeding.  Finally I finished everything up by 7 just in time for dinner.  Yikes....what a day.  I was really relieved to have today off!  I fed the newborns their late night feeding since Erin and Daniel helped me out so much and those suckers can eat!  They sucked down two bottles and ate till they were bursting!  Thank goodness because I don't know if I could've handled some difficult babies after the day I had haha.  Even though it was a crazy stressful day and overwhelming to be working outside alone it was nice to have good co-workers that pull through to help you out when you need.  And I'd take this kind of day farming over a day in an office any time!