49th and 50th bound!!

Happy late Easter all! I hope it was a blessed holiday for everyone. It's been a pretty eventful week. Last Friday I was on my own outside since Daniel went in the dairy and boy did I stay busy. Luckily Eva was around to help me out. I was doing the usual chores while Eva helped with the list I had made the night before of extra jobs I wanted to get done. I unfortunately didn't get to any of these but Eva knocked out 3 of the things on my list! So that morning while feeding I noticed Mandolin didn't even touch her grain and was isolating as well as baby talking like crazy. So I put her in a stall (thankfully she was willing). However, after crying for an hour or so straight while in there being super unhappy I decided to put her back out with the other dry girls since she didn't show any other signs of being close to labor. While starting on hay I saw her isolating far from the others so I decided to check on her and sure enough she had some white discharge meaning it's almost game time. Eva told me to go ahead and bring her in. So I'm walking her in and I'm not too far from leaving the pasture and she decides she's tired and over it and gets on her knees. Then she got away from me! It was a pretty funny sight as Eva yells "run!" and I chase her down and grab her having to once again get her out of the pasture. Mandolin is one of the Pond girls (remember Alex and Rosalee...pains in my....) so like her buddies she's a biter. O joy. Eva had to come and help bring her. And boy was it a work out. Eva had her front end holding her head up and pulling (keeping their heads up helps resist their urge to get down on their knees) while I had her back end pushing. I was exhausted when we finally got the stubborn mama into the stall. Eva went to the house for a bit while I did the noon feeding. I was just bowl training the newest addition when I hear Mandolin grunting and having contractions. I figured I'd wait and let her do her thing for awhile and just keep an eye on her. Then while feeding I hear her having a harder and harder time. I didn't know this at the time but soon figured when I went in there to check things out that she was a first time mama. This means she was very tight down there. I helped stretch her out but could see she was having a very difficult time. The bag broke and she was still struggling to get this baby out. I tried to assist her and the hooves were out and finally when she pushed I could see a little nose and tongue peeking out. After waiting a bit she still had trouble getting this little guy out! So finally I made the decision to go in and help her. I felt for the back of the head while waiting for another push and was able to get the baby out much to Mandolin's relief haha. Surprisingly the birth made me a little shaky after. I'm pretty calm in situations like this but oddly enough my body was shaky once the kid was out and I saw him and mom were ok. It's always a little scary when a goat is having a bit of trouble getting a kid out and you have to help but it's still difficult. My hand wouldn't stop shaking right after! Because the first one helped stretch mom out the second came right out easily. All kids are cute but boy these two were beautiful. The boy is white and the girl is a gorgeous honey/orange color and both are cute and fluffy. Every time I think we'll go for a bit without new kids the goats surprise me. Mandolin seemed to fill up over night! After rushing to finish up hay I quick gave myself an "udder rag shower" as we interns call it (or wiping myself down with a rag haha) and went to Good Friday service with Teo. I noticed during the service I still had afterbirth on my thighs!! Ooops....it made me think how different of a place I'm in compared to last year on Good Friday. The service was beautiful and it was nice to experience a holy week in Hawaii. It doesn't matter where you are the veneration of the cross is always such a powerful experience. I was feeling very homesick as St. Joseph happened to sing a lot of the same songs we used to sing back at home at St. Luke's.

Saturday morning was SO clear, you could see the mountains in the distance really well! Teo did the feeding that morning while I milked and she comes up on the golf cart with a white kid in her lap and says "she was in Soho!"....I figured she meant this kid had somehow escaped from kennel or somewhere and got in there but no...one of our yearlings gave birth the night before!! She was a wild child all dry and already full from mom. BABIES HAVING BABIES!! So weird. When I first got to the farm in August the yearlings were so small they were in kennel...now they're pregnant and having kids! Alice gave birth and when Teo went to feed she noticed Ghira was acting weird and then she saw a little baby among all the legs of the 13 yearlings eating grain. How funny...I would've given anything to see her face at that moment haha. She said she kind of stood there and stared for a minute confused. We weren't expecting the yearlings to give birth for awhile and didn't have total accurate records of who was bred when because Pepeiao was with them and we weren't sure if he was able to breed them or not. Now that we know we have a greater need to check on them and they're close to giving birth you really notice how big some of them are getting. Especially Rory...she's huge! So being a "bad a**" baby Teo and I thought she needed a bad a** name. So we thought lets name her Miranda Lambert! Haha we know she wont' be a keeper on the farm so we thought it'd be funny. Alexis if your reading this I thought of you when I wrote her name in the birth book! LOL I couldn't help myself.

Little Miranda Lambert haha

Mama Alice!!

Saturday was also grand tour day. It's fun to be back on grand tours and good practice to get back into the tour mode for the summer since that's a BIG part of the internship at the AWCC. I had 3 crazy little boys on the tour and it was hilarious to see the goat's reaction to them. Before I knew it they had all run into the day pasture which in turn made the goat's go the other way not wanting to go towards them since they were new and scary. So I ended up telling everyone to grab a couple goats and help get them in the pasture. Whenever you "put the tour" to work they seem to really enjoy it. I think because they feel like they're really getting involved in the farm aspect and being hands on. One of the ladies on the tour expressed a lot of interest in having her own pet goat...I wonder if she'll end up doing that. Below is a pic of me feeding a baby some tourist took and put on trip advisor. I kind of look like I'm strangling the baby but it's kind of cool they put it up.

Goaties on the goat walk

After the tour Teo and I dewormed the Square girls together with Cydectin. Those girls are crazy!! They are so curious and playful. We used Ghira to herd them back into their pasture since they get full access to the arena now. He's so good with them! It's really his forte. Some of our keepers in there are looking a little goofy and scruffy but one named Kimba is so silky and perfect looking! I tried to get a picture of her but she's really active and all over the place.

The last two hours of work I went to Golf to weed some more (there's still so much fire weed!) and Daniel had written in the comm book we only had 20% of the pasture left to do but good lord there was a lot more than 20% left. I was out there for 2 hours and made some progress but still had a lot left to do. I don't know if Mandolin was really lonely and missed her kid or if she remembers I was there with her when she gave birth but she would not stop following me around and licking me! It was like having a little shadow while weeding.

Weird picture of me, but Mandolin is SO cute!

Golf...what seems like a never ending pasture when your weeding

Sunday (Easter) I went to mass early in the morning with Nalani and then went to Lahaina for the afternoon to take a couple kids for an Easter event at the Westin Villas. It was a really cute set up. They made a nice sign for us and had a white fence on the beach front. And we were quite a hit! The little kids couldn't get enough of our kids. I took a white boy and brown striped girl so there would be some variation. We didn't have names for them yet so I had a little girl who got there first name them and she chose Rocky for the boy and Sprinkles for the girl. Sprinkles was a bit more anti social and wanted to do her own thing but Rocky was LOVING the attention and followed me around and didn't mind me holding him while the little ones got to pet him. Everyone was surprised by how soft they were. It was pretty funny...I got asked if they were cows and if they were llamas. Llamas I could see but cows?? We need some more ag education in our schools ; )

Sprinkles loved the chair

Who needs an Easter lamb when you have an Easter kid??

It's hard to hold two kids and get a good pic haha

Loving on Rocky : )

Not only did Erin and Chris stop by the visit and hang out with me and the kids but my volunteer friends at the Haku Balwin Center were right next door in the tent with a bunch of bunnies, guinea pigs, and the famous stunning Mufasa! It was so great getting to see them again...I miss volunteering there. I feel blessed to have been able to meet and work with such great people while in Maui outside the farm.

The most exciting part about this week?? WE GOT A KID WITH EARS!! I couldn't believe it. Unfortunately I had missed the birth so it occurred in Soho (pasture) which I beat myself up about but o well...I was working outside alone again and had a lot to do. It reminded me I have to keep a better eye out on the goats, especially the yearlings. When farming you really have to constantly be aware of your surroundings. I was upset that afternoon I had missed something big like this while I was feeding hay because I get too focused on the task at hand when I'm the only one outside and rushing to get everything done before I'm off so I don't leave the evening shift with incomplete tasks. It was a wake up call alright...now I'm looking at the yearlings and counting them every time I pass the pasture haha. Why is it a big deal the baby was born in the pasture when in the wild they're born outside alone all the time? When the babies are born in the pasture it increases their likelihood of getting sick because they're new and exposed to more dirt and bacteria than they would in a stall. Also when they're born in a stall we can put iodine on their fresh umbilical cord much faster and it won't get as much dirt on it. So I rolled up to the barn in the golf cart to get some alfalfa hay for the Bamboo kids and I see the bassinet sitting outside and could it be??....are those ears sticking out over the top?! Haha yes! I see two big white ears and I look in there and there's a big beautiful black baby girl with huge ears like her daddy! It's so weird to see a baby with ears after all these little eared lamanchas and she's just the cutest thing. You can imagine how spoiled she is already. She's also a very active baby hopping all around. Angela wants to name her Matilda (like the song waltzing matilda). I'm so so happy I got to see a kid with ears before I leave the farm. The only bummer?? Her mom is Juicy Fruit who is the most vocal (and sometimes annoying) yearling we have. And vocal she is, especially after having a baby. At least now Alice has some kin with her being put with the older goats and being the new kid on the block. They now have each other for comfort. I milked last night and was very impressed with them though because they both came up to the milk stand without assistance : ) I love lamanchas and their tiny ears so it's fun to have a couple of them in the milk herd. Times are a'changing!! Now we'll have an even bigger mixture of goaties in the milking herd which is now up to 77!! We'll soon be splitting the herd into two groups like it was when I first got here.