The Babies Are Coming!

It’s February and we are tingling with excitement as the anticipation of newborns overtakes us. There is a cyclical nature to life on a farm. If it is July then the garden needs to be weeded, if it is September then the goats need to be bred, and if it is February then baby goats are imminent. There is a purpose to each season which we base our lives upon. And now, as exciting as Christmas, we are looking forward to the arrival of spring babies. The very first ones arrived last week- two large breech kids, one buck and one doe. Yesterday, in our absence, arrived two more bucks. It was a community effort in that situation since we were gone to the ocean for the weekend. Wonderful friends and neighbors pulled together to deliver, milk and bottle feed the newborns.


This is when I am jealous of all those lambs that get to stay with the ewes in the field. As dairy goats we must take the babies away and bottle feed them. This is for a variety of reasons but the most important one is that they are raised to be very tame and easy to work with as their future will be working in close quarters with humans. It’s a fair amount of work but it’s also quite rewarding.


There is truly nothing cuter than baby goats. Cuteness of a lamb but with tons of personality. At three days old they are bouncing around like they have springs for legs. Their natural curiosity and desire to run and jump leads to all sorts of comical images. Our children run and the baby goats chase after them. Kids chasing kids!

I think back to my former life, the one made up of bus schedules and calendars on the wall. While I noted the changing seasons, the seasons did not change me. February used to just be another month on the calendar with all the usual deadlines and do lists. February is not that way any more. It tingles and crackles with excitement and anticipation.