Saying 'bye' to Peggy

 I posted about a month ago about our Momma goat, Peggy, not wanting to nurse her babies.  It was sad to see Paddington and Suzy try to nurse and her not wanting them to.  That's when we decided to start bottle feeding them.  That was an experience.  We were diligent and it took a lot of effort.  We noticed by day 5 of still trying to give them a bottle that something strange happened....Peggy started letting them nurse again! We kept with the bottles a couple of more days, but they were clearly getting enough from their Momma.  Whew!   We were glad for that! :o)

As the babies grew and grew, we knew it was almost time for us to start milking Peggy.  Silas has been so excited to learn how to milk a goat!  I was excited with all the possibilities of what we could do with goats's milk....cheese, butter, ice cream!  I even was wanting to try making some soap and beauty products.  Fun!  Well, after buying all the supplies, having my sweet hubby build a milking stand, and watching tons of videos on how to milk a goat, we were ready!

...but our Peggy was not.  We had noticed that over the past week she was growing weaker and weaker.  We asked for advice and followed it to a 't'.  We dewormed her, gave her sugar, helped her get up, made sure she had plenty of hay, greens, feed...you name it, we did it.  It was evident the morning of milking that Peggy was not going to make it.  My poor Silas.  This is the hard part for him.  He really does love his goats and enjoys taking care of them. 
All the signs were true and Peggy died about noon.

So, what do we do with our baby goats?  From what we've read, they usually wean between 6-8 weeks.  They were only 5 weeks old.  We started bottles again, but they were strongly rejected.  We knew they were drinking water from a bowl, so I started mixing milk powder and giving it to them in a bowl twice a day.  They love it!  They are eating plenty of hay, grass and grain.  They seem to be doing well!

My Silas is learning much about this goat farming adventure.  I'm thankful to see his tender heart through it all.