“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” 

– Samuel Johnson 

It has been a hot minute since I wrote a blog post because I am in the midst of what goat people know as kidding season. Those of you who don’t know what that means, imagine the most chaotic mess you’ve ever experienced, splash it in slimy afterbirth and sticky colostrum, and throw in some hefty punches from those kicking first time hormonal goat moms. And don’t forget the sleep deprivation.

The goat breeder’s life is not all goat kisses. I will never forget kidding season of 2022. It was the roughest kidding season I have ever experienced in over 17 years of goat breeding. Not only because of my own twins who were about 1.5 yrs old at that time and still requiring a lot of my attention, but I had two does develop pregnancy toxemia that year. I had never experienced that before so it was new and scary territory.

The first doe, Harley, progressed quickly to a point that she had to have an emergency c-section to save her life. Unfortunately, even though the amazing veterinary team did everything in their power to save her beautiful quadruplets, they were just too premature to survive. I will be forever thankful for the wonderful team who saved Harley’s life so I didn’t lose all of them. The second doe, Flirty, fortunately did not progress as quickly and I was able to maintain her with aggressive treatment until she had her quadruplets full term.

Both does required weeks of intensive care in a makeshift hospital/physical therapy stall to make a full recovery. This included IV drips, sling and pulley system for physical therapy, around the clock meds, etc. On top of the special needs of those two does, I also had several goats to milk twice a day and bottle kids to feed as well as more pregnant does to monitor and assist when the time came for them to kid. It was a very physically, emotionally and financially draining time.

This is a picture off of one of our barn cams on one of those long nights. I had gotten the twins down for the night and then headed back out to the barn. I started warming goat kid bottles, delivered Flirty’s quads and then fed the other goat kids while Flirty cleaned her kids off. That is when this picture was taken – I am on the far right in a grey and black sweatshirt feeding goat kids. To the left of that is the hospital/therapy pen where Harley and Flirty with her quads are. To the left of them, you can see the first couple of the maternity pens with pregnant does in them which continue on out of the frame.

After feeding the kids, I got Harley and Flirty set up with feed and water within easy reach and then took Flirty’s babies to finish drying them and warm them up because they were getting chilled. They all ended up in the house for the night because my son woke up around midnight wanting his mama and I still needed to get colostrum in the new babies and keep them warm. I managed a few hours of sleep before the new day dawned to start it all over again.

I go through every kidding season as an afterbirth-covered zombie. This life is not for the weak. But you don’t have to be a superhero either. Perseverance. One step at a time. Just don’t stop. Martin Luther King Jr’s quote comes to mind:

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” 

– Martin Luther King Jr.

Kidding season and other seasons in life can feel chaotic and overwhelming. But it is a season. Keep moving forward. Persevere. This life isn’t always goat kisses but you know what? Harley has had two successful pregnancies since then and is due again in just a few days. She is still giving me goat kisses and so are her kids. Flirty is now retired and all she does is give people goat kisses. So yes, life can throw some hard curve balls but I’m still getting my goat kisses.