Life is full of twists and turns, that is part of what makes it interesting, unpredictable and keeps us on the edge of our seats. I have currently been in a very unpredictable phase of life, which has certainly kept me guessing. Back in November we found out that Rob would be changing his employment from a 100% home-based role to a consulting role with 90% travel or more. I will not lie at first this was an extremely difficult pill for me to swallow, I am a creature of habit, one that likes routine, and this change drove so many questions for me about the logistics of our life, along the lines of how often he will be home, where will he be working, how long do the contracts last, how will I manage the day to day logistics of my work, our life and childcare, what would we do when I need to travel?
Now that we have been living this new life for several months, I feel a sense of peace and normalcy with our new routine. This is attributed to a lot of help from not only our amazing nanny but also my loving and supportive parents and my incredible farm sitter. As I write this, I am sitting in Rob's short-term housing looking at the beautiful snow-covered peaks of a small rural town in Western Washington State, I feel that every life twist and turn happens, and we can choose to embrace it or fight it with every fiber of our being. Now I cannot say it has not been very difficult at times trying to balance my full-time work, our farm and the care of my family, but I also feel like Avery, and I have gotten into a good rhythm at home when Rob is not traveling. We also have established a bit of a routine with his travel that works for us allowing him to work from home for portions of the month and travel to the plant for other portions.
This sense of change has also translated to the goat herd as well. Although, I normally did 90% of the care activities myself, Rob would always help with bigger tasks like getting hay, unloading bedding and taking the trailer places. In the past four months of him traveling I have done all of those things alone. Not only has this increased my belief in my-self but also re-instilled the self-reliance I once had. I know I am a competent and capable woman, but historically, I would rely on Rob's help to get things done, now the choice is to not do it, or do it myself. I like to think that anyone that knows me is aware that not doing something is also akin to torture for me, so I have gained so much more self-respect by buckling up and doing it, even if it is hard. That is not to say at the end of the day I do not sometimes collapse into bed a crumbled exhausted mess from the demands of the day, I absolutely do, but the fulfillment I feel makes it all worth it.
I did experience two recent disappointments with my goat herd that I have had to come to terms with. The first is not 100% confirmed but I am 95% confident that my guess is correct. My favorite doe Kim a lovely coming 3-year-old with a fabulous mammary system was my AI candidate for the year, I confirmed her bred at about 35 days of gestation via ultrasound seeing 2-3 kids. Then at about 50 days of gestation I did my biannual CAE test where blood is drawn, and she was again confirmed pregnant via blood. I then went on my merry way breeding the rest of the herd and watching vigilantly for heats. I never saw her come back into heat, or saw any discharge for that matter, so in my mind she was bred and progressing normally. Fast forward to about two and a half weeks ago, her due date was impending Feb 21st, and I noticed that she did not seem to be getting any bigger and I was not seeing any mammary development, I thought oh maybe only one of the fetuses stuck around, lets ultrasound her. I ultra sounded her and saw nothing..... then I thought well I do not usually look at them this far along, maybe the babies are really big, and I just am not seeing them, but I also looked and did not see any cotyledons and my heart began to sink. I popped the other pregnant does on the stand to look and level set, they all were easy to tell they were pregnant. In one last act of desperation, I had the vet out to look at another doe I have that is still pregnant with live moving kids, and I asked her to check Kim, she agrees..... she could not find a pregnancy in Kim. So, this leads me to question did I miss her coming back into heat? Is something off with her hormones? Will I be able to settle her this fall?! Who knows but I am certainly disappointed as I was very excited for that pairing and those kids.
To top off the surprises, Peaches the other doe the vet was out for, she has been experiencing bloody discharge, so I thought she was aborting. I ultrasounded her, found live kids still there and the vet did as well. We treated her with a round of exceed which seemed to help for about two weeks and then she was back to having intermittent bloody discharge the vet thinks if she does continue to carry that she may have to be on Exceed the rest of her pregancy.... she is not due until April 2nd...... We will keep our fingers crossed and keep praying for healthy does and kids this kidding season, but man life sure likes to keep me on my toes recently..... I hope you all are staying warm this cold winter season. Take care and Happy Goating!!!
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