The Circle of Life

It was a fun kids and visitors day, although we had a bit of an unfortunate "surprise" early on. My Canton, CT friend Juliann, who also relocated to SW Pennsylvania, came today with her son and youngest daughter, as well as her sister and her youngest daughter. I had many hands to put to work, and I did!

First the girls fed the hens and gathered eggs, and put them in a basket to take home. Then it was the real work, especially in this ongoing humidity. The girls led the yearlings to their paddock and gave them their morning smattering of grain, and then got to pet them a bit. Apparently they were to interested in watching and not enough scratching,......so Saba had to get the adults to participate in some petting. Guenevere learned to feed and run if she wanted to keep all of her ruffles.
She looks like she's having fun!On the lower left of the picture, Zola is trying to taste Lillian's hair. Oliver dragged the hose and topped off the water, saving me some back and forth. Then we took a steamy walk to the pond.

Nice shirt Juliann!

And what of the surprise? Well, you may have figured that out from the title. When we went back for the goats in the second stall, only two of the kids came out, so I went looking for Zuri. She had been dragging for a couple of days, but I thought we were over the hump yesterday. No. She was dead in the corner of the stall.

Well, with two little girls and my grown up guests waiting, I was at a loss of what to do. Traumatize these kids for life or what? But every one's curiosity, and my momentary speechlessness, moved the situation along. I finally spoke the words carefully, and the youngsters took a quick look, and we moved on with our day.

With a couple more goats to the vet today, lets hope the pattern doesn't repeat itself too quickly.

VIDEO OF THE GIRLS LEADING THE YEARLINGS TO PASTURE