Kidding season has begun!

January 22, wind chills of -15 degrees, what a great day to spend in the barn waiting on babies to arrive. It was a long, rough day and not the greatest way to start the 2011 season. First I'd like to thank my dear friend Tiffany for spending the day with me and helping out, as Rog was away most of the day for a school event.

Masquerade was showing signs of heavy labor and was straining for about 25 minutes with no progress so I decided to go in and check out what was happening. Unfortunately, I felt a breech kid with both rear legs forward and one front leg back. The umbilical cord was wrapped around the kids pelvis and one rear leg and based on the coloration and necrosing surrounding sac tissue it was clear it had been dead for at least a day, which was why she wasn't having strong contractions and was not progressing normally. After successfully rearranging the kid (a doe, naturally...) for delivery, she started contracting again and a second kid was trying to work its way out at the same time. Massey safely delivered a large, healthy doe kid who is thriving and no worse for wear. Massey is doing just fine.

Here is Luciana, Luci for short, enjoying the luxury pen in our basement in her warm sweater. She'll be a spoiled house kid for about a week as we are not expecting more until next weekend. Hoping for a smooth weekend of uneventful births from Luna, Serafina and Macy...