Cute pictures ( behind cut... )
The last one is of Millet, who was a little slow to learn to nurse and had to be motored through a few times. They've all got the hang of it now. Barley and Buckwheat are harder to tell apart, but they are the two boys. We sat the babies in the basket in front of the stanchion to keep mama from fretting while she was milked. They were born in the afternoon on August 1st, and are less than 24 hours old in these pictures. You can see they are still a little sticky from being born. There was actually a forth kid, but it was stillborn and not fully developed. Just as well, because they usually won't raise more than three. Even with three, the mothers sometimes take a "two teats = two kids" mentality, and refuse to nurse the smallest one. But she seems to be mothering all three just fine.

Only difficulty we've had is that she's not doing as good a job keeping their little behinds clean as one might hope, so I got that job. (The joys of being a farm boy.) The milk poo is real sticky and they can damn near glue their fuzzy behinds closed if they aren't kept clean.

-- Joshua

Sister Bertril gave birth this afternoon! Thankfully she waited for us to come home. She's got three little kids, named Millet, Buckwheat, and Barley, because they were born on Lammas.

-- Joshua