Kids These Days

Juniper kicked off the kidding season on April 9th with a doe and a buck. They were little, pink-nosed, and hungry, as Junie's kids tend to be. This is Jolene, just a few minutes old.
The next day, Petunia delivered two big, gorgeous bucklings by herself in between my hourly labor checks. She's independent like that. The four kids kept each other warm in the nursery pen.

For a week or so, they were fast and furious: female twins for Juno (the first on the farm since Jade and Jasmine were born three years ago), a giant single buck for Peony, a difficult birth resulting in two stillborn kids for Jasmine, and a tiny but spunky boy and girl for Jade. They are quite the kindergarten class, quickly picking up skills like drinking from the suck-it bucket (a huge time saver for us humans, the milk-givers) eating grass, head-butting, and jumping on things.

This week will be another busy one: Veronica had a boy and a girl on Saturday, and Violet and Vervain are both due any minute now. This is Roxanne, Veronica's daughter, who is indistinguishable from three of the other four doelings this year. I don't know how we will tell them apart once they are all the same size! They sure are cute though.