Farm Sitting and Cute Baby Goats

Last week we had the opportunity to farm sit for some wonderful friends so that they could take a little vacation. I know I’ve mentioned these friends before because we have swapped farms on several occasions. We’ve traded farms at Thanksgiving and Christmas for the past two years as well as watching over things for each other for a weekend here or there throughout the year. It has been such a blessing because as anyone who has ever managed or lived on a farm knows, it’s nearly impossible to get away. You can’t exactly ask just anyone to “please check the mail and, um, could you milk the cow while you’re at it?”

So the owners and farm hands on Crawlin’ E Farm visited family for a few days, and we got to bottle feed some baby goats. They are so cute! They’re about a month old now I believe, and thankfully we didn’t have to get up during the night to feed them like they had been doing initially over at Crawlin’ E. Three times per day, morning, afternoon, and before bed we’d go out with the bottles and the little babies would “maa” and jump on us, then guzzle their warm milk with their little tails wagging in delight. We brought the babies to our farm, but still traveled over to our friend’s place twice a day to milk the mama goat and take care of chickens and dogs. Apparently the mother goat rejected the kids, so she has to be milked, then most of that milk has to be warmed up and fed to the babies.

My son adored the baby goats and wanted to visit them every chance he got. He would always volunteer to help me feed them and laugh when they jumped on him, trying to reach the bottle. They also smelled so good. Like all baby animals there’s some sort of sweet, enticing aroma that must make you want to care for them. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with the babies, now we’re waiting for another calf, which we expect to arrive in the next couple of weeks!