Hindel Kidz 17: Double Trouble
Hindel Kidz 17
Double Trouble
Sven had found the Rolling Hills website and it had some history of the farm. One of the pictures Shelly had posted on the site had a goat standing next to the Christmas tree. This goat was Lainie’s mother. When Jack saw that he wanted to get a picture of Lainie next to his tree and send it to Shelly. Jack got a little Christmas bag and put some molasses in it and brought Lainie inside. It took fourteen photos for Sven to finally get a couple of decent ones. Lainie walked around for about five minutes, but then settled down, stuck her head in the bag and started eating.
The next day or so Sven logged on to the Rolling Hills website again and saw Shelly had posted one of the pictures of Lainie. Jack was tickled to death.
He had talked about going down to Rolling Hills to visit Shelly. She also knew Jack was looking to buy a new boy goat for breeding. He wanted to get one in the spring so it would be ready for breeding in the fall.
“ I have some girl goats who are going to have babies in January,” Shelly said.
The goat she called Becca was of a different bloodline and so was her baby’s daddy. The baby would not be related to Elmer.
“If Becca has a boy then I will sell him to you for a withered price.”
Becca had her baby on January 13th, 2009. But she had a girl.
Even though, Jack decided to go down and visit Shelly the end January. Since Sven had been talking with Shelly on e-mail, she wanted him to come down, too. She said Sven sounded like a wilder version of his dad.
Her barn was a lot nicer then Stoneybrook Acres, where Joy came from. There were only four or five goats to a pen and each pen had its own door leading outside. There were some babies there who were three months old and very friendly. Two of them came over to the gate and wanted Jack to pet them. They were twins and their names were Annabelle and Bluebelle. They had already been sold to one person in Pennsylvania and one person in West Virginia. Sven liked the goat called Wendy because she was a mix of gray and white. She had a set of twins, a girl and a boy. The boy’s name was Giovanni and can you guess what Shelly named the girl… Gracie! Grace had a goat named after her! They saw the new little baby and Becca, but neither one of them would come over so they could pet them.
“Becca is not very “pretty” through the hip area and I’m going to wait and see whether the baby looks the same or not. If she does then I will most likely try and sell both of them,” Shelly said.
She had planned to keep six of the babies to show and sell the rest.
“Have you named the baby yet?“ Grace asked.
“No one seems real interested in naming it.”
“If you want to talk about names then I’m your girl.”
Shelly showed Jack the camera she had set up in the barn. It was hooked up to the television inside the house so she could keep an eye on the goats when they had their babies. It was called Goat TV.
“You need to have something like this up at your place, “ she told Jack.
“I don’t need a camera; I have her (Grace) instead, “Jack replied. They told Shelly about Grace playing midwife.
“I need someone like you down here,” Shelly told her.
Shelly e-mailed Sven around two weeks later and said she had named the baby Libby and asked if Jack would be interested in buying her and Becca. They were $200 dollars apiece or if Jack could take them both, she would give him a discount. Grace was hoping Jack would buy them. At first, Jack wasn’t sure because he wanted to see what was going to happen with Pearl, who was going to have a baby the end of February. He also really wanted a boy. He didn’t want too many adult girls.
In the middle of February, Sven noticed Shelly had put Libby’s picture on the website.
“Libby was the little baby we had seen down there,” Grace commented.
“You’ll be seeing her and Becca again real soon,” Sven replied.
He had gone up to Jack’s that morning and Jack had been on the phone with Shelly. He had decided to buy Libby and Becca. The reason Jack decided to buy them was because he needed three goats for the fair that year. Since Ruby was not expecting a baby yet, he only had Carolyn and Lainie to show. That would take care of Elissa and Savannah. But now, his future step-granddaughter wanted to show a goat also.
He went to pick them up the next day. Sven and Grace both went with him. When they walked in the barn, Grace saw two black goats in the pen Libby and Becca had been in. She thought Libby and Becca both had a white spot on the top of their head. Shelly had switched all the goats to different pens. The black one had just had her baby about a week ago and his name was Zephyr.
“He is going to be a nice boy and I am not going to sell him,” Shelly said.
They also got to see the newest set of baby triplets. They were caramel colored and their names were Sunshine, Jeffrey and Sunshine On My Shoulder. Grace thought they were so cute and let her pet them. She would have loved to hold one, but she wasn’t going to ask even though Shelly would have probably let her. They also got to pet Shelly’s very first goat, Bunny, who had a gimpy leg. She was thirteen years old.
“Bunny is mean and likes to chase children away,” Shelly said.
Grace didn’t think Bunny was so mean since she let Grace pet her. They were told if Jack hadn’t bought Becca and Libby, there was someone else who would have. Shelly was glad to sell them both before it was weaning time for Libby. Weaning is when the babies are separated from the mother. Baby goats are weaned when they are between eight and ten weeks old.
Becca let Shelly put the collar on her and lead her out of the pen, but she had to catch Libby. Libby wasn’t real friendly yet, but she would come around. Shelly thought Jack would be happy with Becca. Becca was three years old and would be turning four on April 11th. As it turned out Ruby and Libby had the same birthday. They had known Ruby was born in January, they just didn’t know the exact date. She is exactly two years older than Libby. Libby was only one month old.
Jack put them in the little pen by themselves so they wouldn’t have to worry about any of the other goats’ head butting them. They found the door leading to the back of the pen right away and didn’t let Sven or Grace pet them. Sven said Grace could hold Libby just for a minute or wait until feeding time. She decided to wait. She wanted to hold Libby a little bit longer.
At feeding time, Sven and Jack both had a hard time trying to catch Libby.
“Call her Jackrabbit since she is so fast,” Sven said.
Jack had decided to move them to the birthing pen instead. When Grace walked in, she was able to pet Becca without too much coaxing. She seemed to be pretty friendly. When Grace held Libby, she only cried a couple times, but it was because she was hungry. Grace sat down in the pen and Becca came over and smelled her coat and her head. Becca just walked around and stood right next to Grace looking out the gate. She didn’t care if Grace petted her. Libby still hung back. She did come over and smell Grace’s glove and her pant leg. She also stood on the other side of Becca where Grace couldn’t reach her. When Grace got up to leave, Becca was right behind her. She wanted out of the pen.
At feeding time, Jack let Becca and Libby out so they could walk around. He had them out earlier when he walked Lainie around the house. Both of them had followed her without a leash. Molly realized there were two new goats for her to play with. Becca and Libby didn’t seem to be real scared of her. Molly would get just close enough smell Libby and then run away. She had never seen a baby goat before. It was smaller than she was. She even went up and licked Libby while Sven was holding her. Libby wasn’t too thrilled over that.
A week or so later, Libby stood still and let Grace pet her a little more.
Shelly had posted on the website both girls were now owned by Jack!
Now they have Libby and Nibby. Not to mention Lainie and Lizzie.
