Carleton Ranch

We started with a set of twins on Saturday, April 2, and finally finished up, after a 2-week hiatus, with triplets on May 7.  Here are some fun photos of the new arrivals.

The year's first 2 kids, percentage doelings sired by KTM Fully Loaded.  This same doe had the first 2 kids last year, also doelings

A newborn buckling sired by CONI F5 Tornado Maker.   He's 10 minutes old in this photo, and is the only kid I've ever seen who stood up on the first try.

 A tangle of triplets

Another percentage buckling sired by Tornado, a few hours old

A flashy little doeling sired by Fully Loaded

Yikes!  Quintuplets!  Four identical girls and one boy.  Momma seems to think it's no big deal, and all 5 are healthy and frisky at about 5 hours old.

Smiley (the Great Pyrenees guard dog) tries to make himself as small and unthreatening as a 100+ pound dog can be, and inches closer on his belly, as he REALLY wants to help mom clean up her triplets.  This is his first kidding season, and he is just besotted with the babies!  Good dog!

An adventurous kid investigates the dogs

A future wether sticks his tongue out at the camera after disbudding

A busy little doeling with somewhere important to go

Smiley stands guard while Green 11 gives birth to her triplets.  The dogs very rarely split up, but he stayed behind while Spook took the other does out to pasture to graze.  He knew this doe was in labor before I did.

The tiniest full-blood kid ever--Peanut at 5 days old enjoying a bottle.  He weighed just over 1 pound at birth, and has 2 normal-size siblings.  Mom nurses him, but he has trouble getting his share with the "big kids" so he's being supplemented.

Here's Peanut later the same day enjoying a moment alone with mom.

Mom tries to convince the quints to come out the hatch door from the barn.  They're not too interested.

But once mom disappears, they get concerned and line up to investigate, except for A65 (left), who is a free spirit

OK, we're all outside now, so time for a snack.  Oops, there goes A65...

A tumbledown dead tree makes a good playground while moms are off grazing.

And an optimistic little girl tries to climb a live tree.  It's hard to tell in the photo, but her back feet are off the ground, as she's jumping at the tree.  Maybe next time...

One doe babysits for a bunch of kids while the others go out to graze.

The final set of triplets, A106, 107 & 108, a few hours old.  They just will NOT line up for a photo opportunity!  They didn't line up well for being born either, as 107's nose and 108's back feet tried to get born at the same time.  A little help from a friend got things sorted out, and everyone's fine.

Smiley takes a well-deserve nap now that all the babies are born.