09/03/2026
I truly cannot make this stuff up. 😩
I started the day by finding my daughter’s mare swollen on both sides of her neck. After speaking with the vet, I was told it was most likely a delayed reaction to the antibiotics she’s on and that she needed additional medication. With my daughter working a 24-hour shift and me still on goat watch, I figured I’d have to wait until tomorrow to pick everything up.
I have stayed home basically every day since August 12 because I wanted to make sure I was here if Rae needed help delivering.
Well… today was the day.
Around 3:30, right in the middle of getting a load of wood chips delivered, Rae went into labor.
I knew almost immediately that something wasn’t right.
I worked hard to pull the first baby, but I could not get the second baby lined up correctly. At one point I thought there might even be a third. After trying for a while in “feels like” temperatures around 100 degrees, I was completely exhausted, so I moved Rae into the garage where it was cooler.
By then, she was starting to look shocky.
I called the vet, and thankfully they told me to bring her right in. I loaded Rae and the baby I had already pulled and drove the 35 minutes to the clinic—covered in blood, birthing fluid and sweat, just praying I didn’t get pulled over because I can only imagine what I looked like. 😳
When I arrived, they immediately took her into the surgery room.
After assessing her, they told me the remaining baby was simply too massive to pull, even using all of the tricks they had available. Rae was also too unstable to survive a lifesaving C-section. The only option was a sacrificial C-section—knowing we would lose Rae, but giving them a chance to see if the baby, or babies, could still be saved.
Sadly, the baby was already gone.
So today I lost Rae and one of her babies.
$716 later, I left the vet with the little boy I had managed to pull earlier—who is now officially a bottle baby.
Of course that meant stopping at Tractor Supply for colostrum replacement and the dollar store for new bottles, all while carrying around a newborn baby goat that everybody wanted to stop and pet.
Meanwhile, all I wanted to do was GET HOME AND FEED THIS BABY. 😩
By the time I finally got home, I was already past my normal feeding time for the farm. I got the baby fed and headed outside to start chores.
And immediately noticed a HUGE problem.
There were GOATS IN WITH THE EMU.
😳😳😳
I started quickly taking inventory of who was supposed to be where and thankfully realized only two bucks had broken through the fencing into the arena.
The emu were after them, so I started trying to get the bucks out.
Of course they wouldn’t cooperate.
I finally got them out of the arena… only for them to end up in another area with my female goat who has a spinal cord injury.
And naturally, they immediately started mounting her.
So now I’m exhausted, sweaty, emotionally drained and physically trying to wrestle two bucks away from an injured doe.
Eventually I got everyone separated and the bucks back where they belonged.
Then I had to find the broken fence.
Found it.
Fixed it.
Double-checked everything else.
And FINALLY started feeding.
I’m exhausted and trying to move quickly, so I start filling a water trough while feeding animals at the same time.
Then a storm moves in.
A couple of weeks ago, I had a ground lightning strike extremely close to me, so apparently my brain immediately went into GET EVERYTHING DONE AND GET INSIDE mode.
I finished feeding as fast as I could and ran inside.
Fed the baby again.
Started getting ready to take the shower I had been dreaming about for HOURS…
…and I kept hearing a strange noise.
Then it hit me.
THE WATER.
🤦♀️
My 250-gallon backup RO tank was COMPLETELY EMPTY.
Which could only mean one thing.
I had left the hydrant running.
So I ran outside IN MY SOCKS through what was basically now a river of water to shut it off.
And because obviously this day had not done enough to me yet, all that water usage also emptied the water softener salt tank.
So I had to refill that too.
And I STILL couldn’t take a shower because now I have to wait for the RO system to make enough water to refill the tank.
At this point…
Calgon, take me away. 🛁
And please, for the love of everything holy…
NO. MORE. CHAOS. TONIGHT.
Because I am officially DONE. 😭😂
