Coyote Ugly

3:00am A shrill haunting noise from a coyote wakes me from a deep sleep. I sat up bolt upright, yelled "coyote!" to Mr. H and jumped out of bed, scattering Chihuahuas left and right. Throwing on barn boots over pajamas and grabbing a sweatshirt, I run outside to make sure I still have three adult goats and a very cute Buck baby.

Everyone is there. Mr. H comes outside and we hear the horrifying coyote noise very close to us, and brush in the woods behind us move. Not cool. In addition, Bea looks like she may start thinking about birthing some babies, so the executive decision is made (by me) that I'm going to sleep in the barn.

With Mr. H keeping watch, I run into the house and grab the Baby Bag I should have had packed before the births were so imminent:
1. snack (for myself)
2. socks (for myself)
3. magazine (for myself)
4. book "The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable" (for myself)
5. laptop, power cord and DVD movies (for the mothers to be)
6. bucket of warm water with honey in it (for the mothers to be)
7. paper towels and wipes (for the mother to be)
8. cup of tea (for myself)

Bea didn't do anything Saturday morning but I slept like a baby on the straw in one of our barn stalls; we have thick rubber stall mats in our barn and it was as comfortable as if I was in my own bed...only 20 degrees colder.

6:00am I wake up and do barn chores, as well as initiate a conversation with Beatrice about timing. Since Bea is mine and Seneca's goat (we adopted her on our Wisconsin vacation 2010 from Farmer Ron's Amish friend), I told Bea it would be nice if she could have the babies on Sen's birthday. She had 12 hours left to follow that protocol....