Yama Loves a Baby

Sometimes I regret that Yama will never be a mother. She loves babies.

Every visitor and newcomer receives a warm welcome from Yama, but babies receive a special whimper of pure eagerness. For example, when we brought home

ducklings , Yama was pure bliss, whimpering before they even emerged from the car. Their chirps through the door were enough to solicit a whimper.

So, when I heard Yama whimper like she had just seen a baby, it didn’t take me long to figure out that the baby goats had been born. Nacha had been bred in the beginning of November and again in early December. Goats have a five month gestation period, so when she didn’t give birth in April, I figured she would kid in early May.

I ran to the goat pen and my expectations were well met. Two beautiful baby goats. A white female and black male. (Figure that one out: the mama and papa were both nearly pure white!) As I watched them stand up, stretch out, and get licked, I too wanted to whimper with delight. I could have watched them grow all day.

But farm life called. So we started planting out hazelnuts.

These are seedlings we grew from 10 pounds of seeds of “unknown” quality. We bought those at the same time that we bought ten wimpy-looking hazelnut seedlings from Badgersett Nursery for the same price. (We didn’t know that they would look so puny at the time.) Surely, of the 1000 seeds, 10 will grow into productive plants. And the “unproductive” ones will make a nice hedgerow for the wildlife. (This method does however, require a bit more labor!)

While we planted, I heard Yama start whimpering like she’d seen another baby. Certainly not in awe of the newly planted hazelnuts. Rather, she was sniffing, digging, and whimpering at a pile of brush, so I investigated.

Seven baby bunnies.

I couldn’t help but let out a whimper too.