When my Great-grandpa died, my brother, Corbin and Mom flew down to Denver, Colorado, for the funeral. Corbin took his 100 year old banjo that Great-grandpa had given him to play at the funeral. I stayed home to watch my two younger siblings, Kayla and Calvin, tend to the animals and the house. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work as well! One day, I looked out the window and much to my dismay, saw a coyote very near to us. It was in our neighbor's field, but was as close as it could get to my goats as it could. I went outside after telling Kayla and Calvin to stay in the house, took our two bigger dogs and a tool that is like a hoe and headed out after it. The coyote ran to the back of the neighbor's field when he saw us, then started to run towards our field, despite the dogs barking at him. I then opened the gate between our field and the neighbors and let the dogs go. They chased after him hard, but as soon as they smelled him, they quit and just watched the coyote run around them! So, I started out after them. The coyote finally jumped the fence, then began running down the road one way, then the other way, then into a driveway and back into a field. After a while he left, for which I was glad!! The evening before Mom and Corbin were supposed to fly back, Valentines was showing signs of an approaching birth. So much so, that I didn't think that Mom was going to be able to get back in time to see it. The next morning, which was Saturday, Mom and Corbin made it on the flight (they fly as standbys) which was going to get them home at 1:00. I stayed home when Dad went to go pick them up at the airport. Valentines was moving along very slowly according to what most of my goats do. Some of the signs that Valentines was showing, if they had been on almost any other goat of mine, would have meant that the babies would have born early that morning. At 2:00 pm, Dad arrived home with Mom and Corbin. Mom came out to see me and Valentines. Another while went by, then I finally went into the house to eat lunch. I changed out of my 'barn' clothes and into a beautiful dress that I had sewed. I had just barely sat down to enjoy a relaxing lunch when Kayla came running in shouting "Valentines is laying down and baaing and I think that she is having a baby!" I quickly got up and not bothering to change again, hurried outside. There was Valentines with her baby's head out. Corbin called some friends that wanted to see this birth. They didn't quite make it, but they loved seeing the babies take their first wobbly steps. Then the Hahners came over and watched me milk the goats and feed the babies. They bought their first 'milk' goats from me and so wanted to learn how to milk and take care of newborn babies. Val's baby boy was born with a couple of issues. First, he walked on the heels of his back legs. Second, he had an overbite. Thirdly, he had an eye problem. The eye went through several changes. First, it had a milky blueish/whitish over 3/4 of it. Then it had a red rim around the border of the eye. Then, it looked normal, but when I looked closly at it, it had a marbly look. Then, lastly, it went normal. So, we thought that it would be approriate to name him, 'Miracle'. These changes took a couple of weeks to complete. The little girl was born with no problems. I named her, Unity.

Unity is the brown one. Miracle is the black one.