Margin for Human Error

Well, this waiting dragging on and on was getting to my nerves. So yesterday Abigail and I got out the breeding book and re-calculated all the due dates, just to make sure we had them correct.
And we didn't. In a big way! Argentina was off by almost two weeks... which would make sense because that's how much overdue we had her figured. Turns out she was actually due on the 24th. So giving her the usual delay time of somewhere about five days, puts her babies arriving within the next few days. She is looking like she's getting ready to have them, put it is always impossible to tell exactly when a doe will kid. They like surprises!
And Ave is due on the 28th, which is a move of a week from where we previously had her figured, and she looks like she could keep the appointment pretty close.
So those two should be starting off the milking season this upcoming week, and there's no telling who will go first. Then we can let Elma go dry until she kids next month.
We are only milking Elma once a day lately, in the mornings, and she is filling up our half gallon jar for house milk. Seeing as this is the very tail end of her lactation I am pretty pleased with her performance. In previous years she has usually been one of the earlier kidders, and Tigiris is our 'old reliable' that keeps us in milk until the other does freshen and then takes her quick turn at being dry.
But this year Tigir is in the 'first battalion', and Elma is our last doe to kid. So she got the honor of keeping us in milk, and has done pretty well at it.
Tigiris is due the week after next, sharing a day with Egypt, Elma's '08 daughter. She is a leggy young doe, and we are looking forward to how her udder freshens out. She is also completely black, so we may have a black line in the making.
Of course we are hoping for doelings. And especially from Tigiris, she has had a heavy leaning toward bucks all her life. But she really looks like she must have multiples in there again this time, (she is huge!) so the chances of at least one doe are good, and if we're lucky she might have several.

Oh, the agony of expectation that always accompanies the start of kidding season!