I don’t even know where to start with this month.
If you’re in northern Wisconsin, you’ve lived it. If you’re not – we’ve had round after round of rain since early April – rivers over their banks, broken dams, roads that have literally washed out, fields that are basically just shallow lakes right now, and mud that is genuinely aggressive. As of the 15th, Green Bay had already recorded almost 8 inches of rainfall for the month. The previous April record was 6.47 inches, set in 1947. We broke it with two weeks still to go. Normal April rainfall here is around 3 inches total.
This also came right on the heels of Blizzard Elsa in March – 26+ inches of snow in one shot, the most we’d seen in 138 years. The ground never really got a chance to breathe before the rain started. Everything has just been soaked and saturated and miserable for weeks.
For most folks that means flooded basements and wrecked roads. For us it meant losing Kirlia’s kids.
Kirlia
Kirlia is one of our Oberhasli does, and she aborted exactly a month early. The stress of the weather, the constant damp and cold and pressure changes – it was just too much for her. She was carrying three: two Ober-type bucklings and a half-Guernsey doeling. We were really looking forward to this kidding, the Guernsey cross especially.
After meds for her retained placenta, she came through okay and we’re keeping a close eye on her. And she is slowly working herself up to decent milk production. But losing three kids you had been excited about – including a doeling – stings in a way that doesn’t really go away just because you understand the reason.
This is the part that doesn’t make it into the highlight reel. You go do morning chores, you figure out what happened, you take care of your animal, and you keep going. That’s just farming.
We’ll get more rain this week, apparently. The pastures will eventually dry out. Kirlia should be able to kid again next year. But April 2026 is one we’re not going to forget anytime soon – and honestly, we’re ready for May.
