Farm life - gotta love it

I now strongly dislike goats. My sister owns eight - three of them she uses for milking purposes. She's been gone since yesterday afternoon, so I milked last night, this morning and this evening... and will continue this endless cycle till Sunday evening.

I attempted to lead my horse back to the barn last night while holding onto the goat's horn and making sure the kid and the nanny followed. The horse was pulling ahead and the goat was being stubborn and refusing to move. I had my 7 yr old niece slap him on the rump when he stopped and had her chase the other two goats back. I was wearing a skirt and flip-flops, trying to protect my toes while the horse and goat were both walking on top of me. When it came time to cross the creek, the horse stumbled and splashed mud all over me and turned sideways, blocking my path to cross. Then after much pulling and yelling, the darn goat really jumped the creek... I was hot and sweaty, covered in mud, and had milk splashed on me by the time I got back to the house, then had to leave 20 min later.


This morning, I thought I'd only let about three goats out to graze, because if you let them all out, they form an overwhelming force that's impossible to conquer. But, they don't follow your plans - Brooklyn decided he was going to be out today, so he rammed me down and rushed out the fence dragging me a little ways as I groped to hold onto the hair on his back. The 80 or so degree weather didn't make things any better. : /
Milking tonight, the horseflies were out, so I was having difficulty having the nannies stand still. But, when they did stay in one spot, their legs didn't. They were stomping at flies, which tipped the milk pail, and I squirted myself holding onto the utter while the goat was running away. Stepped into a not so dry area with flip-flops on (I know.. my fault. Bad choice of footwear) and couldn't catch one of the goats to put him away. Twice, he fled into a dark back room in the barn, that I wasn't too excited to go into (especially in flip-flops). I finally coaxed him out with a bucket of mineral feed and drug him into the pen by his curly horns.

I can now sympathize with my sis and understand why she gets frustrated... Though I got angry, I laughed at how funny some of those situations would have looked like from someone else' viewpoint... ;)

kids

No, not the human kind -- I'm talking about goats here! This past spring, our does gave birth to two kids each. When they were about 6 weeks old, a friend called and asked if we would also consider taking his orphaned kid. His parents got loose, ate Roundup ready seed corn and died. We agreed to take the little fella and nurse him back to health. He is a Boer -- a meat goat. He has such a sweet personality! He was continually getting out of the small make-shift pin we made for him and he would go to the front porch steps and lay down, like a dog guarding his owners. We call him our "yard goat." He's the only one who never gets put up. He's even been in the *cough* house *cough* a few times and has done very well! The first time was when a storm was about to cut loose. We went tearing for the house and he ran right in with us...what could we do?... we didn't have the heart to put him out in the storm so we let him hang out with us until it subsided.

This is he - "Buddy"

some of the others....

This is "Opie." If he see's you sitting down, he will be up on your lab before you can stop him. He loves to snuggle! He also has a brother, "Brooklyn" who looks identical, except for the absence of a few small white markings that enable us to tell them apart. You can actually tell them apart just by watching their behavior - Brooklyn is a troublemaker who is always picking fights with the others.

They are the Alpine breed.

This is "Jimmy." He was about a week old in this picture. He's a BIG momma's boy! As well as calm and gentle, compared to the rest of the bunch. He also has a sister, "Peanut" who is a light, tawny brown colour. She was the only female born. We feel a little sorry for her at times, but she stands her ground well. Both of them are Nubian/Alpine breed.

We milk "Daisy" and "Milkyway" (the mothers) and use the milk (against my will) for cooking, cereal, drinking, making ice-cream, etc... I personally do not like the taste of goats milk! And whenever mom tries to disguise it in the food, I can always tell. However, I cowgirl up and eat the homemade ice-cream, made from that nasty milk, when necessary. I think that is the only way you can ruin ice-cream.... 

We've really enjoyed raising goats! They aren't the smartest mammals, but they are good companions. We plan on getting rid of Jimmy and Brooklyn before winter.... so if you know of anyone who wants a goat... *ahem.* They are wonderful ditch clearers! I was looking for them one day, so I bent down to their level and looked into the woods..... but it was like a house under there -- totally cleared out! All that remained were stalks of what were once weeds and small scrawny trees. Once they have eaten everything on the ground, then they rear and eat up higher. (the mothers are just as tall as me when rearing) 

So, If you want a companion, but don't like dogs and are allergic to cats, why not try a goat!?!