I approached the farm, slowed down early enough to spot a stranger in the herd. Little did I know there were two strangers. Words fail. Pictures will suffice. Congratulations to http://www.opiesgoats.com for the first two of many great additions to 2013!
Archives for posts with tag: breeding goats
I went to feed Louise yesterday and Barrett was gone. Baby Barrett was missing. We searched low but not high and frantic can’t describe how I felt. I let Louise out to help point the way but no luck. No Barrett. Then I heard a little cry. Baby Barrett had escaped UNDER their fence (I’ll never understand how he fit) and went to visit his sweet Uncle George, our miniature donkey. He had climbed to the top of George’s giant hay-bale bed and fell through – he was literally stuck between and under bales of hay! JP dug him out and George’s company, invited or not, was carried back to his mother, uninjured.
The animals are more quiet than usual today. The weather is perfect, not to hot but not at all cool and a thin, thin layer of clouds that lay more like a thin blanket in the sky than the cottonball formations, cumulus clouds, whatever you call them and now this is a terribly structured sentence.
Anyhow, it is peaceful, quiet and laid back here today. If I didn’t have to work I’d be laying in the sun on my zero-gravity chair, dozing in and out of the early stages of sleep. But I have to work.
It is so quiet today, in fact, that not even George, the donkey, has made a sound. He is not a fan of the heat or the bugs that bug him as long as the sun is out. Every hour or so I see him saunter out of his lean-to and walk his patrol – he really takes his job, as guardian, very seriously.
Louise and her kid bucks shift between fierce dining sessions and equally fierce naps. I envy them. Louise is eating her cud during her slumber (I am grateful I do not eat and cannot eat in my sleep). As ruminants, goats have four stomachs and it is best for them to lay and rechew their food for about four hours a day. I think she hit four hours of said activity by noon today!
Anyhow, this is what it’s all about. Embracing days like this, when I can say, write, feel and enjoy a peaceful day on the farm.
Just in case you did not know, I am telling the world right here on WordPress.com that I named my baby goats Walker and Barrett after the candidates in our Governor recall election here in Wisconsin. The goats are much cuter and not at all argumentative. They are so unlike their political counterparts, in fact, that they are sporting red and blue collars for their respective parties in order to provide a hint as to the source of their names. This is a historical election and still there are people who do not get the joke. Many even ask why I didn’t name them Walker and Texas Ranger. Really?
Tuesday evening when JP and I were leaving the farm we both concluded that Symphony was very much in heat, very out of season and that I should take advantage of it (for lack of better terms) and try to breed her. So the next evening I made plans to and did the following:
1). Load up Symphony and take her to be bred.
2). Pick up Angel, the new milking doe, along the way.
- Now mind you, a few weeks ago when I moved the goats to OC Acres they broke the back window out of the truck. Now I have to resort to tying them into the back of the truck, which I did.
This is what happened while each were tied to a corner of the truck: headbutting and biting. At one point I looked back and Symphony was just staring at Angel then plowed her head first until the tie stopped her dead in her own tracks. Kinda comical.
Anyhow I set them up in neighboring stalls for the night and put them to pasture this morning. The dominance challenge begins between the four does. Even my sweet girl Louise is in on it, don’t let this picture fool you.
Opie's Goats 