Goats...

Just to let everyone know, I love my goats. I love having animals. I especially love having a son to do the daily chores so I don't have to. And, not doing the daily chores means I can love the goats more, concentrate on the positive more. O yeah, that's not my job, my job is to do the messy stuff that Andy doesn't feel confident enough to do. O well. I still love my goats.

I love having them greet me when I pull in at night. And, their greeting is hard to miss! Nubian's are some of the noisiest goats around. And, at this time of year, my does are in heat. They need a man. And they remind me of this constantly. By this time, I thought we'd have a man, but we don't yet. But, we've got to get one before the moaning and groaning wears me out!

I like goats when I walk out to the pen. I love the not so subtle demands for food. Heads shoving around me, trying to make me drop the feed bucket. Heads that magically get into the feed bucket that I'm trying to dump. Bodies swirling around me, frantic to be the first to get the feed.

I bought some black oil sunflower seeds the other day. For the goats and the chickens. I've got to be careful feeding them to the goats, because they'll eat so many so quickly that they can get stuck in their throats and choke. But I love feeding them a handful at a time. Winter gets the first handful, becasue she is our Queen. She's pretty patient too, she'll eat and nuzzle, and let me nuzzle her. Seeing what a good momma she's become makes it hard for me to remember how much trouble she used to cause when she was a kid. She was the one who figured out how to get on top of the chicken house. Yep, looked out the window one day and she was up on the roof, just happy as can be. I didn't know if I should laugh or make her get down! It became her favorite place to lay. I was so afraid that she'd be stupid and jump down from the peak--10 feet or more up. She never did, but we removed the goats from that pen. And, like all onery little girls, Winter grew to be a good momma.

I looked at my lilac bushes and my roses last night. My poor lilacs may never get big, and my roses have looked pitiful all summer. Why? because certain goats learned the electric fence was out, so they walked right through the fence and made a beeline to their favorite foods, lilacs and roses. I'm not sure my roses will ever recover. I think the lilacs will. My cherry tree is bare 1/2 way up, cherry leaves are tasty, as are raspberry bushes, blueberry bushes and grape vines. Goats are the hardest animals to keep fenced in, and it's extremely annoying when they get out, but, you've got to laugh--cause they just look so innocent while pulling that last bit of rosebush into their mouths. I swear, they'll lick their lips while doing it too.

I even like the doctoring parts, becasue it's all new to me. I never had to take care of any livestock growing up, and cattle really don't have the personality that goats do. I like knowing how to keep my herd healthy and well. So, even though it's always a challenge, and things do go wrong, I still like doing it. Of course, sometimes, hair being eaten by a goat is painful, sometimes horns can hurt, sometimes hooves on toes hurt, shots are never fun, but we're learning. The girls are patient with me and I with them.

Yep, I love my goats and can't wait to get my girls a man, one to take care of their needs. Then, in 5 months, we'll have babies again. Little babies running around, jumping, climbing the walls, hiding in the wire spools, playing king of the mountain, eating my hair...

Yep, gotta get more goats.