A Sunny Winter Day

 Today was a good day in animal land. The sun finally came out for the afternoon and I must say the farm pets enjoyed it thoroughly.  In this picture the mother goat is nearly asleep. The goats are so fair weather that they won't go out of the barn for water when the wind blows, let along when it's snowing. The chickens love the goats for some reason and the goats don't seem to mind the chicken ladies too much either.

 The donkey boys like the sun to shine too! They were caught several times throughout the day laying down and just soaking it all in. That is, when the mother goat isn't chasing them and stomping her feet in their direction. Funniest thing I have ever seen as that darn goat is afraid of her own shadow but acts very tough when the donkeys are around. You should see a pygmy goat put the sneak on a pair of miniature donkeys. It's almost sad. It really seems to empower her, nutty goat.

 And here is Ollie and the mother goat hanging out in the snow. It seems humorous to me that they won't go out into the snow in the barnyard which they have access to all day but put them out in the orchard area and snow doesn't seem to bother them at all.

Goats At The End Of The Rainbow

Do you ever really wonder where the end of the rainbow is? I do, pretty regularly. The end of summer in my part of Idaho is often volatile and forest fires usually spark up after you think the danger has passed. Not yet this summer! So far we are still A-Ok and have plenty of lightening shows to watch in awe!

 

The goats on the other hand, hate inclement weather of any kind. If a storm cloud passes over head, they hide. If it gets too hot, they nap. When the wind blows..... they scream at the top of their lungs for us to come sit with them. Spoiled rotten goats, I tell you.

 

I must admit, they are sitting pretty fat and happy right now. This picture doesn't begin to show how round this little girl is. She is officially wider than she is tall and is dieting.... against her will. They can be heard hollering from the barn when they think dinner is three minutes late and they bellow in the morning just to compete with the dang rooster.  My small farm now sounds like a much larger farm. Even at 6:00 in the morning. Especially at 6:00 in the morning. I wonder if one can get morning blinders for a rooster and tranquilizers for pygmy goats, I would desperately like to sleep in one of these days. Just for a minute.

Miss Baylee and the Goats

Our granddaughter, Baylee, loves the goats. I have mentioned this before. She tries to make goat sounds and knows right where they are when she comes to visit. All she has to do is point and Grandpa takes her to see her friends. Baylee is 15 months old now and pretty good at getting what she wants. She is so cute it's hard to deny her anything. 

After a visit on Thursday I posted some pics of the goats and her mom got on to look at the newest post. Oops! Baylee saw the goats and wouldn't let her mom log off. If the screen went to sleep, she cried. If Nichole tried to log off, she cried. She wanted to see the goats.

 

This funny shot is Baylee kissing Mama Goat through the computer screen. This would never happen in real life, Mama Goat is a big chicken but Baylee does not know that yet.  I just had to share. We laughed till be cried when Nichole sent this picture. Kids are pretty funny creatures.

My Goat Needs Dentures!

Is this not the funniest thing you've seen? I cracked up when I uploaded these pictures and they showed her gummy smile. She is the mother goat, affectionately called Mama Goat. She is also ferral. She was mistreated when we got her and her then 4 week old baby, Clementine so she has been shy the whole year we have had her. She now bites, which is great because it's her way of trying to play and that is a big step forward. Just goes to show that a year of grain and anyone can be your friend.

 

Here is Ollie, who is almost always photogenic. He actually only wants to smell you so he is pretty easy to get a good picture of.

 

And Clem with Doyle and our granddaughter, Baylee. Clem is the sweetest goat we have and really loves it if you'll brush her. She is also our ill goat. She has some kind of lung problem. We have treated her with several things and antibiotics. No dice yet. I am starting to think maybe the poor little thing has allergies. She wheezes like my daughter.

 

Of course Baylee loves the Mama Goat, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her. Baylee just points and smiles at Grandpa and off they go. Back to the goat barn. I know who's wrapped around who's little finger.

 

So this post is for you, Daffodil Planter. You can live vicariously through my goats until you can get your own!

The First Wall Is Up!

The first wall of the chicken house is up! Whoohoo!!!!! I am so excited. I spent the whole grueling day in Boise trying to pack up my Dad's house and hating every minute of it. When I got home, I got this! Life got much better after seeing progress on the new chicken coop. This picture does not really show how tall this is. I am actually shocked it is so tall. The south wall is 12 ft tall to accommodate the pitch for shedding snow. I don't visualize very well so I was aghast at how tall that is when you stand right up next to it. We wanted to be able to stand inside the whole thing. The footprint of the coop will be 10 x 16 with 6 foot of that an ante room you walk into first. I plan to store all my supplies and feed in there so we don't have to treck around in the snow in the winter. We also preplanned a pop door in this area so that in the future, one side can be used as a brooder. You know... just in case we go totally chicken crazy. We are no construction gurus. Our friend, Monte, is helping us build this. Actually he seems to be building while we watch and get what he needs. He is one meticulous fellow. I thought I was bad. He is seriously anal. All in a good way, of course. He will need to really like chicken and eggs. We are on the barter system around here, with the lovely economy and all. So I plan to keep his family in the good stuff for as long as they will take them. The main body of the house only has one roof elevation and off the back side, there will be a covered run. It will look a lot more even when it is all there. I will keep you all updated.

And last but not least, the Inspector showed up again. Ollie loves to smell the hammer just before you swing it to drive a nail. He also likes to lick the tape measure and is absolutely in love with string line. Lime green is his favorite. What a pain in the rear end when he is putting his feet up on your legs when you are squatted down to look something over closely. Kind of throws off the balance a bit. We finally had to put them away. Way too curious for safety reasons. Osha must have some kind of rule against livestock on a construction site.

Dang Goat

It really is hard to be annoyed with this funny little goat. Ollie is just a character. Heck, he's even photogenic. We have been letting them out of the barnyard and into the yard while we work outside. We figured they could use a change of scenery too. Plus their little feet could use some trimming which can effectively be done on the alphalt of the drive if they would just stay on the driveway. Ollie has decided I must be one of his 'girls'. He started trying to herd me, and headbut me when I don't do what he wants. Which is all made more annoying by the fact that he is a wether goat. Short for neutered. This little dork, slept in my house because he was such a ninny when we got him. I couldn't stand the thought of him feeling afraid or mistreated by the girl goats. Now he is king of the hill. Not so cool when acted out by a 45 pound goat. He is little and full of attitude. I think he sometimes forgets who feeds him so well here. OK, so my husband feeds him, but I let him be fed. He should remember that. The funniest thing I have seen in a while is Ollie running full tilt down the long driveway. His back end gets going faster than his front legs will take him and you just know there is about to be a disaster. There never is, but it is damn funny nonetheless. He always has to keep Doyle in sight and yells if he can't see him. My husband has a bromance going with a pygmy goat. Nuts, huh?

Rescue Goats

I know I have talked about how we came to be pygmy goat parents but this is about the conditions from which they came. Doyle did some calling around and checking Craigslist for a while before he agreed to go pick them up from a place about an hour away. The original plan was to get two babies, similar in age. When he got to the little goat farm there were 85+ goats on 5 acres or less without a blade of grass in sight. These animals were living on a dirt knob without shelter and without the ability to forage for their own food. Few had been socialized with humans, as is the case with Mama Goat (Clarabelle). As a result, Doyle decided removing a mother from the breeding population was a prudent idea. So the mother goat, above, and her 4 week old baby, Clementine, came to live with us. When we got them home, they were both infested with all three kinds of goat lice, had worms and the mother had very little hair on her whole body. Her head was nearly bald and her coat in general was falling out in large clumps. Off to the vet we went. We deloused, dewormed and brushed the heck out of these two. The mother goat hated to be brushed because we had to catch her first. The baby, on the other hand, loved it. In the picture above my daughter is offering grain treats to Clarabelle, it took her weeks to even get this close. For the entire summer we kept them in a dog run close to the house. This run is big and has good shelter. We wanted them to get used to the other animals and us being around all the time.

If the baby, Clem, were to climb on your back now it would not be comfortable. She came to us at 8 lbs and now tops the scale at about 45 lbs. We laughed when we saw this picture because she looks so skinny in this picture. She is nearly as wide as she is tall now. Definately a hoot and a half! We added Ollie to the bunch a few months ago so Clem would have a playmate. All three goats have beautiful coats, have hair covering their whole bodies and are likely overfed, which is the case with all of our animals. If you have thought about these little guys for pets I highly recommend it. Just make sure you have a good, safe place to keep them and time to play with them. There is always someplace to rescue them from!

The Goat Family

Thought I would post a couple pics of the pygmy goat clan and their winter survival. I think they would like to see some sun too. When we first got these little creatures, the research we did stated that they needed decent shelter from rain and snow. What they should have said was "from wind, rain, sleet, snow, hail, clouds, neighbor dogs, coyotes, etc. This trio is definately of the fair weather variety. None of the three will even step outside if conditions aren't just so and thus, have spent a major amount of time in the goat barn, as we like to call it. Their room in the barn is approximately 12 x 16 and completely walled in. The door is their only way to look out and we did that so they could see us coming through the barn. They also have exterior access to the barnyard which is outfitted with running water but we close them in every night for safety and comfort. In these pics you can see how fluffy they look, can't wait to brush out that winter coat in the spring.

Ollie and Clem are the two dark goats and are 10 months old. Clara is the grey goat and she is Clem's mom. Ollie is just a spare we got to play with Clementine.

Pygmy Goats

So here they are..... the most worthless pets you could ever have. Well, probably not the most worthless, but they must run a close second. A little background here. For my 35th birthday my husband "surprised" me with pygmy goats. Did I know I was getting goats? No. Did I want goats? No, I wanted drain rock for my patio project. Buy my mother-in-law had drilled into his head that appliances, and large piles of rock, were a bad idea. Apparently farm animals are fair game. Crazy. While unloading this new gift, my dog jumped the fence and scared them. Up the mountain they went. Mother goat and her 4 week old baby. We climbed the mountain, and climbed the mountain again. By nightfall we had captured the baby but the mother goat would stay gone for four days. We did our best. We got fresh goat's milk, and kept her warm and safe. But most of you probably know that a tiny little baby goat really just wants it's mother. Clarabelle, the mother goat, finally and frantically came home just in the nick of time and hasn't left since. Oh yeah, and she can scale a five foot tall fence. But we overfeed them and they stay close.

So occasionally (often) we have a serious lack of judgement and we decided that adding one more to match the age of our now 9 mo. old baby goat, Clementine, would be a very good idea. Did anyone know that goats have a pecking order? I did not. So to make a very long story short, we brought home Ollie, a 9 mo. old whether, who managed to live in our house for a week. Why? Because of that darn pecking order I mentioned. My original goats beat the crap out of him and he screamed like a very upset little baby, but much, much louder. After a week, (he eats library books) he moved to the barn with the others to grow some cajones. Now, that may seem kind of mean to just throw him to the wolves, so to speak, but he loved my husband and tried to eat my everything. He did fine. Now he is just one of the gang. I think we are done acquiring goats for a while, although Doyle is constantly scanning Craigslist showing me how cheap goats are these days. Chickens, I think, shall be my next project.