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I didn’t get a good photo of Colt cuddling up to me before he moved to his new home. Fortunately, my boss thinks like I do: time to make a house call! In three weeks, my boy will need his vaccination booster shot. Typically, people bring their new goats back to the farm and we administer it here. In this case, however, I can offer to go to them. How very exciting. Now, all I need is a lab coat!
His new family is super lucky to have Colt as their stud. He has a fantastic temperament (thanks to me, I like to think) and his mama is our best milker. For how frantically he searched me for milk whenever I cuddled him as a wee babe, he certainly is mellow as a pre-teen.
Photo of me, at work, sorting out the goats. In this instance, one of my girls was too slow finding the food and got zoomed by another goat. I’m about to move everyone down one so she can have a spot.
Not much new going on. This afternoon, I lay on the hammock out in the orchard and read a book. We’re getting two border collies next week, so I’m trying to learn about training herd dogs. I’m also engrossed in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. Massage tomorrow, as usual. Life is full.
The other day, I went into the pasture to find two mamas licking three wet, newborn kids. Both moms were vigorously licking all three kids, so my first thought was, “Oh shit, how am I going to figure out which kids go with which mom?”
Fortunately, I realized that one of the moms was Macke*, who likes to “help” when the does give birth. She had some discharge and I couldn’t feel any legs when I pressed her belly, but there was no blood and she was still pretty fat. I decided she was just the acting midwife and went to put Jumpy–the real mom–in a stall so I could give her a nutrient-rich “witch drink” and write the births in the book. I took two kids in hand, Jumpy chasing eagerly to lick her kids, while Macke licked the remaining kid until I could come back for him. Of course, all that licking creates a bond between goat and littler goat: I heard Macke calling those kids for two days afterward.
When I brought in the herd this morning, Jumpy was sitting with her boys out a ways in the pasture. She stood up when I called for her and the three kids stared at me like a bouquet of violets, their tiny stripey faces all nestled together. Then they hop hopped toward me as their mama came to be milked.
* the first goat I fell in love with here–she loves licking my fac
