This lesson you won’t find in the goat “How To” books. This lesson gets learned the hard way or at least so I’ve been told by a goat owner friend of mine.
Goats are addictive.
Plain and simple. But it doesn’t just happen over night. It sneaks up like weeds in the garden, slow and steady.
There I was, living in a world oblivious to little goat cuteness, and then decided to get goats strictly to work the farm and eat poison oak. I go to pick them up and instantly fall in love with their tiny little selves. But to be honest, I was fine with just getting two goats and waiting for them to have babies to grow our herd. That’s the logical and, more importantly, the “economical” way to go.
I mean….I’ve owned goats for four weeks. And since I’ve never read a single thing about how to care for goats a lot of free time has been spent reading in hyper drive. I started to realize that once our sweet Rosemary has babies we would have to separate Pockets from his daughters. Cause you know…..goats don’t really pay attention to familial boundaries….err…reproductive laws…. you get what I’m saying right??? So rule of thumb is you separate boys from related girls. Which is fine, we’ve got plenty of property for 50+ goat paddocks. But goats are herd animals, they need other goats. Chickens, cows, dogs….none of them will fill in the gap. They need other goats.
This is where the garden weeds slip in.
This was the slippery slope of a thought process for you:
Me: HMMM….I guess we will have to get another goat eventually to put with Pockets.
Also me: I wonder how much Nigerian Dwarf Goats cost since I bought ours from a friend for a deal? Me: Jumps on Craig’s List.
Still me: I wonder if I should get a boy or a girl? Wait… they have goats with blue eyes available??? (My goat owner friend says yes, get goats with blue eyes because they are easier to sell)
Me again: (yes, I talk to myself…I have problems…I get it): Maybe I should just get one of each and then I can give Pockets’ daughters to “new buck” and “new buck’s” daughters to Pockets. (I know, I was already planning out my 3rd generation of goats while only having owned goats for less than a month. I told you it was a slippery slope.)
But everything I do goes through Chad first. I mean he lives here too and has a say in how our farm plays out. Sorta. Kinda. Okay, it really plays out to “if he doesn’t put up a huge fuss” then I’m probably going to do it. Chad didn’t say no to more goats… he just “suggested” we wait till we actually needed the extra goat. I totally agreed. Until I went on Craig’s List to double check that there weren’t any goats I just couldn’t “live without”.
I found a two month old post about a blue eyed, gorgeous buckling that was somehow still available. And then another post about a blue eyed little girl with a terrible picture where you could hardly see her. Within a few minutes time I had set up appointments to see both of them the following day. It kinda, sorta helped that it’s my birthday this month and I convinced my mother in law to buy the buckling for my present. And then kinda, sorta begged Chad for the little girl for my birthday as well.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
Meet Patches (named by Logan) and Ginger (named by Autumn)
The goats I couldn’t live without.
You’ve been warned. Goats ARE addictive. Not that I think that is necessarily a bad thing, but husbands around the world may have a different view point. The little goat cuteness that I am expecting next spring/summer is going to be off the flippin charts.
I’ve spent the last 2 days playing with baby goats and chicks. It doesn’t get much better.
Much love, from the happiest farm girl ever