Monday, February 6, 2012

My funny goats

Due to the new bucklings, I'm spending more quality time with the goats. This morning, I just sat near their nesting area and let them hop, crawl, and climb on me. From where I was sitting, I could watch the rest of the goats eating breakfast.

Snowbelle, who REFUSED a gingersnap on the milk stand (where she goes for her drench and skin treatments), snatched up the one I'd hidden in the feed and ate it *quickly* so no other goat could get it. Competition is a funny thing. She's also acting like she's wanting to move up in the pecking order. She's head banging a LOT.

Orange is back on the top of the pecking order. She'd given it up for months, and Lemon was rising. Not any more.

It's funny to watch the big goats' reactions to the bucklings. Lily and Aster look at them like they are small alien creatures. They get all bug eyed and have their ears on alert when they watch them intently. Orange just does the head threat maneuver whenever they get close. Cassie and Abbey ignore them. Snowbelle hammered Hi-Ho Silver, but he started it. He did the head threat gesture toward her. This is a mistake when you weigh about five pounds.

I have been putting a couple of tablespoons of the horse supplement in Snowbelle's stand feed. It's got rice bran and vitamins and other yummy stuff in it. Smells GOOD.

I didn't put it in this morning, and I was milking Cassie while Snowbelle ate. She TOLD me that I left it out. The container is near the headgate on her milkstand, and she kept POINTING to it with her nose. She even stomped her front feet. Her body language clearly states, "YO! WOMAN! YOU LEFT OUT THE GOOD STUFF!!"

When I got her a little scoop of it, she calmed down.

Who's in charge? Not me.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Snowbelle's funny behavior

Snowbelle is a LARGE Saanen/LaMancha cross. Both she and her mother never climbed, never jumped up on things, never ever were light on their feet. Snowbelle is also still recovering from a Black Widow Spider bite that had reduced her activity level for quite a while.

Until yesterday. When I buy feed, I load it in the van so that if we actually get rain or a heavy due before I can transport the sacks to the barn, they stay dry. If they were in the bed of the truck, they'd get wet, and the feed could be ruined. Dan helped me unload the sacks, and the van was momentarily unattended as we emptied feed sacks into the large trash containers I use for mouse proof storage.

When we went back out, this site greeted us. Snowbelle was IN the van. She had to take quite a prodigious leap, especially for a non-jumping goat!

Funny Goat Story

February 2, 2012

On Wednesday, we drove the blue buggy out to the goat pen, as Lonnie wanted some time to tame the new goat kids, Hi-Ho Silver and Tonto. I parked the buggy facing the goat barn where we could see all the goats and part of the browsing lot. I gathered up the bucklings, and they settled onto Lonnie's lap.

Lemon (their dam) is getting into this mothering business, and she walked around the buggy grumbling that she didn't have full access to the kids. Last year, her first kid was kidnapped by another doe, and poor Lemon never got to act like a mother. She just went directly to the milk string after her colostrum cleared out. This year, after the first two days, she figured out that these two are HER kids, and she's quite attentive now.

I puttered around, putting out feed for the horses, etc., and then sat with Lonnie and the kids in the buggy. The calico cat came over and draped herself across the hood of the buggy.

Lemon was still stalking around mumbling goat curses under her breath. As she approached the front of the buggy, I watched her face, and her thoughts were apparent. I warned her, "Don't you dare bite that cat's tail." Ha. I should have saved my breath. She walked straight up to the buggy, reached her head up, and gave the cat's tail TWO sharp tugs!

The cat simply moved forward about four inches and settled back down. See why I say she's the goats' cat? She's completely tolerant of them and used to their goaty ways