Goats – Oh boy, now it’s official!

So, about 12 hours or so after we finished being thankful for all God had provided, we drove 2.5 hours to make me feel like a complete idiot!  After scouring the facebook groups for some goats for sale that would fit our needs, we found a couple female goats who were not too new, not too old, not pregnant, not too small, and not too big, not registered, not too expensive, but would hopefully eat weeds and not die.   So far, so good.

It sounded simple, drive 2.5 hours, meet folks, pay money, pick up goats – in the back of a van – bring them home, place in barn.  It was a good thing that the folks we bought them from loaded them for us – cuz, I’m thinking we would have left without goats had that job been mine!  They didn’t seem to WANT to be in the back of our warm cozy van, no matter how much it looked like a barn stall.  

Those pine shavings are a small portion of the product of our “wood chipper weekend” – Yeah us!

We enjoyed meeting the folks who were selling the “girls”.  They were so very helpful.  They had only been doing goats for a few years.  They didn’t mind answering dumb questions.  I have since sent several photos back just to let them know that we did manage to get them home to our barn.

We nicknamed them Spaz and Hemp.  They have since recieved real names.  But, Spaz (now Charlie) took a while to settle down.  She was “wilder” and seemed genuinely nervous about our intentions.  Hemp (now Ruby) laid down and just rested through the entire trip.  It was a nice day out for me and my two grown daughters.  We sang to them, because someone said they liked it – and we like to sing.  Of course, the girls made fun of me for sitting in the back and petting the nervous one until she settled down and joined Ruby for a rest.  They do have lots of fun poking fun at their mother’s new attempts at being a farmer/farmer’s wife.  All in good fun!

With all the trouble it was to get them in the van, who knew that they would then decide that a van is much better than a barn!  It was a bit of a challenge getting them out of the van and into the stall, but I figured it out.  They didn’t like it, but I won that battle and they got out of the van.

Once we got them unloaded all the grands had to take a peek at the first animals to arrive on the (yet to be named) farm.  So far, we are establishing a routine, trying to convince them that we are not trying to kill them, and providing for their needs.  They will eat a treat or two from our hands, which is great progress.  We can touch them while they are eating some grain, and we are learning to gently herd them into the barn at night without wigging them out.  My goal is to be able to actually “lead” them some day.  If I can manage that, they can eat goodies from the hillside outside of the barnyard.  Until then, barnyard it is.

One is 100% Boer goat – I say Bo-er.  Others say Bore.  Don’t really know which is right, but it looks like Bo-er.  She’s not registered, but I don’t care right now.  Ruby is 3/4 Boer and 1/4 Nubian.  Eventually, we will stretch our wings, maybe let them have babies, maybe get milk goats.   But, for now, I am still trying to convince two animals that are pretty sure I am trying to kill them, that I am trying to take care of them.  So far 1 million prayers prayed, goats alive for almost a week in our care.  One day at a time.