A couple of weeks ago, we had the neighbors come over and show me how to stretch some woven wire fence. It wasn’t long after that we got our first goat, Cinnamon Sally. There’s no telling what she is, the vet we got her from called her a brush goat, so basically she’s a meat mutt. The first couple of days we had her, she was alone and sad. The books and such warn you that keeping a single goat is tough, and Cinnamon Sally proved them right. She was tough to get a hold of and was very untrustworthy, and on top of that, she was hardly eating despite having sweet feed and a couple acres of pasture. She was supposed to come with a buck, but unfortunately, the buck didn’t make it and so Cinnamon Sally came alone and we just had to hold on until the bottle babies were ready.
This past weekend we were able to make the 2.5 hour trek (one way) to pick up two more bottle babies, Paige and Rosey. They were three weeks old when we got them, and need to be fed four times a day; thankfully, we’ve been able to use this as a learning experience for the kids and feeding the goats has become their job.
I will admit, I had no idea what to expect when they first came, but I learned quickly: goats are loud, and they get angry! The other night I went out to do some weeding in the garden and feed the chickens, well, the goats heard me. At first they came over to the corner of their pasture and did some maa’ing at me. When I didn’t respond, they got louder, and the maa’s were almost tinged with a bit of distress, but when I continued to ignore them, their maa’s became angry and petulant.
They have quite the personalities, and while we don’t plan on eating these particular goats, I can already say for certain, that butchering any future kids is going to be a tough job.
Homesteads and Homeschools 