The week that was

Hi all, I have been very remiss in posting lately and for that I apologize.
There has been much going on here in the past week or so, where to begin? Lets start with my mom, Maggie going into labor on Dec. 16. H-mom was with her and knew things weren't progressing normally and a few hours later h-mom and h-pop loaded her into the trailer and set off for the vet. A few hours later they returned with 3 new kids, 2 girls and a boy and a very tired Maggie. Maggie has 2 teats and there was always one of the girls getting edged out for milk so h-mom was keeping a close eye on them.
And then the very next day Blessing decided to kid. H-mom was with her and helped pull out the first kid that was in a breech position and then she kidded another, both boys. The smaller one couldn't stand after several hours and h-mom kept a close eye on him too.
Then the next day Genie kidded 1 boy, a very cute, big, healthy paint (my son). His name is Wilson and h-mom hasn't had to worry about him at all, but by now it was clear she needed to take one of the triplets and the one that still isn't standing from Blessing and bottle feed them.
H-mom put up a playpen for them in the den and moved them in. It's a lot of work to bottle raise kids, but the reward is a lot of sweet kisses.
Five days later Molly kidded with one big, beautiful, solid red doeling with a little white star on her head (my daughter) and her name is Holly. It was Molly's first time to kid and she is doing a great job.
The triplets names are Carly, Cory and Cassie.
Blessings twins are Alvin and Theodore.
Cory and Alvin are the house goats, man that looks like a pretty sweet deal. Almost makes me wish I could have been a bottle baby. If only I knew then what I know now.

Alvin has learned to stand and walk and can now go up and down the steps to the backyard and is growing well. He just needed a little time, encouragement and pysical therapy to get him up and going.

Lazy daze

When the nights begin to cool down a bit many of us suddenly find soaking up the daytime sun irresistible . It is still very warm, but not quite as ruthless as a month or so ago. Now this looks like Cinnamon is being lazy, but in fact she is only practicing her relaxation techniques and apparently she is pretty good at it because she stayed like that for a long time with only her tail swishing the occasional fly.
Nate found himself a slice of sunny ground to enjoy but look at the goof, he's shading himself with his shadow. Duh, but I digress.
Even our "protectors" were soaking in some rays.

But there are always a few that will seek the shade.

So anyway, a couple of nights ago coyotes were heard in the early morning hours. Now the humans say that their sound travels far, but it still made my hair stand up on the back of my neck. :o)

So the LGDs barked and barked and we didn't hear the coyotes anymore so I am beginning to appreciate their presence!

Well gotta go, there is a prime sunning area opening up.

Stella kidded

Stella kidded today with one girl that looks very much like her. She doesn't have a name yet but she is hanging with her mom and big sister.
She weighs 11lbs 2oz and is the smallest kid Stella has ever had. I know she is glad to be done because she was really getting miserable the last few days.


Hello world.

Momma love.

Finally found the good stuff!

I love you momma!

Hey, I'm taller if I straighten out my legs.

This looks like a safe spot to hide.

Life is good!

Another safe delivery at Happy Goats Ranch.

the showdown

I guess we aren't through test h-mom's patience yet. She got tired of me and Nate beating up gates and fences and put us together to "work" it out.




On and on it went until we were both too tired to be macho, at least for a while.

testing our limits

It seems we have all been testing h-mom's patience. First, In an effort to get the LGDs to bond to us, she separated them from each other and put one in with my group and one in with Nate's group, but they kept climbing over the gates. H-mom spent hours sitting out watching for them to make a move so she could tell them "no" and shoot a little BB gun at the fence to make a ping noise to startle them away, but every time she would stop watching for a minute, she would find Sadie in the other group with Dakota.

H-mom would patiently walk out here and take Sadie back to her area. I personally saw this happen 4 times yesterday and who knows how many other times she made the walk?

Then Nate and I got into a bit of a fight through the gate separating us. Of course, he started it with his cocky attitude and I had to stand up to him. The main casualty was the gate! We, I mean Nate bent the gate so badly the hinge broke, so here comes h-mom again first to get Nate and me in separate areas again, then to try and secure the broken gate until it can be replaced. With much creativity and some baling wire she got it standing again, but Nate got moved another pen away so we have no common fence line or gates to destroy.

And then there's little Star and her penchant for putting her head in places she can't get it back out of. This has been going on since Star's horns became big enough to get her stuck. H-mom has to go release her from a fence several times EVERY day. You'd think she'd learn, but between us, she isn't sharpest horn in the barn if you know what I mean. Well with everything else going on, h-mom's patience came to a screeching halt after releasing Star 3 times in one hour.

At first the rumor was that h-mom had shot Star in the head with an arrow! Of course, I knew she would never do such a thing, but indeed it did look a bit like Star had an arrow going right through her head from a distance and she was keeping her distance.

She was humiliated and embarrassed by the true situation, h-mom had stuck a stick behind her horns and vetwrapped it on there good so she couldn't stick her head into small areas anymore.

She couldn't believe it, after all she is a Star so she went off to sulk in the shelter by herself.

We all knew we had better chill for a bit, because h-mom was fed up with our antics and it's not wise to push humans too far.

just some random thoughts

I am trying to figure out what Sadie is up to. She has been digging for a while. She is the quiet type so I just had a peek and good goats, she must be craving Chinese food or something.

This hole goes on on and on. It's not like the shallow pits they dig to lay in the cool dirt, no this is more like a small but deep tunnel. I hope she orders some chow mein for me when she gets to China.

Stella is 2+ weeks from kidding which always makes h-mom excited. Me, not so much because it will be Nate's not mine. In the past Stella has always had huge, healthy, fast growing kids so it will be slightly interesting to see if she does the same with another buck.

So we are in two breeding groups right now but being ever the helpful soul, I did try to encourage Nate to take care of his buckly duties.

He was very interested in a very pretty girl that I was really hoping to breed, but alas she is in his group. He was analyzing her perfume to determine his next step and I was on the other side of the fence letting him know I am available if we can figure out how to climb the fence. Hmm, he wasn't really interested in that option and I'm not sure he was even listening to me.

What's that I smell, chow mein? Where is Sadie, hmm better go check. My work is never done.

the green, green grass of home

Here in Texas, we have long, hot, dry summers and by this time of year all of the grass is brown and crunchy sounding when you walk on it. It doesn't taste good and Lord only knows if there is any nutritional value. But........ this year we got some very unexpected rain in August and everything is looking like spring. Lush, soft delicious grass, weeds and such as far as the eye can see.

Spice girls hard at work

We are all doing our best to keep it under control, but we are
losing the battle, so h-mom brought in the big guns.

Left is Storm, h-mom's horse and below is Magic, h-pop's horse. H-mom let them in the goat pens and even in her backyard to eat the ankle high grass and man did they like that! They took their job quite seriously as you can see...

.

Pony, h-sister's horse got them organized to provide even mowing. They "worked" tirelessly for 2 days and their bellies show it! We were happy to trade places and nibble the briers and wild berry bushes that the horses are kind enough to leave for us goats.

Watching the watch dogs

So I've been watching the LGDs and it seems like they have a pretty good gig. Look how exhausting their work is. It makes me wonder if there are watch goats somewhere out there in the big world. We have a few candidates here, as long as they can chew their cud while they're "working".

Now here they are separated because one of them, Dakota I think, (all dogs look the same to me) crawled up the gate and jumped over to the other pen to check on some goats and now they seem to be discussing the pros and cons of dividing to conquer or sticking together for this shift.

Danger, danger, Dakota to the rescue! Ok, I guess they do a bit more than just lie around "watching".

I am not sure how it will work out when the ladies start kidding. They can be a bit crazy about protecting their kids from everything. Hopefully by then they will know the LGDs are protectors too.

Anyway, back to me. It is time to start breeding and h-mom has given me a group of 5 ladies for now, but no one is in the mood for love. I don't know what is wrong with them, I mean I perfumed up real good and I've been singing my warbling song but their not seeming to appreciate my efforts. Maybe they are just a bit shy, after all the LGDs are always watching.

Whatever the reason, they are going to have to romance me when they get in the mood and I just might not be interested, well that's not true, but don't tell them!

So far, so good............

Well another day dawns at Happy Goats Ranch. H-mom and h-pop have been working hard on fencing in the 5 acre pasture. They even had some help from their friends and family last weekend and it is down to the last 150 feet to go so they were up at the crack of dawn today to get it finished before it gets too hot. Most of us are not early risers as you can see.

In fact, Sadie and Dakota are the only ones up but that will change when h-mom comes out.

Ah yes, the spice girls are up and ready to get out of their nighttime pen.



Now there is some action, everygoat is ready to get out for a day of supreme browsing.

After letting us out for the day, the humans are off to finish the fence .... 3 hours later and voila, the fence is complete!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My group, me, Dudley, Studley, Molly, Genie, Misha, Dixie and Nina are in the newly fenced pasture. There is more browse than you can shake a hoof at and a stock pond for fresh water too. Tomorrow Nate's group will get to come out here and we'll take turns as long as breeding is going on. I was beginning to doubt if the humans would ever get the fence completed, but I guess I underestimated them. Thanks h-mom, h-pop, Keith, Van, Tony and Tashia for all the hard work to make our home even happier than before.

Dakota and Sadie - LGDs

In response to Terry's untimely demise, h-mom has introduced 2 more dogs to the ranch. The new ones aren't quite like the humans pet dogs, these live with us and h-mom explained they are here to protect us. I can get on board with that, but they really look pretty scary and I wonder who or what is going to protect us from them??

They have been here a few days and I have been surprised at how they behave. Goats that will send the "pet" dog flying have just accepted the LGDs and often I find them all lying together in the shade. They are just kids (ha ha) 5 months old but they are very calm and quiet around all of us and lay around all day, but as evening approaches they get more active and start walking around the fence lines.

They do play and roughhouse with each other, but not with any goats, thankfully. Honestly, I wasn't too sure about them in the beginning, but when they hear anything at night they sure do bark to try to scare it away from us, so I think I can get used to them.

So far they have saved us from a barn cat, and I have a picture to prove it. This very ferocious 6 month old kitten has been in the tree all night and half of a day. They aren't barking at him, but if he makes a move to get down, boom they are there.

So hopefully these dogs will put themselves between any predators and me, I mean the herd and we will not have anymore tragedies.

tragedy strikes

It is a sad day at Happy Goats Ranch. A predator killed one of us 2 nights ago, right in the same pen I live in. Terry was a 6 month old buck kid that has been living with my group since he was weaned. RIP Terry!

Of course, as predators do (they are cowardly) it went for the youngest and smallest in the group and there was nothing I or any other goat could do but get the heck out of the way. None of the 4, count them 4 "pet" dogs even barked!

And to make it all the worse, h-mom left that morning before sunrise to take her mom to the hospital to see her step-dad and didn't return until 3:00 pm and little Terry's body was just laying there all day. It was quite unpleasant for all of us.

When h-mom got home, she immediately saw the problem and at least let me and the others into another pen until h-pop could remove little Terry's body. Then they searched the fence lines to find where the predator got in and sure enough, they found where it had dug under the fence.

H-mom moved my group up closer to the house and isn't putting any goats in that place at night anymore.

Death of the "volunteer" pumpkin plant

The picture isn't too clear, but if you look closely there is a small pumpkin with its vine severed from the plant.

This wasn't completely unexpected because h-mom likes to let the "Spice" girls into that pen at night so they feel safe from the older does. This caused a bit of a logistic problem because breeding season is starting for Nate and that is the pen usually used for breeding. H-mom decided her backyard would have to substitute for the breeding pen and the pumpkin plant was growing on the fence between these two areas so the risk was high.

On the left is Bridgette, she is in with Nate and Cinnamon is one of the Spice girls. Between the two of them and the help of others the pumpkin plant is doomed.

Enough about that, let me introduce the "Spice" girls. They joined our herd last Friday and are very nice looking ladies. They are all 8 months old and half sisters. They were FFA show goats and lived together without any other goats before they moved here, so it was a bit overwhelming for them to meet 12 other does, all older and bossier than them but they have adjusted well. As I mentioned before, they have a place by themselves at night until they get as bossy as the other does. :o)

The black and white one is Pepper, the tan and white in Cinnamon and the red and white is Spice.

They are very pretty and sweet and fit in well as far as being friendly with humans and enjoying a good back scratch, but they are still figuring out how to be in a larger herd. Just a matter a few weeks I bet, before they figure out how to assert themselves with other goats.

witness protection program???

I have decided to leave the pumpkin mystery to the humans. Once it became known amongst the suspects that I was investigating it became very uncomfortable around here for me. I have been ganged up on and battered by some of the unnamed suspects so I am officially retiring.
But if I was going to name a culprit, it might start with a B and end with a G and should have a wide load sign attached.

So it is endlessly hot here and will be for a few more months. Yesterday 105, and 108 today and tomorrow. Everygoat is just looking for some shade, preferably with some tasty vines in it. The grass is getting crunchy and brown, but the leaves and vines are still green.

Yesterday the humans brought home 3 more goat ladies. Young, and very beautiful. I can't wait to meet them up close but that must wait until breeding time. It's almost too hot to even think about breeding, but not quite. :o)

CSI - Joshua part 2

It is almost too hot here to think! 103 in the shade, which is where everyone is today. I have cleared all of the old timers, myself included which really was just a formality since if Dudley or Stella had done it or even knew who'd done it, I'd have heard them bragging about it long before h-mom found the crime scene. My sidekick Terry and I determined the most likely suspects are the four most recent additions: Blessing, Genie, Dixie and Nina since prior to their arrivals the pumpkin plant had remained unmolested.
So I am investigating Genie first, for no particular reason other than I think she is cute and she is one of the four.

This is Genie, her name was Joy but h-mom had to change it because we already have a Joy.


Now to my experienced eye, she appears to have a guilty look on her face during questioning, but she ASSURED me she is innocent. Well, what did you think she was going to do, confess? No, my work is not to be that easy. I did find out that she is 2 yrs old and Blessing is her mom. The place they lived before they came here the h-mom and family had to move to the city and so had to sell all of their goats. She said she likes it here and of course she would never eat the pumpkin plant or pumpkins when no one was looking.

So Dixie is the next one on my list but she is so shy, and so is her friend Nina, that I sent Terry over to interview her. He is much less intimidating than a majestic buck like myself. Dixie would barely talk to Terry, but she did state she had nothing to do with the pumpkin caper.

So I haven't figured out who the perpetrator(s) is yet, but now my mind wanders to what reward would befit me for solving this crime. Perhaps a pumpkin of my own that I don't have to share with anyone. Yeah, and maybe a back scratch too. Hmmm, I better get back to interviews. Two down two to go.

CSI Joshua

Well apparently h-mom overestimated somegoats aversion to pumpkin plants. It seems that when there are ripe pumpkins on the vine they become more tempting, who knew?







The first sign of trouble was several very suspicious bites taken out of leaves.

Then upon a closer inspection, it was noted that the pumpkins themselves had been violated.



But what goat would do such a thing? There is a long list of suspects.

I have decided to take on the burden of solving this mystery with my associate Terry. All great investigators have a sidekick and he has absolutely nothing better to do. First, I will check everygoats mouth to see if any tale-tell signs of evidence remain and hopefully narrow down the possibilities.