Hanging With the Goats

Hanging with the goats is one of the best ways to keep track of their health and decide who has settled for kids and who hasn’t.  Two girls in particular were on my must be bred list–2TC and Trace.  They will both be three this year, and neither one has had a kid.

2TC (I think is bred)

Part of that is the odd breeding last year, and Benji was young the first time I tried breeding them. So I get it.

Trace

But Trace came back into heat again.  I will give her one more chance to get bred for this June, and I don’t know what I’ll do with her if she doesn’t get bred.  I’m not against goats who are strictly pets, but she is not easy to maintain.  She’s always one of the last ones to get caught for copper and hooves.  If they are going to be a pet, I want to be able to touch them.

Pluto was in love with her.

I really haven’t seen many others come back into heat from the ones bred for March, but I’ll find out this week who settled for April.

Flora I think is due for March

We’ll see if Tansy settled for Easter.

LilyAnn seems to have settled when Benji busted out.

Pretty sure Onyx will be one of the last girls to give me Freddie babies.

It’s looking like there will be plenty of spring babies.

Cats and Dog

I don’t know how I ended up with so dang many cats, but I do adore them.

Herbie

Salem, Herbie, and Tiger on the couch with me.

Bob

Rocky

Tiger

Sky and Tiger–besties holding paws.

And this goofy thing.

Sky playing with the corn cob

He does make me laugh.

The New Arrangements

After I lost Benji, I moved the other three boys up north (I had planned on doing that anyhow).

Simon, Frodo, and Howie

Then I sold the two little boys and Freddie, so I had to find more company for Xerxes and Frodo.

Frodo

Xerxes

I didn’t want to put them together yet because of the hormones, so I put Penelope with Frodo.

Frodo and Penelope

I put Antigone with Xerxes.  She needs a nice dry place to keep her feet in good shape.

Antigone

They will get along much better with girls than other boys.  Xerxes has had Antigone and Astra as roommates in a previous winter, but I’m not sure Astra is bred, so it’s just Antigone for now.

Antigone and Xerxes

When we sold the little girls, we ended up letting Myson and Margarita out.  Which was not a big deal.  They are not too hard to catch and the weather was good.  When they came back up from pasture, Margarita was already back in the Love Shack nibbling on hay.

Margarita (her weight is better, but she doesn’t seem to have much of a winter coat yet)

Myson was having too much fun with his wether bros.  I had to split them up.  He still isn’t up to full weight, and he doesn’t need to waste his energy rough housing (It was all very good natured).

Casey, Myson, and Moose

I might have threatened to pull Moose’s ears if he wasn’t good.  He may hear that threat rather frequently, and you can see he’s really worried about it.

Moose

Then I couldn’t get Dolly to leave the Love Shack, but I figured it isn’t going to hurt her to stand around and. munch on hay.

Dolly (notice Myson and Moose still pushing through my poor fence).

Finally, she changed her mind and decided to come out with the herd.  But it was the next morning.