Goats~ Day 1

Well Hello from Goat World!

It's true. We brought home four Nubian Dairy Goats yesterday afternoon in the back of a truck!

After MUCH hard work and money spent, we were ready. Finally.

The goats were a little spooked last night.

After being loaded (by hand) into the bed of a pickup truck, being carted an hour and a half away to their new home, and being harrassed by a couple of nosy labs on the back end of the trip, they wanted us to stay far FAR away from them last night.

And so we abided, eventually, after chasing them around their pasture for a while trying to herd them into their shelter.

All it did was upset them more.

So..... we let them be, and hoped for the best.

This morning was definately a different story.

They were calm, and somewhat inquisitive of me (sans husband and dogs).

I mixed a couple of cups of sweet grains and sunflower seeds in a feeding dish, sat down in the grass as close as they would allow me to, and gently shook the dish.

Promptly, the nosiest of the girls, a yearling we (I) named Janet, came over to check the situation out. She was rewarded with some tasty oats, and even let me touch her floppy soft ears once or twice.

Eventually Cheap Trick (the 7 wk old baby boy) and Wild Child (his milking mama) could no longer stay away and came over to share in the treats.

Wild Child, being the oldest and wisest of our small herd, is the most apprehensive of us, as she should be. She doesn't let her small buckling far from her sight. And Cheap Trick abides, staying closeby in his adventures.

Runty, the fourth goat, is a small, VERY small, spotted female yearling. She has yet to come near me, staying far in the shadows this morning, but has a soft spot of animal crackers....

Ed is out in the driveway today working on building a milking stand for me to use with Wild Child this afternoon. Milking does are supposed to be milked every 8-12 hours, but we haven't been allowed near her since we brought her home yesterday.

I'm hoping this afternoon to have some success with her and get her up on the stand for a few minutes. Even if it is only long enough to scarf down some treats and get a quick petting from me. It is all about gaining trust at this point.

Although a little milk would be nice!!

We shall see.....

On another note, we took a ride out to Big Sky on Friday night to watch the Bruins and grab some dinner. It was nice to get out of the ranch for a while, and on the way home we saw two Moose! As you can see (maybe) in the photo, they weren't as excited to see us as we were to see them.

We also saw some really cool naturally occuring snow sculptures along the side of the road.

Well...that's all for now. Wish us luck with Wild Child this afternoon! It will prove to be a challenge I'm sure, but will only get easier in time.

Have a wonderully relaxing weekend everyone~

Katie

(the antsy one with the refractured 9th right rib. ugh!)