I know I don’t blog super often but I thought I should catch you up to what kinds of things are going on around here and enlighten you a little about goats.
Well, about Nubians anyway.
I have only ever had Nubians so maybe there is not a vast difference between goat breeds but maybe there is. I really have no idea as far as personal experience. But my husband was reading the other night about training goats to pack and the one thing the author of the website hated, was Nubians.
Apparently they are very opinionated goats.
We were laughing pretty hard reading the article.
I personally enjoy a little bit of spunk and personality so I think Nubians are a great choice for myself. Plus it gives me something to write about besides my children and food.
Anyway, so last weekend I acquired 3 goats. One doe who is what we call, “in milk” and two babies, a doeling and a wether. Penny is the doe who I am currently milking and she is rather opinionated but I really like her.
When we first moved here a month or so ago we found a craigslist listing for a Nubian dairy goat. We wanted a nubian because the flavor of the milk depends a lot on the breed of the goat. Nubian’s milk is creamy and tastes just like cow milk.
So we got this goat named Muffin and her little doeling baby who my kids named, “Cinnamon”.
Muffin was what I call the goat version of this horse I got when I was 13 and my parents have sold a couple times but is so completely horrible people always bring him back. He still resides in my parent’s field.
So Muffin was like him, but a goat.
When I tried to milk her, she would kick and lay down and try any tricks she could think of.
Once in an effort to avoid having me grab her teat she launched herself forward in the stanchion and it tilted forward and she essentially did a face plant. I was laughing so hard – picture udder and hind legs flying through the air….
Although she did not find this particularly enjoyable, she discovered a good way to get herself released from the stanchion as there was no way for me to get everything back up without letting her go.
The instant I got her back in the stanchion and went to milk her, she launched herself forward again…
Stinker.
So I had to sit on the stanchion to keep her from doing it.
Anyway, after about a week or so of dealing with Muffin I called the guy I got her from and asked if I could bring her back.
He was sympathetic and understanding and allowed me to return the wretched thing.
So the hunt for a decent dairy goat was back on. At least I learned a lot….
We ended up going to the county fair and asking around for any goats for sale. We found this really nice family who said they had too many goats and they would love to sell us a couple and they introduced us to Penny. I liked her so we agreed we would go out to their farm after the fair and milk her and pick out a couple babies to go with her.
I have had them since last friday and Penny has shown that she is not to sure about me. But she has let me milk her without to many objections.
However she has found a way to irritate me and I am pretty sure she is doing it on purpose.
She has started letting the baby goats nurse.
They were pretty much weaned when we got them and had been bottle fed before that so they shouldn’t have been a problem. I noticed they were trying once in a while but Penny kicked them when they did so I didn’t put to much thought into it.
Well, yesterday when I went out to milk her, she was already empty. She had a satisfied look on her face when she looked at me so I am sure she has done it on purpose. So to get back at her I decided to try to separate them for the night and then planned to come out in the morning, milk her and then turn everyone loose. We made a separate little area in the shed for the babies and as I was lowering a bucket of water down for them when Penny bit me – in the butt! Snot! She is fiercely protective of the babies, which I think is kind of nice considering neither of them is actually hers. However I do not find the nursing to be something I can live with since the entire purpose of getting goats in the first place was for the milk.
Well, this morning I got my milk.
Then this afternoon I thought it would be a nice gesture for me to allow the goats to go forage down by our creek. There’s a ton of long grass and bushes and all kinds of things goats love. So I tied this super long rope to Penny figuring I should be able to catch her that way and led the little family down to the creek. They seemed happy so I went back to the house and figured I would vacuum and then check on them again. They were pretty far back on the property which is fenced on 3 sides so I didn’t think there would be any issues with them running away.
I was wrong.
I heard a semi-truck go by on the road and honk…I new immediately that my goats were some how involved. I ran out there as the truck was going by, he waved.
Hmm….
No goats…anywhere…
I thought I would run down to the creek to see where they were, I figured they must be grubbing on some thick bushes or something and I just couldn’t see them.
Wrong again.
As I was headed down there a gal pulled into the driveway and says, “Are you missing 3 goats?”
Wonderful….apparently they had booked it down the road, full speed ahead, udder flailing out behind them. So I hollered at my children to quick get in the truck, threw the baby in her carseat and hopped in. Thankfully the gal that came and told me where the stinkers had gone to offered to help and followed me over there. They actually ran about a mile down the road – which thankfully isn’t a super busy road.
I am pretty sure Penny had realized her huge mistake as when she saw me I could actually see relief flooding her little goaty face and she came running over to me. I grabbed her stupid rope that ended up being nearly completely useless and the helpful lady helped me get her into the back of my excursion. Then of course Penny was upset because the babies weren’t in there with her and tried to jump out so I had to hold her in while the other gal got the babies in. Thank goodness for helpful strangers who are willing to help with runaway goats.
When we got home I opened up the back and pulled Penny out and it’s so fun to get to know all their little personalities and I feel I am getting to know them. The little doeling, who my daughter named after my mother, Cindy,
hopped right out of the truck once she saw her ‘mother’ get out, she’s kind of a go-getter. But Laser, the wether (obviously named by my 6 year old son) was scared to jump out. Penny, being an over protective mother refused to move once she saw
Laser still in the truck and she actually turned and was trying to convince him to get out. When he wasn’t fast enough she tried to get back in! So cute… At that point I interceded and just lifted him out.
So now they are all tucked back into their pen, fat and happy and will no longer be free ranging goats. I know that is a rather lengthy introduction to the goats but it’s been a while. Hopefully we won’t have too many stories but with goats, you never know….
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