I believe your day to day life can be told from your google search list. Here is the google recent search list from our first day with goats.
Here’s what the list means, in story form:
We decided this year to expand our farm. Chicken and pork having gone so well, it was time to try a new animal on the farm. We are raw milk lovers, and so decided it was time to add a dairy animal.
Our land is not the ideal property for a cow, more rocky ridges and weeds than flat pastures, and we didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a cow. So goats it was!
We found a pregnant Lamacha doe for sale, and just like that, we were driving home with a goat in the back of our minivan!
Many people will warn you not to buy a lone goat. They are herd animals, and so they don’t do well alone. But they also have a tendency to have twins or triplets. We figured she could last one month until her babies were born, and then we would have plenty of goats for our new doe.
Our doe had other plans.
Kendra had goats in the past. They always stayed put. Last year we had four 300lb pigs that never once escaped.
So it didn’t seem irresponsible to put our lone doe in the pig pen, which we described as… Ahem titanic… Inescapable. It was made with “goat panels” submerged in a foot of concrete, nailed to 4x4s.
The next morning, as Kendra was googling “goat treats” to bring our new girl, she was halfway to Sherman (the next town over).
Who do you call when you have a lost goat? Dog warden? Police? Ghostbusters?
All those, your friends with hounds, and your neighbors.
Our neighbors across the street, Bella Alpacas own a beautiful bed and breakfast/alpaca farm. Apparently our goat thought it would be a nice place to visit, cause the only sign of her was a small pile of droppings in the middle of the road headed that way.
They were so helpful, they formed a search party of their own, and along with us and our friends, there were about 10 different sets of eyes (dogs included) looking for this goat.
To no avail.
4 hours later we printed the signs.
At the end of the day, feeling all hope was lost, we got the call. A family with
goats of their own had her in the backyard.
Back into the minivan went our goat.
The next day we built her a new pen. Grampi joined in the goat containment project. This pen had more flexibility. it was less rigid, so if she tried to jump or ram it, it would bounce and remain intact. It took all day.
Happy in our design, we gave her a treat, and walked away.
And then she hopped over the fence.
Clearly we are dealing with some form
of goat ex-con/magician (and what a wonderful combination that would be!).
So now our pen is complete. It’s almost 7 ft high, flexible, and screwed to the building the goats are housed in.
Wait… Did I just say goatS?
Yes.
Another neighbor and friend owns goats (squash hollow is a very farmy road!). Informative on all things goat (she’s our goat-to! get it?) she helped us see the need to get our girl a buddy.
So we got another goat. But you may notice something very different about our other goat. She is a Pygmy!
How do you solve an escape goat problem? You get an anchor goat, that will never be able to jump the fence!
And so Hops and Yoyo are welcomed to Squash hollow Farm!
Can you guess who’s who?
I love this story! (I love ALL your stories, especially about Rihanna. I have a hen who is close to my heart too- who survived a raccoon attack, and later, a hawk attack which was interrupted. We may even attend one of your workshops on how to raise and prep chickens for meat, just for the knowledge. But right now, I am too attached to all our hens and keep them just for the eggs.)
-Aimee in Bethel
Thanks! Isn’t it true, the animals that give us the hardest time, or go through the most allways become our favorites? We have really come to love this stubborn goat! We would love to have you join us for a class, or for our open farm day!