The Goober Goat

I've never owned a creature that I've come up with so many alias's - ever. Everything from "Resident Character" to "Houdini" to "YOUSONOFA!"...not one dull moment since she stepped first hoove on the property.

Not that we don't ADORE her... but "AlphaB" will be departing the farm this week on a journey Northeast, to hitch up with her new friend "Huckleberry" aka "Huck" for a month or so. We are hopeful Huck can convince her she really is NOT a "Dog Goat" or a "Kangaroo" or an "Alien Being" and get his job done. I can only imagine what pregnancy and the change in hormone's will bring us in the form of alias's! "Grouchy Goat" or "Goiter Gut" or "Munchy Mouth"?? Hopefully... we'll find out!!

Goat Hoove's & Cat Claw's

Never a dull moment home on the farm. Upon arriving home Saturday afternoon I hop out of the passenger side of the truck to see one of our cat's hanging by his claws, on the three birdhouses affixed 8 foot up the side of the chicken coop. I nonchalantly ask..."Whatcha doin Itty Bit??" I knew that all the birds were done nesting for the season, so I didn't give his antic's much thought, other than amusing one's.

Remembered I happened to have my camera right there in my purse. Snap.

Looked to me that he had been at it for awhile as one house dangled damaged away from the wall. I watched as he finally managed to make his way to the top house and perched on it. He then clawed upside down into the hole from the top a couple violent times, and then I saw a bird try to fly out. Ah ha! I should have known..this is the best hunting cat we've ever had. Not a mouse as far as the eye can see around here ;-)

Titled: I Taut I Taw a Putty Cat.

Before we got back to putting the garden to bed and before we pluck the last batch of chicken's for the season, I decided we needed to try and trim the goat's hooves for our first time. I knew resident Alpha Girl Hope would probably give us the most grief, and she didn't let us down! Up on the milking stand with grain she did fine. But as soon as the grain was gone (30 seconds) we had the buckin bronco from hell on our hands again!

Randy and I had never done a goat before and had read up on it in several venue's and had SEEN it done at the farm we visited previously. sigh...yeah.... that goat actually stood still ;-) We both have always hated doing dog nails and we were just as apprehensive about a goat. We wrestled (and bucked ourselves) for a good 15-20 minutes, including me just lifting her ass end up, with her back legs clear off the stand (no footing, not as much movement ;-) and managed to trim a little off all four. (and without blood from all involved, phew!)

Susie (aka Milkyway) was a complete jewel, but was still small enough to be held sitting in my lap. Gizmo being such a baby, just shivered for a couple minutes and gave out a couple baby baaa's before he fell asleep in the crook of my arm. I was wiped out by the time we got done. Jeez. Fun....we get to try it all again in 6-8 weeks!

Goat Rodeo

All my goat sources cite that you should not chase a goat to contain it, to gain it's trust with a treat and then corral it. Yeah okay. They don't tell you what to do IF the goat won't come close enough to you to TAKE a treat day after day after day. Said goat being baby Gizmo. So I finally decide that this isn't going to work in my situation. We are all in the inside pen and I decide that after all, it's not a WHOLE lotta space to chase after a little goat, right? I sort of corner him in one corner and baby talk him with it's okay, it's okay. Get about 12 inches from grabbing him and he jack-asses up in the air and takes off to the other corner. Well.... Hope is in the other corner and she butt's him up in the air and off he goes into ANOTHER corner. He's totally freaked now. Coax Hope out to the outside pen and tell her THANKS for her help (not) and shut the door. She's not happy now and while being VERY vocal, she's butting the door from the outside. More chaos. I sit in the middle of the pen with some grain. Come here baby. Come here baby. No way, no how. Get back on my feet and decide this is it! I'm catching THIS goat! Probably 3 miles of chasing and 10 minutes later he goes to one corner and I finally manage to grab a leg while in mid-air. Gotcha! I gingerly hold him for the longest time, petting him and talking to him. He at one point buries his head into my flannel. I think he almost went to sleep. Poor baby. I try offering him some of the grain he so dearly loves, to no avail. Manage to put a collar on him one handed and a lead. Place him back on the ground with about six inches of lead... just a little pressure on the lead...so he knows its there in hopes that he can't jack-ass back off from me and strangle himself. He stands there for awhile and listens to me baby talk him some more. I decide I'm worn out now and unleash him. He gave me a few choice words and then acted like nothing happened.
Next day I go out to the barn with some treats in hand and while Hope and Susie are mauling me for them, I guess Gizmo decides I'm not so bad after all. He actually TAKES the treat from my hand! Next day, he takes the treat from my hand and actually lets me touch him without retreat! We may be getting somewhere. We'll see ;-)

Goat Paperwork

Wow. Quite the ordeal with the paperwork for a goat. First you have to figure out just WHICH registry/association you wish to belong, as there are more than a few choices. Then after that choice is made you join said association and when THAT is confirmed, you can apply/seek approval and register for a herd name (you have option of three choices) and then a herd tattoo sequence. Check, check, check ;-) Next on the agenda is having the existing ownership papers transferred to our name with the association on the girls we purchased earlier.
Got the new hoof trimmers in the mail today and Randy is going to try his hand at it later this week on our with "resident Roo" Hope, before she leaves on her journey North at the end of the month. Should prove to be interesting ;-) I guess next on the goat online shopping hotline will be a tattoo gizmo to identify our new babies when they come next spring. Lighting candles already for strength and cajone's when that time comes! (not for the birthing...but the tattoo/debudding/neutering part) We also need to build a kidding pen inside the existing pen, hopefully before the snow flies. And that won't be long as the woolly worms are crossing the road already!
The work is never done and I still love the challenge. *watch this attitude change as the temp drops*

Staying Grounded

Sometimes I need to step back and regroup or revisit why I do what I do in life, as I have a tendency to get a little over passionate about things. (sounds so much nicer than OCD ;-)

Several years ago my husband was fighting his third bout of the year with an ugly upper respiratory infection. As an ex-smoker and carpenter that constantly is subjected to numerous toxic dusts, fumes, etc., it was not uncommon for him to have these yearly bouts. However they had become more frequent and more severe. As I sat in the doctor's office with him awaiting the results of the numerous tests, we joked around about see what happens when you stop smoking? The doctor came in and told us the tests concluded that he had late stages of Emphysema and severe bronchitis or COPD, if you like. He was breathing at like 25 percent of capacity at that time. He prescribed a barrage of medications and more inhalers. We went home numb. He took his med's as prescribed for many months and continued to struggle at work, especially if it was cold or wet outside.

As time went on he got considerably worse. The steroids in the med's caused him to gain weight and his blood pressure was through the roof. He could barely make it up the stairs to bed at night and it took ten minutes when he finally did, to be able to have enough breath to disrobe. More trips to the doctor, more med's, talk of putting him on oxygen to help him possibly keep working and comfortable, handicap tags, etc. We visited the option of going on disability (as he was definitely eligible) as he struggled to work. We were told by an attorney we would have to go at least nine months without any income through this process, before our wonderful system would allow him the benefits he had paid into most of his life. The thought of losing his house did not appeal to him at that time, so he kept on pushing himself. At one point we began visiting the costs of funeral arrangements.

Over the years (in my venture with our dogs) we had dabbled in alternative or holistic type medicine on several occasions with good results. While discussing our situation one morning I asked him if he would be open to possibly trying some alternative method's in his quest of trying to breath and stay alive. His reply was what do I have to lose??? Good point!

I spent the next month on the internet searching every possible avenue. I posted questions to everyone from here to the UK on diet, supplements, homeopathic remedies, herbal, Reiki, detox....you name it. Came up with a regime that I thought made sense and we got busy. Within two months he dumped 45 pounds, within three months he lost one of his inhalers, within four months his blood pressure returned to normal, within six months he lost the second inhaler, within a year he could go up the stairs and actually undress by the time he got to the bed! We had HOPE again!

Of course upon his next visit to refill the one and ONLY prescription that he was on, the doctor had a full fledged tantrum when he heard what we were doing. I swear he then rigged his spirometry testing machine to show worse results to prove his point! But the PROOF was in the pudding to us and we forged ahead.

PART of the success of the venture I attribute to the DRASTIC change in our diets. That included (as much as it hurt) eliminating all processed food. (ahh chips & Burger King!) All refined sugar. All white flour. Going organic on everything we could find. More fruit, more vegtables. Different oils. Less cooking, more raw. If God didn't make it, we don't eat it theory ;-)

Well that's all fine and good if you want to spend your life 24/7 on a big scavenger hunt for that type of diet or you really WANT to take out a second mortgage to pay for it! So we shifted gears to make our goal to be more self sustained on our 3 acres. We already had a good start on our garden and had canning down pretty good. In the last couple years we have increased the garden three fold and the menu continues to expand as we try to grow new things. We had our laying hens putting out just enough eggs for us and we ventured into meat chickens and have that down pretty good now. The freezer will be full again shortly to get us through the winter.

We struggled with a good milk supplier in town, as we both could not seem to give up THAT addiction. We love our milk with supper and in our coffee ;-) If and when we could find a supplier we could live with, it cost an arm, an ear, and a couple legs. So that became our next venture! Upon research, we decided that the Nigerian Dwarf goat was just the ticket for our needs. As we wait anxiously for that to come into fruitation, I need to keep reminding myself WHY I worry and wear myself to the bone daily, while fretting over my children thinking me a nutcase, with taking on all this work so late in our lives.

Okay...I am grounded again ;-)