Dirt Heart Witch
Here’s my day now: Awake at 8. Make coffee. Put on overalls over pajamas. Slip on Sloggers. Grab a cup of alfalfa pellets and head to the goat shed.
Put the feeder on the milk stand with some pellets and a handful of grass hay. Open the shed door and let just Abby out. She jumps up on the stand to get to 
the treats in the feeder. I close up the stanchion to keep her still.
Give her scritches (but not on her forehead!) Feel her neck, back and sides. Check for ticks. Lift up her back hooves and see if there’s any schmutz stuck in there. Make sure she’s got a comfortable, flat foot. Check the front hooves. If there’re any problems here, plan to come back with a trimmer and a pick.
Feel around where her legs attach to her body (she likes that). When she loses patience and starts to pull away, put more pellets in the feeder to distract her.
Feel her udder, her teats. Abby is just weaning the twins, so she’s still got a bit of a bag. No milk though.
Check under her tail for anything weird: wetness, scours, discharge.
Talk sweetly to her the whole time.
When finished, loosen the bungee that holds the stanchion closed; do this while she’s eating. If you do it when she’s pulling away, she’ll think that her pulling away is the magick that sets her free!
After she finishes the food in the feeder, take her up to the yard.
Go back to the shed and let Libby out. Same routine, but Libby is a special case. I’m really taking my time with her; she’ll be kidding in May and, in the event of complications, it will work a lot better if she trusts me to take care of her.
After Libby comes Daisy. She’s a couple years younger than the other two, much smaller, more patient. She’s closer in size to Abby’s twins who are only 5 months old. Maybe Daisy will always be small. Sometimes that happens.
Usually Abby’s little ones come out of the shed with Daisy. They don’t bother her much, though they will sometimes get up on the stand with her. She’s good with them.
All the goats are on a diet of alfalfa pellets and grass hay, along with whatever is yummy that gets pruned, chopped, or yanked out of the garden. They love to eat the leaves off the rose bushes, the tops of the wild radish, the long green wheat which appeared after last year’s not-so-seed-free wheat straw mulch.
They also get free-choice baking soda and a mineral supplement. I was surprised when I first offered these; the girls went at them like mad! They’ve slowed way down since then. I suppose that they got themselves up to par and are now on maintenance. Smart goats!
Occasionally, I give them a few raisins or almonds as a special treat. Not too many, though. Their rumen (which acts as a “first stomach”) relies on a delicate balance of bacteria to keep things running smoothly, kinda like a fermentation vat. I don’t want to upset the balance with too much sweet stuff.
Not to tempt fate, but things are going pretty well. After the first few escapes, we got the holes filled, extra fencing added, and have had no more of that. We have had some issues with Abby’s food aggression. She gets pretty violent with Daisy and at times will fight hard to keep her from getting to the feed bowl. Not sure what we’re going to do about that. Time to check with the experts, corporeal and non-. Luckily we’ve got several friends who are long time goat people who can help. The lessons just keep on coming!
Master of the Herd, I invite your wisdom. Keeper of the mysteries of Queenship and conflict, be with us in our time of need. Give us the answers we seek to keep peace in the family, to give each their due, to hold the value of all. Bless us and blessed be~
All images courtesy of the author
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