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{"id":674,"date":"2015-02-19T22:16:48","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T05:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/dirtheartwitch\/?p=674"},"modified":"2015-02-19T22:46:58","modified_gmt":"2015-02-20T05:46:58","slug":"goats-the-living-with-and-the-learning-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/dirtheartwitch\/2015\/02\/goats-the-living-with-and-the-learning-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Goats ~ the Living with and the Learning from"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here\u2019s my day now:\u00a0 Awake at 8.\u00a0 Make coffee.\u00a0 Put on overalls over pajamas.\u00a0 Slip on Sloggers.\u00a0 Grab a cup of alfalfa pellets and head to the goat shed.<\/p>\n

Put the feeder on the milk stand with some pellets and a handful of grass hay.\u00a0 Open the shed door and let just Abby out. She jumps up on the stand to get to $\"20150219_091649\"$ <\/a>the treats in the feeder.\u00a0 I close up the stanchion to keep her still.<\/p>\n

Give her scritches (but not on her forehead!) Feel her neck, back and sides.\u00a0 Check for ticks.\u00a0 Lift up her back hooves and see if there\u2019s any schmutz stuck in there.\u00a0 Make sure she\u2019s got a comfortable, flat foot.\u00a0 Check the front hooves.\u00a0 If there\u2019re any problems here, plan to come back with a trimmer and a pick.<\/p>\n

Feel around where her legs attach to her body (she likes that).\u00a0 When she loses patience and starts to pull away, put more pellets in the feeder to distract her.<\/p>\n

Feel her udder, her teats.\u00a0 Abby is just weaning the twins, so she\u2019s still got a bit of a bag.\u00a0 No milk though.<\/p>\n

Check under her tail for anything weird:\u00a0 wetness, scours, discharge.<\/p>\n

Talk sweetly to her the whole time.<\/p>\n

When finished, loosen the bungee that holds the stanchion closed; do this while she\u2019s eating.\u00a0 If you do it when she\u2019s pulling away, she\u2019ll think that her pulling away is the magick that sets her free!<\/p>\n

After she finishes the food in the feeder, take her up to the yard.<\/p>\n

Go back to the shed and let Libby out.\u00a0 Same routine, but Libby is a special case.\u00a0 I\u2019m really taking my time with her; she\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

After Libby comes Daisy.\u00a0 She\u2019s a couple years younger than the other two, much smaller, more patient.\u00a0 She\u2019s closer in size to Abby\u2019s twins who are only 5 months old.\u00a0 Maybe Daisy will always be small.\u00a0 Sometimes that happens.<\/p>\n

Usually Abby\u2019s little ones come out of the shed with Daisy.\u00a0 They don\u2019t bother her much, though they will sometimes get up on the stand with her.\u00a0 She\u2019s good with them.<\/p>\n

$\"20150219_091644\"$ <\/a>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.\u00a0 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\u2019s not-so-seed-free wheat straw mulch.<\/p>\n

They also get free-choice baking soda and a mineral supplement.\u00a0 I was surprised when I first offered these; the girls went at them like mad!\u00a0 They\u2019ve slowed way down since then.\u00a0 I suppose that they got themselves up to par and are now on maintenance.\u00a0 Smart goats!<\/p>\n

Occasionally, I give them a few raisins or almonds as a special treat.\u00a0 Not too many, though.\u00a0 Their rumen (which acts as a \u201cfirst stomach\u201d) relies on a delicate balance of bacteria to keep things running smoothly, kinda like a fermentation vat.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to upset the balance with too much sweet stuff.<\/p>\n

Not to tempt fate, but things are going pretty well.\u00a0 After the first few escapes, we got the holes filled, extra fencing added, and have had no more of that.\u00a0 We have had some issues with Abby\u2019s food aggression.\u00a0 She gets pretty violent with Daisy and at times will fight hard to keep her from getting to the feed bowl.\u00a0 Not sure what we\u2019re going to do about that.\u00a0 Time to check with the experts, corporeal and non-.\u00a0 Luckily we\u2019ve got several friends who are long time goat people who can help.\u00a0 The lessons just keep on coming!<\/p>\n

Master of the Herd, I invite your wisdom.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Bless us and blessed be~<\/em><\/p>\n

All images courtesy of the author<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"