I was browsing craigslist on Friday and found some baby goats for sale for cheap. I've always wanted to have a goat or two and since we have the chicken coop all finished I figured that we could get some. Maybe Mike and Noel would accept a goat in place of a dog.
Emily and Joe decided that they wanted to hop on the ol' goat wagon with us, so off we went to pick out our babies.
I'd like to say just one thing about the woman from whom we bought the goats: she has two of the biggest dogs I have ever seen. Most dogs are the perfect height for crotch-sniffing; these dogs were the perfect height for armpit-sniffing. I'm not exaggerating. They would have been really intimidating, too, except they had that goofy puppy-dog grin and they bounced all over the place, overjoyed to have company. Well, only one of the dogs bounced around us. The other one was in time-out. That was the only detail we got, but it is possible that his crime was swallowing whole one of the goat babies - the dogs were that freaking huge!
So, blah blah blah, big dogs.....aaaaaand we bought some goats. We got two and Joe and Em got two. I won't blog about their goats, you'll just have to check out Em's blog whenever she gets around to posting about them. (Ha! I beat you!)
We got one Nubian, which is light brown and white spotted like a fawn, and one Oberhasli, which is rust brown with black markings. Michael's is the Nubian, who is named Flopsy on account of his cute floppy ears. Noel's goat is named Humperdink.
The kids went to stay with my sister for the weekend so that Moe and I could celebrate our 10 year anniversary extravaganza (more on that in another blog), so Morgan and I got to take care of the babies for the weekend. They have to be fed bottles two to three times a day, plus they eat grain and hay.
Here are some pictures taken Saturday morning. We are trying to feed our goats. The Ward's goats are in these pictures, too, because they hadn't finished their goat pen yet.
Moe feeding Humperdink while the other goat (his name keeps changing) tries to weez some juice, too. You can kind of see Flopsy behind Morgan's leg.
The black goat eating Morgan's shirt is Jacob's goat, and while he was a lot of fun, he was also a bit out of control and we weren't too sad to see him go. He was a lot older than the others so he was able to get into more mischief than they were. That's little Flopsy in the bottom of the picture.
Moe and the demon goat shared a few tender moments. (Actually, I think Morgan might be threatening the goat's life in this picture. He was a handful!)
I need to get some more pictures on here where you can see the goats a little better. Also, it's fun to watch the kids feed the goats their bottles. They have to get up extra early in the morning to feed them before the bus comes. Nothing like teaching a little responsibility.
During the day when I'm doing yard work, I'll let the goats out of the chicken run. They usually stay right by me, or right underneath me, or right on top of me, depending on their mood. They have personalities a lot like dogs. Flopsy is quite a bit younger, just two weeks old, so he is needier and more vocal. I watched him chase Michael across the yard tonight, just bouncing along. I think they might be best pals.
Noel's goat is more of a loner, and I don't blame him much. I think I'd be a loner, too, if a seven year old girl put a leash on me and dragged me around the yard.
I'll post more pictures as soon as I can get some good ones.
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