Goat Adventures

A while back I mentioned an upcoming post about our goats.  Well, this is it!  🙂

After battling weeds around our small farm and trying to find the best way to stay on top of them, my husband came up with a wonderful idea for a “weed management” program.  His thought was to find some goats with kids, let them munch away on things they enjoy while ridding us of what had become such a hassle – weeds!

We found a lady in our area that raises and sells goats (and sheep) and purchased two of her nannies with one kid each!  After we did some work on our fencing we were ready to bring our goats to their new home.  Let me introduce them to you!

This is Connie.  The moment I saw her I fell in love with her beard!  She is very shy but such a sweetheart.  🙂

This is Sally Mae, Connie’s little daughter who is now all grown up.

Then there is Lucy, our other nanny.  She has been our most friendly goat and is easily led around on a leash and such.  She follows us around and tries to eat out of the feed bucket all the time!

This is her son, Bernard, as a little guy and then as a two year old “wether”.  He is a gentle giant.

   I must say we have been very pleased with how well the goats have kept the weeds down and it was loads of fun to watch the baby kids grow up!  They are so cute when they are little!  Our children thoroughly enjoyed being able to “walk” them, wash them, feed them, etc…  In fact, things went so well with these four goats we found ourselves wanting to add more to our little herd.  After checking into several options, we decided to breed our female goats and (hopefully) have a few kids to raise!

Enter Raphael.  If you say his name with a roll it is rather fun.  Our daughter called him “Stinky Raphael”.  For those who do not know, as I did not, a billy goat can really stink!  Aside from not wanting to be downwind of Raphael, he was a very pleasant guest during his two month stay at our house.

He did his job well while at our house and provided lots of interesting and good discussions with our kiddos.  🙂  He was also very friendly and gentle with people.  A great billy for our nannies!

So, now we are in the final stages of waiting for the little kids to arrive!  It could be any time…we are just waiting and waiting!  The nannies look very pregnant, especially Connie!  She looks like she could pop!

  In the meantime, Bernard has been moved to the horse corral so the ladies don’t have to worry about him stealing their much needed food or being ornery to their babies once they are here.  He and the horse seem to be getting along just fine.  The ladies also remain full of life and have been seen “playing” with each other.

I look forward to sharing some pictures of the kids once they arrive!  I have no doubt they will be adorable!

I just have to give a huge shout out to the lady from whom we purchased our goats!  Her name is Monica and she has been a great resource for us as we navigate being goat owners!  Not only did we buy our goats from her but we also “rented” Raphael from her – one of her several billies.  She has willingly taken our phone calls and patiently answered our questions or given us pointers.  Should you be in the market for goats or sheep I would highly recommend seeing if she had any available.  Send me a note if you would like her contact info!