You did what this weekend?

28 Jun You did what this weekend?

Yep – that is exactly what I can hear friends & family asking….in an incredulous manner. Let me tell you the story………

It all began the weekend of the Estes Park Wool Festival. We had not been to Estes Park so we went up for the day – to attend the festival and see the sights. The festival was interesting, not real huge but fun. My DH took a particular interest in the visiting with the goat folks. Little did I know at the time what he was thinking.

We live in a rural area, on a nice sized 4.5 acre parcel. We have probably 3/4 of it fenced. We have an old barn that stores, for the most part, old motorcycles & parts. A previous owner of our home had taken out all but one stall. Do you see where this is going? Well, DH figured that 1. goats will eat the pasture making his job of mowing easier, and 2. they could easily shelter in the old stall.

So, the Sat after the Wool Festival I went to a “goat clinic” being held at a nearby feed store. Learned quite a bit about caring for goats. On Father’s Day, and the following Tuesday, we visited a local goat ranch and picked out a couple of goats. DH spent the week getting the stall ready for them. We bought hay for bedding, a grass blend and grain for supplemental feeding, a goat mineral block, tubs for water & the grass feed. I’m using some old bowls for their grain. And on Thursday – our goats were delivered.

In the course of conversation with the breeder, we decided to take one more of her herd – a buck who was ‘low man’ on the totem pole so to speak and was taking a lot of bullying from the others. We welcomed Greeves, Mateo and Cotton to our pasture. As did the dogs – there was a lot of time spent socializing everyone this weekend. Things are going ok. The dogs are learning to respect the goats or get head butted. And we are making sure the goats learn the dogs will not hurt them.

And Sue is totally fascinated with the goats. She had never been around livestock before let alone have any in her own yard. She’s getting outside more, which is good. So far she’s doing ok with the goats too. Our daily morning routine now includes giving the goats their grain, and in the evening cleaning out their water bucket. They are slowly getting used to us and do seem like they will be pretty friendly. Greeves was a bottle fed so he is already very comfortable around people.

By now you are probably wondering what these goats look like so here are some photos…..

On the top left is Cotton (fka Coaltrain), top right is Greeves (fka Solton), bottom left is Mateo (we like this name) and bottom right is all three of them outside the barn. And no, they are not fiber breeds – they are Myotonic goats. If all goes well then maybe I’ll get a few Cashmere goats someday – then I’ll need to learn how to spin. 🙂 And I’ll leave you with that.

Cheers! Jean