i am splitting wood, they are growing heavier coats. No Use to try for artsy pics. they see a camera, they crowd around. even if they are "out". this is what it looks like:
this, through the reinforced lifestock fencing. now the addition of cattle panel. there are 26. Still. it seems that they might have become my responsibility. Daughter has gone back to school while still working. If it goes as it looks like it might, she feels she is stuck in New Mexico for at least 2 years. and back in school, she can finish a Masters in that time. And so. hmmmm. i am glad but right now that translates to my finding someplaces for those 10 little buck goats born in the summer. half are already neutered, half to go. One looks like he will escape the Loss, maybe 2. but the rest....where can they go? a little while ago i got the "bible" of goat keeping written by a man in the UK...everyone agrees on this. and i looked for the chapter, or at least part on neutering goats...here we call them wethers...and couldn't find it. looked and looked. finally somewhere in the chapter on breeding...a couple sentences referred to as "culling". the born bucks are "culled" at birth or eaten. since these are dairy goats, it would be the first. so...i have some soul searching to do. Ordinarily, there would not be so many. but still, "any" is some. How to think? i have missed this milking. i will need to rebreed soon to have milking does in the spring which i would like to do. but this emphasizes that i need to come to some kind of terms with it all. Not easy. What i am doing is asking pretty much Every One i see if they know anyone who might want a couple goats for "companions" or weed eating???? i ask strangers in the grocery store, people at the gas station, and Post Office. Today i posted flyers at both feed stores. Tomorrow will put an ad in the local paper. Hope that daughter will post on Craig's List. we'll see.
And i made this diagram:
all that is highlighted in blue is Goat Territory now. it is still divided by the house and the now very reduced house yard that will be used almost exclusively for growing food. the rest has been reconfigured for the goats. And so it goes. I spend time with them. Learn more every day about how they experience things. i Love them. Many of them love me in their goatly way. I can't imagine what it would be like to live without goats, now. and it has only been 5 months. i am thinking it will only become more.
