i wish i could take a video of how it goes. there are all these details first...be sure the bales of feed are covered with the tarp. haul the water bowl and the pellet bowls out back. make sure the latch on the back gate works. put Tulip, the old deaf dog inside and close the dog door. ok. give the bucks some pellets. fill the magic bucket that makes noise, open the doe gate and call out: Come Come!!! Come Come while rattling the pellets in the bucket. which really, i probably don't even need to do anymore, except that they like it a lot when things keep being the same. I wish i had a video of the explosion of goats and how they make a beeline through the big yard, through the gate, through the house yard...hesitating a few seconds because it's tempting, but then no another rattle and Come Come!!! and onward, past the wood splitter through the back gate and the final rush to the pellet bowls where i dump evenly three batches of pellets making that wonderful clatter. and of course, SnowBunny will not be fooled and wheels around and tears back out the gate and i try to catch her but can't and then just outside the gate she turns and stands and DECIDES HER SELF to walk slowly back through. and i quick latch the gate closed.
mercy...mi consentida. special one.
Just Going, who i thought was a stillborn, but HA!, a strapping junior doe and VERY FAST
Cinderella, sister of SunnyRay
3 of the Junior Does. Magic only would be photographed in group photos today. But they are all very very nice does.
there was a LOT of this, everyone taking their turn, their Time, their Place, over the course of the afternoon as the Sun moved through the sky
Michelle's cloth, after a winter of Wind flying
for the Crows
lots of pics of Goat butts
maybe a lilac bush this year, maybe not
a rare moment of Arctica standing for the camera
so...this was the day today. and i am having Feelings. am reminding self that "feelings are thoughts, and thoughts are mental constructs. So, ok, i am entertaining mental constructs. It's been almost a year. Lucky Star and Caroline will kid in mid May. THOSE kids will NEED to be sold. Unless, Unless, one is an exceptional little buck. he could be kept intact, as the beloved and bad Buckwheat also will need to go. and i remember saying here, goats are not pets. no. they are not. but.....how do i Just Go. ????
No excuses. the two bred does will NEED to be milked for cheese. and cheese will NEED to be made. No matter what. No excuses. and i will NEED to get word out and use the bucks as breeders. Today, oddly, they were very quiet. Peacefull even. Buckwheat napped in his food tub...who would have guess that would ever happen. We are all familiar with everything about eachother. we know what we can expect of eachother. we trust and rely on eachother to be who we are. Not to say there are still things unknown, as in that there seems to be a Uhhhhh, sense of reconciliation to the fact that two does are now pregnant. the other does still come in heat but there is not that urgency anymore, of the doe calling, the bucks answering, the comotion the comotion. and i'm wondering....Could it possibly be that the herd accepts this? That it is good and ok with The Herd that two are going to kid? i have no idea if this could be true, but it seems to be.
so...there is still so much to learn. and we MADE IT through a winter. and though the Daughter, is still incommunicado for her own reasons whatever they might be, we are ok. and we are Just Going. and we are just going holding hoof and hand with the Unforseen. and i am thinking i can DO IT. whatever IT turns out to be. I love them, those Goats. i really love them.
