i think i really haven't said much here about the History of this Goat Thing. There were reasons. But maybe it's a good time to put it here now. I talked to daughter Jenny late afternoon and it was so woven and thick. They had been at the Hill today, her, her man, Alyssia and the kids, the dogs. They pounded t posts for the Goat Forest. She says it's BIG. like really, BIG. They marked off how it needed to be divided for the doe Goat Shelter Place, the two divided Places for the bucks, the place where the feed will be kept. She said there is SO MUCH ROOM and more. Places that will feel Wild to them extending out and beyond their Shelter places. Listening to her, i was deep in gratitude. We did it. We actually did it.
She got the two original Goats, Snowbunny and Daffodil when she lived here in New Mex...about 70 miles up the freeway in Los Lunas. She was married then. There were a lot of plans. They had almost 3 acres there. She built things for the Goats and got a buck . and it began. If you breed thought FULL y and Care Fully, for excellence in Dairy, you have an open and endless market for any kids born. You post your kidding schedule and people reserve the kids ahead of birth. This is what she was working toward and working Very Well toward. It was Happening. We had intention of taking them to the State Fair. We DID take them to State competitions and they won. I say we. the We was me with what i could. It was her. The marriage was not good but the Goats were and so things were ok enough. The marriage deteriorated. More and More and there was a day when there was an Intervention. Her father came from Michigan, her brother, my son, from Colorado. Her daughter Alyssia from California and me from 70 miles down the road. In a day of HARD, we loaded her, her Goats, her Livestock Guardian Dog, Kadir, her other Old dog, her barest minimum of stuff into transport vehicles and she left. She had transfered jobs with assurance of hours. Once in California, though it didn't happen. For months, she held on by a thread. She and Alyssia lived together. Julian was a baby. Alyssia still in the Navy. The neighbor there shot Kadir because he was afraid of him. An Anatolian Shepard. So GRAND a dog. I think it was the shooting of Kadir that did it. i prepared some and she and i brought the Goats all back here. 2012. April. Near to the time of their leaving, there was an insurrection and all the does that could be bred were. That first spring here there were 14 kids born. She was back in California for a while, but then back in Albuquerque. There were a
few painful years. Little communication with her. and we will look at that as just a GAP. Nothing was working for her. She didn't talk.
the Goats just went. as is the beauty of Goats. and i kept going. Saying over and over to anyone who was in front of me about how they were my daughter's Goats and she would come for them.
it's 5 years this month.
she is coming for them. I knew she would. Everything is different now. Like created almost out of nowhere. But it's happening. They will have a forest of their own. We talked today about how we imagine it going and really, we just are so so GLAD that it can go...however that is. We talked about the many ways it can, but also, how neither of us has any NEED, other than to see them free. To see them Free together. Together. to Watch. to Witness, Together. Her, me, Alyssia and now Emrie.
i left so much out. but there's too much to put here. But it's about determination and long standing faith and a very deep love. It's about more, too, but that's enough for now.

the Hill. There. that i can only imagine now. and always in my Heart, the New Mexico sky at the rim.

the Goat Forest

Who? What? is this. some magical Being that will travel with them. No point in asking. We can't know.
She told me today that when they were marking off the fencing, her man had gotten some kind of GPS thing that identifies property lines. It's used by hunters who have permission to hunt in a certain area but NOT over a property line. They saw, with this device, and then Walked it, that their land extends further than they imagined. They saw that it extends into a "swamp" and in that "swamp", there lives a Rooster. Alone. a lone Rooster.
The kids want chickens. A lone swamp rooster will feel the pull. Even tho there is no interest in a rooster, our guess is that a rooster will come. He will feel the need. He will leave his swamp and appear. On the Hill. so. ok. ok then.