Doe Goats. 12 of them. Their Forest is an acre and a half or two. When we arrived in December, this was dense with all manner of Plant People from low growing plants to brush to young trees and of course, all that poison oak. You could not see more than a few feet ahead as you walked. There were no paths. It felt as if you could become lost and not able to find your way.
it's been 5 months and they have cleared it. There are still many of the one kind of tree that i don't know the name of yet, but mostly it's the Live Oak and Pine. They have no interest in the bark of either, as they have had no interest in the bark of the more mature of the unknown name trees. It's shaded by the canopy. Throughout there are small glades of Sunlight where grasses grow. They are uninterested in those grasses but now ARE eating the dried seed pods as they present. But still the plants themselves are not eaten. So....sunlit glades of grasses in a Live Oak/Pine forest.
They have their wooden shelter with straw bedding but go there only when it's raining, and more and more, only when there is significant rain, choosing instead to sleep near their gate and along the fence line that is across the way from Nogal and Tenzen's Forest. Also where their food bowls now line the fence. This all shifted when we had to move the bucks. Twice.
It's impossible to guess what will re-grow in the spring. So for time being, they are fed alfalfa. we are going to check out grass hays as an alternate to alfalfa...like they had in their other Place.
They continue to wander, browsing on twigs and bark, throughout the day they move. They rest in those sunlit glades. They have become independent. Way more than they were at the Other Place. I guess really, independent of me because they have a world here that belongs to them, rather than "yards" that rim my own living space. It took some getting used to. For me. Not for them. Now, Tay and I...sometimes Alyssia and Emrie and sometimes the midling kids, we go into Their Space and wander with them, sit among them, but there is a distinct different feel to it. Am not sure how to describe that. They are all healthy and the eldest are elder now. The youngest are not so young. There is a WINDOW for any breeding. We have wisely decided to wait a bit. It all just recently has felt like a kind of settling.
And still, since our loss of Snow Bunny, no one of them has taken the lead. Which is surprising.
i find it hard to find words to tell of the feeling of them, Out There, in that great space of a Space, where they can RUN and not, where they have made paths of their own design, according to urges of their own desires.
When the Fire Marshall comes and pronounces his/her pronouncement we may need to clear other spaces. If we do, we will turn them loose to do the work, returning at the ends of days to this space. But for now, it's peace Full. Calm. Good. I sit among them and think of Metta: May you be safe, may you be healthy, may you be happy. May you live with ease.
Done. All these things. Finally. They have "returned".
