Hey Laura and Bonnie! I am just dying of curiosity to know how the new goats are settling in and how you are feeling about it? Thanks---inquiring minds want to know!

Has anyone else gotten any other new crits recently?

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), November 02, 2001

Answers

Oh Doreen! These goat girls are so wonderful! They have not escaped and trampled the car or eaten my roses at all! (yet)

I talked quite a bit with a nice crusty goat lady down the road from me and she has a nice saanan buck to and her daughter has a registered toggenburg buck for my little goat. Anyway, this lady seems to know goats and will help me with anything I need and I will probably be throwing spare kids her way. I will be taking a goat to visit her farm sometime in the next week or so.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), November 03, 2001.

oops! How did that happen? I wasn't finished.....

We are very happy with the goats. They are the easiest and cheapest to feed and will reward us greatly.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), November 03, 2001.

Doreen, Hey! It's Bonnie! Well this goat has the name of Jo ( short for Josaphine) I just call her Big-Un. She has acted wild as a march hare ever since I got her. First thing she did was drag my backside all over the place.That is why I didn't want a cow. I can't get over how much BIGGER she is than my other two. Also hard to remember that Marmie was once that wild. I have this Rooster who is meaner than spit. He is the only rooster of this particular breed that I have. ( Anconas ) I am hopeing he will give me babies come spring so I let him live. Mean while I have moved him to a much smaller pen so I can keep my eye on him all the time. After I get some babies, he is history and he will not be fondly remembered.It is so hard to tame a new goat when you have birdzilla jumping on you everytime you get near. It should be much easier without his help. Got some animal crackers today and she likes them. She will eat out of my hand but she does not want me touching her. That too will come. She is due to kid in February. It should be fun haveing all those babies. All three girls are due at the same time. Well anyway two are due the end of the month. I was just told February for her. Oh, one of her teats are much larger than the other. Any clue why? Do you think the babies used the other side more? One of Marmies is a little larger than the other but I do think it is because I milked that side and her baby kept the other milked all the time. How are your rabbits doing? Did you find out anything? I hope all is well.

-- Bonnie (None @thistime.com), November 03, 2001.

No new critters right now. Soon I think. Bruce the "150 lb Japanese Fighting Rabbit" went AWOL last month and is sorely missed by all here. I had him in the chicken house w/ the hens and guineas but someone didn't latch the door and everyone escaped. Bruce is the only one who took a powder tho.

All the chickens I hatched plus most of the ones I bought have grown up to be roosters. So I guess we'll be having even less critters soon, when "We'll kill the old red rooster" as the song goes. Gonna save one big pretty one 'cause he's just too pretty and he's got a voice like Elvis.

Have been cleaning the fence line and doing all the work that should have been done a long time ago to get the pasture ready for whatever new 4 legged critters do show up. Building some stalls and feeders in the barn for both goats and horses next week so I won't have any excuses left. My friend who raises sheep is trying to get me talked into taking some of her lambs come spring. Sindy likes that idea so you know what that means. Having a big time here and enjoying myself muchly. Hope your all doing the same.

-- John in S. IN (jsmengel@hotmail.com), November 03, 2001.

Laura- I'm glad these girls are working out for you! What a great help to have someone so close with goats that can give you a hand with things. Really a blessing!

Big-Jo-un will surely settle down when you get in there with her and her kids. She might just be a bit more skeptical than a lot of goats! As for the teat, I have one that has that too. I think it is usually milking that does it, and if you have kids on them and they favor a side it will definitely have an effect. It shouldn't be a real problem for a home milker, but it would be something that would affect showing.

John!!! How nice to "see" you again! Baaaaa's are so cute, who wouldn't want some? I want some, but I think I have plenty of crits for just one person already;). Glad you are enjoying yourself.

I love the way the weather is here right now- the only problem is that it gets dark too early. It seems like it would be better for us in the pressure cooker zones to have fourteen hours of daylight in the fall and spring and ten in the summer. Course I think I know better than the designer, huh? (big NOT!)

Today I sold a buck to be a house rabbit for some folks. So I have one less bunny in a positive way. All the others are doing just fine now. I think that perhaps it was a virus and the ones with weaker systems succumbed early. I really don't know what happened to them. My feed store friend LeRoy said that he had heard from a bunch of people that they were losing rabbits for no apparent reason. Brings my cynical mind back to the chemtrails, but I really have no idea. I'm just thankful that they are all doing well now!

Thanks for the updates!

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), November 03, 2001.

John, it is so nice to hear about someone doing it right by putting in fences and shelters BEFORE they get their critters! At my place, the only way to get these things done is to have the animals already be on the premises or at least a concrete arrival date.

We finally have a fence around the property except for a small pie shape plot and the temporary fence strung around my driveway and house so the horses have free range of the place. My horses are worse than goats when it comes to fruit trees and roses. Camas the Olympic Brumbie is having a blast running up and down the hill and jumping over ditches and stumps and doing sliding stops. Poor old Dusty's knee is swollen like a cantaloupe from trying to keep up.

My Barred rocks are done molting and my Reds should be laying by now. I ran out of eggs tonight, only had one to put in the cornbread. This is the first time I haven't responded to my family's "What's for dinner?" with "How do you want your eggs?"

John, I cannot even visualize sheep on my place without seeing giant velcro with all the blackberry and salmon berry canes here. Sheep are incredibly stupid and you cannot have any hazzards on your place, and to sheep, everything is a hazzard. They are cute, though, especially those cuddly little lambs.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), November 03, 2001.

I am with Laura on the sheep!!! The lambs are so darling that at times I really have to shout at myself. REMEMBER SHEEPLY!!! That sheep caused me more grief. I wanted to spin (never did get to that little project) so I got a lamb and raised her. Well let me tell you, I don't know if it was because we had just one or what, but she got in soooooooooo much trouble. My first homestead animal after chickens and she would run me ragged. Would put her head into things and they can NOT go backwards. She was big and fat and I would have to ask a neighbor for help to get her out of trouble so often because Gary was working 12 hours shifts, 7 days a week. (that was when we were still paying off the last of the homestead and I was the only homesteader and he was the money maker)

Still again..........I just really would like to spin my own wool before I die and those little sheeply are awful darling.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 04, 2001.

Dianne, if you had 3 sheep they would all have their heads stuck!!!

Man they're dumb! Remember, Jesus calls us His sheep, and it's true!

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), November 04, 2001.

I had a goat in Texas that had a lopsided looking udder, one teat appreciably bigger than the other. And she never had a kid nurse, was always hand milked, just didn't develop evenly. It was a bit improved second kidding.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), November 04, 2001.