Missing My Goats

Well.......I haven't yet posted this, but several months ago I sold all of my goats.  All of them.  Cutie pie babies included.   I miss 'em! 

I didn't realized until after I sold them how much time they chewed up (no pun there!!) as I am now getting copious amounts of school done.  (I think I'm finally seeing the light at the end of a loooong tunnel - graduation 2012 here I come!)  I was laying in bed the other morning and thinking of how nice it is not to have to rush to get up to milk in the frigid morning air with numb fingers anymore.

But.  I miss them.  I miss their soft baaaing at night when I would go check on them before bed.   I miss the way they'd cuddle up to me and snuggle their heads into my arms.  I miss the way they LOVED me and STRONGLY DISLIKED everyone else.  :-)  The way they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt who their owner was and who it wasn't.

 I was looking back on pictures of when we first got goats......I was fifteen and actually, scared to death of them!!  I look calm in this picture but I remember being pretty afraid of how.....big they were.  And those horns......*gasp*.   The fear I felt as I would run into their pen, throw them their hay, and then dash out as they came galloping towards me......well, I remember it!  I got over that one within the year. :-)

 Dad was the one who got me started with goats.  He was the one who had dairy issues, so we turned to goat milk as an alternative.

David, now vehemenantly against goats, is actually posing with our first male goat, Jasper.   He'll never admit it now but he liked the goats back then!!  It was originally the boys job to take care of them.  But.  I soon took over.

 

 I had so many good times with baby goats!  Rosie and Clover were so cute.   

I miss just sitting there and watching simple things, like the babies nursing.....thinking about how amazing it is that there's just enough milk for the number of babies a doe produces each year.  Simple things like how mama always licks the babies bottoms while they nurse to keep them clean the first week of their life.  And how the babies saliva is basically an anasceptic that keeps the teat free of infection.

 Good memories of bottle feeding this spring......gosh that was a pain but it was pretty fun, too.  Heating up milk, feeding the stinkers, wiping off wet noses, even being jumped on with less-than-clean hooves. 

I spent hours out there with my little "herd".......working, of course, but also just watching.  Watching floppy newborns wobble around and then collapse after a few steps for a nap.  Baking in the sun.  Even smelling sweet.

Heading out there in my "goat jeans" and mucking stalls......raking up pens and clipping hooves...and admiring mini baby goat hooves......:-)  Singing while I "milked to the beat".  David and I created two goat theme songs that we sang every morning when we milked together - they were silly but those were good times.

 Even staring at pregnant bellies and wondering...prodding....guessing how many are in there?!  I LOVED being able to feel the babies moving around in there.  How awesome is that.  I would do it almost every day when my girls were pregnant!  Wondering.....is that a hoof?  Or a nose?  Or a tail?

 Even the babies that didn't turn out...super cute.  (I only ever had one "ugly duckling" and he was still pretty darn cute. :)

 Waiting with high anticipation for those beginning signs of impending labor......loose ligaments, acting weird, losing their plug......and then delivering the little munchkins.  And yes, there was a lot of blood.  And yes, I was OKAY with that.  :-)  And yet I am not okay with having my blood drawn...even to the point of passing out.  Weird, I know. 

 Missing snuggling day-old furry babies.....they're just about as cute as puppies.  (Maybe even cuter in my opinion.)  Missing plump udders......large jars of cold, fresh milk.....goats that know their routine and cooperate.....*sigh*

Having goats for the last few years was wonderful.   A grand experience.  I learned a ton.  Had probably a dozen instances where I thought I'd killed one of them.  :-)

 For now, I'm not able to have goats; other things need to take priority at the moment.  I've entered a new phase of life for now - but I hope that I can someday get back into goats!   

My siblings dislike (hate would be a better word) goats; so I have ALWAYS had issues trying to convince them to pet one.  However.  I was searching waaaay back in the archives of Courtney's blog, and FOR THE RECORD.......here is a link to a post where Courtney actually admitted that the goats were cute. 

 

Incredible.  :-)