Goat-O-Rama Kids of 2015

[Nanno]

I bragged about Snickers yesterday already, but I'll just say again that he really is a good, good boy on these hikes. He simply loves getting out and doing stuff with us, and he has no qualms about crossing creeks, logs, bridges, stepping stones, or anything. I get the feeling that even if we met a bear, he would stop and look at it briefly before calmly walking behind Phil or I. He doesn't act like a bold, adventuresome goat, but he seems unflappable. 
   

Snickers' glamour shot: 
   

And he blends in nicely with the scenery as long as we're walking along a rocky creek bed. 
   

Finn boldly goes wherever Phil goes, and although he's out of the shot, Snickers casually strolled across this rather unstable log bridge as well. It consisted of a lot of small, wiggly, sagging logs sort of loosely bundled together, and it was pretty high over the creek. I wasn't sure it was safe for the goats to cross (Cuzco would have walked through the creek at this point), but they made it. 
   

Except Sledge and Hammer. This proved a bit much for them and after walking on it myself, I'm glad they went no further than this before turning back. The spaces between the logs were pretty large in spots and the water was deep and swift enough that the babies might have been swept away had they fallen. 
   

We also met this cool bug on the trail. It liked Phil's leg apparently. Phil liked the bug, but he wasn't sure he wanted it crawling on him. I kept telling Phil not to move so I could get more photos while the bug kept ticklishly crawling dangerously higher. I did not let the bug go up into Phil's shorts, but that probably would have been the most entertaining part of the hike if I had.  
   

[Nanno]

This afternoon, Phil and I took all three of the little scalawags for a hike together. They were awesome, and no one cried for mommy or tried to take themselves back home. 
   

   

This was Tigerlily's first time away from Mama, and she did great! She's quite the little explorer!
   

The boys were behind me and kind of dawdling along and eating tasty things along the way, but Tigerlily was glued to Phil for the first half of this hike. 
   

   

[Nanno]

Hammer is King of the Rock!
   

Keep rockin' that double chin there, dude. 
   

We came to a lovely rock outcropping with an incredible view of the eastern plains. We could even see our tiny speck of a house far below. The babies loved the view and kept giving me heart palpitations as they scampered as close as possible to the cliff edge. 
   

Tigerlily was particularly bold. She must take after her daddy,Finn, and her grandmother Lilly. 
   

Sledge strikes a pose. 
   

"There's nothing more relaxing than having pleasant conversation with a goat." That is the line I used for a photo of Cuzco and I conversing on this very same rock eight years ago.  
   

[Nanno]

Well, it's Sledge and Hammer's first night in the Big Boys' pen away from Mom. Nubbin has been looking skinny and run-down and her coat still doesn't have the sleek summer look it should have (although it is slowly improving). She gets twice as much grain as everyone else and the same amount of alfalfa pellets as Cuzco (who eats almost nothing else at this point), plus she gets alfalfa hay at night, but she's still ribby. Her two boys have a combined weight that almost matches Nubbin's at this point, and they're as demanding as any youngsters their age. Nubbin got a superficial but painful scrape on her udder this morning during feeding time, and I'm not sure if it was from one of her boys or from a scur on one of the other girls, but I decided that she doesn't need babies butting her tender udder right now, so it's a good time to get them away from Mom, at least during the night so she can get some rest. So far all is quiet. They baa-aa-ed a little at first, but they were already well-bonded with the older boys, so they spent more time running and playing on the spools in their new pen than they spent standing sadly near the gate. They'll be with their mom during the day now, and they'll get separated at night for sort of a "soft" weaning before I wean them entirely. This worked really well for Finn last year and seemed to cut down on separation trauma.

[Nanno]

Poor Sledge and Hammer got banded today. They were almost too big for the elastrator, and the poor fellas were very sad and sorry for themselves this afternoon. They'll get to stay with their mom tonight of course. They were troopers on the way to the vet. That mini PolyDome we bought at the NAPgA auction is awesome, and so handy! They rode very comfortably back there and didn't make a peep the whole way. I had the vet do it this time because I haven't seen it done since we watched Cuzco get banded 13 years ago, and because I have no banamine on hand. I'll buy an elastrator and get some banamine for next year and do it myself because it looks very easy. Now that the banamine has had time to kick in they are looking much perkier and are out grazing with the group now instead of laying miserably by themselves in the pen.

[Nanno]

Oh, and I found out my weight tape is pretty darned accurate. I measured Sledge and Hammer this morning and the tape said 63 and 67 lbs. respectively. When they were at the vet today I put them on the animal scale and they were 60 and 64.5 lbs. So pretty close! And I'm very pleased with their size. They're just over 3 months old. The vet was impressed by how big they are for their age, and how healthy they look. That definitely makes me feel good about how I'm raising them!

[Nanno]

It's been a long time since I've made a post about our little snow angel. Tigerlily has really grown up and is becoming a beautiful young lady. Even though she's more than big enough, we opted not to breed her this year and just let her grow. And grow she has! She's nearly as big as her mother and probably heavier.  
   

I absolutely LOVE the black tips on her ears and her "eyeliner". 
   

The whole family all together. Tigerlily with her mother Jezebel and her father Finn. The head poking into the bottom of the frame there is her Aunt Delilah. 
   

   

[IdahoNancy]

She looks beautiful in the snow, so natural and part of the winter wonder land.

[Nanno]

It's about time I posted some recent photos of our lovely Tigerlily! Her beautiful white coat has been looking pretty scroungy lately so I decided to give her a trim and a bath today. I clipped her with a 1/2" blade so she would be stylishly short but not pink and naked. Then I gave her a bath. The poor little thing thought I was abusing her, but she got through it and looked very flashy for about half an hour before she rolled in the dust. We got some pictures before that.

I hope her topline levels back out before the Harvest Show this fall. She was nice and level last year but her rump came up higher than her withers over the winter and her front end doesn't seem to want to catch up, so now her rump is steep and she has a dip in her back that wasn't there before. Other than that, I think she's a gorgeous doe and will make some very fine babies. I hope she develops a nice udder!  
   

I thought I'd have her stretch out a bit for the photo. She was far more enthusiastic than I anticipated. 
   

"Dance, Tigerlily!' 
   

And the other side, just for good measure. I love the black tips on her ears. 
   

Tigerlily has a black beauty mark on her nose now. I wonder if her nose will eventually turn black?