Chat
04-11-2019, 04:50 PM
Lunchtime came, and with it came the rain! It drummed down while we ate lunch under the roof and our goats stayed dry in their trailers. Kim brought honey mead to share. I'm not a drinker myself, but I'm sure it helped keep the others warm!
The rain stopped again after lunch and we brought all the goats to the pavilion for hoof trims. All of Connie and Robert's goats needed some work on their hooves and I was happy to show them a few things. Kim's Toggenburg goat, Lucas, had never had his feet trimmed but they were beautiful! He's one of those remarkably low maintenance goats whose feet keep themselves in order. I only took off a little here and there where the hooves were about to break off on their own anyhow.
We also tried some different saddles on some different goats to see where they did and didn't fit, and we compared designs and discussed the pros and cons of each. I got to try out a Butt-Head saddle for the first time since Kim had just bought it for her goat.
After saddle fitting was over, Phil broke out his fiddle and played for everyone. Sputnik and Lucas were both alarmed and intrigued.
Lucas liked the fiddle more than Sputnik and stayed glued in front of Phil the whole time while Sputnik kind of backed away.
Finn got exiled to an outside picnic table about halfway through the afternoon after he disgraced himself by butting heads with another goat while Connie was in the way. He grazed her with his horn in passing and while he didn't hit her hard enough to hurt, it startled her and made me angry. I gave him a thorough dressing-down and dragged him outside to stand by himself at the picnic table for the rest of the afternoon. He was quite upset at being left out, but he must understand that he cannot spar with other goats if there is a person in the middle!
Dark settled and the rain that had threatened us all day finally made its debut with a great fanfare of thunder and lightning. It was a rowdy night, and there were a few times when the lightning got a little close for comfort. There were some tornado warnings in the area, and Linda, the park ranger who we worked with most, had unlocked an extra bathroom in case the weather got too intense and all of us needed to take shelter in the cinder block building with our goats. Thankfully the weather never got nearly that bad, but we greatly appreciated the gesture.
The rain stayed with us through Sunday morning. Phil took some last-minute photos of a few of the goats. This is Robert and Connie's little Frankie, a yearling Kiko wether with a very sweet personality.
Robert and Connie tethered their goats to some benches that were solidly cemented into the ground. The ground was so soggy their screw-in stakes weren't holding very well. This is Sprite, Blackie, and Butterscotch. Sprite is a wonderful and beautiful Nubian but is terrified of people at the moment because of too many vet things that had to be done to him in a short span of time. I wish I'd been able to spend more time with him because I felt we were already starting to make friends by the last day. Blackie is a sweet, personable, and uncomplicated little Nubian. I started teaching him to shake hands and I think he will be a quick learner once he realizes he can earn treats for tricks! Butterscotch is a Kiko with an attitude right now and has been challenging Connie. He challenged me when I first went to pet him and I had to lay down the law with him a bit. Hopefully he'll turn a corner soon with a bit of work.
Kim brought her 3-year-old Toggenburg wether, Lucas and his little Tog/Nigerian dwarf side-kick named Rosalyn. Lucas was shy and skittish but started warming up to me by the last day. He needs to get out more so he can learn that new people and new things won't hurt him. He also needs to learn to be careful of his horns! Rosalyn is just a sweet, curious little baby right now and I think she mostly came along to keep Lucas company, but it was fun to get to know her a little bit.
Me and my boys. Sputnik really didn't want to take pictures. He wanted to get to work on that grass!
Phil and I took a final walk to the end of the earth dam next to our campsite to let the boys do some last-minute grazing before we packed up and headed back to Colorado.
The rain stopped again after lunch and we brought all the goats to the pavilion for hoof trims. All of Connie and Robert's goats needed some work on their hooves and I was happy to show them a few things. Kim's Toggenburg goat, Lucas, had never had his feet trimmed but they were beautiful! He's one of those remarkably low maintenance goats whose feet keep themselves in order. I only took off a little here and there where the hooves were about to break off on their own anyhow.
We also tried some different saddles on some different goats to see where they did and didn't fit, and we compared designs and discussed the pros and cons of each. I got to try out a Butt-Head saddle for the first time since Kim had just bought it for her goat.
After saddle fitting was over, Phil broke out his fiddle and played for everyone. Sputnik and Lucas were both alarmed and intrigued.
Lucas liked the fiddle more than Sputnik and stayed glued in front of Phil the whole time while Sputnik kind of backed away.
Finn got exiled to an outside picnic table about halfway through the afternoon after he disgraced himself by butting heads with another goat while Connie was in the way. He grazed her with his horn in passing and while he didn't hit her hard enough to hurt, it startled her and made me angry. I gave him a thorough dressing-down and dragged him outside to stand by himself at the picnic table for the rest of the afternoon. He was quite upset at being left out, but he must understand that he cannot spar with other goats if there is a person in the middle!
Dark settled and the rain that had threatened us all day finally made its debut with a great fanfare of thunder and lightning. It was a rowdy night, and there were a few times when the lightning got a little close for comfort. There were some tornado warnings in the area, and Linda, the park ranger who we worked with most, had unlocked an extra bathroom in case the weather got too intense and all of us needed to take shelter in the cinder block building with our goats. Thankfully the weather never got nearly that bad, but we greatly appreciated the gesture.
The rain stayed with us through Sunday morning. Phil took some last-minute photos of a few of the goats. This is Robert and Connie's little Frankie, a yearling Kiko wether with a very sweet personality.
Robert and Connie tethered their goats to some benches that were solidly cemented into the ground. The ground was so soggy their screw-in stakes weren't holding very well. This is Sprite, Blackie, and Butterscotch. Sprite is a wonderful and beautiful Nubian but is terrified of people at the moment because of too many vet things that had to be done to him in a short span of time. I wish I'd been able to spend more time with him because I felt we were already starting to make friends by the last day. Blackie is a sweet, personable, and uncomplicated little Nubian. I started teaching him to shake hands and I think he will be a quick learner once he realizes he can earn treats for tricks! Butterscotch is a Kiko with an attitude right now and has been challenging Connie. He challenged me when I first went to pet him and I had to lay down the law with him a bit. Hopefully he'll turn a corner soon with a bit of work.
Kim brought her 3-year-old Toggenburg wether, Lucas and his little Tog/Nigerian dwarf side-kick named Rosalyn. Lucas was shy and skittish but started warming up to me by the last day. He needs to get out more so he can learn that new people and new things won't hurt him. He also needs to learn to be careful of his horns! Rosalyn is just a sweet, curious little baby right now and I think she mostly came along to keep Lucas company, but it was fun to get to know her a little bit.
Me and my boys. Sputnik really didn't want to take pictures. He wanted to get to work on that grass!
Phil and I took a final walk to the end of the earth dam next to our campsite to let the boys do some last-minute grazing before we packed up and headed back to Colorado.