Moving Forward, Loading Cows, and a Not Unpleasant Surprise

Summer is rolling by. The pastures are parched, the garden is growing, and the kids are enjoying mostly unscheduled days.

Last blog entry I shared how three animals in the photo at right should be pregnant, but are not. Marianne, the little black goat, was our last hope and her possible due-dates have come and gone, even though we saw her mating with Westley the buck during two heat cycles. I belong to a "goat health care" Facebook group and asked the question: Why would a healthy doeling with regular heat cycles NOT get pregnant??? There are many possibilities, but the most common reasons suggested were a vitamin deficiency (most likely vitamin A) or cysts that prevent pregnancy. We really want goat babies, but after Elinor's stillbirth and the time and money it would require to have a vet assess Marianne and then try and get them both to a buck (pretty sure we don't want a buck here again) on the one day they are in heat (which likely will not be on the same day)... I'm just burned out on the process right now. Perhaps we'll re-assess next spring. 

When we bought Annabelle the black Irish Dexter cow in January we were given the name of a lady who has an Irish Dexter bull that we might be able to use in future. We contacted her and though she didn't want her bull to come to us (she has a closed herd, meaning she does not vaccinate or worm because she does not allow her cows to come in contact with other pastures) she was willing for our two girls to come pasture at her farm for a couple of months. Though we offered to pay her or have a large quantity of hay delivered to her as a useful thanks, she declined. She is just being extremely generous to us, people she's never met. I'm finding that country folks are mostly really kind, giving people.

So the date was set for us to load our two cows into the livestock trailer that we bought from the people who sold us Annabelle and drive them an hour into the hills. I think this trailer is pretty sweet. Originally it had a bumper sticker that said "Back off city boy, country girl on board!" But mercifully I peeled it off before Caleb had to tow it for the first time.  

Bless you, Nutmeg

I asked my experienced neighbor for advice on loading the cows and she said, "Allow yourself plenty of time and just feed them into the trailer. Whatever you do, do not get frustrated. If they know that you want them to get in, that is the last place they will go." Knowing that these girls will follow me anywhere if I'm holding a bucket of grain, I really was not too worried. At this point I will abridge the story and say that after two hours of continuous effort we had loaded zero cows. The grain did not work. Apples did not work. Hay did not work. I was a sweaty mess (that trailer does not breathe!), near tears, seeking guidance from God, and was about to give up, when Nutmeg decided to just hop right in. Praise the Lord! 

Daylight was waning, so we tried Annabelle one last time, but she declined. She is 11 and perhaps wise even beyond her years. She has had several owners. She has calved every year of her life. She understands that no good comes from riding in trailers. 

Annabelle does what she wants. And as I now realize, she also doesn't do what she doesn't want. I have to respect a cow who knows her mind. Nutmeg is still hanging with Buddy the Bull and is hopefully pregnant even as I write this. Annabelle is still un-pregnant in our pasture. 

Annabelle's not hating that grain bucket now

One species of animal we have not struggled to breed are chickens. Last week Caleb came in from the barn and said, "Here's one for you. Apparently we've been missing a chicken for 21 days because there is a black chick running around the barn." Yes, we've gone from naming our chickens to not even counting them at night because I can't remember how many we have and half of them are black (black being the dominant trait in the "barnyard mix" chicks we keep hatching) and I don't know who's who. So it was quite feasible that we had missed a chicken for three weeks without realizing it. After hearing this, I just assumed a hen had sat on one of her own eggs and hatched one chick. The next morning I went out to find not one, but ten adorable fluffy chicks scurrying around the barn. 

We really didn't want more chickens right now, but it's hard to be too upset with this much adorableness pecking and scratching around the barnyard. 

And there's something about summer that just makes everything all right.   

A Time for Everything

Hope is tomorrow's veneer over today's disappointment.

~Evan Esar

We started the year with such excitement and high hopes.

In Janurary we purchased a pregnant Irish Dexter named Annabelle with her steer (neutered male) calf.

She was expected to calve in February or March, and we desired to keep a heifer calf (female) to raise and breed or raise a bull calf for beef, along with Annabelle's other boy.
Although Annabelle is 11, we bought her for a good price and hoped to get a couple more calves out of her before allowing her to live out her retirement years in our pasture. She is such a sweetheart and will greedily accept my pets, brushes, and scratches all day long.

A few weeks after purchasing her, she began wheezing, while also having runny eyes and discharge coming from her nose. I waited a while before calling the farm vet, but eventually decided to. When he came out, I casually mentioned that she was due to give birth "any day". He took one look at her and said, "I hate to tell you this, but I don't think she's pregnant." Since he was doing lab work on her anyway, we opted to have a pregnancy test done and indeed, she was not pregnant. I don't believe the prior owners had been dishonest with us. They were lovely people and I do believe she had been with a bull for two months. The vet surmises that at her age her cycles are slowing down and it will take longer for her to get pregnant.

We felt quite foolish for buying this old, un-pregnant cow. She was ultimately diagnosed with lungworm, a treatable parasite, but one which she introduced to our previously-clean pasture, and we therefore had to worm all our animals. We spent $300 on the vet and lab bills, and it was discouraging to think how one thing going wrong with an animal can wipe out any profit a person might have been hoping to make. Not only would we not have a calf to raise and sell for beef, but we had to pay the vet bill, find a way to breed her, and then feed and care for her for the next year before she even calves. We obviously aren't trying to make a living doing this, but I have a huge respect and concern for people who do. The margins are extremely tight, and it is not easy. 


On a much smaller scale, I have realized this truth in raising hens and selling eggs. When hens are young and laying an egg a day in summer we can about break even on paying for feed and keeping a couple dozen per week for ourselves. In the winter when hens lay once or twice per week, or when they turn two and begin to slow down altogether, there is no margin to cover expenses. When a predator takes out two hens at once, hens we have fed and cared for and gotten to a place where they lay daily, it is a great loss. When we have to buy new chicks or medicine or cedar chips to clean out the coop (not to mention the several hundred dollars it cost to build the coop), there is no way to recover that cost. There is only so much we can charge for a dozen eggs. We charge $4/dozen for organic, pastured eggs, which is on the higher end of what people are willing to pay anyway. (Even Costco with their massive buying power charges $3.50.) And though we are certainly not the most efficient egg farmers around, I am mindful that those able to produce and sell eggs for $2/dozen must be scrimping somewhere, most likely on quality feed, animal welfare, and humane practices. (Have you ever watched one of those horrifying industrial-egg-factory videos?) It's all somewhat discouraging and disappointing.

But I will return to the subject of cows. Since we were going to need to bring a bull in for Annabelle, we decided we might as well get one more female cow to breed along with her.

And so we purchased Nutmeg, a red Irish Dexter heifer (a female that has never given birth - I define terms because it has taken me a long while to understand them myself). Now, six months later, we are still attempting to track down an Irish Dexter bull to breed them both. A woman has kindly offered to pasture them with her herd, which includes a bull, for a couple of months this summer and we will likely take her up on that. If that doesn't work out, we have the number of two different people who offer AI (artificial insemination) services.

Another major disappointment has been the ordeal of breeding our goats. We purchased a buck (un-neutered male) in January, went to the expense of registering him with the USDGA (United States Dairy Goats Association) because our doelings (females who have never given birth) are purebred and we wanted to be able to sell our kids as purebred registered Nigerian Dwarfs. We also had a vet tech out to do disease testing on our girls and the buck because when purchasing kids, many people want certification that they come from a clean herd. Nigerian Dwarfs usually have between 2-4 kids per litter, so we were expecting to have several kids to sell. 

After Westley did his job, we were quite ready to send him on to his next home. We then noticed that a large population on Homesteader's Classifieds (a Facebook group we belong to) were trying to unload Nigerian Dwarf bucks much cuter than ours and no one wanted to buy them. We became worried that we would be stuck with this stinky, horny goat, so when his previous owners offered to take him back (because they really did love him), but not refund our money, we readily accepted. We chalked the purchase price up to a "stud fee". 

Elinor

Five months passed and Elinor's due date approached. She was confirmed pregnant by a test we had the vet tech do when she was here for disease testing. Ten days prior to d-day, she began having discharge that, from all my internet research, did not look healthy or normal. I was fairly certain that she was miscarrying but being completely new to this realm of animal husbandry, I was at a loss as to what to do and was worried about Elinor's health as well. Our farm vet came out for an emergency call on a Sunday and extricated a single very under-developed fetus. So, so disappointing. 

We had thought our farm would be abounding with new life this Spring, but it has not been so. Our very last hope for a baby lies in Marianne. She was not confirmed pregnant by the test because she would not have been far enough along. She is the tiniest thing and we are all a bit suspicious that there could even be a baby in there. If there is, it's likely only one. So our goat venture has cost about $600, a lot of hassle, and may not amount to anything. 

Marianne

The disappointments in the Little House book series are truly heartbreaking. I often think with amazement of Pa because no matter what calamity befell his family - plagues of locust, ruined crops, months-long blizzards, being forced off his homestead by changing boundaries - he began again, and with a twinkle in his eye. "There is no great loss without some small gain" was a common Ingalls Family saying. Our losses and disappointments are absurdly minor compared to theirs and to those of many others. 

The barnyard on a summer afternoon is about the most peaceful place that exists. All is still and quiet, as the chickens dust bathe in the shade, the goats snooze on their wooden wall, the cows lounge under trees to avoid the flies and heat. Recently I strolled out one blazing afternoon, and it was all so good and beautiful on our property that I couldn't even conjure up those disappointed feelings I had felt two-weeks prior when I held a screaming, trembling goat with tears streaming down my face. 

There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 a time to be born and a time to die,

    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

    a time to kill and a time to heal,

    a time to tear down and a time to build,

    a time to weep and a time to laugh,

    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

    a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

     a time to search and a time to give up,

    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

   a time to tear and a time to mend,

    a time to be silent and a time to speak,

   a time to love and a time to hate,

    a time for war and a time for peace.

~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

What else can you do but joyfully and resolutely move forward?

New Animals, New Goals, and a New Year

Many are the plans in a man's heart, 

but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.

~Proverbs 19:21

2016 arrived with hopes, and dreams, and plans,

It's sparkling cider, I promise.

and the snow that our family had been longing for for two years. (Every day my sweet Charlie-boy re-caps the 5-day weather forecast from the newspaper with a sad, "It's not going to snow this week, Mom.")

Of course, we had to chase the snow down in Central Oregon, but we did find it and the kids started their year off just right.

The adults in the family used the time away to take stock of our homesteading goals for the new year. And we do have a few, perhaps best summarized by the books we wrapped up for each other for Christmas.

Bread
I have had a bread machine for years and use it fairly regularly. However, I have never made a completely from-scratch bread that I've kneaded myself and baked in the oven. After listening to the Pioneering Today podcast entitled Why You Should Grind Your Own Flour & Choosing a Mill , I became intrigued by the benefits of grinding flour. I use a lot of whole-wheat flour in our recipes, but what I didn't understand was that in order for flour to be shelf-stable, both the bran and the germ of the wheat berry are discarded and it is merely the starchy endosperm that is left. By grinding my own wheat berries, I would be baking a much more nutrient-dense loaf of bread. And while freshly ground flour does go rancid quickly (although it can be stored in the freezer for several months), wheat berries themselves keep for years. Since we are attempting to build up our food storage (see The Prepper's Pocket Guide on the top of the stack), this is a definite benefit. So for my birthday, Caleb got me all set up with supplies, plus he took me up to Bob's Red Mill, which is bulk-grain heaven, to pick out my berries. 

My goal for the New Year is to master two types of bread, one crusty artisan bread and one everyday sandwich type of bread. 

Garden
I am planning to approach my garden differently this year. First, we are completely restructuring the space and building raised beds to allow us to amend the soil more efficiently and also tidy up the garden visually. 

This book is a fantastic resource.

Second, after listening to a Pioneering Today podcast about heirloom seeds, I decided that that is the direction I want to go with my garden. I almost always choose the instant gratification of purchasing vegetable starts at the nursery rather than mustering up the patience required for planting seeds. However, since self-sufficiency is one of our goals, planting heirloom seeds would enable me to save seeds for next year, thus always having a continuous supply, rather than being dependent on a grower. Hybrid seeds cannot be collected and planted the next year as they will not grow true to their parent plant. Third, I have decided that instead of just walking into a nursery, purchasing whatever they have, growing too much of it, and then trying to figure out a way to use it, I will instead look at my family's favorite recipes and evaluate what crops would most enable us to eat with all or nearly all of our own ingredients. Along with the tomatoes and squash I already grow plenty of, some obvious choices would be potatoes, corn (much more than the small patch we grew last year), carrots, spinach, green beans, peas, onions, and garlic. I've decided I would rather grow less variety and really learn how to do a few crops well. This might be a "learning year" (i.e. less abundant than previous years), but I am okay with that.   

Animals

We have several animal goals for 2016, and some of our plans are already well underway.

Pigs:
Caleb is researching pigs and has designed plans for turning one of the animal shelters in our pasture into a pigpen. It will be a little trek from the house for daily care and feedings but the outbuilding already has water to it and seems the best option for using what we already have available to us. Plus, I figure a few extra steps every day is good for everyone. We plan to get two piglets in the spring to raise for fall slaughter, keeping half of one for ourselves and selling the other three halves.

The brown animal shelter is the future pigpen.

Goats:
Since getting our goats, Marianne and Elinor, a year-and-a-half ago, we have wanted to breed them. They are purebred, registered Nigerian Dwarfs and aside from the fun of having adorable kids running around, we should be able to sell the kids for a nice amount of money. The procedure for breeding them is knowing when your doe is in heat (every 17-21 days), finding the 12 hours that she will "stand for a buck", and then rushing her out to a breeder who has a buck. I contacted the farm where we bought them and the owner said for $15 each we could bring them out to be bred. But it is an hour's drive and I would have to determine when they were ready and then head out immediately, and if the two of them weren't in heat at the same time I would have to make two trips. It all seemed like so much hassle that I had the idea that it would just be easier to buy a buck, allow him to be in with the girls for a month, and then re-sell him.  The interesting thing is that in the opening paragraph of my first ever blog post about goats, I rattled off all of the reasons that it is absolutely not recommended that anyone ever own a buck, including, but not limited to:

* bizarre sexual behavior
* a strong musky smell 
* aggressiveness toward male humans
* "courting" of female humans

And yet, part of me thought, "How bad can it be?" So when I found a purebred Nigerian Dwarf buck on the Oregon Homesteaders Classifieds Facebook page for only $125, I quickly made arrangements to purchase him. Meet Westley!

And how bad is it? First off, the smell is stifling and just brushing against him will put your clothes in need of a washing. If said clothes are left in the laundry room, the entire vicinity will reek. At times, our entire property emanates goat musk. 

When we ushered Westley into the goat pasture for the first time, Marianne was actually in heat so we all got a front row seat to the "bizarre" behavior I had read about.  I was explaining to my dear mother what we had witnessed, and she astutely noted, "You can't un-see that!" No, I cannot. Nor can my children. That's home education, folks! 

If you follow Good Gifts Farm's Facebook page, you likely have seen 
this picture. I think Marianne may be saying "help me" with her eyes.

Westley, Marianne, and Elinor

Westley made quick work of his assignment and we should have two litters of kids in June. Between the horrible smell, his repeated escapes over the fence, and the fact that I was mounted last week in the pasture (not my most glamorous homesteading moment), we are anxious to re-home him.   

Cows: 
In November we slaughtered Mask and Goggles, the calves whose births we had watched and who we subsequently raised for 18 months. 

June 2014

   

June 2014

We had sold their mamas a few months back (with hopes and plans of getting Irish Dexters later on) and it was their time. As D-Day approached, the kids were a little bit sad but we talked a lot about why we raised the cows; they were not pets. Their purpose was to feed our family and the families of many people we care about. When the mobile slaughter came, the kids actually watched with fascination (from a distance) as the cows were skinned and cut up. And I think we all have a deeper appreciation for that delicious Shepherd's Pie on our dinner table, as we understand exactly where the pasture-raised beef came from.

We have 300 pounds of beef (which is 1/2 of one of the cows; I won't say which) in the freezer and we sold 800 pounds to friends. We are not great record keepers, but from our estimations, we were able to pay for the raising of the cows and for the beef we kept for our family. We also gained tremendous satisfaction from offering such healthy, humanely-raised beef to people we know and love. 

A couple of weeks ago we welcomed pregnant Annabelle, who will be giving birth in the next couple of months (we're not sure exactly when) and her 9 month-old steer calf.

They are Irish Dexters, which is exactly what we had been searching for. What's hard to tell from the picture is that Annabelle is only about three-feet tall. Irish Dexters are a small "homestead" breed, perfect for beef and milk. We will be raising the calf for beef, as well as Annabelle's next calf, if it is a bull. If the calf is a heifer, we will keep her to breed, as we would like to have two heifers for a continuous cycle of calving and beef.

I am so in love with this sweet girl. She is 11 and was milked by her previous owner so she is calm, gentle, and extremely friendly. She loves to be scratched and brushed and will stand for as long as I'll do it. Our plan is to get a few more calves out of her and then let her retire and live out the remainder of her days as a well-loved pet. She has calved every year of her life, so I think she's earned it. 

We excitedly welcome 2016 with hopes of expanding our limited skill set and the promise of many homesteading adventures. But we do hold our plans loosely and trust that, succeed or fail, God's purpose will prevail in all our endeavors.

Pot Pourri

A warm January day

Winter Recovery
The past three months have been quiet on the farm. I suppose that is part of the purpose of Winter - to restore us and give us rest and ready us for the coming season of growth and activity and new life. The first seed catalog arrived in January and I could not even look at it. There was not yet enough distance between that exhilaratingly exhausting time last Summer and Autumn and its arrival. I stuck it on a shelf. By Mid-February the stack had grown to five different catalogs, we were experiencing weather in the mid 60s, and I was getting the itch. I began casually thumbing through them. 

Q: Why did the chicken cross the irrigation ditch?
A: To get to the compost pile. 

Fast-forward to the second week of April and I am longing to be planting, but my garden is not ready for me. Caleb has been completely re-laying the irrigation system. (I am continuously amazed at the breadth of skills my attorney husband has.) Parts of it was malfunctioning last year and I had to do a lot of hand-watering. While it is torn up, we decided to re-arrange the beds and re-organize the general layout. It pains me to pass by the pea starts and salad greens I keep seeing at the store. Hopefully within a couple of weeks the garden will be put back together and I can begin planting.

Getting Prepared

Stored in the barn, waiting for an emergency

I've felt kind of proud of how we've become "animal people" the past year and a half. But in the back of my mind I've had this nagging notion that we haven't really been tried yet. Everything has gone smoothly. Even our cows giving birth came off without a hitch. When our chicken got injured and was pecked to death by her flock-mates, we were on vacation and had a housesitter (my sweet niece who handled it so well), so we even escaped that. We lost one other chicken to a predator, but by the time I found her, she was quite a bit past needing any intervention by me. At some point I realized that we were completely ill-equipped to handle the injury or illness that would inevitably occur on a farm. I did not own a single piece of animal first-aid or medicine, which just seemed irresponsible. So I posted a question on the Oregon Homesteaders Chat Facebook page: What essential items would you include in a farm-animal first-aid kit? I received many responses, wrote them all down, cross-referenced to see which items came up the most often, and set about to track them down. I was able to find everything on Amazon, spending about $100, but I really feel like we have what we will need for most any circumstance. Our kit includes:

*Blood Stop Powder
*Blu Kote (paints wounds blue so chickens won't peck at them)
*Vetericyn Wound and Skin Care
*Electrolyte powder 
*Aspirin Powder
*Epsom Salts
Plus, essential supplies, like towels, bandages, duct tape, syringes, cotton balls, cue tips and maxi pads (supposedly perfect for wrapping around a leg wound). 

Now, if I will actually be able to treat my animals without passing out (I have serious blood issues, and I am not exaggerating), that will be a miracle. 

Not a Big Deal
Since we got our goats last July, the task of trimming their hooves has hung heavily over us. It seemed intimidating and dangerous  (for them) and we put if off for months. I spoke to a dad at our homeschool co-op who is a serious DIYer when it comes to animals. He hunts elk and traps beavers and butchers animals himself. But he said he would hire out trimming goat hooves in a heartbeat. Caleb, however, was adamant that we needed to do it, at least the first time, ourselves. The task is supposed to be done every two months and we had put it off for six. It was time. We purchased a pair of $14 clippers from Amazon (they received great reviews) and watched a particular Ohio State University Youtube video several times and felt as ready as we would ever feel. The ideal set-up would be a milking stand where the goat's neck is constrained, but since we did not have that, we gerry-rigged a rope contraption and fed them oats (a rare treat) to distract them. 

Elinor and Marianne were slightly agitated, but mostly because they were not near each other. (They are extremely bonded and cry continuously if away from each other.) It really was easy to see where the hooves needed to be trimmed and the job was accomplished with little drama. 

We did not even draw blood. Elisabeth was concerned by the whole process. She asked what we'd do if we cut off a foot. Caleb assured her that wouldn't happen. She persisted, "But if it does, what will you do with the body???" Good question, but thankfully it didn't come to that.

Keeping Promises
You may remember that last September I made a promise that we were done adding animals to our farm for a while. I have been to true to my word (and have only wavered slightly when seeing the many spring piglets for sale). It was Caleb's idea to get some pullets (hens under a year old) at the Oregon Poultry Swap, which we had been planning to attend. Our big-picture chicken plan is to add chickens every six months or so to keep the stream of eggs continuous because, as chickens age, they begin to lay less. Britton had been really sick with a high fever for 9 days. On day 7 he tearfully shared his fear that he would not be well enough to go to the poultry swap. That's my chicken boy! 

Thankfully, Britton was better and our family headed out to the Polk County Fairgrounds in Rickreall. What an interesting experience. The exhibition hall was packed with vendors hocking very homemade handicrafts, roosters (a lot of roosters), pullets, rabbits, quail, and other random animals. There were so many people that it was hard to move (and keep track of four children). We arrived shortly after the doors opened but the pullet selection was already very picked over. The only lady with any selection left had 4 month and 6 month Bantam Cochins for sale for $15 each. We didn't know anything about Bantams but they were adorable and had feathered feet (feathered feet!). So we picked up four: two silver 4 month olds and 2 black and white 6 month olds that were already laying. 

As we drove home I used Caleb's phone to research our purchase. Here's what we learned about Bantam Cochins:


*They are originally from China but were given as a gift to Queen Victoria and are now very popular in England.
*They are poor layers.
*They only grow to 2 1/2 pounds. (Our other hens are 7-10 lbs.)
*They lay very small eggs.
*They love people and follow them around. (We have goats for that. And 13 other chickens.)
*They are like people in feather suits. (That is a direct quote from a Bantam website.) 

Okay, so maybe we would not have chosen them if we  had researched first, but they are a bit of a novelty and we are always up for trying a new breed. They are stinkin-adorable and did I mention they have feathered feet??

We've been reading the Little House books all school year, so we named these four after the Ingalls girls: Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Grace. And we all agree, one particularly spunky black one is defintely Laura. 

Life's Logistics

My life-long dream of owning a Volkswagon Van has
come true. Big Blue is perfect for our family and
I'm so thankful we found it!

How my kitchen and family-room look today

All winter we've been enjoying the calm, but anticipating that life was about to get cRaZy. (This has helped me keep the above-referenced promise, as I knew that we just could not take anything else on right now.) We bought a van and sold my car, in preparation for becoming a family of 7. We are on track to leave for China June 10 to bring home Graham Jeffrey. And I am currently 3 weeks into 10 weeks without a kitchen. Our kitchen remodel (and adding a bedroom project) is scheduled to be done two days before we leave for China.  What if there's a delay and the project isn't done? How am I going to get moved back in in the one day before we leave for China when I will have 10,000 other things to do? How am I going to detox my family from the convenience food I am feeding them while we live without a kitchen? My head can start spinning... I don't know what these next few weeks are going to look like. But I know the One who knows, and I am giving it to Him. A new child, a new kitchen... it's ALL GOOD and I'm sure these trifling details will work out. With all the time we'll be spending OUT of the house, I'm certain to get my garden planted before we leave. And after we return from China, I'm thinking that a little spotted piglet or two might be just what Good Gifts Farm needs. 

And Then There Were Goats... (Part II)

If you're short of trouble, take a goat.

~Finnish proverb

When we brought Elinor and Marianne home, we placed them in the pasture and expected them to start eating the vast variety of yummy weeds and shrubs and grasses thriving there. (Goats are browsers, preferring a sampling of many things rather than the focused grazing on grass of cows or sheep.) But they just stood at the fence and Meh-ed at us for days. And days. Since their previous owner did not have pasture for them, they were kept in a small pen and fed oats. We continued to do this for a few days but then decided we needed to starve them out and force them to browse. Even then, they mostly just stood at the fence, keeping a watchful eye for one of us to step outside so they could cry at us. They were pathetic. 

Every evening we would let them out with us and they were our shadows. (Actually Elinor was our shadow and Marianne was Elinor's shadow.) We strolled up and down our long gravel driveway while they nibbled on blackberry bushes and dried leaves, never leaving our side. If we had to step inside for a moment, this would be the view from inside (accompanied by very sad crying): 

Feeding a goat is not as straight forward as other livestock. They need a mix of hay (second or third cutting alfalfa), goat-specific mineral supplement, and grain. Plus, they are subject to various ailments like bloat, which occurs if they eat wet grass, kidney stones, and lactic acidosis (grain overload) if their rumen PH falls below 5.5. (I'm not sure I even know what that means.) Plus, many common plants are toxic to them, including rhododendron and laurel (we have both) and tomato plants (which I totally would have thrown to them at the end of growing season, if I had not read this). All of this was stressing me out the first couple of weeks. Finally, we bought some Purina Goat Chow, which I'm sure is junk, but at least won't kill them immediately, and we are purchasing some second cutting alfalfa for the winter.  

They are definitely more comfortable now and venture out into the larger pastures to nibble on goodies, but still prefer to be fed (and if it comes directly from our hands, all the better.) They are more like dogs than farm animals, which took some getting used to, since we already have two dogs and I wasn't really in the market for more. 

Yes, that's Elinor giving me a kiss.

I have grown to love these creatures, but they are a handful. They used to gladly follow us back to the pasture when their time out with us was finished. Now, they're too smart for that and I have literally had to drag Elinor the LONG distance down to the pasture while she dropped to her knees like a toddler who doesn't want to go where she is being led. They force their way through the small chicken door into the coop (actually breaking it) and devour chicken feed (which can also be toxic to them). They mysteriously appear places with no indication of how they got in or out. They truly are endearing though. And they just want to be with us. Is that so wrong?

People ask us why we bought them. Are they working goats? Are they pets? We thought they would work on our weed and blackberry and poison oak problem, but they are so finicky and so small that they could eat every hour for the rest of their lives and really not make a dent. We would like to breed Elinor this fall or spring and sell some kids. (Shock of shocks: Caleb said he would like to keep one of the kids. I'm including that information here because after something is written on a blog, it's irrevocable, right?) After breeding, Elinor will be in milk. I really would like to try milking her, but it is a huge commitment, as goats have to be milked twice a day, at 12 hours intervals. After gushing extensively about how convenient it was to spend a little more money and purchase the pre-sliced Tillamook cheddar from Costco, my dear husband gently suggested that maybe my zeal for pre-sliced cheese indicates that I am not quite ready to tackle home dairy. Touche. So let's face it, they are pets, and we are okay with that.