What the... UPDATED

I made a promise to several people - including myself - that I wouldn't post anything about the farm for awhile. My blogs had kinda gotten run over with life on the farm segments and I hadn't talked about my writing in awhile. But that was before THIS happened!

Yes, my friends, that is the newest member of our family - Winston - standing on the chair in my LIVING ROOM! Oh wait...here's another picture of the little dev...er, I mean angel.

Yes, he is rather cute, and he did have problems when he was born and was being bottle fed for a little while. But when the, grumble, grumble, grumble, did my house turn into the barn?!?

I laughed the situation off the first time I was sitting in my bed and heard a commotion in the hallway. I couldn't help but grin and groan when Zilla and Sweet Pea came tromping into the room behind this gangly, adorable thing. The most important people in my life were so excited and thought it was so funny. How could I not smile too? Until he peed on my carpet. But I nicely said, "The goat belongs outside."

The problem is that Winston now thinks he's a person. Or that Zilla is his mama (which is kinda funny in and of itself). The goat follows behind him, as in if Zilla takes on step backwards Winston would be crushed. And that's how the little devil got into my house, over and over and over again. No one could shut the door fast enough before he just bounded up the stairs and was in the kitchen. Sigh.

Being the mean and wicked woman that I am I finally had to make an edict. Barn animals stay in the barn! For the moment my house is goat free. We did just put him back outside with his mama and the other goats. However, in barely two days he's managed to get into the pasture with the donkey and almost get crushed twice. I'm a little worried that my peace and quite won't be lasting for long. We lost one baby already this year and we really don't want to lose another because he can't stay on his side of the fence.

I think maybe Winston has an adventurous streak that's going to repeatedly get him in trouble. Winston is definitely too staid a name for this goat. Got anything else we can call him?

Instigator

P.S. The winner of Susan Gable's The Pregnancy Test Passalong from Monday is M. Contact Angel within 7 days with your snail mail address at angel@writingplayground.com.

Down on the Farm Part 2

I was awoken yesterday morning with the exclamation, "It's goat day! It's goat day!" Let me just say that these are words I never thought would be part of my life. The things we do for those we love. *shakes head*

So, as most of you know from last week we have 3 new baby goats - Austin, Uniqua, and Tyrone. (We have a Backyardigans theme going - Tasha is Austin's mama.) Baby Girl came home from school on Monday with a calendar that said Wednesday was bring a farm animal to school day. Somehow, I don't think her teacher expected real farm animals to show up :-) But DH graciously agreed to spend the afternoon letting 3 and 6 yr olds manhandle his babies.

Here are some pictures of Sweet Pea and Baby Girl with the goats.

(Pictures Removed)

The kids were the most fascinated with the umbilical cords the little guys are still sporting and the fact that both goats peed on the floor. Considering several of the 3 yr old's are still working on that issue themselves, I had to laugh.

My life has seriously taken a turn I never expected. Somehow, I think their teachers are feeling the same way right about now. The end of the month is bring a bunny to school day. Guess what DH is taking?

Instigator - who promises to blog about something other than farm animals next week.

New Addition

We have a new addition to the family, Austin, our baby goat. He's 4 days old and just cute as a button. Unfortunately, he won't be ours for long because we'll be selling him in about 4 or 5 months. We just can't keep another male goat, 2 is more than plenty. The problem is explaining that to the girls. They're already in love with him (and we probably compounded the problem by letting them name him...not the most intelligent mommy moment I've ever had).

This is part of the farm life. We simply can't keep everything. The female goats will breed for us when they grow older but the males we have are sufficient for that purpose - not to mention that Austin is related to the females and therefore would dilute the gene pool.

We've explained this inevitability to both girls and so far they seem to understand. Whether or not that holds up in a few months when abstract becomes reality remains to be seen. I'm hoping that by then we'll have a couple more baby goats (Girls. Please.) and that they won't miss Austin quite so much.

Here's a picture of the little fella with his mama.

And a grainy image of him. DH had to chase him around the pasture to get this. He's definitely got spunk!

Instigator

Goat Hell

To fully appreciate the story I'm about to share you need to understand that I'm not really fond of our goats. They're huge. A couple hundred pounds each. Male. And have massive curling horns that look rather wicked and sharp. DH swears that they're nice and I know that they are because we got them from some wonderful people. They're just big. And they like to play and don't realize they're bigger and stronger than you are. DH has no problem with them but the girls are scared of them and I have to say that I avoid the barn whenever possible.

Last Thursday morning that wasn't an option. I had woken up early because I was packing for a weekend away, had to get the girls ready for school and myself off to work. I needed the extra time if everyone was to arrive at their destination on time with paraphernalia in tow. What I got instead was a knock at my door (which never happens) at 7:15 AM. The woman, a neighbor I've never met (Not unusual. We live in the county and everyone pretty much leaves everyone else alone.), tells me - while the dog is trying to tear through the glass door - that my goat is out and charging her son waiting outside for the bus. Uhhh, then why are you standing on my porch alone?!?

Obviously, despite the fact that our goat is huge and I have no authority/control over it, I can't let it terrorize the neighborhood children. So after calling DH (who works 45 minutes away) I told the girls to stay in the house with the dog so I could go assess the situation.

I wasn't even halfway down my driveway before I realized the goat in question was not ours. It wasn't big enough. But no one else in the neighborhood has goats and this woman is walking behind me still in a panic over her son. Me, being the wonderful neighbor I am, decide that despite the fact this thing is not ours I can't leave it. So, I get the goat's attention and get her to follow behind me. She walks from the neighbor's place down the street, along my driveway, through my carport and into my back yard precisely five paces behind me. Whenever I stop she stops. When I walk she walks. She's also started crying. Loudly.

I realize she's lost, lonely, scared and probably hungry. She saw the boy and mother standing outside and thought people and ran to them for help. Only what they saw were her big horns.

Now I'm emotionally involved in this poor thing. I'm late. I'm not packed. The girls aren't ready for school and I should be leaving. Instead I spent fifteen minutes trying to get the goat into our pasture. She wouldn't go more than halfway through the gate because of our huge male goats who are now trying to escape. One goat wrangling a day is my quota so I slammed the gate shut with her on the outside and our goats trying to knock the thing down to get out to her.

Luckily, Sweet Pea choose that moment to come outside. I enlisted her help in trying to cajole our goats away from the gate with treats - something they'd usually stand on their head for. But no. They're more interested in the first female goat they've seen in a year and a half. After many fruitless attempts I'm about to give up when Baby Girl opens the door and lets Jack out into the yard. The dog went CRAZY. He's chasing the goat who is running a circle around Sweet Pea - who is screaming her fool head off - in an attempt to find sanctuary from the yapping, snapping thing on her tail.

I'm late, frustrated, cold, wet and now scared that my child is going to get accidentally gored by someone else's goat. Needless to say, the goat was not in our fence when I left. However, she was standing beside the carport crying as I pulled the van out of the driveway. I felt like a complete heel. We were hoping she'd stay around knowing that we had food and other goats. Unfortunately, she didn't. However, our youngest goat bleated for her for a day and a half. We really need to get the poor thing a woman.

Instigator

P.S. Congratulations to Shari C for being yesterday's winner! Please email Eve here to claim your prize.