Saturday, November 24, 2018

Brassette Farm Goat Chronicles Volume 2

Thursday, November 22 - Thanksgiving Day

Otis got released from goat jail this morning. He did not manage to escape overnight so that was good. He had a couple of relaxing hours in the backyard eating leaves, walking on railroad ties and taunting the horses. I even saw him jump at a falling leaf.

Mark and I concocted a back-up, back-up plan the night before and ran to Lowe's and got some wire mesh fencing. So, while I cooked and got food ready for our dinner, Mark and Will lined the one of our horse paddocks with the wire.

I moved all of Otis's things. This includes and heated water bucket, a hay trough, a grain pan and new straw bedding (which he tends to eat some of). He seemed quite pleased with his new digs. He ran around and rooted and dug and tossed up hay.

While we were in there with him, as Mark and Will were finishing up some fencing, he did the male goat thing. Oh. My. Heck. In my mind I knew he could do it. I knew he had done it. I had read about it. But to see it happen ... (Insert explanation here: Intact male goats can make themselves pee forward onto their goatees. This is apparently quite sexy in goat romance. Then they shake their head to um, share the love.) So, our jaws dropped and guess what? That fool smiled at us. I mean, he lifted his top lip and showed his teeth and smiled. <eye roll>

The horses are obsessed with him. They run along the edge of his paddock and keep an eye on him.

Oh, and we had some snow flurries today. Couple that with chicken and dumplings and you've got a perfect Thanksgiving.

Friday, November 23, 2018

Brassette Farm Goat Chronicles Volume 1

Wednesday, November 21 - Otis arrived at our farm. He's cute. And smelly. Luckily I expected both. He had peed in the crate they brought him in so he was smellier than he had to be. Guess what?! It is hard to bathe a goat in the winter. Gonna do it though after he gets fixed next week.

The introduction to the dogs didn't go very well. They freak him out. He puts his head down in self-defense and since they are small and old we feared them getting hurt. We quickly realized him loose in the backyard wasn't an option.

He was, um, "girthier" than I expected. This turned out to be good since we couldn't leave him in the backyard with the dogs. Back up plan! We put him in one of the horse paddocks. They are lined with livestock panels and looking at him we thought he'd be secure in there. We got him settled with all of his new paraphernalia.

We went back to check on him an hour later ... he came bebopping across the arena .. he'd been in the pasture with the horses. The expression on Mark's face was priceless. I laughed. Hey, at least we figured out he got along with the horses.

Sooooooo .. Otis went to goat jail. He got a nice, cozy, warm, spot in a horse stall inside the barn. Maximum security for his little goat butt. And though we almost expected to find him romping around the property, he stayed secure.