The Goats

Sunday, March 7th, I traded a man some hens for a goat. I love trading. I always seem to have a problem handing over cash as I feel Im not getting what Im paying for. Trading opens all sorts of windows for me. In the trade I got a 5 month old boar cross billy. Hes cute but very skiddish. When I let him out of the crate I transported him in he ran the whole yard and started butting the fence trying to run through it. Frantic this goat was! To calm him my SO and I cornered him and I picked him up and put him in our chicken coop (future goat house) and shut the door. The dogs came out for a sniff and he tried butting them through the chicken wire. After a few minuets I put the dogs back up and spent more time by the chicken coop before going in for the night. The next day I leashed him and tethered him to the chair and read to him for about an hour. He started coming around and would come up and sniff me but then jump back and try to take off if I moved my hand. Later that afternoon he took up a cough. The next few days were rainy days so instead of letting him sit out in the cold rain I put him in the extra large dog crate and let him stay inside for a few days. He has really warmed up to us but is still very cautious.

I have named him Socrates.

This past Saturday I got him a nanny friend. She came from a petting zoo type place my SOs cousin manages. Being around people so much she is use to them and loves them. She follows my boys around like a little puppy. For the first day she cried and cried running around the yard until we would come outside. Socrates had NO idea what to think. She is very loving and just wants to be next to people. Right now she seems to have dropped some weight because she is use to being hand fed but in time Im sure she will learn how to get food on her own better.

I have named her Aphrodite.

While I was getting Aphrodite I had the man band Socrates. I did not need a aggressive billy peeing all over himself sticking up the place. I got goats because I wanted an enviromentally safe way to clean up the blackberry bushes that have started taking over my yard. It has gotten very out of control. Here is a before picture and I will post an after once they have finished their "job".