Saturday, January 8, 2011

Goats!

I don't believe I have ever shared pictures of our goats on this blog other than the header photo.  We had mini-LaManchas for a while and absolutely loved them.  I have a thing for goats in general, but specifically for LaManchas.  I even have an "I Love LaManchas" sticker on my car (which gets a lot of odd looks since we are smack dab in the middle of the suburbs where most people only see goats at the county fair and certainly don't know what a LaMancha is.)  We loved having the goats and loved the milk we got but we finally decided that our property just isn't suited to goats.  They spent almost all of their time hanging out on our patio, which meant that almost all their poop and peep ended up on our patio.  Not to mention, I lived in constant fear of upsetting neighbors with the noise they made.

Before they left us, both of our lovely does had kids and that was undoubtedly the best part of having goats.  The kids loved us and we loved them.  They climbed in our laps to nap, they chewed our hair, and left little goaty footprints on all our clothes.  The ran and jumped and hopped and in general were just adorable.  When I went out to do milking, I had to braid my hair, put it down the back of my shirt, and then put on sweatshirt with the hood up to keep them from eating all of my hair while I was busy with milking.  I would love to live where we could again have goats and hope to get that chance someday.

Bella was the queen of the herd and the mother (or grandmother) of all the goats we had.  She definitely had the queen attitude.  She made sure everyone knew their place; dogs, the other goats, even us.  She was always the one who woke me up in the morning telling me as loudly as she could that it was time for me to get up, let her out into the yard, and get her some grain.  She had the most evil stare I have ever seen on a goat when things weren't going her way.  The first picture is an awful one but gives a good impression of that intimidating stare.

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Fleur was one of Bella's kids and wasn't nearly as trusting of people.  Bella knew exactly what people were for, to provide her with food and back scratches.  Fleur had to be convinced that we weren't actually trying to eat her.  Once we gained her trust, however, she was just as demanding of treats but could still do without most of the back scratches.  When she thought we were up to something nefarious, she would scream like the devil was biting her butt.  She was a fantastic milker, however.

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Bella had three kids while she was with us.  Triplets that were just the cutest little goats in existence.  Lupin was the first one born and was the pig of the group.  He was constantly whining that he was hungry and was always the first one to try and steal grain when I was concentrating on milking.

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Sirius was the second-born and had only one thing on his mind from the moment he was born.  Girls.  All he ever thought about was trying to impress the girls, and since they were the only ones around, he concentrated that attention on his sisters Fleur and Tonks.  When he went to a new home, no one was more glad than Fleur who had certainly had enough of him.

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Tonks was the only girl born to our does and was secretly our favorite.  She had a great personality, was very out-going and definitely the most attention-seeking of all the kids.  She was probably the most active of all the kids and constantly entertained us with her antics.

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Dobby was Fleur's first and only kid.  He was cute but somewhat reserved like his mother.  He certainly preferred to spend his time with the other goats rather than with the humans.

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Goats are still one of my loves, just one I can't indulge at this time.  Hopefully in the future, we will be able to move and have more lovely LaManchas.  At least we have still have dogs and chickens to sustain us!

10 comments:

Jen said...

They are so cute! I really want acouple goats for milkin, even though I've never milked a goat before, well I've never milked any kind of animal, lol. But I wanna learn.

I bet your neighbors did think it was weird that you had goats.

PotterWatchPeeps said...

Yep, they all thought we were crazy. Their kids sure liked coming over for the "petting zoo" though!

fromsophiesview said...

You are making me silly over goats..these pics are just fantastic and they do deserve a clap and a high 5(^5)...thanks so much for this!

Deborah said...

I LOVE your kids! ha ha :)

I want goats so bad... one of these days I'll get it!

Becky's Barnyard said...

You know, I have never heard of LaManchas; but, I really don't know a lot about goats. When I was a "kid" growing up, we had some goats at one time. I do remember they would eat the horses tails and everything else.

Jim said...

Me too! If we could have goats , we would! They look so bright all the time and ready for anything.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful babies!

And I loooovvve Harry Potter. ;):)

April said...

What a great post! I love the photos and your style of writing. Keep blogging and enjoy homeschooling, I know I did!

Unknown said...

I loved all of your pictures!! I have been considering getting a milking goat or two, but the only thing stopping me is I too live in a residential neighborhood and I am concerned that they will make too much noise. A rancher down south who raises Nigerian Dwarfs said that the does are very noisy when in cycle.
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. I would really love to get a couple of does.
How much property is your home on?? I live on less than a quarter of an acre.

michele said...

hello, i was searching on the net to see where i could purchase chickens in the antelope valley area. i noticed your blog and looked @ your pictures, and it seems like you are gardening and raising animals like i do. could you please contact me through email so that i could ask a few questions regarding raising chickens and how to start. do you live in the antelope valley area? i am looking for local places to purchase/adopt chickens and get information as well.
thank you
michele
krokes@verizon.net