Summer with Goats

Rosie the Nanny a Goat and I now have an understanding which allows me to milk her each morning. At first removing the babies at night was heartbreaking, but now the ask for dinner in their separate pen and sleep happily through the night. Although Rosie still decides when I'm done milking, she doesn't rush straight back to her babies like she did at first, but now she heads straight for the brush and grazes for a bit before showing concern for her crying kids. My hands and arms are getting stronger as is my bond with these magnificent creatures. I love thinking about the domestication of goats 10,000 years ago. Who was the first person crazy enough to attempt to milk a goat? 

I still might just be getting lucky, but so far, the goats graze everything except my flowers and herbs. They even got through a tiny gap in the pool fence to eat the wild grapevine but left the hibiscus alone! When left to free range, they love to play on the stage deck and take naps there intermittently. 

I've been away from them for 2 days now and I miss them dearly. Tomorrow I'll spend time playing, scratching and watching and make up for missed time. 

The Pig

Today we adopted a male mini pig from a student of mine who got him and decided he wasn't getting the life he needed. He comes to us 4 months old with the name Mini, but shall gradually don the title Sir Arthur Mini Barrett Priest Bays. I am really awful at estimating the weight of objects, let alone living creatures, and equally bad at guessing quantitative measurements, so I'll just say he's about as tall and long as our house cats with a belly to his ankles, a tiny little wagging tail, and a stately set of ears. He was quite independent upon his arrival, not paying much attention to us humans. We first introduced him to our two large dogs with each on one side of the fence. Our old lady bloodhound, Stella, wasn't impressed nor threatened by his presence, but our young bull mastiff, Ursa, thought he was just perfect for chasing. Sir Arthur Mini allowed this creature many times his size to race him around the newly fences segment of the barn until the barreled right through a section of welded wire that hadn't been fastened to the barn, merely hooked around the trim. Sir kept running while Ursa suffered the consequence of her too-rowdy behavior enforced by the Dad and Stella looked on unenthusiastically. Ursa spent some time reflecting on her highly reactive behavior inside while Stella, Sir and I took a little walk around the property. The sun quickly set making it just cold enough to necessitate a fire in the wood stove and bring us all near. Sir Arthur Mini was immediately magnetized to the warmth and fell fast asleep. My mom, aunt and uncle came by to meet the new little fella, and had I not picked him up, he might have slept through the whole visit. He was nice and calm when I picked him up and offered him to the others for petting, but squealed in seemingly holy terror when I passed him to my mom. She was slightly offended by his unfavorable response, but Ursa was overjoyed to then receive my mom's full attention. Ursa might be feeling like a bit of a neglected middle child this evening, but I'm confident we have plenty of love to give everyone: dogs, cats, chickens, PIG!