Inspector Goat Michael

It is good to know that all of the goats here on the Farm are looking out for me. Well, I don't know about Abby - I think she is just waiting for me to go on my maternity leave so she can take over the blog. From there I think she thinks she will become the new spokesgoat for Happy Goat Soap. But I know that is not going to happen. I won't let it. But I digress. Today I am going to tell you how nice Michael the goat was to inspect my new pen and make sure it is safe for me and the new kids. Isn't he a nice son?

He insisted on going into the barn with the publicist to check things out when he saw that the male person was done with my new digs.

He looked over the construction.

He checked out my sleeping bench.

He dutifully made sure my hay feeder was A-OK. I think he might have taste tested my hay!

He even looked over my water bucket. He was VERY thorough!

I am so glad that he wanted to do this for me. It makes me feel very safe. Although I already knew that my new pen was perfect. The male person wouldn't build me anything that wasn't! I just think it was very nice of Michael to want to make sure. Although I suspect that the extra grain he received for the inspection was part of why he did such a good job.

The SpokesGoat Speaks

In what may be my last spokesgoat performance for a bit (Abby will take over the blog while I take my maternity leave) I would like to show you what the publicist did last night. No, you don't have to run and hide your eyes. Sheesh! This is a family blog!

She made soap! I mean after all, I AM the spokesgoat for Happy Goat Soap. I have to do my work occasionally. I will get some time off when I have the kids and the way they are kicking I suspect it will be any day now. But back to the topic at hand - soap! The publicist was a busy soap maker last night making some old favorites and creating a new scent just in time for summer.

Back in stock will be Sweetgrass which will remind you of that great smell in the air after you mow the lawn and juicy, fresh Strawberry Heaven . Mmmmm, a soap that smells like a bowl full of ripe berries. Don't eat it though, it won't taste good AT ALL. But that yummy scent got the publicist to thinking about hot summer days. What is refreshing on those days? Strawberry lemonade! That's right. She made soap that smells like strawberry lemonade. Oooh, it's light and refreshing with the rich smell of those berries topped by the bright, crisp addition of tart lemon. What could be better?

All the beautiful soaps are curing and will be available in a month. The publicist is going to make more soap this week with some friends that want to learn how to make soap. That should be lots of fun.

One more thing for today; I want to do something I haven't done in quite a while. Bestow the Coveted Scratch of the Tail Award! That's right - to GypsyMoonDesigns a fellow Montanan. She created a beautiful treasury and included the Pricilla soap! GypsyMoon makes beautiful jewelry like this necklace. I know it would look wonderful against my fur! So enjoy your award while I enjoy my scratch!

Fighting or Playing?

I was asked about the bucks. About their head butting. I know it looks rather rough and as if they are really attacking each other but they are playing. At least most of the times they are. How do I know, you ask? Well, if you could see video instead of stills you would see their tails wagging a mile a minute. Add that to the fact that they cannot wait to get together to bang heads and you just know they are having a good time.

The only time it gets serious is when they are trying to attract the uh, attention of one of us girls. When a buck thinks a doe is interested in having a, let's call it a goat getaway, he will get rather, uhm, happy. That's the word. Happy. If more than one buck is around when a doe wants a goat getaway the boys will sometimes try to show the doe who has the bigger horns. So to say. THEN their head butting can get a bit more serious. The publicist doesn't let the boys out to play at head butting when Abby or I am looking for a goat getaway.

They are fun to watch when they get going though. The publicist is going to have to learn how to make the video part of her camera works. One of our readers has told her about something called an instruction manual. She is going to investigate this and see what she can learn. I am sure you would like to see video of the boys butting heads. But if I know the publicist I wouldn't hold your breath.

I hope this has answered any questions that you might have about the boys and their head butting sessions. They do eventually calm down and then go about munching on their hay together as peaceful as can be. Silly bucks!

The Weeds are Starting to Grow! This is Good News for a Goat

We had another little taste of Spring here on the Farm yesterday so the publicist let Abigail and me out for a nice long graze. There are lots of nice tasty greens starting to pop up for us to nibble upon. It is good for me to have some green additions to my diet now - the kids are in their final stages and I am about to pop!





The day was just about perfect with a bright blue sky and lots of sun. There were some puffy white clouds floating by. Abby got adventerous and went browsing down in the gulley.





I skirted the edge but didn't go down too far. I think my sense of balance is kid impaired right now. You can see the publicist's house that is being built. It is called a yurt.







The other goats continue to call me "wide load" and I just don't appreciate it!




Even a goat can gaze in wonder at the beautiful view we have here on the farm.








Yum! Look at the beautiful green munchies I got to eat. I am a lucky goat.

Visitors - Our Special Friends Luke and Gretchen

There was big excitement on the Farm yesterday! Our special friends, Luke and Gretchen came to visit us. It is so much fun when children come to see us; they are always so excited at seeing us. Luke the goat was especially playful sproinging around his pen and running back and forth. He is still very shy around any people other than the publicist but I know he enjoyed the attention.

Michael the goat was being a bad boy yesterday; he almost ran the publicist down with his horns as she was trying to exit his pen.She had to run very fast to get out. She was not happy with him AT ALL. So the children had to stay away from him. He gets that way sometimes. You know how bucks can be....

Abigail and I enjoyed having the children here. They tried to feed us some tasty greens through our pen fence. Of course we love anything that has to do with food. Especially me right now; I am eating for three - or more!

Any excitement in our day is welcome. Sometimes just sitting and chewing on one's cud all day can get pretty boring. I know I have some exciting daydreams, but it is also nice to have visitors.

It's Shaggy Time!

Aaahhhh, Spring is coming to the Farm. How can I tell, you ask? Not by the temperatures, that is for sure. Nor by the weather as we had quite the little snowstorm yesterday. I can tell by the state of our coats.

It's shaggy time on the Happy Goats Farm!

We are a mess; some of us more than others of us. Abby and Michael are the worst. I mean, just look at Abby. She looks like she is shedding little mini sheep. You would think she would have the grace to shed mini goats.

What she is shedding is the warm underfur we grow to keep us warm in the winter. In Abby's case the white of her underfur really shows against her black coat.

My coat is varied and has white in it so my shedding isn't as noticeable.

Michael is a raggedy mess. The publicist keeps pulling big pouffy pieces off of him but they keep reappearing.

He looks like he is trying to have dreadlocks. Maybe he wants to move to Jamaica. I wouldn't blame him; it is warm all the time there.

Luke was very curious while the publicist was taking these pictures. He kept putting his little head over the fence. It was a good thing the electricity wasn't running through the fence wires or he would have been in for a shock. Ha! I made a joke. He isn't as shaggy as the rest of us - he lost a lot of his fur in the change from baby goat to adult goat.

Soon we will shed all of this fur and be back to our summer coats and we won't look as ragged. THAT will mean nice, warm sunny weather. I am all for that.

Barn Photos

Yesterday I wrote about all of the wonderful changes in my goat barn. Today I have photos so you can see my special "Pricilla only" pen. I am so happy with it! Now when you go in the barn there are four separate pens. This photo shows the doors to Abby's and my pens.

This is my new pen - isn't it nice? I know the photo isn't the greatest but the camera wouldn't take the picture without the flash and the flash made everything look funny. Someday the publicist will learn how to work her camera properly. Not to mention Photoshop. It will hopefully be in my lifetime.....

Here is my spiffy little bench so I can sit up off of the floor. Goats like to be up. It is so we can see all around us and note if a predator is coming; not so important in a barn but instinct is instinct.

This is my own special hay feeder. The male person built it just for me! Now I can eat whenever I want to and not have to worry that Abby will try and butt me out of the way. I can have all the hay I want, or I can have no hay but it is MY choice, not Abby's!

Oh, and I guess I will be a nice goat and show you Abby's new pen too. By default she also has her own pen. This is her bench. ( I think mine is nicer.)

But enough about Abby. I am just so happy now. I can eat and sleep in peace and I know my little goatlings will be safe. I hope you liked seeing my new crib. I can be a hip goat.

Big Changes

Wow! Was there a big change in my barn last night. It caught me by surprise. It also made me very happy. I now have my very own pen! It used to be I had to share a pen with Abby. I have chronicled in this blog how Abby is less than friendly to me - and I am her mother! She butts me to get to the hay first and doesn't let me have any until she has eaten her fill. If the publicist comes in with a treat she butts me out of the way so she can get there first. This does not work though as the publicist see right through her and makes sure we each get our treat at the same time and in equal amounts.

The stress of living with such a contentious kid was getting to me though and the male person really gave me a nice little pen all to myself. It has a bench for me to sit on and my own little hay feeder. I am going to be sure to get some photos today to show you. It was too dark last night when he finished so I couldn't take any after I was done looking inspecting my new digs. I am so excited.

I knew I would have to be somewhere alone to have my kids. A goat always has a place to herself to kid. I just didn't know the male person was going to do something so nice for me. Now I can sleep in peace anywhere I want in my own little slice of heaven pen. Of course Abby now has her own pen too, but really, do I care about that?

Visitors - Tango the Cat

Today I write another in my Visitors Series. I think my readers like to know about the various types that visit us here at the Farm - please let me know if this is true. We do seem to attract a fair number of feline visitors. I am not so sure why. It could be because the publicist is a cat magnet. I have heard the male person call her this several times. I am not sure he thinks it is a good thing.... And for some reason she seems to attract black cats.

Today's subject is Tango the Cat. He does have a home which is a good thing, but he spends a lot of time here at the farm. Tango belongs to the neighbors to the East of us. They have three dogs and chickens. They also have the most amazing fruit orchard. Our neighbors are very generous in the summer when the fruit is ripe; they let the male person and the publicist come and pick apples, pears, peaches, cherries and plums so the publicist canfreeze and can them for the winter. I will have to make sure I get some photos for you this summer so you can see how beautiful it is.

Tango is here every day sitting on the steps of the trailer. He is very well fed at home but of course the publicist gives him more food. He is a most interesting cat in that he has black fur on top and white fur underneath.(You can see this in a photo further down where he is rolling in the dirt.) Like most of the cats around here I have butt him when he wasn't looking. This is a very bad habit of mine but I must say it is quite comical to watch a cat fly through the air. Since I don't have horns it doesn't hurt them. I really should stop this but.....Tango also has the most amazing turquoise colored eyes. The pictures don't show them off very well.

Tango and the Farm cats (mostly Fred) get into some loud screaching matches. I have never seen them actually fight. They just sit about three feet away from each other and make the most obnoxious sounds two cats can make. This causes the publicist to come out and yell at them. I don't think she likes the noise.

Tango likes to roll around on the ground in the dirt. I think most cats like to do this. I can't say I blame them as it is something we goats do too. It is our "bath." Goats only do it when the dirt is dry - the cats seem to do it anytime. I don't understand cats.

I hope you enjoyed meeting Tango the Cat. I will try to curb my impulse to butt him - but it is just so much fun!

Feature Friday? On Sunday? Artisan Jewelry Designer Vicki Orion

I was having so much fun answering questions this week that I forgot all about Feature Friday! And I love to go rogue; so I am going rogueier (is that a word?) than usual and doing Feature Friday on Sunday. Maybe I should call it Stylin' Sunday - what do you think? Either way I am very excited about today's feature because I get to tell you all about my Aunt Vicki! Now I haven't gotten to meet her yet but she has told me I can call her Aunt - she lives in Alaska! That means she gets even more snow than I do here in Montana. I don't know how she deals with all that snow. She is a better goat, uhm, person than I.

Well on to her beautiful creations. Aunt Vicki has a shop called Orion Designs and she makes beautiful jewelry. I was browsing through her shop and I thought that this beautiful artisan necklace would just pop against my fur. The violet vintage glass bead is just such a lovely spring color.

I don't know a doe that doesn't need a lovely pair of sparkly, handcrafted earrings. These beautiful whiskey quartz cubes are topped by bright twinkles of color. Perfect for day or night; not that I go out at night. I am too afraid of what might be out there. I am a daytime goat.

I think you all should pop on into the shop and look around. I am sure you will find something to suit your every need - well, every jewelry need.

Aunt Vicki also writes a blog! Just like me. I even read it - I am a most literate goat. You can read it too, just go here!

I Love to Answer Questions!

I am a very smart goat. I say this with all humility....

I also love to answer questions and I am so very happy when my readers ask them of me. In yesterday's post I wrote about what it was like to be milked and Daisy and my Aunt Vicki wanted to know more so here I am today with answers to their questions.

Actually it is my publicist and her male person that are providing the answers because I have never tasted cow's milk or goat's milk cheese but I am quite pleased to pass them along. According to them goat's milk tastes exactly the same as cow's milk. The only difference the publicist finds is that it is much richer as my milk is somewhere between 4 and 6% milk fat and she was used to drinking skim milk. What made her most happy was that if she drank any kind of fatted cow's milk she would get horrible heartburn buy our milk does not give her any discomfort at all. Goat's milk is also very good for people who are lactose intolerant because it doesn't contain any lactose. Many babies who cannot drink cow's milk or formula become quite happy and chubby on goat's milk.

Nigerian Dwarf milk is naturally homogenized so the cream does not rise to the top which makes is difficult but not impossible to make butter. But making ice cream is easy, fun and quite tasty! The publicist has done it quite a few times; by all accounts Triple Chocolate was the clear flavor winner.

As to how much milk we give, I am on a rest right now as I have mentioned When Abby and I are both producing at full volume we will give the publicist about a gallon a day. Right now Abby is giving just short of a quart a day (That is yesterday's milk in the photo). It is enough for the male person's morning coffee and cereal plus any baking needs. The rest goes in the freezer for soap or if any barter opportunities arise.

Now to the cheese! The publicist and the male person love cheese. She has done a bit of experimenting and has been very successful at making soft cheeses like feta and chevre. Her mozzarella was not quite as good but she has not given up! She also made two hard cheeses; a cheddar and a Colby. Both were very good and she is looking forward to making more this summer. It is hard for her to make cheese in the winter because her kitchen is very small in the trailer and she cannot keep the milk mixture at the right temperature because she cannot fit her pot in her sink. But come this summer she plans to make lots and lots of hard cheeses to have in her pantry for winter. They have to age for at least four months and get better the longer they sit.

I hope this answered the questions and by all means ask any more you might have. I do love to pass on any goat information I have.

How to Milk a Goat

I was asked what it was like to be milked. It took me a couple of days to get the male person lined up to take the photographs but here we go - what it looks like when the publicist milks Abigail. I would have posed for the pictures myself but I am not being milked right now because my kids are due so soon. When a goat is pregnant about a month before she is do to kid she stops being milked so her udder can rest and get ready for her kids to nurse. Abby will stop being milked in June.

First Abigail runs up onto the milking stanchion. There is always some grain waiting so it is easy to get her up there. When she first started being milked she was not very co-operative but she eventually figured out it was a good thing; she got more grain and her udder got emptied.




Then the publicist cleans her teats with a baby wipe and squirts two squirts from each teat into a pan to get things started. This cleans her off and gets rid of any bacteria that might be on her. Then she wraps her hand around one of Abby's teats to milk her.

It is a two step process - rather like a pull at the top and then a pressing with her fingers to get the milk out. She switches back and forth between Abby's teats because her hands get tired. She does this until there is no more milk to be squirted.

You obviously note that the publicist milks into an All -Clad CopR Chef Sauce Pan. This is part of her good pot collection and it is desperately in need of a good polishing. The publicist suspects she is the only goatherd to milk into such a pan. She would love to know if there is anyone else doing so.

After the milking is done Abby gets down off of the stanchion and then we all get our afternoon apples! (The flash from the camera makes the photo pretty poor but you get the idea.)

I love eating my apples.

The publicist takes the milk up to the trailer (she is living in her fifth wheel while her house is being built) strains it, and puts it in a jar for the male person's morning cereal and coffee.

I hope you all enjoyed this lesson on milking a goat. If anyone else has any questions for me I would love to answer them. I will do my best to address any query you might have!

A Day in the Life of Luke the Goat

Since I am getting tired and not up to my usual antics I thought I would regale you with the tale of A Day in the Life of Luke the Goat. Everyone reading seems to find him as adorable as I do and he is the father of my kids so I don't think it is untoward to focus on his cuteness for a bit.

When the publicist brings Luke down from the barn he runs into his pen and hops up on his spool for his morning grain. He is VERY enthusiastic about his grain and his little tail is wagging so fast I can hardly see it!

He gobbles his grain, making sure to get every little piece that might have fallen out of his bowl.

He then leaps off of his spool and heads for his daily hay.

I have already reported on what a sloppy eater Luke can be - but I still find him adorable.

After a bit of hay the publicist will let him out to play with Michael. This is where those great butting contests occur. The boys do enjoy their time together. They are both wagging their tails and just having a grand ole time trying to bash each others heads in. Boys!

The publicist somehow manages to separate them without too much damage to herself and Luke goes back into his pen for more hay. After a good burp or two he spends most of his day just wandering around his pen.

Sometimes he tries to stick his head out of his gate. I don't think he quite understands that he can't escape that way. Silly buck!

And then it's back to the barn for more grain, more hay and our favorite afternoon treat - apples!



I hope you all enjoyed this trip through Luke's day. I am working on getting a post together on milking a goat. It should be interesting because Abigail is not the most co-operative of models. I am not being milked right now because my kids are due so soon. But I am an intrepid goat and you can rest assured that I will get the job done!