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.

Goat Revolt

I have to admit I wasn't a very good goat today. Neither was Abby. The weather hasn't been very nice lately and we are, uhmm, perhaps I should say, prima donna goats and we don't like rain or snow. We like bright sunshine. The last few days have been nothing but rain and wet snow. So when we looked out the barn door this morning and AGAIN saw snow coming down from the sky we really did not want to leave the warm, dry barn. I know we have our lovely little goat house but it is not as nice as the barn and not as big. Plus there is the long walk to get there. I would get my fur all wet. Really, isn't that just too much to ask of a goat?

So when the publicist tried to get us out of the barn we both just refused to leave. She then put our leads on us and got us to go out one door (she had mistakenly locked herself in -hee hee - and had to open the second door to get herself out. She then got the second door opened. Silly publicist!) So we ran out one door, around the barn and right back in the other door! I think we frustrated her a bit because we did this several times before she could get one of the doors shut again. We finally got down to our pen and ran to our goat house.

The boys didn't care as much about the weather at first, they were just happy to be out butting heads. Boys will be boys. But once they got settled into their pens even they started to MAAAAA very loudly about the conditions. The snow was coming down very hard. The publicist got the barn all fixed up and she then brought us all back in for the day. I must say that this spokesgoat was happy about that.

Happy Goats Farm Visitors - Black Cat

Today I want to introduce you to another regular visitor to the Happy Goats Farm. It is a cat the publicist calls "Black Cat" for obvious reasons; he is a black cat! We don't know exactly where he comes from but we think he lives in the barn across the street with the horses.

You remember the horses from Michael's Big Adventure, don't you?

He is a very handsome boy but he does like to get into cat-calling fights with Fred the cat. Boy can they be noisy. Sometimes I think they are going to break my goat eardrums. I really wonder if cats are necessary....but I know there are too many cat lovers out there for me to really go to far with that sentiment.

Black Cat likes to sit in the hay pile and scope out the scene. Sometimes he just sleeps up there all day. Maybe that is why we don't have mice in our barn. What do you think?

BRRRRRRR!

I just want to say that I am a NIGERIAN dwarf goat. My roots are in AFRICA. Where it is WARM. I don't mean to shout but it is COLD today. And windy. Which makes it feel even colder. I have spent my entire life in cold places (as far as I know - I think I was born in Idaho but I can't remember that far back) but that doesn't mean I like them. This year has been very snowy and very cold and this goat is having a hissy fit. Today we came out of the barn and the wind was blowing and it was very, very, very, very ,very,very,very cold. I have to say our publicist is good about these things; she doesn't like the cold either so she put us back into our warm barn. She also cares about our little goat feet - she puts hay down where we walk so we don't have to stand on the snow all the time.



Now yesterday was beautiful. It was still cold, but the sun was shining. There is nothing a goat likes more than to bask in the sun, well except for maybe grain, or apples, or pears, or carrots. I spent most of yesterday in my favorite place enjoying the beautiful sunshine and chewing my cud.



On days like that it is good to be a goat.

Crazy Goats!

I live with a bunch of crazy goats! I do not include myself in that sentence. I am not a crazy goat; I am a Happy Goat as befits the spokesgoat for Happy Goats Soap. But given the behavior of the other goats on this farm I am beginning to think it should have been called the Crazy Goats Farm. For example, yesterday when our publicist/udder massage specialist was bringing Abigail and me down from the barn to our pen Abigail decided it would be a good time to go visit the horses across the street - and off she ran. But she forgot that the driveway is a sheet of ice. Her hooves were a' moving but Abigail was not. She eventually got some traction but ended up doing a face plant and sliding a good four feet before the publicist caught up to her and got her turned around. I was trying to be a good goat and not laugh at her but it was very, very hard.

Then Michael the goat escaped from HIS pen. Again. Now that he has discovered how to get a running head of steam and leap over his fence he just keeps doing so. He is just so proud of himself! The publicist drags him back to his pen by his horns -which he doesn't like at all! I think it upsets him that she is strong enough to do it. Hee hee. This week our male person is going to buy taller fencing so that Michael will stay where he belongs - hopefully.

But the topper of the day belonged to Luke the goat. When it was time to head back up to the barn for our goat treat and a good night's sleep Luke decided he just wasn't quite ready yet. Actually Michael didn't head right up either so the publicist had her hands full of rammy goats. She went to the goat barn and got a lead, hooked Michael the goat up and took him to the barn. When Luke the goat saw her returning he climbed the mulch pile. The publicist yelled at him; told him he better not dare jump into the doe pen. But you can guess what happened. Luke leaped! He started chasing Abigail around as if his life depended on it. I just stood back while Abigail ran like the devil was chasing her. And in a way I guess he was. Again, I tried not to laugh at Abigail's predicament but it was ABIGAIL after all.....

The publicist opened our gate and I ran out. Abigail finally figured out to escape as well. Luke had the gate slammed in his little goat face. He was not happy about this at all! Abigail and I RAN to the goat barn while Luke MAAAAAAAAed like a crazy goat. The publicist got us settled and went back for Luke the goat and found him with his head stuck in the fence! He put it through were our pen meets the garden. He was trying to fit his whole little goat body through an 8" x 8" hole. Crazy goat! When the publicist went in to help him he was so focused on getting to us girls that he did not want to back out of the fence, he just wanted to go forward. It's that whole "gotta get a doe" mentality these bucks have, you know? And I thought he was in love with ME. Bucks are fickle, FICKLE!

Anyway, with much wiggling the publicist finally was able to get Luke the goat out of the fencing, hooked up to a lead and into his pen in the barn. Whew! She was exhausted! Luke the goat was, uh, frustrated.