A Girl Gets Her Goat

  This pic showed up in today's memories. It's from about 5 years ago and towards the beginning of my "goat adventures". I have the most amazing pictures of Cooper and the goats but I'm hoping that I'm less likely to earn the ire of my son if only part of his face is visible. :-) I really hope he loves our goats as much as he loved the ones at Caromont when he was younger. I'm getting really close to having what I need for Gimlet and his buddy to arrive. I am waiting to hear back from a farmer over the mountain so I know when I can go pick up hay and ordered a heated water bucket and some medical supplies I've read to keep on hand to go along with the stuff I've already gotten. I won't need the heated water bucket for a while but it was on sale so I took advantage of the lower price. We installed the gutter on the goat pen over the weekend and then promptly had some thunderstorms so we could see how everything works. I'm going to go out tod

  It's rainy today. I spent some time out in the pen to see how the roof was doing and whether the shelter underneath was dry and how wet the grass was getting. The good news is that the shelter was completely dry inside and pretty much dry on top. The grass was damp from splashing water and mist from when the wind blows, but not bad at all, and the joints where the panels meet don't look to be leaking at all. The issue, which isn't unexpected and is one of the reasons I went out there, is where the roof ends. The picture above is pretty bad, but you can see streams of water coming down in the middle and towards the end on both side. You can also see our dog, Murphy, who was checking out the pen since I was inside. :-) Anyway, we're going to have to come up with a gutter for that side of the pen so that section doesn't become a swamp when it rains. Fortunately we designed the supports and made sure there was a 2x4 right at that edge just in case we would need to add

  Today we pretty much finished the goat pen. After researching tons of fencing options I ended up ordering a 10'x10' kennel and 2 extra 10' panels to make a 10'x20' pen. The panels are sturdy woven wire and are 6' high, which is one of the reasons we went with it. We have LOTS of wildlife and potential predators around so we wanted something high enough so the goats would stay in and unwanted friends would (hopefully) stay out. We attached 2x4s to the top bars with u-hooks and then screwed roof panels to the frame over half of the pen so they have a 10'x10' covered area to help keep them drier when it rains and give them a shady area during the summer. From everything I've read it sounds like they will mostly stay outside to sleep, but we also got a jumbo-sized dog house so they have a protected area during the winter. It is sized for 2 large dogs so I am hoping it will be big enough. I'll put a layer of straw inside and have straw bedding outsi

I mean, look at him! The wonderful person I am getting my goats from, Kristin Duke at MrAnimalFarm.com, was kind enough to send me a picture of my first new friend. I had been thinking of names for weeks and had narrowed it down to a few but wasn't quite decided. Kristin and I were emailing and she asked if I had chosen a name so she could start using it and help him learn it, and I asked if he seemed like a "Gimlet". It was one of the finalists and thought it was cute. Kristen's answer showed that clearly he was meant to be a Gimlet- his dam's name is "Gin and Juice", and his grand-dam is "Martini"! How perfect is that? Plus my husband and I love Snoop Dogg. Now I need to settle on a name for Gimlet's brother. It feels like it should be another cocktail-themed name and probably gin-based. Gibson, or Gibbs, is a strong contender. I've been trying to find drinks I like though, and I'm not a martini/ gibson drinker. This past weekend

I guess my love affair with goats probably started about 5 or 6 years ago when a local farm, Caromont Farm, advertised that they needed volunteers to snuggle goats. Yes, being a volunteer goat snuggler is a thing!! All the spots to snuggle were taken, but the response to their request was so overwhelming that they decided to have snuggle days during the early spring. These were ticketed days where you basically could go anytime between 11am and 4pm and play with their goats. Some kids were days old, some were a few weeks or months old, and then they also had pens with adult does. I went early and stayed for hours, holding baby goats and playing with the older ones. Each age was sweet and fun and had their own personality. I loved the babies, but also really enjoyed spending time with the older, calmer does. I went back for many more snuggle days and was really lucky to get to know Gail, the owner of Caromont. She is a cheesemaker and chef extraordinaire and a wonderful person, too. Aft