John and Ann delivered Patch and while they were here offered to help me separate the first crop of kids from the does (wean them, finally) and put them in with Patch to keep him company. Take my word for it, wrangling goats is a whole lot harder than wrangling cows. I would catch one then pass it off to John who would take their horns and, while Ann held their kicking, back legs up in the air, "walk" them over to the other pasture. These kids are about 70-75 lbs. by now and did not want to be separated from their moms -- we all have bruises to prove it.
That's done; it's dark; John and Ann leave. Goats wake me up at 12:30, and again, and again, and about 2:15 a.m. I get up, find my earplugs and go back to sleep 'til time to get up for work a little before 5.
John had volunteered to come back over the next day while I was at work to build a temporary, "Ozark style" shelter for them since the weather was supposed to get colder and wetter. "Ozark style" ended up being cobbled together pieces of plywood, t-post, twine, zip-ties and a tarp for the top. One problem with that plan -- Patch would not let any of the little guys in the shelter with him so they were left out in the cold. Then another problem became evident -- Captain, the protector of all, didn't quite know what to do since half of his charges were in one pasture and half in another, separated by the yard. His solution was to position himself as close to the pasture with the kids as he could, which meant all the does were staying with him -- out in the cold, dreary weather. Have I mentioned angst? Now I'm worried about mothers and babies.
Okay, obviously that arrangement was not working so I tried another plan. I decided to put Patch out with the does, since he is supposed to be breeding them anyway, right? Luckily, Patch will follow a bucket of grain anywhere, so I lured him out of the pasture, through the yard and into the pasture with the does . . . and Captain. The does were quite curious as to who this newcomer was and were surrounding, sniffing and butting him. I'm standing there trying to act as referee and hoping that they don't do too much harm before letting him be. All of a sudden, Captain, who is standing nearby looking quite interested himself, charges the group and when they scatter, he singles out Patch and starts chasing him. I start chasing Captain, shouting and waving my arms, and as Patch is running away from Captain (and me), he runs towards the donkeys who had come into the pasture to see what was going on and they start running, too. Now, here are the donkeys running from Patch, Patch running from Captain and me chasing Captain. By this time I'm about doubled over laughing at how all this must look. Keystone Cops comes to mind.
Every now and then, Patch would circle up by the gate where I had let him out, so I gave up the chase and decided to try to keep the does out and then open the gate just in time for Patch to, hopefully, see it and run in. Sometimes, miracles happen. Patch got back in the yard and everyone calmed down a bit. That night I fixed a place for Patch in the yard, using the doghouse for his shelter and positioned it next to the fence where the kids were so he wouldn't be too lonesome. By now it's getting dark and I was determined that I was not going to look out my window to see how the kids were doing without Patch to keep them out of the shelter. Later, I got ready for bed and still was not going to even peek. I got in bed. I got out of bed -- and peeked. I got back in bed. I got out of bed, put my clothes on, went out. Maneuvering to keep Patch in the yard and keep the others, who by now were all at the gate, out of the yard, I finally managed to get the one little guy, who for some reason was not allowed under the shelter, separated and put back in with the does. Once back inside, I did not look out the window again.
When I got home the next evening, the kids had pretty much demolished the shelter. Goats really like to get up on things and the tarp was just too tempting. I quickly did what I could with duct tape and zip ties. That night, the sibling of the one I had removed the night before was being very vocal and staying out in the weather so I got him out of that pasture and put him back in with the does . . before bed this time.
The next evening two more had been kicked out of the shelter, so rather than removing them, I rigged up a separate little shelter for them -- in the dark, with a flashlight. Yea, something new for everyone to climb on. That shelter being totally destroyed the moment I finished it, off those two went back to their mom.
Surely, you are tired reading all this by now. The next night there was no salvaging either shelter so I made the decision to just put all of them back together and let Patch and Captain work out their issues on their own. It was supposed to get extremely cold that night and I hoped that, being all together, they would choose to stay in the barn. Patch tried his best to be invisible, sticking like glue to Little Sister, trying not to be noticed and hoping to slip by Captain positioned at the barn gate. I left them there, hoping that Captain would give in or get distracted long enough for Patch to slip in. Well needless to say, Patch ended up once again back in the yard, in his doghouse, while all the others were snug in the barn with Captain still on guard at the gate.
The next morning before work, I put Patch back out to be with the others. I had decided that perhaps he could ingratiate himself with Captain enough during the day that he would be allowed to stay with the others that night. It was hard (more angst?) wondering all day if I would find Patch dead or have to go looking for him in the next county, but things seemed to be okay when I got home. That night they all slept in the three-sided barn and Patch was able to get under some shelter.
I'll get some pictures of Patch later. Just be glad that I didn't include in the story, the fact that one of the little kids escaped back to his mother and it took my neighbor who was working on my fence, his daughter and me to catch him and put him back where he belonged -- twice. Or that there was something in the big barn that made everyone -- goats, donkeys, llama -- come running out in panic one evening. Or that during the above adventures, another issue was trying to keep Patch away from my one little female kid (doeling). As you can see, things have picked up a bit since introducing a new little one into my farm family.
First of all...so glad you are posting again because it really is quite funny! I do wish you had camera's on the farm to capture the chasing of animals! I was exhausted after reading this one...you want MORE of those guys???
ReplyDelete