Thursday, February 25, 2010

Goat Girls



Knit and Purl love school day mornings. They know we are out early and the kids are running around and interesting to watch. It also means that they get me in the pen visiting with them and feeding them earlier than those two other days that I don't seem to show up until they are completely starving!! They even recognize the sound of the school bus and try to show off a bit when the kids come home in hopes they will come into the pen to play with them. I think they might need more friends! Soon all the visitors will keep them better socialized than this small crew of goat herders.

Hopefully the girls will get used to being on tie outs so they can munch on the grass and weeds and visit people. They are a bit skittish when I walk them on their leashes around to different areas that they haven't seen before. I really would love to just let them wander around but they will totally trash my gardens and eat everything that looks remotely like vegetation!

Belle sees me taking out her leash to walk the goats and gets all excited thinking she is going for a walk and then depressed when she sees it's for the girls. The girls are always cautious of poor Belle because after all she is a dog, very dangerous creatures, apparently for goats. Everytime I've taken the girls for a walk on their leashes and Belle tries to tag along, Knit constantly rears up on her back feet and tries to head butt poor Belle. She has only made contact once so Belle has learned the painful lesson to avoid goat heads & horns.

The girls are pretty wet in the video I took of them this morning and goats never like to be wet! The will be happy when the snow is gone and all the greens start growing. Of course the green stuff will disappear the instant the goats find it. It's amazing to think that pen area before the other goats arrived was so thick with greens you couldn't even see through it to the barn!