Monday, October 29, 2012

Goodbye, Goats

Oy. I keep forgetting. If I don't just slap it down, I'll never tell you, and then in a year you'll be like "So what's going on with the goats, dweej?" and I'll be all "Goats? What goats? Oh you mean thoooooooose goats. Um, yeah. Well. They don't live with us anymore."

What???

I know!

So here's what happened.  We had those lovely Toggenburg dairy goats all spring and summer.  They cleared our back "yard" and we fattened them up with grain-y deserts and compost-y treats.  They made friends with our chickens and entertained our dogs and our kids.

But then the "yard" stopped having so much natural goat food in it and we realized it was breeding season, but the ghetto set-up we've currently got going on in our rural comedy-of-errors is not conducive to safe and easy kidding.  Well, you know, of livestock variety.  And these were nice little animals- both female.  They deserved to be bred and milked and to live in a herd and fulfill their goaty logos and we knew we weren't going to be the ones to do that for them.

So we put them on craigslist.





We had to make two promises to our girls: 1) that the goats would stay together (they're mother and daughter) and 2) they'd go to an actual goat milking hobby farm so they'd be sure to be cared for properly.

Well, we must have sorely underestimated their worth because at one point we had 3 different guys calling and 2 other guys emailing and the dude who showed up that night drove here all the way from Indiana.  Three hours hauling a livestock trailer just to get these goats.  Zoinks!

He was very nice and knowledgeable with a working goat dairy farm of Alpine dairy goats looking to diversify his herd.  He makes goat cheese.  It was great.  He was so excited.  We were so grateful.  The girls were sad, but helped load them up and get them some hay for the road anyway. 

So we gave them the money.  They had done most of the work after all.

Bye bye, sweet goats.  We'll miss you!








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20 comments :

  1. What? No! They entertained my kids, too! Bye, Cupcake! Bye, Thistle (or, Swistle, as Eamon kept calling her!)!!

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    1. I know! It was really so sad. Lizzy and I both cried.... :(

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  2. My husband grew up milking goats every day. He loved goat milk and we really want to have some for our kids some day. But, I say not until we have kids old enough to do the milking because I will guarantee that I.will.not. ;-) I am a city girl in some respects I guess. Needless to say, my inlaws make fun of me...a lot...

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  3. Lord help me. I'm so hormonal from pregnancy that I'm getting all weepy over the girls having to give up their goats. Sounds like you picked the right place for your lady goats though. :)

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    1. I cried. Tommy had to do everything. I was inside with the baby, bawling my little eyes out!

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  4. I think that's really great that you gave the girls the money. It shows you understand and care, I mean that seriously, although lamely put.

    And won't those goats be happy on a whole farm full of goats!

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  5. I can't believe I didn't get first dibs on these goats! I could have got them via priority mail. So sad for you! I always think of Tammy and the Bachelor. Anyone ever see that old school Debbie Rynolds movie. I know, I know, I am a 29 year old stuck in a 85 year olds body. But seriously, Tammy's goat rocked!

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  6. If I buy some goat cheese down here in northern Indiana, I'll be thinking of your goats (and wondering...)

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  7. Wait...no!! Not the goats! I'm so sad for you! My husband totally would have bought them if you were around here. We're going to be slaughtering our six turkeys soon and I'm already feeling very very mixed about the whole situation. The boys, however, don't seem phased one bit by it all...

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  8. Boo. So sad! :-( But good that they get to go to a happy farm.

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  9. Awwww. But good for you guys for thinking about the goats' wellbeing first.

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  10. Sorry about your goats! But on a completely unrelated note, Bella was excited to see Lizzy wearing her shirt. :-)

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  11. That's a great way to teach your girls about getting back what they work for! Bye bye goats!

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  12. Wait, wait . . . this means I can no longer be your creepy-lurking-unseen slightly off-kilter twin anymore! Prior to this it was like a photo going through a color wash: I'm the Protestant, duck-owning, slower-renovating, less-witty, Nigerian goat owning, eight-children, chilled-wine-preferring twin you never saw lurking about your blog. And posting just in time for Halloween, too! We recently got our two goat girls bred - yes, just in time for me to be in the barn with my first goat deliveries in the MIDDLE of JANUARY. At which time I promise to give a moment of thought to your brilliance in selling your goats. But now, now . . . sniff. Sniff. ::::wanders off, kicking her toe against the walls of the internet, feeling all sorry for herself::::

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    1. This is one of the best comments I've ever read ever! Thank you so much for de-lurking yourself, Kimberly :)

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