Good morning, everyone.
I mentioned in my last post, that we had a couple of new kids here on the farm. Goat kids, that is. Plus, you may be wondering how baby Bundle is doing. Well, here are the latest updates!
We’ll start with Bundle baby. He is growing fast! At just two months old this week, he isn’t all that far behind Rosie in size. I have learned a pretty important lesson by way of his maintenance so far. You see, we always planned to keep him, but since he is a male, that meant making him a steer instead of letting him remain a bull. Well, that process went well, but unfortunately, he took it pretty hard. We didn’t think about it, and let him go right after. In hindsight, I think we should have kept him penned up for a bit longer to give him a chance to understand that particular process won’t happen every time we touch him. Instead, ever since that day it had been very difficult to get near him. If he feels you touch him, he bolts away. He isn’t mean and he doesn’t charge at us, he just doesn’t quite trust us now. However, there have been some encouraging moments here lately, so I feel hopeful. In one instance, I sat for a very long time, completely still, on the other side of the fence. Eventually, Bundle’s curiosity got the best of him and he came over and risked a sniff. When nothing happened, he stuck out his little rough tongue and stuck it right in my nose. Gross, I know. But did I move? The things I’ll do for love, people. No, I didn’t move. I sat there determined to accept whatever affection and trust Bundle was willing to give. As slimy as it might be. Then yesterday, I feel like we made even more progress! At morning feeding time, that little calf cautiously came up to me, no fence this time, and took a few licks of feed from my hand. Once my hand was empty, he decided a good hand shouldn’t go to waste, and he got a few good head rubs in! PROGRESS!
Boots and Buffalo. These two. They are such a hoot. Until this year, my only goat experience had been petting zoos. In my work, I never had the opportunity to care for goats. But after seeing the ones down the street, how could I resist. Boots was a bottle baby, but these last two weeks, I officially weaned him and now he eats entirely on his own, forage, hay and specialized pellets. Buffalo was born a few months prior and was already used to solid food, so that helped a lot with the transition. Boots could learn from Buffalo. As with anything, personalities can vary greatly and not every goat is friendly and personable. But these two were well-cared for and are sweet as can be. Like puppy dogs with hooves. They follow us everywhere and want to know everything you are doing. Buffalo was born in the winter and since he didn’t have to be bottle fed, he didn’t have to leave the barn to be taken to the warm house to receive a bottle every couple hours around the clock. This meant that his move to our barn, was his very first time outside. He LOVES it. Buffalo is my daydreamer. He loves to be with us, but sometimes as I am walking, I realize he has gotten distracted and I find him staring around or munching on a particularly delicious looking bunch of foliage that caught his eye. Boots on the other hand, fills his little brother role well. He hogs the attention, and is always in Buffalo’s personal space. But I think he has also helped show Buffalo how to play. Boots had a naturally playful demeanor but Buffalo’s back legs weren’t quite as strong as they could have been when he was little, so I noticed he didn’t leap around in quite the same way as Boots. But this morning for the first time, I saw Buffalo enjoying some of those adorable, gleeful goat leaps and it made me smile.
Our chickies are growing like little weeds as well! They have moved enclosures twice now and it is definitely time for them to make one last move outside. Our eleven little cuties are doing well and it is looking like four may be little roos. Two have been making impressive attempts to crow while two are merely looking suspicious. Hopefully, by this weekend they will be having the adventure of their lives and roaming the open pastures.
Well, have a wonderful rest of the week!