May 29, 2011

  • Hope and Dahlia are here

    The goats have arrive and everyone is very excited.  We got them yesterday afternoon and they spent the afternoon crying and I was wondering how much of it we were really going to be able to take. I was really praying this would be short lived.  By this morning they were much happier....thankfully.

    They did well on the trip home and the kids were thrilled to see them.  Samuel was a little scared after being knocked down by Hope a couple weeks ago, but he warmed up fairly easily.  I just made sure Hope didn't come near him.  Hope is a stinker.  Very hard headed and stubborn and likes to try to butt the kids.  They are getting better about pushing on her head and telling her "No".  Here they are getting used to their new home.

    Dahlia checking out the "dog" house and a stump
     

    Hope (Matthias trying to feed her leaves).  She doesn't stand still long enough to get a good picture of her.
      

    So aside from the crying they did well...until it was time to milk Hope.  That is when the day got very crazy.  We took both goats to the milking area (red shed) and fed Dahlia while we milked Hope.  I am so glad that no one was taking pictures of us, I'm sure we were quite a sight.  First trying to get the two goats to the shed to milk and feed was hysterical as we had a combination of them yanking us down the hill and then us practically having to drag them a few seconds later.

    So we finally make it to the shed and Hope doesn't want to get on the milking table.  Then the bucket we'd gotten to milk her was too big, so we got a bowl, but she wanted nothing to do w/ the milking and we had more milk on me (the very inept milker) and the table, floor, goat, etc.  She stepped in the bowl, knocked it over, tried getting off the table, etc.  Everything but standing still so I could milk her.  Not the patient milker we'd been hoping for.

    So we finally brought both goats back up and put them in their stall for the night as we ran to the store to see if we could find a smaller bucket.  Success!!!  So home we came to give milking another try.  This time, we took Hope alone, which was once again interesting.  Finally, after many attempts, more stepping in the bucket and trying to step off the table, Mom fed her out of her hand and I got a little over a cup out of her before calling it quits for the night.  So back up to the stall she went....this was a combination of being dragged (by the goat) and dragging her.  Mom had her leash and puller her, while I nudged her from behind.  Like I said, quite a sight.

    So then, we made plans to get up at 5am to milk Hope before Veronica woke up and it was time for Mass.  This time we were more prepared and with mom feeding her out of her hand again, we milked almost 2 cups!!!  Success, we had milk we could actually drink.  And getting her to and from the milking shed wasn't nearly as trying, which was good because 5am wasn't the time to give us a hard time.  Today went much better.  They didn't cry constantly, they loved the kids (minus Hope trying to butt the little ones) and tonight we got over 2 cups of milk in a very short period of time.  I'm praying tomorrow morning goes well.