WHAT A NIGHT

We had a hilarious night with the goats yesterday. Last night it was frigid and cold, so we decided that we needed to give the goats hay and grain. So we go down there, beginning with grain. That deffinitely took a while let me tell you. First of all, before I go any further, we didn't have much of a plan on how to give all sixteen of our goats grain...but we thought we had one, so we tryed it - not knowing how hilarious the night was going to be. First Comet, he got out and we gave him grain first in the birthing pen since he's mean to the others. While he was eating, we let Cocoa, Hosea, and Brownie out for their grain. As I'm watching the four eat, I all of  a sudden see 4-5 of our other goats running right towards the grain that the babies were trying to eat. This was unexpected of course since they weren't supposed to be out yet. My sister accidentally left the gate open just enough for those silly things to slip right through. So that sort of begins our night. Let me warn you, so much happened last night that I'm not sure if I'll be able to remember it all. But I'll try my best. :)

Since the others escaped we went ahead and let them have their grain. My sister was able to get Cassidy out so we moved her in the birthing pen with Arthur as we took Comet out. So they eat. Now understand, we have  A LOT of other goats in the goat house pen that are all bleating and "yelling" at us to give them food too...it just wasn't fair for the others to get grain and not them. We decided to begin giving them grain...all I will say is that it was hilarious! My sister was able to get some of the pygmies into the other pen, so they're wouldn't be too many goats on top of her when she went inside the pens to give them grain. So we have the bowls ready, and we're walking over there...and wa-lah! The pygmies are out and it's back to basics. Those smart rascals figured out how to open the gate and get through. Once again - pygmies are too smart for humans sometimes. So we just let it go, and my sister bravely went in for the kill so to speak. Trust me - I don't really know how we were able to feed them all. The moment you walk in with grain, they are literally on top of you and bucking each other to get out of the way. It can be chaos. But with quite a few trips back for more grain, and few times going back in the pen being trampled upon...our "babies" were satisfied as they all quietly ate their food as we both breathed a sigh of relief.

Hay time. So we begin grabbing hay from our hay bales. I'm able to give Cassidy and Arthur some and then we both start getting some for the goat house. A lot of our goats are all eating at the hay bales now. Charlotte, Annaliese, Gennavieve, Hosea, Velvet, and who knows which others - but there were a lot! More goats escaped the from the pen during the times we were going in and out of it. I'm telling you, one minute we'd think we had it all together, and the next the goats get out! So we'd get them back in, and then they'd come out again. It was hectic. So eventually it ended up being about eight goats out eating hay, two in the birthing pen, and about six in the goat house pen. . Eventually the hay is finished and it's time to get all eight goats back into the pen - this was a task. We began with the babies since they were the easiest. :) Then we get to the harder ones - I call this the "pulling and trudging" method. We're pulling their horns as they resist and we're trudging on the ground.  One time, my sister was carrying Genavieve - she's heavy. She could barely make it to the pen. Genavieve was looking my way as if to say, "I'm heavy?".  After a LONG two hours of being out there, we finally were able to grab all the goats and get them back in their rightful places.  WHAT A NIGHT!!

Signs of kidding for Cassidy : last night Cassidy looked like she was going to kid. When she was laying down, her tail would go up as if she was having a contraction and her ears would be raised as well. She yawned, and she looked like she had pooped a lot - that's a sign. So that's why we moved her to the birthing pen. I went down this morning - no baby. But it will be soon. :)