They Are Home!

We picked up the goat babies this morning... all went well... we brought them home in the back of the van inside Pixie's dog crate. They both fit in there just fine. I put a thick layer of straw down and they were quiet and laid down almost the whole time we were in the car! They were so good in the car that we actually stopped and went through the McDonalds drive thru to get lunch on the way by! Bet not many goats can say they've done that! :)

They liked the dog crate so well it was actually a challenge to get them out... we ended up having to carry the dog box through the gate and took the top off... and then still had to kinda force them out. We washed out the dog box (it had goat poop and pee in it!) and now its back up where it belongs and Pixie is relieved.

We hung out with the goats for a while when we got home. First I sat in the shelter with hay in my lap while they gobbled it up. Then after my legs fell asleep, I finally got up and we sat in chairs for a while. At first, they didn't want to have much to do with us... but then their curiosity got the best of them and they came over to be scratched and petted.

Bert (the brown and white one, who is the bigger and bolder of the two) actually leapt up onto Shawn's lap to explore him... apparently according to a "goat lady" on the internet, that's quite a goat compliment.

We worked out how to temporarily fasten a gate to their shelter so they can be locked up at night... I figure its maybe safer for them to be in their shelter than wandering around the dog kennel / goat nursery at night... at least in the beginning.

While we were working on fastening the gate, they were being very "helpful" and interested in what we were doing. They jump up and put their front feet on you to get a better look.

Every time we left the goat nursery, they would stand at the fence and call for us to come back.... mostly it was Ernie... he's the mostly brown one and he's very talkative... he even grunts while eating. He got quite demanding and pitiful... almost screaming at us and demanding our return... but we've been in the house now for about an hour and that's died down finally.

We took the dogs out once and over in that direction and nothing horrible happened, but the goats are terrified of the dogs and the dogs are WAY too interested in the goats. I imagine that will improve slightly, but we'll never be able to trust them together... instinct is hard to fight.. for both of them.

I keep looking out the window like every 2 minutes to see if they are ok... and they seem to be. My guy hay brought hay and straw yesterday, 20 hay and 10 straw and there's plenty of room to store it in the little white building. (We cleaned it all out first!) I could probably store 50 - 60 bales total in there, if I needed to. The hay he brought is gorgeous... horse hay really.... lovely green, sweet smelling 2nd cut... and they goats think its awesome! Really too good for goats! *shrug*

We built their shelter yesterday, from start to mostly finish (minus painting). We ended up building it in two pieces... each are 4 feet wide, 4 feet long and 4 feet tall. They then push together to make a 4 ft x 8 ft hut with a door cut into one of the long sides. I have pics that I will post later. It turned out well... and we're very glad we made it in 2 pieces, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to move it when we were done.

Yesterday was cold and rainy all day (off and on) and windy and we built the shelter under the tarped building, which worked out well. Once the 2 pieces were built, we then just rolled them to where we wanted them... didn't even have to carry them which was nice. We were both feeling sick yesterday and hanging out building in the cold, the wind and rain didn't leave us a lot of strength to carry heavy stuff by the end... we were really dragging.

We also got the dog kennel / goat nursery moved last night, but not reassembled. It was getting dark and we were DONE... so we did the assembly this morning... only took about 20 minutes.

We also went to look at a donkey yesterday... and it was a nice enough donkey... but for lack of a better way to describe it, it wasn't OUR donkey. So we'll keep looking... no big rush. I'll know our donkey when I see it.

I've got some pics to upload and they should be up in the Four Horse Haven album by later this evening... tomorrow morning at the latest.