Meet the Herd: Genevieve, Elinor, and Marianne

Marianne and Elinor

I'd like to make an apology to all of our neighbors that's just as loud as our goats have been - 'cept I can't. I don't think my vocal chords could support something of that volume (unless I'm on a roller coaster, but that's a different story). If you haven't heard all the commotion, well, you're in luck; we're weaning some of our doelings right now.

We thought that Elinor and Marianne had been weaned (they're over a year old now), and we couldn't figure out why they were so... umm, how to put this delicately... rotund. Then we saw them, the stinkers, nursing. They're bigger than their mama, and they're still nursing?! Poor Genevieve... They're nursing the meat right off of her. It's time to make them graduate from kiddie school and into adult goat-dom - there will be no more milk on the menu. And I must say, they've slimmed down since we've reduced the fat content of their diet.

Every morning my sister and I leash up the chunky monkeys to take them out to a different pasture. They were on to us from day one. Leashes = bad things. Those girls can scoot really well for their size. Then they like to play ring-around-the-hay-feeder with us. Then they go kicking and screaming and kneeling and sitting and anything and everything to prevent leaving their beloved barn. My mom said this is what it's like to have a 2 year-old throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the store.

Genevieve 

So that's why things have been noisy around here. They've got a serious set of lungs. Genevieve does too. Due to our current barn/pasture arrangements, we can only keep the trouble makers separate from their mom during the day. If we don't out to the barn early enough in the morning, Genevieve will be milked dry. We haven't quite figure out how early we need to get out to milk; we're not exactly morning people. ;)

In talking with some of our other goat-owner friends about our most recent conundrum, they've had similar experiences. One friend said that is exactly why she bottle feeds her kids (We'd rather not sign up for every-other-hourly feedings...). Another commented on how she had one mama who was nursing twins from one kidding even after she had the next year's kids. o_O

:raises glass of goat milk: Here's to hoping they graduate from kiddie school very soon.