Open Gates

I think I just discovered a new Olympic sport - goat wrangling. Yeah, you read that right. The arena would consist of slick 'mud,' slopes, a love-crazed buck, and a herd of does that could care less for his presence. The point of it all is to catch the buck before he gets to the girls, and you get bonus points for not falling on your face in the slippery muck.

You see, we kept the buck from the last kidding as a buck for various reasons; he has lovingly been dubbed 'Stinky Pete.' He thinks that he's king of the world. Now that he's 2 months, we need to separate him from the girls. He's running around, chasing the girls (they hate his guts), and saying, 'What, what?' all the live-long day.

My task today was to get him in with our other two bucks when I moved them out to pasture. I got the llama and the bucks out, no problem. I caught the midget with minimal hassle, and put the little guy with the big boys. He got bowled over and tackled; he's still too small to play with the big kids. With Jack close at his heels, I let Stinky Pete through a small opening in the gate, but Jack pushed right through too. Noo!!! I thought that it was all okay though since the other gate to the girls' pasture was closed - nope. Darn it! Jack gallivanted around and kicked up his heels because he got to be with the ladies. NOOOO!!!!!!!!! Oliver, our other buck, is jumping around on the other side of the fence because he's jealous of his comrade, and the llama is humming with concern, 'Get back to your pasture!' I tried to catch Jack before he got to that gate, but with all the rain we've been having, the ground was as slick as bacon grease and getting traction was out of the question. I've got two legs; he has four. I think he has the advantage.

As I'm trying to get a footing while sliding uphill, Jack is having a heyday, and the does are scared to death of the freaky, furry, stinky, testosterone fueled mass rampaging towards them. I finally caught up with the bloke, tried to grab onto his collar. Wait, where's his collar? He doesn't have a collar?! And he got away from me again. As I ran to grab a means of lassoing him, he tried wooing the ladies. They wouldn't tolerate him for a minute except for the one doe that went into heat this morning. She's been singing her love songs and wiggling her tail at those boys all day. Phooey... we weren't wanting to breed that doe until this fall. Quick review lesson in farm math: 1+1= a lot more. I have reason to believe that there will be baby goats this July.

I guess you could say that this is all just one big face palm.

I think we need to figure out a better pasture system for the bucks... And always close the gate behind you.