the teachings of my father have raised havoc with life in my advanced years, with goats.
firstly ---so many times i heard him say " you must never throw away hardware ---eventually you will need every bit." that has lead to a museum quantity of hinges and door knobs.
secondly " always collect like items" i don't know why i was to do that, but most reciently it was teh cause of my having cartons of teh white plastic bottles stoneyfield farm yogurt comes in .. they come in 3 sizes and i intended to fill them with sand and have a very nice large size chess set,... i ended up with plenty of bottles and sand, but the talent was missing so they landed at the door of the local art studio.
i passed this "matching items" concept onto my daughter janinie- who, in hte process of rescuing donkeys from the slaughter pens in penna, saw 5 matching white goats being shuffled to the awful one way trucks to mexico.. so she figured we needed goats milk for puppies so she bought the 5 of them.. and since you buy animals there by the pound, the 5 were very small and inexpensive. they were quickly shuffled into her trailer with whatever else she bought like a mini cow and a few donkeys. she got home with teh load, and we got a better look over janine's version of noah's arc.. and teh "cow" was a lovely bottle raised pet zebu of someone's. and also it was a boy.. with horns.. the 5 matching goats we found did not have udders- that thing hanging back there was going to make trouble, not milk.
having landed at the safety of crazy acres, there was no choice but to call bryan(dvm) and have all those masculine appendages removed... they are cute and interesting... so 3 went to and grew fat on the lovely pastures of meridith farm "snap crackle and pop".. leaving us with ike and mike... well ike and mike could use some lush grass instead oif poison ivy vines so janine swapped the 3 goats for 2 and took elvis , our boy cow along with her to enjoy a different set up.
in the process i thought we have more volunteers c ominbg here now looking for fresh air.. and it would be possible to actually get a milking goat - which wouldn't give much milk, be a learning experience in front of the cameras.---- cows and goats don't just automatically give milk.... that is the result of the birth of a calf or kid and you just keep on milking after the kid/calf needs it -- we had a small cow once-- my daughters were about 10 years old... turns out, to get the cow pregnant you do not need a bull, but a usda agent with a small vial and a long arm. i do not know how to impregnate a goat, except the old way... and i don't know who has one of those. i have heard stories about how boy goats attract female goats by "lifting their leg" not on trees but on thier oun heads. making them unattractive to humans. there is a lot i don't know about goats in general...
i do know teh "old lady" down the street had 3 nubian goats which she milked toi keep her arthritic hands exercised so she could make quilts...... and sent the extra "kids" produced to the heffer fund in africa- giving me a gallon a day for the dane pups soooooo long ago.
and........ then saw a do it yourself goat milker with a $19 food vacuum and syringe connected ti a bell presearve bottle...and got prepared to find a miking goat... .. i spent the $19 and i gave the pieces to beth and then cov hit.. but now... i haVE MENTIONED TO JANINIE WE SHOLD HAVE A GIRL GOAT TO MILK... AND YIOU NEVER KBNOW WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN WE MIGHT HAVE 14.
FOR YOUR FURTHER EDUCATION GOOGLE
Carousel Milking Parlor for Goats WHERE THEY MILK 1300 GOATS AN HOUR.------
AND I AM BACK TO TEH FASCINATION OF "LIKE ITEMS " MY Father talked about.
p.s.. why have we not named a pup havoc?????
