Monday, May 18, 2009


07/05/2009

Today I am happy to announce the arrival of our beautiful goats “Lady and Carla”. Johnny and I finally decided to hire a trailer and make the hour and a half trip up to Billy Joe in Lowood to collect the goats, after nothing came of my post box drops. After seeing the children off to school, it was a quick runaround making beds and general tidy up. The weather was threatening to rain and I was hoping it would hold off for our trip. Hiring the trailer seems to be a breeze and we at last set off. Traveling through Ipswich was lovely and scenic. It is really rural out here which is always lovely to see. Once we arrived it was a case of decided which two to take. Billy Joe had a very young buck to sell aswell but Johnny thought it would be wiser for us to get used to the goats first before we jump in head first with the breeding. So it was settled, we would take Lady and Carla. Johnny carried them into the very big trailer. They looked so very tiny in the bright red trailer. We got caught in traffic caused by roadwork’s on the way back and doubted whether we would make it back with the trailer in the set time. There was nothing we could do but sit and wait as the traffic crawled along. Finally we made it past the road works and were on our way home.

At home we off loaded the goats. They made a lot of noise showing their unsettledness. Johnny and I rushed off to take the trailer back and got back just in the nick of time and so avoided the late fee charge.

The afternoon past with me snapping photos of Lady and Carla and them meeting Spot. The puppy has very quickly been put into place by the goats. They will not put up with his nonsense like the ducks and hens do. It is good that they are not afraid of him. The cows were rather curious too this afternoon and sensed something was different. They ambled up earlier than usual to stare at the goats. The hen’s wings got snipped at last and they weren’t too happy with us. They squawked for awhile but finally settled down. That’s the end of their flying days, at least until the feathers grow back that is. For now we are safe.

The children arrived home and were surprised to see the goats. Michaela spent most of the late afternoon in with the goats and eventually came out to have dinner. Unbeknown to me she had left the gate of the paddock open and the inevitable happened. I was rather exhausted from the day’s events and the rushing around early on and so was a bit slow at putting the animals in for the night. I got out eventually but it was dark already. I walked down towards the animal kennels and noticed the front gate was standing open. My heart sank as I could see the goats nowhere! The following few minutes the four of us frantically searched the garden in the dark calling and calling making supposedly “goat noises” but definitely sounding more like sheep. The gates in the top garden were all closed properly so I knew that the goats could not have escaped the property. They had to be hiding somewhere. Each minute that went by my hopes sank lower and lower. I could not believe this was happening. Just then Johnny had the wonderful idea of looking under the porch and low and behold there they were resting without a worry in the world! We picked them up and took them down to their own stall. I laid out some wood shavings and made sure there was water and some grain around. Michaela got the lecture of a life time again – the poor kid! I think she’s learnt her lesson though and the gates will all be bolted from now on. The importance of bolted gates is crucial on a farm and I think we got this point across to her well.

Our animal menagerie is slowly growing and we could not be happier!

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