On backs and lambs and crazy goat boys

  One of the things you learn from farming is not to take anything for granted, especially if that thing is your health. I've been having some back pain the last few days and although it's not terrible, it is enough to keep me from doing things in my normal way.

  This morning one of the lambs died. We knew this lamb had been having problems for a while now. We kept seeing her with the dirty rear that usually means diarrhea in sheep. We'd thrown three different types of dewormers at her with no success. Big Onion actually had his hand on her yesterday, and while she was low in weight, she was by no means emaciated. Her mucus membranes weren't even pale. The next step was going to be antibiotics, but I guess the crazy heat we had yesterday was too much for her. I found her body this morning near the bridge as I was putting Rocky out for the day.

 
  What should have been an easy job of collecting and disposing of the body turned into a whole ordeal involving a garden cart, the four wheeler, and one very brave dog. You see, on top of my having back issues, Rocky is in rut. This makes him just about impossible to deal with. He actually caught me with a horn while I was inspecting the dead body. I'll be honest, he's lucky my back isn't 100% or he probably would have joined that lamb in the afterlife pretty quickly after that.

 Luckily, I have Luna around to protect me from girl crazy goats boys. I had to have Luna chase Rocky away from the gate and hold him on the other side of the bridge so that I could safely bring in the 4 wheeler with the garden cart in tow. This took some convincing on my part as Luna was much more concerned about the dead lamb than the crazy goat.

 Eventually with her help, I was able to get the body bagged and loaded up without having to physically carry it more than the foot or so onto the cart.

Unfortunately, things did not go completely smoothly. While I was trying to wrestle the gate closed, Rocky saw an opening and b-lined it for the unsuspecting goat ladies grazing nearby. He was singing and snorting and prancing around like a fool. Girls! GIRLS!! Thank goodness he decided to go for Gertie because that old broad can take care of herself. She saw him coming and took off.

  When she circled around to give him a taste of her horns I was able to snag his collar and get him headed back onto the bridge. Gert followed right along behind us. I figured maybe she was actually interested in spending some quality time with that crazy dude so I put her on the bridge with Rocky.

  After a couple of chases back and forth Gert decided she'd had enough and nailed Rocky to the railing with her horns. I figured it was time to break up this love fest and moved Gertie safely back on my side of the gate.

Here's a video of Rocky being ridiculous just after losing his chance at love:

You'll want your sound turned on for this one, trust me.

I think that was quite enough farm-related adventure for me for the day. I think I'll be spending the afternoon inside.

Oh Rocky!

Meet Rocky, our new buck! 

   Rocky is a tall, dark, and handsome Nubian boy that we got about a month ago in order to breed our three full sized girls, Josie, Thea, and Gertie. We decided on a Nubian because they are supposed to produce very high fat milk. We are hoping that he and Thea, our Saanen, will produce a doeling or two that will eventually produce large amounts of higher fat milk that will be great for cheese making!  

 We picked up Rocky from a nearby farm and transported him in the back of my Honda Element. We were a little nervous about moving a large and potentially stinky buck in the car, but we were pleasantly surprised when we picked him up that Rocky really didn't smell at all, and he was very polite and easy to handle. 

 The boy is all legs and for the first week he was here, the girls all beat him up. He would actually run and hide behind us if a girl came too close. We were sure he would never man up and get the job done. I even took to calling him a big old sissy baby to his face to try and shame him into being a big tougher. We started joking that he was named Rocky not for Rocky Balboa, but Rocky as in Rocky Horror Picture Show. Oh Rocky!

 I think Big Onion was just happy to have another man around the farm. 

 Then one day Josie started flirting with him. After a couple days of flirting with no real action, I locked him and the three girls in the goat yard with strict orders that no one was getting let out until I saw some funny business!

  Well, I got my wish and then some! Josie and Rocky sniffed and nuzzled each other. She wagged her tail at him, and he stuck his tongue out at her (this is actually a compliment in goat-talk apparently). There was a lot of finagling and shifting around and pawing and then they both just stopped. Rocky looked up at me like, "Really, you want me to do this in front of everyone?!" 

  So I quickly shooed the other two girl out of the yard and stood there waiting for the fireworks. Rocky leaned over Josie's back and all but called me a perv for standing there and watching so I retreated into the poultry house and peeked through a screen and sure enough, I was barely out of sight when the boy got straight down to business. 

  After that Josie and Rocky were inseparable. They napped together and grazed together all the time. Rocky got over his shyness and was prone to mount Josie at the most awkward times. Some things you just can't un-see. 

  After a while, we decided to separate the love birds so Rocky could turn his now expert attentions to the other two. We saw him cover Thea, but not Gertie so far. In about a month, we'll be sending pregnancy tests off for all the girls so we know for sure and can probably send Rocky off to a new home. 

  

  Although he's been a really nice buck, sweet with the girls, not smelly at all, and not aggressive at all with us so far, it has been a bit of a logistical nightmare making sure he gets to spend time with the three big girls and keeping him away from Gwen and Eve who are both too young and too small to be bred. 

  Not to mention the fact that Rocky does not like to be locked up alone. At all. The noises he makes are kind of hilarious. You can hear him in the background of the video below. I love how all the goat girls are standing around with expressions like, 'Really? Really?! You want us to mate with THAT?!"

I might also point out that my little Gwen is totally glowing in the video. It's obviously because she is soooo angelic. Yeah.