Baahing at the Barkus and Meow Parade

Thursday, January 31 while my daughter, Jacquie, and I were getting pedicures; I chose to have my toenails painted purple, gold and green for the Mardi Gras season; Jacquie mentioned the Barkus and Meow parade was Sunday.  I told her I was going to ask Don if he was up to taking the grandkids and enter the goats in the parade.  This is the one parade that one can just show up and enter!  I really thought it was a long shot that Mr. Introvert would entertain that notion for a second.  But "Sure!" he said. So I spent Friday and Saturday making and gather 5 costumes and devising a way for Dottie Belle and Gypsy Ginger to pull a wagon with Kennedy in it.  Don and I practiced with the goats before we told the children what "our" plan was.  We found a scrap piece of PVC pipe about 30" long and put the 2 leashes through it to keep the goats straight, looped the leashes through the handle on the wagon and clipped them on the goat's collars.  It actually worked well.  I didn't photographically document it very well. I was too rushed and was afraid of trying Don's patience.

Getting ready to line-up.

The theme for our float was Capricorn.  Connor was the mythical god, Pan (half goat/half man). Notice hat with horns. This picture shows some difficulty. The goats kept losing their boas.

 Notice Kennedy is not riding in the wagon.  It took way too long for the parade to start, so I had to carry her most of the time. So the boys used the wagon for the candy and beads to throw.

Here's the professional video from the parade.  We actually made it at the 1:58 mark.  It's just a very quick appearance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5rt4T3R67c

Don summed-up his experience as an intravert's nightmare with all those people jumping out and wanting to pet the goats.

The children, goats and I had fun, but were totally exhausted.  Dottie Belle spent the rest of the afternoon lying down.  Gypsy is a high energy kind of girl, so she fared the best. 
  


 

Gypsy Visits a School

Last week Kennedy and I loaded up the truck with Gypsy and 2 chickens, Gracie and Moonshine.  The Pre-K classes at Shreve Island had been studying the letter G.  They had also learned the song "Gus the Goat."  

When we drove up to the school, Kennedy pointed to the playground and wanted to go play.  But I told her we had to show all the children her goat and chickens.  The children certainly enjoyed petting Gypsy and the 2 chickens.  As I was holding Moonshine and passing her around so the children could feel her feathers, we heard a splat/crack.  I was so shocked. Moonshine had laid an egg and it hit the concrete.  It almost hit a child on the head.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture of that, but I was just too surprised.  Now the children know first hand where eggs come from.

Moonshine right before she lays an egg.

By the way, the first Pre-K class took Kennedy to play on the playground while I showed the animals to the next class.

On Friday, I took 10 eggs to one of the classes to put into their incubator.  Hopefully, by the end of February they experience chicks hatching.

I Couldn't Pay My Bills Cause the Goats Ate Them

Gypsy and Billy Shakespeare on the front porch

Well maybe I really can still pay my bills.  Actually, I pay most of them on the internet, but I still have them mailed to me.  





But I do have photographic proof that the goats chewed on the mail and scattered the newspapers that were collecting on my front porch. 

I guess I have given up on Dottie Belle getting pregnant.  She has been with Billy Shakespeare for 4 months and no results that I know of.  But of course he was just a baby, 2 months old, when I first put them together.  But this is Gypsy and she is 13 months old and my smallest doe, so I've decided to let her get acquainted with B.S.  I can't say there was any romance the first day.  But they have spend a lot of time deciding who is in charge.

Spending Time with the Goats

With rainy weather, meetings and everything else going on, I have not spent a lot of time brushing the goats.  I give them food and water and then rush on to other activities.  So today I decided to brush all four and trim their hooves if needed.  They were all great at standing on the milking stand and letting me do this. But I noticed that Billy Shakespeare, my 5 month old buck, really loved being brushed. So after he finished the food I put in the bucket for him, I let his free and he continued to stand perfectly still while I brushed him.  The girls don't do that.  He is so tame and such a baby.

 The video is a little strange, because I'm brushing him and holding the video camera.

I also got a video of Gypsy and Dottie Belle on the roof of the goat shack playing. 








Gypsy got up there first using the chair that is against the house. 
 
Gypsy is by far the smartest, most curious and, yes, mischievous one of the 3 girls.  It took Dottie Belle a long time to figure out how to get up there. 

 
 Honey Bunny never even tried.  She just found a warm spot to sun bathe.
 I know I have not painted their house yet.  I have the paint scraped on 2 of the 3 sides.  I will do it before summer.

Santa's Apprentice Tryouts

I know this could not be anymore amateurish, but I have to start somewhere.  The kids and I had fun.

The day after Christmas, Santa knew he must retire,

So he sent out a call that an apprentice he will need.

Young Connor dressed in his cowboy attire,

Quickly jumped on B.S., his trusty steed.

All the antlers were neatly hung upon the gate

Cowboy Connor knew he'd be chosen to deliver the toys.

And of course he would never be late.

It would be his charge to travel the world spreading joy.

With the help of his brother Chase,

He would transform these goats into reindeer.

The bayous of Louisiana would be their home base.

Only one detail remained a bit unclear.

He knew to yell, "On Gypsy! On Honey! On Dottie Belle!

As he harnessed each to his little red sleigh,

He wondered would this be the challenge from hell?

Cause how will he teach the goats, "Up, Up and Away!"

A New Arrival

The breeder at Cimarron Valley Ranch named her Honey Bunny.

With any departure, there needs to be an arrival.  Sunday night was the arrival of Honey Bunny, my third Nigerian Dwarf goat and only one with blue eyes and buckskin.  I put the dog crate in the goat yard and let Dottie Belle and Gypsy take a few good sniffs before I released Honey.  I have to admit that I was apprehensive about their reaction to a new "sister" and they proved that I should have been.  Sorry I don't have pictures of their first meeting, but it was too dark at 11 o'clock at night.  

 

Honey Bunny learned very quickly that I have goat pellets in the blue coffee cans.

 

Dottie Belle and Gypsy immediately sent a very strong message to Honey.  They ran in a circle around me and then stood on either side of me and had a stand-off with Honey.  Clearly communicating that Honey was not to come near me. It was quite amazing, but I could not let that situation last.  I stayed out there for an hour trying to make Honey feel welcomed and ease Dottie Belle's and Gypsy's jealousy or possessiveness.

Kennedy loves the goats.  The only animal name she says is cat.

They each have their own bin where they eat goat pellets.

She has beautiful blue eyes.

Gypsy's tongue is out like a dog's.

Of course I love all 3 goats.  But when Gypsy and Dottie Belle start ganging up on Honey Bunny, I remind them that they are $100 goats and Honey Bunny is a $350 goat.  My taste in livestock is getting more expensive.

But you just can't beat the personality of bottle fed goats like Gypsy and Dottie Belle. They just want to play with me.  They are more playful than most dogs.

But I finally gave up, because it seemed that my presence only made matters worse.  When I left they were chasing Honey around the yard and butting her.  I went in and googled, "how to introduce a new goat to a herd?" 
Site after site said you just have to let them work it out.  They have to establish the pecking order.  Gypsy has always been the alpha goat and it seemed that Dottie Belle was putting up quite a fight to remain #2. 


It is probably a good thing that Honey Bunny is 2 months older and a little bigger; otherwise she might get hurt. This is a great example of the importance of disbudding the goats.  I'm really glad none of the 3 have horns. 

Dottie Belle is trying to take the camera from me.

Dottie Belle Lost Her Harness

Gypsy says, "See I still have mine."

With each type of animal I add to my family, not only is there more work like feeding and watering, but strange little mysteries seem to show up.   Thursday morning when I went to feed and water the goats and chickens, I saw that Dottie Belle did not have on her harness.  So I walked around and around and around the goat yard.  I made at least 4 trips, looking under everything, looking in the goat shack.  Could not find Dottie's harness.

What happened to Dottie's  harness?

So I called Bridget and told her to tell the grandsons that I have $5 for which ever one finds Dottie's harness.  It even crossed my mind that maybe Connor, the 5 year old, might have taken the harness off and didn't tell anyone.  You know always blame the mischievous little boy.  I really didn't think he did though mostly because of how difficult it would have been.  But Bridget kept the boys busy all day so they were not available for the harness hunt.


This morning as I was feeding the girls, I decided to continue looking.  The harness had to be in the goat yard, because they had not been out yesterday.  But I could not imagine how Dottie could have gotten it off.  It fastens in 2 places and goes between her front legs.  It also fits fairly tight.  I knew that it wouldn't be long before I would have to buy them a larger size.  What I really hated losing was the $12 name tag.

I was talking on my phone to my friend Lola as I was walking around and telling her about the  harness disappearance.  Then I said, "You don't think someone could have come into the backyard the other night and taken Dottie Belle's harness do you?  Someone might have thought it was funny to have a harness with the name Dottie Belle on it."

I live behind a bank and next door to a shopping center.  Therefore, there are many opportunities for strange things to happen in my yard.  Once I was busy spreading pine straw in my flower beds.  I had 21 bags and was down to the last bag just before dark.  When I opened it, an over stuffed bank pouch fell out.  I sat down under a tree to open it, praying that it was not a bag of money.  I opened it very slowly.  Actually, it was a neighbor's car papers, stamps and etc. When I returned it to them, I was told that someone had broken into their car and taken it from the glove compartment a couple of weeks back.  So then what bothered me was the fact that a thief had been in my yard at night and stuffed the stolen bag in a bag of pine straw.  That felt creepy.  Then again, I had the police capture a car thief hiding in my yard once. 


So wondering if someone might have thought it was funny to take Dottie Belle's harness, isn't so far fetched.  Lola said that thinking of that possibility was quite scary to her.  She sure was hoping I prove that that did not happen. 

As I was walking around talking and looking, I came to a big tree in the corner where the side and back fences connect or they should connect. 





When Don and I were working on the yard, we bought 2 pickets to connect them, but Don only used one.  

Now what I saw was a gap between the fences the size of that picket Don said we didn't need.  Actually, it was just going to take more work to put up that picket than Don was willing to do.

 

See the pink harness?

Sure enough there was about an eight inch gap that ran between the bank's wooden fence and my neighbor's chain link fence.  When I looked, I was almost certain I saw the missing harness.  I told Lola what I saw and said I would call her back, but I need to call my neighbor and tell her I need to go into her backyard.  Well Linda wasn't home, so I went back there anyway.   


And there was the harness!






Those curious little goats. 
I ran back in the house and got my camera to document all of this.

 
While I was recovering the harness, Gypsy and Dottie Belle came through the little gap to see what was happening.  They have to walk backwards to get out; it is that tight.  It is still hard to believe that Dottie had to struggle so hard, that she got the harness off.  But I'm glad no one was in my backyard with my goats.

Here those silly girls come to tell me about their adventure.  They are so proud.



Linda called me when she got home, because I had left a message on her phone telling her about my mission in her backyard.  She said she knew about the gap and a long time ago she had blocked it with tomato cone stacks. So I've blocked it like that for now.

Glad to say that Dottie Belle is now properly tagged.

 

Update On Got Your Goat

This is one like we have a deposit on.  See his blue eyes.

My sister, Lenora, and her grandson, Max, came by today.  I have talked Lenora into getting a male goat for my girls, Dottie Belle and Gypsy Ginger.  I have paid a deposit for a blue-eyed chamoisee buck from a farm in Oklahoma.  The doe, Rising Storm, is expected to give birth on 9/11, so we are hoping for a kid to match what we want.  The plans are, we will go get him when he is 10 days old.  I will bottle feed him and let him stay with my girls for a few months.  So in the spring, Dottie Belle and Gypsy Ginger will have kids and I can make goat cheese, goat ice cream and who knows what else.  Who knows, I might have enough kids to let every CPSB member have a name sake. lol

 

But all these plans lead Lenora to believe she is going to need an Australian Shepherd dog to protect her goat herd, since she will get all or most of the kids.  She has 12 acres in the country.  The farm in Oklahoma also breeds Australian Sheppards and they cost several hundred dollars.  So Lenora started asking around.  In less than a week her son, David, said his friend's girl friend's daddy had a litter of Australian Shepherd pups and didn't sell the runt.

 

So Lenora was given the 8 week old registered puppy. 
Talk about ask and ye shall receive! 
Anyway, he was already named Tex and today was Tex's debut as a goat herder. My video camera could not keep up with the herding, but that little 3 month old dog actually did get Gypsy Ginger all the way into the goat shack.   The goats and dog ran their hearts out.  Tex is a natural born goat herder.  So now all we have to do is wait for Billy Shakespeare to be born and we will get started on our herd.   
We have the herder!  

If a Fence Won't Hold Water, It Won't Hold a Goat.

My sister, Lenora, came to visit this past weekend.  She lives on 12 acres next door to where we grew up in Swartz.  She bought chickens first and gave me 4 of her first chicks.  Now I am encouraging her to get goats.  I particularly want her to get a male goat, so I can borrow it.  Anyway, she came to see my fence, goat house and the girls, Dottie Belle and Gypsy.  In her research she came across the adage, "If a fence won't hold water, it won't hold a goat."  Of course I laughed when she told me that. I'm very proud of my fences. There is a 6 ft. wooden fence on three sides and then the 4 ft. chain link that Don and I just put up. Well today I found out that my fence not only fails to hold water, but Gypsy and Dottie Belle as well.   
                                                                                                                                                                                     
It was about 3 pm this afternoon and Bridget was walking home with the baby.  I was watching them from the carport door.  I could hear some people in the shopping center beside my house laughing and really carrying on.  But that's not unusual, there's a nice restaurant with a bar and a patio right on the other side of my fence.  I often hear people sitting out there having good, loud conversations.  It did occur to me that somebody was having a great time.  Then a lady in a car stopped Bridget and asked her if she had a pet goat.  Bridget said, "My mom does.  She lives right there." And she pointed to my house.  Bridget was thinking the lady had heard about my goats and wanted to see them.  I get a lot of people dropping in to see the South Highland herd and flock. Then the lady, Mrs. Adams, said, "A white goat with some black on it and a pink harness is over at the bank."  I was still outside, so Bridget yelled at me, "Mom, one of your goats is at the bank."  I took off running as fast as I could.  It is a little ways to get to the bank though it is exactly behind my house. But I have to go out the gate in the fence beside Ristorante Giuseppe, run a few yards down Pillow Street between my yard and Giuseppe and the through Regions Bank parking lot.

I tell all of this so you will know that I had a few minutes to hear the conversations going on about Gypsy.  I was so focused and horrified that she got out, I forgot to ask the lady, who was restraining Gypsy with a leash made from a purse strap, her name.  But I recognized her from one of the guilds of which I'm a member, probably the Opera Guild.  One lady in a car was yelling at her, "The Times is on their way.  I bet they will put your picture with the goat on the Society Page."  She was having a great laugh at her friend standing just outside the bank's door with a little goat on a leash. Gypsy's savior replied, "When my husband (she said his name but I could not catch it in my frantic state) asks me what I did today, he is never going to believe this."


That's when I made it to her.  I didn't even introduce myself.  I get so focused on "the event"; I rarely think of anything else.  Just get the goat, find out how she got out and take her home and fix it.  The lady returned the purse strap to someone in the bank and came back and showed me the spot under the back fence where Gypsy had squeezed out.  While we were standing there looking and talking about it, Dottie Belle stuck her head from under the fence.  The lady said, "You take that one home and I'll keep this one from getting out."  Before she could finish the sentence and I could tell her that there is noway to stop a determined goat; out from under the fence popped Dottie Belle.  I hope I told her thanks, but  all I was thinking about was carrying 50 pounds of goats home.  I had not stopped to grab their leashes I keep right at the back door. I tried to carry a goat under each arm, like I had just a month ago, but ended up dragging them by their harnesses.  Hopefully, I have blocked their escape route.  I wasn't dressed to do a lot of work.  But I have some big chunks of broken concrete from Bridget's remodeling project that I was planning to use as fill for a water feature with a waterfall, (Just another project I have yet to convince dear Don to help me with.) so I placed them all along the back fence.  But the fence still won't hold water, so can I expect it to hold Gypsy, the ring leader, and Dottie Belle, the follower? I'm also glad I paid for a Lifetime Membership in the Guild, so hopefully they can't kick me out.



Gypsy and Dottie Belle love jumping on the chicken coops and cars.  We have to get their playground built.  That is why I have all that scrap lumber in a  pile there. Yes, another project for Don to help me with.  I could really keep him busy, if he would just cooperate a little more.

Some Goat Humor

My sign for my goats new yard.  My son-in-law, Trinity's mother, Sharon made this for me.

        I will hang it of the fence; when the fence materializes.   Thanks Sharon. She even painted them to look like Gypsy and Dottie Belle.  You are a sweet heart and very talented.  Trinity is talented like his mom. My daughter, Bridget, is very lucky. 

Sharon and Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-HXG3jfjQs&feature=related Fleetwood Mac Gypsy
This video was taken the night I brought the little kids home.  Yes, I had them in the house--in a clothes basket.  I could only feed a bottle to one at a time. Gypsy would not wait her turn.  She kept jumping out of the basket.  So Don, the same man who said he will never feed my goats, actually gave Gypsy her first bottle and I have proof!! He is a sweetheart; even if, he is not smiling.
 
I am so exhausted tonight.  I know it is because I worry about Caddo schools so much.  I need to just do the best I can and let it go. So my blog is not serious!  A friend who loves my goats sent me this joke.

High school kids sure have it all figured out!!!!

           At a high school in Colorado, a group of students
           played a prank- they let three goats loose in the school.

           But, before turning them loose, they painted numbers on
           the sides of the goats: 1, 2, and 4.

           School administrators spent most of
           the day looking for No.3.

          Now that's funny, I don't care who you are....