It has been awhile since I did any blogging, but I have been urged to blog about our new adventure….raising pack goats!
I love our sheep and have always been more of a ‘sheep’ person than a ‘goat’ person. My sister loves her goats and appreciates their ‘goatiness’. I will be the first to admit that I place goats in the category of being trouble makers…along with all of the stereotypes that go along with that. So, when we started talking about getting pack goats and using them for hiking, backpacking, and hunting, I was immediately skeptical. I did some research and have been following a few hiking with pack goat FB pages and have been pleasantly surprised with how they raise their goats and their expectations of their behavior. I saw a bright spot and thought ‘we can do this!’
Flash forward to this week and the actual arrival of our 4 goats.
Meet Glacier, Ghost, Ansel (hiding behind Ghost), and Slick. Aren’t they cute!
I think that is what gets them into trouble. People see the ‘cute’ and their cute little antics. Very cute at this stage…not so much when they are over 200 lbs.!
We have implemented a few rules and are slowing making our way through the steps on how to become a good little goat.
The first step was to keep all 4 on the floor. That means no jumping up on us. If they happened to jump up on us, we simply said ‘no’ and put their feet back on the ground. Four days into it and they already have this one down. This leads us to the other reason goats get themselves into trouble….they are SO SMART!
You can see the little wheels turning in their heads.
So far it has been a fun adventure! I hope you enjoy following along.
A HUGE shout out to my sister for all of her help and the goat milk from her does for these little guys. We have another month of bottle feeding and I know they are going to be that much healthier by getting goat milk instead of replacer. If you have dairy goats, or other dairy animals, and have’t heard of Simple Pulse please check them out. My sister and brother-in-law have created an excellent product!
Stories from the Farm 
What are the things hanging from their throat? Thanks
Those are wattles. They are simply hair-covered appendages of flesh hanging from the throat area. They serve no purpose, and are believed to be a genetic trait “left over” from evolution. I personally think they are cute 😉 2 of them have them – Glacier and Ansel, and the other two don’t.
So good to see a post from you, Shannon! Cute kids. (If your son has grown like mine, he’s looking more like a man than a kid himself.)