Okay, get ready for a boatload of photos! Our first full day in Utah, Herb took us to explore some of the Morrison Formation. This type of desert landscape is all over Utah and consists of mostly purple and white banded hills with rocky outcroppings. Herb informed us that here be dinosaur fossils!

The steeper bits made us thankful we had goats to carry our water and gear!

I was also thankful I had a goat on the downhill side to steady me as we hiked along this precarious hillside. The rocks were very unstable and one slip could have caused a sprained angle or even a long, painful tumble.

What’s Sputnik doing, posing like that? He must be learning from Finn!

This is one of those “almost-worked-out” photos that Finn and I managed to botch. See Herb and Woodstock framed in the archway? They are the intended subject matter. When Phil told me to call Finn, I thought he meant he wanted Finn to look through the rocks. But Phil actually wanted me to call Finn away so he could get a nice shot of Herb. Now we’ve got Finn’s throat in the shot. Oh well. Not every artistic endeavor is destined to succeed.

Classic banded hills.

Herb and Bacchus.

This is not the most interesting photo in the world, but it reminds me of something that greatly affected our hike but which can’t be seen in the photos: Gnats! Yes, we were endlessly gnettled by an ignfestation of gnasty, gnefarious gnats which gnawed on our gnoggins and our poor goats’ gnethers. (According to Herb, every word that began with the letter “N” must be preceded by the letter “G” (pronounced) to emphasize that fact that the word “gnat” is ridiculous.) The people wore “gnat gnets,” but there was gnothing to protect the goats. We were surprised to see Finn suddenly lie down with his load mid-morning on this dirt pile. At first I thought maybe he was sick, but it turned out he was trying to scratch his belly on the ground.

I think Wile E. Coyote is hiding behind that rock with a stick. “Be careful, Sputnik!”

“Don’t push, Sputnik!”

That’s a B-I-I-I-I-G rock.

Stripey mushroom rocks! Are there any Smurfs hiding back there?

What are they all looking at?

Noble goats.

Herb and his goats blend in very well with this landscape.

I prefer red packs to help my boys stand out.

“Water! Water! I need water!”

A handsome trio.

We took a break in the shade of an overhanging rock. Everyone was glad to get out of the sun for a while.

An altercation occurred when Finn finally ran out of patience with Herb’s dog, Luna. She teased and pestered Finn and Sputnik every time they stopped, and both goats kept warning her off with their horns. Finn finally snapped and rammed her in the ribs. She howled as if every bone on that side was broken, but I think she mostly just wanted Herb to acknowledge her suffering because she stopped crying as soon as Herb checked our her “injuries”. She was fine five minutes later, silly dog!

I’m not sure what’s going on here, but it’s funny.

Bacchus enjoyed posing before the various Hues of Utah.

I love the rocks in this dry riverbed. They look like paving stones in an ancient roadway.

These rocks were my absolute favorite. I couldn’t get enough of them. They are hard to capture in photos. The brightness of the gold and the depth of the purple are usually lost.

Phil poses on the colors of his Alma Mater. Houghton College used purple and gold.

Herb photographs Bacchus’ best side. 

If it weren’t for the tuft of grass in the foreground, this might look like a full-sized tree growing down in a rock canyon.

Personal portraits:
Boss photo of Herb and Bacchus.

Boss photo of Phil and Finn.

Wimpy photo of Nan and Sputnik.

In photos, the only thing that really brought out the purple in the rocks was Sputnik’s halter.

Woodstock’s coat blends in perfectly with the color of the rock. It’s a good thing he’s wearing a green pack to contrast!

I loved these little “goblins” down in the valley.

Little did I know that a few minutes later we would walk right past them.

Check out those colors!

In this landscape, I felt we might fit in better if we were using camels.

It looks like we’re in the middle of nowhere in a trackless desert, but believe it or not, we’re almost back to the truck. It was a great day of hiking. We found many interesting rocks and fossils, including a few that were worth bringing home to my curio cabinet. What a wonderful excursion!

Phil and I decided to attend the North American Packgoat Rendezvous in Island Park, ID this year, so we packed up Finn and Sputnik and headed out on a Monday morning. The Rendezvous wouldn’t start until Thursday afternoon, but Phil and I wanted to stop for a couple of days in Utah on the way. We have a friend named Herb who lives in Ferron, which was almost exactly halfway along our route from Rye to the Rendy in Island Park. It seemed like a great opportunity to visit with Herb and explore his beautiful part of the country near the San Rafael Swell.

Monday evening we arrived just early enough to take a short hike to see some petroglyphs. Herb met us at the trailhead and we all unloaded our goats. Packs were not necessary on this little excursion.

Herb led the way way. The goats were funny. We had our two and Herb brought two of his, so there was a lot of jockeying for position and no one quite knew where to walk in the lineup. They all got along pretty well, but they kept switching places, being unhappy about it, and switching again. Herb’s dog, Luna, wasn’t quite sure what to do with two new goats and kept teasing and harassing mine to get a reaction. The goats showed quite a lot of restraint and no one hit her on this hike, although I could see Finn revving up to it.

I love how Finn’s beautiful facial markings pop out in this light.

Herb’s “Barry Goatalow” has turned into quite the athletic young hiker! He’s enormous for a yearling, with long straight legs and nice conformation. He loves to climb, jump, and explore, and he does it with an easy, graceful style. I think he’s going to mature into a killer packgoat.

Finn, looking gorgeous as always.

Sputnik’s dinosaur-like features look great against the rocky backdrop of a Utah desert.

Does this goat ever NOT strike a pose?

Petunia is a true matriarch. Four years later, her son Sputnik, though vastly larger than she, is still her closest companion. And this year’s kids are never far from their mama either. 

I took these photos in mid-June when there was still a slight tinge of green in the pasture.

Baby goats racing down the hill! 

Phil Hassey: Goat Baron

Honey Pie and Prudence love to play on the “baby goat rock” as we like to call it. Look at little Honey’s marvelous airplane ears! 

Phil and I went for a drive later that day. We’ve got to get the boys practiced up for the 4th of July parade in Westcliffe.

I love how they ride in our truck with no cage, ears flapping in the breeze.  

Sarge, or “the little peanut” as we’ve been calling him, needed help on our walks for the first few days. His mother seemed determined to start bringing him as soon as possible, and he did his very best to keep up, but he’s very tiny and kept getting trampled by bigger and faster goats. So we often carried him during the first week.

These two are the cutest together. Coral is still very much a baby herself, and motherhood has done little to “mature” her as it usually does with most goats.

Look at that little pink tongue!

Proud mama.

And let’s not forget the “big kids”! TinCup’s and Nauti’s kids hang out in a group, and their mamas often take turns babysitting while the other goes out to graze. The kids are getting old enough to stay with the herd most of the time now, but I still occasionally see the four of them conked out under a tree with one mama grazing alone nearby.

Wild Honey Pie’s pattern reminds me of the colors we commonly see on Nigerian Dwarfs, but that seldom present on a large breed goat. I love it!

What a cute face!

And Honey Pie’s sister Prudence looks like a little Boer in her coloring. If my neighbor still had his herd, and if I hadn’t personally overseen TinCup’s date with Rocky, I’d be concerned that there’d been some mistake. But no, my neighbor hasn’t had any Boers for going on three years now so there is no question about this girl’s parentage. But I like to tease her about being the “red-headed stepchild”.

Tired mama with her cuddling babies.

Nauti’s kids are growing like weeds. Sadie is going to be a beautiful, striking doe. And Maxwell… I just have to laugh at this little guy. He’s about as gung-ho as a goat can get. I’ve been having to correct him on an almost daily basis because he insists on pushing me with his little horns. He’s getting better, but I think whoever ends up with this goat is going to have to keep on top of the manners. This little guy started using his nubs on people earlier than any baby we’ve ever had. They all try it at some point, and most go through a phase where they have to be corrected fairly regularly, but Max started a lot sooner and is more persistent than most. Unless his personality changes during wethering and re-homing, he’s definitely going to become an “alfa goat” type. He’s very bold but also very friendly. If I sit down, he makes a beeline for my lap and he stays there. But if I put him down and turn my attention elsewhere, there’s a very good chance I’ll soon feel his little nubs digging into my lower back. And of course he’s already chasing the girls with a lascivious gleam in his eyes.

Penny and Rita are growing nicely and are sweet as they can be. Jezebel, as always, is a very doting and nurturing mother.

With great big girls demanding food, Jezebel shows us the face of long suffering sacrifice.

We’ve been so busy these last couple of weeks that I haven’t had time to post photos! At the end of May, Phil and I brought FOUR babies in for a movie! It was quite the fiasco! Sadie and especially Max were getting too big and rambunctious to come in the house any more so it took some effort to control the situation! I put a sheet on the couch for hair control. All the kidlets are shedding!

Max exits stage left and I’m left with a pile of pretty girls.

A few days after the “Four-kid-fiasco,” little Sgt. Pepper came on the scene and has been occupying our couch for movies ever since. Here he is just three days old.

And what a heartbreaker!

For the first few days he had cute little lopsided ears.

This little goat loves cuddles!

Our last 2018 kid was born on May 31, and we rounded out our Beatles-themed season by naming this little guy “Sgt. Pepper.” It’s only fitting to have nine babies in a Beatles-themed year. He’s a tiny little peanut, weighing in at only 5 lbs. at birth. Once we dried him off he felt like a little ball of dandelion fluff–certainly not much heavier!

Coral couldn’t have picked a much prettier day to have this little guy, but she could have picked a more suitable location! I could tell she was getting close, but I wasn’t at all sure how close. She’s a first-time mom and didn’t really seem to have the routine down. She came for our daily walk with the herd at 1:15 and she never separated herself or dug nests or any of the other little things impending mamas do. She was more vocal than usual but that was it. Her cute little udder seemed to grow every time I looked at it. It felt a little hot to the touch and had some lumps which worried me, so after our walk I spent a few minutes massaging it with hot towels. It was only a bit of congestion and the lumps worked right out, but the massage seemed to stimulate some contractions. I didn’t know if they would continue or pass, so I put Coral off the patio and turned my attention elsewhere. Phil went back in the house to work.

Coral was baa-ing a lot but it soon faded into background noise as I got busy with other things. After about 15 minutes I began to notice that the baa-ing had changed in tone and frequency. I peeked round the edge of the house and she was lying among the wood chips in a baking-hot corner where I cut and stack firewood. And there were hooves peeking out from under her tail! I rang the doorbell to summon Phil down from work and I hurried over to fetch Coral up from the hot, dirty, and uncomfortable spot she’d chosen and pulled her onto a patch of clean grass nearby.

Sgt. Pepper made his appearance shortly after 2:00 with no assistance. Well, I tugged gently on a leg as he came into the world, but Coral did all the work. Much like his mother, who we’ve nicknamed “Fuzzy”, there was more hair than goat, and this funny little guy had 1 1/2 wattles! There was a normal, furry wattle on the left side and a hairless black half-wattle on the right. It looked very silly. You can just see the naked little thing poking out from under his neck in this photo.

Penny was very curious. I kept trying to push her back because mamas are usually very protective of brand new babies and don’t want other goats poking their noses into the action. I didn’t want Coral to trample little Pepper in her zeal to run off the interlopers. But I needn’t have worried. Coral was so enamored with her offspring that she didn’t even look up when first Penny and then Jezebel (who is often mean to Coral) came up to sniff the newcomer.

Coral was so cute about Pepper’s birth. She’s already one of the most adorable goats I’ve ever seen, with those big, wide-set eyes, the perpetual Cheshire cat smile, and permanently curious ears. When Pepper thudded to the ground with a crash (yes, Coral was standing, and yes, I failed in my catching duties), Coral whipped around with a look of shock on her face like, “Oh my gosh, did that just come out of me??” She paused for a moment in pure disbelief, then cautiously lowered her head and began to sniff and poke timidly around at the new baby. She looked both curious and terrified at the same time. She took a few careful licks then suddenly her fearful attitude turned to pure rapture as the realization dawned on her that this baby was her very own to nuzzle, lick, and enjoy. She couldn’t get enough of him after that and is a wonderfully careful and attentive mama.

Standing achievement: unlocked.

“Gah! Mama quit pushing me!”

“Darn right I pushed… you’re growing up too fast already, and I was not finished with your bath!”

Once Coral was satisfied that Pepper was thoroughly clean and dry, she plopped herself down and snuggled right up to him in a possessive manner that I’ve not seen in a goat before. All of our mamas are proud of their babies, but Coral is in a league of her own. She’s spent the last two nights curled up with him in the shed as well. Most of our mamas tend to put their kids down for a nap and then take a little time to themselves, but Coral is spending all of her time with her new baby for now.

As a singleton, I have a feeling this little guy is going to grow very quickly once he gets going on that udder. And as a funny note, I was talking to Phil about removing Pepper’s hairless half-wattle because it looked like a long, nasty, black tick to me. I guess Coral had the same idea because when I checked on him a couple of hours later it was gone. Coral had nipped it right off! So now he’s a little one-wattle goat. So funny!

Is there a more idyllic setting in which to have a baby? I ask you!

Meanwhile, can anyone see Nauti under all these kids?

Coincidentally, Phil and I just celebrated our 19th anniversary and we now have 19 goats to celebrate it with!

I’m sitting in the office with Max on my lap as I type. He’s such a sweet, friendly, happy baby. He follows me like a shadow and loves to be picked up and held, but I’m afraid these days will be over very quickly. He weighed in at 18 lbs. on his 2-week birthday! He’s one of the fastest-growing kids we’ve had yet! I have a feeling this one is going to love going for hikes when he’s old enough. He’s an explorer, and he’s just as happy to be with people as with his mama. And what a cutie! He’s going to be a very handsome fella one day.

But enough about Max for the moment. I’ve barely shared any photos of our two new kiddos yet!

Honey Pie and Prudie are a little more skittish than Max and Sadie, but they’re coming round quickly. I was busy organizing a horse show the weekend after they were born so they didn’t get quite as much early attention as the other kids. But we’re making up for it this week!

Synchronized scratching!

I’m kicking myself that I didn’t get any photos of Pie when she was 2-5 days old. For those three days, her ears stuck straight up above her head and then flopped over the front like a Fox Terrier puppy. It was the cutest thing! I guess I thought they’d stay like that a while longer. But alas, they stiffened up and now they just stick out, which is still charming but not quite as unique.

I can’t get over Prudie’s coloring! Where did she get all that white? She looks like a little Boer cross. And no, my neighbor no longer raises Boer goats, so there was no mistake in the parentage. She’s just a fluke.

We’ve been bringing these two in for movies on the couch in the evenings now. Max and Sadie would like to keep being “house babies” a while longer, but we need to tame down these two new ones before they get big. I’d love to have all four in at once for a real baby goat party, but that might be pushing things. I’m sure if we give it a try there will be stories to tell.

Soft baby goatie kisses.

TinCup took her kids for their first walk with us on Tuesday. They had a great time!

Max and Sadie are two of the sweetest babies we’ve ever had. I just love these guys and I hope we can find amazing homes for them. They’re going to be awesome goats for someone. They’re bursting with playfulness and they can’t get enough of people.

Finn and Sputnik haven’t gotten much attention lately. We’ve been much too focused on the new little kidlets. But maybe this weekend we’ll be able to get them out for a hike and/or a drive. I’m curious to see how Finn’s harness fits. I feel like he had a pretty big growth spurt recently, but maybe I’m imagining it. The harness will tell us the truth!

Max is king of the rock!

“Run, babies, run!”

Phil loves his baby goaties.

There’s a reason we named this one “Sexy Sadie”. She’s a real looker!

And here are TinCup’s new babies!

Sticking with the Beatles theme, we’re thinking about “Wild Honey Pie” for this one. Her eyes were very blue when she was born, but they’re already turning brown. She looked like a little Nigie baby with her flashy markings and the eyes! Also, we’ve had a wonderful variety of ears this season. This little gal has Fox Terrier ears like Finn.

And our “Boer” baby. (No, she does NOT have even the tiniest bit of Boer in her–it’s just coincidental coloring!) I’m calling her “Dear Prudence”.  With all that white, she”s going to be hard to keep clean!

And because she’s still the most adorable goat in our herd, here’s one of Coral. She has the most innocent, disarming smile I’ve ever seen. It makes her absolutely irresistible. I can’t wait to see what her and Sox’s babies look like! She’s due in about two weeks.

We had a couple of new arrivals today, and I’ve gotta say–we’re really having a bumper crop of girls this year! Two more doelings popped into the world around noon right on their due date. Tinny pushed the first kid out without trouble. Then she decided she was done and wouldn’t push out the second, so I reached in and found a nose in the passage. I reached a bit further, found a foot, and gave a little tug, at which point TinCup decided she should help and pushed kid #2 right out. I kind of think if we’d left her alone for a while she would have delivered just fine on her own. The kid was in the right position, just with the front feet pulled back a bit behind the nose. I think she’d have sorted herself out on her own if I’d been a little more patient.

Doeling #1 is a beautiful reddish bay with gorgeous markings. She gets the red from her dad, Rocky, and the striking black legs and dorsal stripe from her mom.

Look at that sweet smile!

And doeling #2 is colored like a Boer! Her mother is purebred Alpine and her dad is a registered Nubian, so she hasn’t got a drop of Boer blood in her, but that didn’t stop this little cutie from sporting a white body and red head!

Phil brought the new babies into the office this afternoon to show them off to his co-workers over video conference.

We had rather an exciting day. I was outside at around 11:00 a.m. when three Air Force fighter jets flew right over my head, so low I was almost afraid they’d clip the top of my hat! And boy were they LOUD!!! A short while later I had Nauti up on the stanchion to be milked. She’s producing far more than her two kids can drink yet so I’m milking out the excess for now. Phil came out to pet her and the new babies and he was alarmed to see a huge tear on her right flank. I had only seen Nauti’s left side and didn’t realize she was hurt. It was very fresh, so I’m pretty sure she panicked when the jets flew over and caught her side on something. It was pretty nasty but it looked like it could be stitched if I could keep it clean and moist until we got her to a vet. I slapped on some gauze soaked in Vetricin as well as lubricant jelly while Phil wound a whole roll of VetWrap around her middle to hold it in place. She looked very comical. Early this afternoon I was able to get it stitched up and hopefully it will heal without incident. Luckily it doesn’t seem too painful for her. I’m just glad she didn’t do this while she was pregnant. The vet would never have been able to stretch her hide back over that hole! As it is, having recently given birth, the skin over her flank is pretty loose right now and it stitched together easily.

And here are some of today’s photos of the new babies, who we’re calling Sadie and Max (for the Beatles songs “Sexy Sadie” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”).

Why do babies love to curl up inside feeder tubs and tires? I don’t know, but it sure is adorable!

Unfortunately, they’re already too big to both fit. Looks like Big Brother got kicked out!

Babies find the funniest secret places to hide.

Max.

Sadie.