Today was a banner day. Today was the day Pac-Man, the goat who is afraid of heights, discovered that he can be a brave goat after all. Today he climbed, not just one, but BOTH ramps all the way to the tippy-top of the goat tower! 

I joined him for his moment of triumph. 

The girls bow in deference to their new king (although I doubt they’ll allow him to enjoy his reign for long). 

Yep, I was right. Looks like Lilly has already assumed the throne and is surveying her minions from on high. 

Now Petunia has the top deck and with her ears outstretched, it appears she is going to use it for a launch pad. “Cleared for takeoff!”

A perfect shot… if only I hadn’t cut off Lilly’s head.

We took Jezebel and Delilah out hiking with us for the first time yesterday. They were a little skittish, but they stuck close and they weren’t noisy so all in all it was a good time.

The girls are filling out nicely and Jezebel is at least an inch taller than Delilah now. There’s a nice padding of flesh over their ribs, and their hooves are  growing in much stronger than they were when I got them. It’s amazing what free choice food, a hoof trim, and running on rocks can do in a short time! 

Water was the biggest problem on this hike. I had to do some serious hand-holding to get them to cross this little stream.  

Delilah got stuck in the middle for a while. 

Looking across this log bridge, you’d think they were teetering on the edge of a 10,000-foot precipice with nothing but a frayed rope stretched over it. 

I crossed ahead of them to show them how it’s done. Jezebel was the brave one. My picture of Delilah crossing showed nothing but a blurry tail as she got part-way across and then took to the air. 

Phil has really been bonding with these girls. They love him and it shows. 

Looks like the tree sprouted a goat! A goat with wattles no less!

After the goat costume contest, Spongebob Squarepants switched from goat wrangling to bull riding!

One of the highlights of the State Fair was that my friend had a birthday on the last day and I supplied the cake and ice cream. It was extremely decadent!

I made chocolate/vanilla marble cake (which incidentally called for 1 1/2 cups of milk) with rich chocolate frosting. I also made mint chocolate chip ice cream and Phil made vanilla/chocolate swirl ice cream. We also made a batch of whipped cream and I brought  caramel and chocolate sauce. Every single thing contained goat milk. I even brought a bottle of fresh milk to drink.

Not being much of a cook, I go into transports of delight when people enjoy the rare things I DO concoct, especially if it involves my goats’ milk. All of the milk came from Nubbin and Petunia, who of course were at the fair, so it was fun to say, “Thank those two over there!” when people complimented the desserts. I had one little girl come over for her second large cup of milk and say, “This is the best milk ever! My auntie has goat’s milk and it’s sort of funny tasting, but this is really, really good!” I have to admit, I got a very warm, fuzzy feeling inside when she said that. All the dessert and the milk disappeared very quickly, and Nubbin thoroughly cleaned the crumbs out of the cake pan. I think we were all very proud of our contribution to that birthday party. My goats may not have won any prestigious prizes in the ring, but at least they’ve got it where it counts!

We had a great time at the Colorado State Fair this past weekend and our goats did pretty well for themselves. We didn’t win any championships or anything, but we had fun and made friends. We only took Petunia and Nubbin this year. I brought them a day early so I could do the one day milk test, mostly out of curiosity. Petunia milked eight pounds and Nubbin milked seven. Not bad for first fresheners I think! I’m pretty sure they’ll both score a lot of points for butter fat.

We did the costume class again this year and Phil had everyone in stitches with his Spongebob outfit. He spent a lot of time on this costume and it looked amazing! Nubbin was Gary the snail. We had a bit of trouble keeping the googly-eye headband in place, but the effect was hilarious when it stayed on.

I went with a “How to Train Your Dragon” theme and dressed as “Beard-regard the Bold,” a bearded Viking woman from the island of Berk. I then showed off Petunia’s repertoire of tricks. She can shake hands, spin circles, dance on her hind legs, and go down on her knees to apologize. The whole crowd went, “Aaaawwwwww!!!” when she did that last one. I wasn’t sure if she would do all this with the dragon wings perched awkwardly on her back, but she didn’t seem to notice them much (which was demonstrated by the way she kept bashing them into people and things). Petunia’s dragon horns stayed nicely in place as well.

Well, we’ve given our new girls two weeks of quarantine and we got clean blood test results back from WADDL this afternoon. Time for introductions!

The match is set! We’ve got Lilly in one corner with Petunia acting as her second vs. Delilah in the other corner with Jezebel second. DING DING!

And now there’s a general melee with everyone jumping in on the action at once!

Jezebel and Nubbin do a little two-step.

Delilah and Lilly get serious!

Keep workin’ that chin, Delilah!

Ready… aim… FIRE! Delilah is no match for Lilly’s bazookas.

But the dust soon settled and everyone spent the rest of the afternoon grazing peacefully together. 

Update by Phil: Unfortunately after Nan left, things got a little bit messy …

Whooopsie!!!

-Phil

Cuzco was the star guest member of RCC Saddle Club last Saturday at the Colorado State Fair parade, and boy did he attract attention!

He carried two panniers filled with candy and we followed the horses, weaving back and forth between crowds to hand out sweets to the kids. We got a ton of cheers, requests to touch him, and puzzled questions and expressions. Several people thought he was a llama or a burrow. I corrected them and told them he was a unicorn. That got a lot of laughs. The parade judges liked Cuzco a lot. They gave our little club 3rd place in the horse category, which is pretty darn good in a parade that size! We couldn’t beat the fancy Mexican vaqueros and senoritas with their fancy outfits and spirited exotic stallions, but I think this is the first time our club has placed at all (or at least in years). Go Cuzco!

Finn loves laps!

He’d sit here talking to me for hours if I let him. I have to be careful, though, because his horns are at exactly the wrong size right now and all it takes is a slight bop of the head to smack me right in the chin. I got a fat lip three weeks ago because he jumped up on the stanchion just as I leaned down to pick up a bucket. It was an accident, but we all have to learn to be careful these days!

Sputnik’s coat is going nuts right now. All these dark spots are coming in everywhere on his front end. He’s hard to photograph because he simply will not sit still, and photos also don’t seem to capture the spots very well yet and leave them looking washed-out compared to what they look like in real life. But he’s a crazy-looking critter!

He’s also incredibly clever! I’ve been teaching Finn and Snickers to lie down on command (a difficult command to learn, but best taught when they’re small). They are getting it pretty well, but when I tried it on Sputnik he panicked, so I decided to back off a bit and teach him some simpler tricks instead. I started out with “spin” and he had it within about five tries. Most goats take a couple of days to even start learning that trick! He was so attentive that I introduced “shake hands” that same morning. He offered me his leg the third time I asked–a new record! Petunia learned it in about five tries last year and I thought she was clever! Hopefully once he “learns to learn” he’ll listen to my “lie down” command without having a panic attack the minute I force him to bend his knees and go down.

Our little Finn just keeps getting bigger and prettier and more friendly and outgoing with everyone. He LOVES to go hiking and he comes running when we call his name. Today he got separated from everybody and started crying. Lilly and I both called to him and he came to me instead of his mom. It was very heartwarming. He leaps into the truck on command when Phil wants to take him out, and I’m teaching him to lie down on command as well. He’s learning incredibly fast!

I’ve never seen brighter, livelier eyes on a goat. The intelligence behind them reminds me of Cuzco, but there’s an eagerness to please that shines out the same way it does in a dog’s eyes. I hope he never loses this!

Finn also loves to sit in my lap (as far as it’s still possible). This must be genetic because Lilly used to do the exact same thing till I made her quit when she got too heavy–he waits till I’m sitting down, then he sidles up next to me, puts his head in my lap, then slowly eases himself up one front leg at a time until he has sort of snuggled his way onto my lap. Lilly hasn’t done this since last winter, so I know she didn’t show Finn how–she must have whispered instructions when I wasn’t looking.

And I just love those perky ears!

Faster than a speeding bullet!

More powerful than a locomotive!

Able to leap tall goats in a single bound!

Look! Out in the driveway talking to Phil!

Under the tree, posing for the camera!

Pestering the dog! It’s Snickers and Sputnik!!

These two have really been growing nicely, and Snickers is becoming friendlier and more intelligent by the day. He knows his name and comes when he’s called now, and he’s so sweet and gentle (much like Finn). He also likes to mess with the dog… a lot.

Sputnik is also starting to learn his name, but he comes when he feels like it. This little guy has had an attitude since the day he was born and he’s getting feistier all the time. He regularly picks fights with Finn (and I’m talking some pretty hard fights!), and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was bossing Finn around before long despite the size discrepancy. The second he got over his shyness around me he started testing the boundaries. He went from timidly taking cookies one day to butting my hand as he snatched them away the next. He got spanked twice yesterday for butting me on purpose, once when I wasn’t even feeding. He’s the little squirt of the bunch so I guess he feels he needs to compensate. Well not with me, buster! Although he’s not related to her, his attitude reminds me a little bit of Nibbles. She didn’t like to be held or restrained either and was always on the move and scrapping with everybody. Hopefully he can learn to channel his “enthusiasm” or that splashy coat of his is going to look mighty nice as an area rug.