Cuzco found a hose.

It wasn’t there yesterday.

There’s only one thing to be done.

Keep pulling it

Until it’s mostly on the ground.

And you can lie down and grin with the self-satisfaction that only comes with a job well done. 

It’s been a while since I’ve had time to take photos, but last week I did grab a few. Cuzco made himself useful by helping me take stuff across the property so I could cut up a tree. I put chainsaw and oil in one side and gasoline in the other. I love that Cuzco seems to always be eager to do real work. He stood perfectly still while I loaded him down and was eager to follow me out across the property with his load. I tied him to a fence post while I worked, and he soon got used to the noise of the chainsaw and laid down to patiently wait and chew his cud and watch the grass grow. He’s such a good goat. I wish he didn’t have to get older. =(

This Rendy event deserves its own post. Cuzco did something I never thought he would do. He went for a swim! It was not even coerced. Phil and I went in for a dip and we turned around to see Cuzco following right after us! He came in up to his chest and then stopped, but with a little more coaxing he waded right out into the deep water and started swimming. I didn’t have any treats or a leash, and of course we didn’t have the camera. So we went back for all those things and started over.

Of course, once we had the camera, Cuzco didn’t want to go in any more. Especially since Herb’s dog Sasha had joined us and was now in the lake.

“Come on in, Cuzco! The water’s great!” (Actually, it was freezing!)

As soon as Sasha ran back onto the beach, Cuzco was more than willing to come into the water.  

Into the deep water. 

“Yeah, I’m awesome!”

Video proof that an old goat CAN learn new tricks!

Well, we’re back from the Rendy, and what a weekend it was! First of all, Cuzco would like to thank all his loyal fans for driving miles into the wilderness over bumpy dirt roads just to meet him. Second of all, he would like to apologize for making a scene at the campfire the first night. He knows perfectly well he should not have whacked Phil in the face with his horn no matter how cranky he was feeling.

Phil is doing much better. His irritation with Cuzco has subsided along with the bump on his forehead. However, I think he’s decided that I should be the primary goat handler in crowded situations in the future. Cuzco seems to mostly be a one-person goat, and I’m usually that person when he’s in an intense situation. Right before he whacked Phil, Cuzco had been entertaining the crowd with his repertoire of tricks, so Phil said he wasn’t sure whether he had the best-behaved or worst-behaved goat at the Rendezvous.

In stark contrast to Cuzco’s stand-offishness, Lilly had the time of her life making the rounds. I did not see that goat lie down once all weekend when there were people or goats to interact with. Wherever there was a crowd, Lilly was in the middle of it, and often as not Petunia was in somebody’s lap. Lilly made friends with every person and picked a fight with about half the goats. She seemed to win most of them.

Nibbles spent most of her time hiding from a certain little boy who wanted nothing more than to play with her and Nubbin. She also liked to torment the young wethers that Dwite brought for the silent auction. They were smaller than her, so she took advantage of the situation–especially when they were tied up.

Nibbles was taken aback by Amelia Goat-hart’s rather aggressive introduction. My goats and Herb’s (Charlie Horse’s) goats hung out a lot. Nibbles adopted Herb’s trailer as her favorite hide-out spot, and Lilly fought, er… roughhoused with his goats the entire time.

Cuzco enjoys the fruits of another goat’s labor. He didn’t dig this lovely dirt pit, but he laid claim and guarded it jealously.

My babies loved this trailer, and Nubbin spent a good deal of time trying to pick a fight with her own reflection. “Watch out! I’m bigger than you!”

Lilly, Victoria, and Amelia had some vicious knock-down, drag-out fights. Lilly usually won, even against two at once. It’s because she has the udder and she’s proud of it.

Speaking of udders, I entertained romantic visions of supplying the camp’s source of milk each morning. At home I’ve been getting a gallon a day out of these beauties from just one milking. At camp, it was a different story. I was thinking of starting a rodeo event: wild goat milking. Between flying feet, flying bucket, and flying dirt, I felt very fortunate that I was able to get one clean quart on the first morning. That was it. After that they were onto me and there was no more milk fit to drink. Oh well. Can’t say we didn’t try.

Petunia is starting the “try everything and see if it tastes good” phase. Clothes, she’s discovered, are delicious!

Phil has decided that every cultured goat must learn to waltz.

Phil loves his goaties and his goaties love him too.

Nibbles and Nubbin share a quiet moment.

I brought the goatlings to play in the basement with me one day. Once they discovered the joys of bouncing on the couch, that was all they wanted to do!

What a cutie! Nubbin definitely retains more of the Nubian look than Petunia. I thought that with Nibbles’ dominant personality she would make sure her offspring looked just like her, or at least a little like her, but I was wrong. This one looks like Papa.

Phil had Petunia up in the office a few days ago and was watching YouTube videos with her. She was very enthralled by a dancing hot dog the first time, but lost interest at the next viewing. The Doritos goat commercial, however, held her interest for three watchings in a row. She baa-aa-ed every time. I got the third viewing on video, so she doesn’t baa quite as loud, but you can just hear her at the end. Also, I love how Petunia licks her lips when she hears the chips crunching.

Well, I’m not sure if it’s official yet, but we’ve been calling the new little one “Nubbin”. Perhaps not so suited to such a big girl, but it sounds so well with “Nibbles”. I don’t have any new photos since mostly she’s spent the last few days sleeping in the shed. Today she was out a lot more and is starting to bounce around like a proper goatling, but I was too busy to play with her.

I got some Selenium/Vitamin E gel into her to help strengthen her and straighten her out. Her hind end is much stronger, and her feet are starting to look normal instead of knuckled under. She still wobbles a lot in the back end when she walks, and her feet splay out easily, but she’s hopping around and running, so I think she’s going to be just fine. I have to remember she came a couple days early and had some catching up to do.

It’s amazing how the goats’ personalities have all changed with the coming of babies. I never knew Lilly could be so aggressive and even downright mean, and I never knew Nibbles could ever be so subdued. At first Lilly was worried whenever Nubbin bawled and would come running even though it wasn’t her baby. A day later she had realized it wasn’t her baby and she started being mean to her whenever Nibbles wasn’t around. I’ve had to rescue poor Nubbin from Lilly’s head-butting and ear-biting on a couple of occasions when Nibbles has been in the stanchion. Nibbles, on the other hand, has taken a back seat to Lilly in the pecking order. Yesterday I was encouraging Nubbin to drink from the less popular side of the udder when Lilly came out of nowhere and savagely t-boned Nibbles and about knocked her off her feet. This is such an enormous change from just a month ago that it’s hard to believe they are the same goats.

Lilly is starting to get impatient with milking lately too. Once she’s finished her grain, that’s it. She’s done with milking and she spends the entire rest of the time kicking savagely. I’m pretty sure I’m not hurting her. I think she’s just bored and feeling dominant, and this is her way of asserting herself. She’s also run past me into the house twice in the last two days, which she has never ever done before. Cuzco hates Lilly more than ever. He’s been going out of his way to butt her, chase her, harass, and terrify her any time they have to share the same space (like during feeding time). Any time he doesn’t have to be near her, he stays as far away from her as he can and makes sure she doesn’t dare come near him. I think he’s as annoyed with Lilly’s recent “attitude” as much as I am. The weird thing is that Lilly is hanging around Cuzco more, like she’s trying to replace Nibbles as “Cuzco’s girl,” and Cuzco ain’t havin’ none of it!

But other than his general annoyance at Lilly, Cuzco has been real good around the babies. He doesn’t like them and avoids them as much as possible, but he has never offered to hurt them. He hasn’t once tried to go in his shed since Petunia first adopted it. I was leery at first of letting all the goats be in one pen, but after letting them out under supervision for a few days, I decided it would be safe to leave them together all the time. Cuzco has his space in the plastic shed and no one dares come near it. As long as he has that refuge, he’s content to let everyone else go where they please. Petunia learned quickly that Cuzco does not like to play and wisely leaves him alone. As long as she leaves him alone, he leaves her alone and everyone is happy. Now if Lilly would just settle down and stop playing the “diva mom,” I think we will all get along very nicely.

Oh, and Petunia has learned to jump on people. I can’t go outside any more without feeling little hooves pattering all over my legs. She loves to be picked up and held. She’s like a toddler reaching her hands towards the grown-ups’ knees and saying “Up! Up!” I thought jumping was just a bottle baby thing. I guess I was wrong. I figure she’ll grow out of it eventually like Nibbles did, but it’s cute in the meantime, as long as she hasn’t been stepping in mud or other things one finds in goat pens.

Well, Phil and I must know our goats pretty well. Just as we predicted, Lilly needed someone to hold her hand through kidding, giving us ample warning for several days beforehand, then going into mild labor for most of the afternoon until I sat down with her. Then as soon as she knew I was going to stay, she started hard labor within 15 minutes.

Nibbles, on the other hand, was just the opposite, exactly as we foresaw. She dropped an enormous doe-ling today, and she did it all by her lonesome, two days early, with no warning and no fuss. She’d been spending a lot of time under our front deck, and yesterday we heard her pawing and nesting and talking to herself down there. So I attempted to block the area off, but a rainstorm prevented me from finishing the job. I thought I still had time to do it today because Nibbles just didn’t look ready yet. Still, she was spending an awful lot of time under that porch and I heard her chuckling to herself again this afternoon. I couldn’t get her to come out, though, so I figured I’d wait and block the entrance after she came out for evening feed.

I left Nibbles alone and went out to mow grass, and when I went back to check on her a couple of hours later I saw something that wasn’t Nibbles squirming around in the gloom! I crawled back there and was met with what I thought was an enormous buckling already the size of week-old Petunia that was dried off, standing, and nursing vigorously. I grabbed a towel, wrapped him in it, and had to crawl almost forty feet through the dirt to get out of that cave, trying the whole time not to fall and crush baby, who was bawling and struggling furiously. I looked down at the chunky body with the heavy legs and broad forehead and hollered to Phil that we had a bouncing baby boy! Then I went to dunk that filthy, dust-covered navel in iodine, looked at the belly and under the tail and realized he was actually a she! (Sorry girl–my bad.)

Anyway, here she is! We haven’t named her yet. Boy is she a chunk!

I hope her hind legs straighten out. Right now she’s pretty weak in the hind end and her pasterns are knuckled over the front. Especially the left one, which, as you can see in the photos, she can’t properly walk on at all. But she’s strong enough to stand up and nurse in spite of the crooked legs. Do any of ya’ll have experience with crooked-legged kids? Do they usually straighten out ok? I know that foals can have ridiculously crooked legs that they can hardly walk on when born, but that straighten out beautifully within a few days. Are goats the same way? I sure hope so!

Petunia just keeps getting cuter and cuter. And she’s bouncing all over the place and getting more fun to play with lately.

She also enjoys helping me milk.

Nibbles is a barge these days. If she only has one baby in there, she’s going on a diet immediately after she kids!

I’ve got the Linds on my mind a lot lately. Jennifer Lind of Rae’s Majestic Nubians is the girl who owns Petunia’s daddy, and she lives right in the middle of the evacuation zone in that Black Forest fire that’s raging right now. I hope she got all her animals out in time. With so many homes burned, it’s hard to imagine hers survived.