Murmur Creek Farm: Buck Buck! We have Goats! (from Ken)

Plan A: Work hard on the barn and get it ready for goats to come in January. We sawed, nailed, ran wire, installed outlets and switches, scraped old beams, whitewashed, and cleaned and cleaned... and it was finally nearing the completion point, so I called the farmer to find out about the goats only to find out they weren’t even born yet. What? Apparently even experienced goat farmers can’t guarantee that the breeding process works out as planned. So with this new birthing schedule we were looking at a few more months until the does would be ready to come to Murmur Creek.

We were a bit disappointed. Rosetta was content, and if I had any good sense I would have been too. Why not just wait, its cold, the pasture isn’t ready yet, and there is always more to do, why feed goats when someone else can do it... but I’m goat focused now and couldn’t be stopped.

Plan B: We needed to find a good buck at some point, so I thought why not NOW. So I searched on craigslist and managed to find a good full blood Boer goat two hours away. So I set out to take a look at this guy. Julie at the goat farm was very helpful and showed me around their barns. I was able to learn and help as she administered shots and tattooed an ear. When the visit was all done I came back home with two goats in the back of our minivan (I was a bit surprised how much two little goats can poop in two hours! Don’t worry I had a tarp & blanket down, and I don’t even think the van smells like goats anymore). When Jessie, Micaiah, Samuel and Rosetta met the goats, they were quickly named “Vivaldi” and “Homer.”

Vivaldi is the bigger one in front. Homer in back.

Homer

Micaiah giving Vivaldi a nice head rub.

The two bucks are adjusting to their new home and seem rather content. Our dog Asher on the other hand is a bit tense and even gets the shakes while staring them down from outside their pen. They don’t really seem to care too much about him and even come over and sniff at Asher from time to time.