No, I don’t mean Goat Yoga, that’s just dumb.
We love our goats, but not inside, duh.
Because of the heat and drought the best forage is close to the house, where we are regularly watering. It’s good for the goats, and for us it makes for better entertainment than most TV. There are drawbacks though. Like they eat pretty much all the plants, not just the ones we want them to eat.
And they tend to follow me around, waiting for the extra special treats I bring them from the garden, like their favorite, sweet potato vines and morning glory.
And they want to climb on everything.
Our once somewhat peaceful morning coffee now attracts a team of show-offs. (I don’t think Bubba approves, considering what they do to his bed.) They do giant leaps off the deck, too, that look a lot like the tricks snowboarders do, but not on cue, unfortunately.
Please feel free to enjoy 2 minutes of Chez Kensho programming!
Kensho Homestead 
here is a little ditty for your friday fun! it is my favorite song. one i play every friday!! okay. shows my age huh!!
run rabbit run!
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HA, never heard that one before, cute!
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you crack me up Kensho! i forgot that part about goats…or nubians in specific. they hate rain and water…won’t cross water and won’t stand in the rain…no way!! they would always head for the barn and look out…like cats that way…i have a visual of your deck now…and i hate to say i know that feeling!! but i do!! they pushed your BUTTON!! they jump up and down on it!! not the least bit contrite about it either.. oh boy that made me laugh!! sorry for your clean up but i know that one. they can make a mess like never seen before!! bet you will be glad to put them back out to pasture!!
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Glad to get a laugh! I’m sure by tomorrow we’ll be laughing too. 😏
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Really enjoyed Highlanders stories & learned something new to boot. Thanks.
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i thought i would say to granny that kensho is right about the girls not knocking you down. the bottle raised babies would NEVER think of hurting us or knocking us down…they would on occasion rear up on their hind legs and shake their head at me after i was chasing them out of my rose garden…..the ears on a nubian stand straight out to the side when they are annoyed ! They will stand on the hind legs and shake their head to the side ready for a run at it….my milking does only did that when i had to remove them from some place they didn’t want to leave!!
bamboo poles make great herding staffs for goats, cows, chickens and geese!! i have lots of bamboo…the goats will eat it to the ground. so will all the other animals, rose garden, flower bed, lovely lilac bushes…and most loved of all was my blue spruce tree….it wasn’t very big yet…didn’t survive the goat attack!
my oldest goat was 19 when she died. she was a companion for my 32 year old horse…I bought her (the goat) when she was 9 years old. my mare and her pet goat were good friends. had to buy another goat to keep old Hattie company..you couldn’t do a thing with my mare without her goat under her nose at all times! my horse was goat addicted….Bonnie my mare couldn’t have a vet visit or a farrier, couldn’t be haltered and moved without that goat tied next to her within reach of her nose! Hattie loved the pampering she got and continued to get even after my old horse died at 32. Hattie was 16 then and lived another 3 years. All my goats were nubians.
old hattie was the only goat to knock me off my feet….we had a big pine tree in the yard and i opened the gate to go and give my horse her grain….old hattie took it be an invitation to get to her favorite tree! she ran between my legs and i ended up laying backwards on her back….she was strong…carried me that way for several feet before i bounced off and hit the ground!
They actually make goat carts! and i can see how a goat can pull a cart they are very strong animals and strong willed! Fun animals though. never a dull moment. the laugh you get from their antics more then make up for their naughtiness. I am not as flexible as i used to be and could no longer trim their feet. ours needed regularly maintenance. our ground wasn’t hard enough for them to trim their own feet. it would be a wrestling match even in the stanchion. i couldn’t physically do it anymore or i would still have all my goats!!!
Nubian milk is the highest butter fat even though i never made butter out of it. i made a lot cheese!! it only has a ”goatie” taste when they eat weeds….if they are fed hay and alfalfa it is as sweet as cow creme.
i talk too much!! Thank you kensho for putting up with me!! I wanted to give my 2 cents worth of goat lore.
thanks again!
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It is my pleasure to hear your stories, Highlander! I had no idea they could live that long. And I was thinking of you this morning with a bad case of goat annoyance! We had just a mild sprinkle last night, but the goats decides they all needed to line up under our carport all night, little did we know. I walked outside this morning to a literal POOP DECK! I can’t believe how much just a few goats poop in one night. We’ve just spent hours this morning cleaning it up, all over everything, all the tables, in the cracks between the wood planks and now our deck smells like a barn. Grrrrrr!! I need a new title to this post: NO Fun With Goats!!
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Meant to say butting each other & possibly people. Also meant to ask what is their average weight & life span?
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Weight is quite variable and life span like a large dog—around 10 years average, and i I’d guess around 100 lbs.
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Highlander commented about goats butting each & possibly people. I’d imagine getting butted by a goat could be very painful & even dangerous if you got knocked down. Is it something you’ve had to watch out for? How would you avoid it? Can you tell when they’re in the mood to head butt?
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Yes, something to be cautious of for sure! I was butted by a ram and it knocked me down and I had a bruise for a week and was sore for a month afterward. However, it would be extremely unlikely for a doe to be aggressive like that. Even with horns they are not aggressive with people, they behave like prey, they will run, or bow. But accidents can happen, especially with children, if they learn to treat people like other goats. So, you can’t allow them to get too tame, and you have to navigate their horns as they really don’t get how powerful they are.
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i am not very good at spelling sometimes…i meant BINDWEED!! NOT BINDWEEK…good lord i am getting old..
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not a safe tree or plant left on the property!! and they improvise in how to get to that tasty morsel! They are fun to watch and addicting! we started out with 2 long ago and ended up selling them all off at 42….watch out for the horns….they love to play head butt!! it is a little like thumb wrestling for goats but boy can they hit each other on the noggin! and they will do it to a person too!! that is when the legs end up pointed straight up skyward!! and the wind goes WHOOSHING out of the lungs!!
i do miss my goats sometimes!! watching your videos I remember why i miss them….they are entertaining and they have a unique ability to push your button! your annoyance button…like being impossible to catch sometimes, rushing the gate and getting in where they were not invited…ect…. they love to eat…every bush, tree, and flower. best of all they love BINDWEEK…a type of pervasive weed we have. the love poison ivy as well. eat it like candy!
i always thought in a famine all you need is one goat! of course they come in pairs…they don’t like being alone…but watch what they eat…a lot of things they eat is actually edible. weeds, grasses, tree leaves…stuff like that. you don’t want to eat poison ivy though! ouch!
watch out for the horns…we always used to disbud our our dehorn them at an early age so they never grew horns….the ones we bought from someone else that had horns torn the fences up pretty bad and got those horns caught in the fence. had to rescue more then one goat stuff through the fence with field fencing mangled around their horns. or just managed to push a horn through one of the holes and couldn’t get it back through.
finally had to sell all our goats when i could no longer tend their hooves and horns…and the wrestling match when it came to wormers or health care in general. age crept up on me. much like a goat after a treat!
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Hi Highlander! Nice of you to stop in. They have done wonders on the poison ivy, thank heavens! And it’s so perfect because I’m very allergic and the poison ivy doesn’t like to be disturbed, so it’s practically eradicated around the house now. (Maybe that’s why they don’t have it in Europe at all?!) Yes, and the bindweed, which is very closely related to the morning glory, I think, and in the same family as the sweet potatoes, so that makes sense.
I considered long and hard about the horns. There’s certainly a lot of conflicting information out there on the benefits for/against. With a lot more going against horns. With human kids, a more confined space, a larger population, I definitely would’ve gone with disbudding them. Time will tell!
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I’d think having goats jumping on your spine would cause more harm than good. I’m amazed at the agility & sense of balance of that little white & gray goat has. I wonder if they’re all descendants of mountain goats. Do any of your other goats have the same abilities? Gotta love those faces looking into you home.
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Thanks for stopping by, Granny. The white/gray one (Bluebonnet) definitely shows more interest and talent in climbing, but they are all naturally good at it. It does seem like most of our preferred breeds in the U.S. come from Switzerland. Summer, Bluebonnet’s mom, does have a bit of Saanen in her line from way back, even though she is registered full Nubian. Saanens come from the Alps, so that would makes sense. Nubians are said to come from Africa and Asia into Europe and have the distinctive long ears and ‘Roman’ nose. I love their look the best for sure and they are known to have more unique personalities and be rather loud and bossy. Today guys from the phone company came by to fix an issue and the girls walked right up to them and started sniffing them looking for treats and pets. 😁
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Oh my lord…never a dull moment.
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😆
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