Posted on 03/05/2013 11:57:33 AM PST by nickcarraway
"The prudent man does not make the goat his gardener," says an old Hungarian proverb.
But, as I do not live my life according to old Hungarian proverbs, six years ago I added a goat paddock and shed to the rear of my garden and brought home two small dairy goats.
The idea took hold of me rather suddenly while I was visiting an acquaintance in Nevada City. She kept goats, and I got to milk one and taste its fresh milk. It tasted ... good!
Surprised? I was too. But I learned that goat milk from the store often tastes "goaty" because its chemical makeup turns the flavor within about five days - about the time it takes goat milk to make it to your shopping cart. Hence, unlike super-fresh goat milk, it's not what you want on your morning Cheerios.
That was just the first lesson goats taught me. My own pair, Snowflake and Brownie, have taught me much more, and broadened my world.
They have gotten me out to feed stores in the country where I can find hay in a dozen varieties. I've watched their kids slide from their wombs, spent thousands of mornings and evenings washing and milking their udders, learned to sew a goat diaper to eliminate the need for poop scooping, and formed a citizen action coalition, the Goat Justice League, that successfully lobbied my city (Seattle) to allow goats in yards.
So, old proverbs notwithstanding, maybe you are thinking of getting a goat, too. If so, here are some things to keep in mind.
-- Do your homework: If you are serious about keeping goats, study up. First, check to find out whether your municipality allows them; some Bay Area cities do, others do not.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
My prominent wife just donated a 70” Sharp to replace the black refrigerator that I used to smack with a 2*4 to get the convergance to come back into alignment.
Got to see IU lose to Ohio last night in HD wonderfulness!
I dug a tunnel for your convenience.
Yep... the oldest domesticated critter on the planet! :-)
Among the domesticated animals, goats are probably friendliest, despite the nursery story about the bridge and the troll etc. It’s also no exaggeration that they’ll eat pretty much anything, including poison ivy (”like it’s candy” is how a now-deceased older relative once told me), so the milk sometimes has some, uh, unpalatable ingredients. Thanks nickcarraway.
Hi South, herds are cows, horses, etc, but goats/sheep are flocks. Since I have reached my 3/4 centery mark, I might be wrong, but think not...:o)
My goats ate a long row of pine tree’s in the pasture, didn’t think they’d touch pine needles....they loved them. You could alway tell which one was eating the Pine trees, they had black around their mouth from the sap....One season and all that was left was the trunk of the trees..I guess a few took a liking to the bark also......GG
Hope you're doing well. :-)
LOL!
Never heard of that, need to look it up...Hope life has been treating you well......GG
I got them away from my apple trees before they did too much damage to them.
They sure like apples!
I thought it was a swarm of goats?
LOL swarm are locust with 4 legs and fence your garden off but even according to scripture its a flock. Like shepards were out tending their flock. When I had a bottle baby, a gal around the corner from the farm had dairy goats I use to buy milk from her....One day when I went to get a gallon of milk, her big old billy was on the roof of one of her sheds....She didn’t know how he got there and she said she wasn’t going to help him get down. He was on his own...
The joke was on her. He ate the shed.
Found goat disease I didn't know about thank goodness, but saw some horrific hoofs where you wouldn't hardly know where to start in fixing them.... don't understand how someone would let them get that bad......GG
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