Can you see those pointy little horns on the baby buckling? The horns give him a mischievous look, like an adorable little devil. He is less brave and feisty that than Newnoo, the baby girl. She is a show off, and has learned to cry at me for food. She stands tall on the fence with her older sister and they both wail at me, demanding I bring them something more to eat. I've been cutting honeysuckle and wild rose brambles from the overgrown fence lines and field margins and pitching it over the fence to the animals. Now that they know I have the ability to create delicious vegetation with a snip of my shears, the goats cry for food as soon as they see me. Sometimes they cry with their mouths full, which makes me laugh at their funny voices. Goats are pigs.
Enjoy some Goat TV as Newnoo shows off for the camera.
The baby goats jump up and put their feet on me while they chew my clothes and beg for petting. It took me a while to break the River brothers from the jumping habit, since their last owner said she allowed her goats to jump on her so she didn't have to bend over to pet them. The jumping is cute now, while they are little, but I don't really like being mobbed by giant adult goats and getting muddy goat prints on my clothes, so I'm working on teaching the young ones to stay down.
I am not making any progress with little Newnoo. I push her away and she returns over and over again. It's a fun game!
When the goats are wailing for cut branches and the donkeys hear me rustling in the brush, they start to bray. They don't want to be left out! I bring them bundles of branches, thorns and all, and they happily eat them down to the sticks. Then they play with the sticks. You can see that Hattie's face is still shaved from her surgery, but her stitches are healing nicely, and I think having the hair shaved on her face helps her leaky eyes dry faster. We haven't had any problems with raw skin yet, but it's still early in the fly season.
After weeks of trying to get with the farrier, we finally made it happen. Hattie was as good as gold! I asked the farrier if I could introduce his tools to her before he came in the fence, where I had both donkeys tied to posts. I placed the tools near Hattie and gave her treats when she touched her nose to the tools. I crouched by her face and scratched her chin and talked embarrassing baby talk while I fed her treats and the farrier didn't have to fight a single squirm from her. What a relief!
Rufus, unfortunately, was not as good as gold. He was bad. As soon as I brought the farriers tools near him, he kicked up the ground and bucked against being tied. The farriers grungy old towel, used to wipe the mud from the hooves, was terrifying to him, and he was not going stand peacefully while such a scary object was near him. He wouldn't even accept a treat when offered. Sigh. I had to twist his ear to get him to hold still, but at least we got it done and their feet look wonderful. Now I know I need to work with Rufus to get him used to being around a towel. A towel!
Brandon asked the farrier if many of his clients acted like Rufus, and the farrier said no. He said he's been trimming hooves for twenty years now, and unless it's a small animal, like my donkeys, he doesn't put up with kickers anymore. He said he recently had a donkey that hadn't been trimmed in ten years! The vet tranquilized the poor donkey so he could trim his hooves. He said the donkeys feet would be okay, but that his legs were going to be sore because his tendons are all out of shape from walking weird for all those years.
Do you see my hammock, near the apple tree? When the wailing of the goats, braying of the donkeys, and attention from a flock of hungry chickens starts to overwhelm me - I'M NOT JUST A WALKING FOOD DISPENSER!! - I retreat to the hammock. It's out of view of all those hungry mammals.
The scent from the apple blossoms and the buzz of the pollinating insects is calming.
The hammock is tied to a couple of small maple trees that we've allowed to grow from tiny volunteer seedlings.
I wanted to post this picture of the vibrant new-leaf green canopy above the hammock, because I know in a few years it will be all leaves and no blue sky. These trees are growing fast!
The lawn was full of tiny flowers and dandelion puffs. Brandon mowed the lawn, and it sounded and smelled just like summer! There are summer things to plan for. The garden to plant, the pool to open. We have a party to plan for too, when the fireflies arrive, and we are taking a trip soon. We both travel often for work stuff, but I think it's been more than two years since we went on an overnight trip with each other and asked someone else to care for all these hungry animals while we are gone. So much to look forward to!
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