Winter on the Homestead

Winter on the Homestead is a great time to reminisce about where we are, how far we have come and where we want to be. Some memories are just hilarious, some touching others very sad, and some are only funny after the fact.  It’s those lessons that are learned the hard way that sometimes we wind up laughing about after the fact. One such incident had to do with our wonderful Nubian Buck, Starbuck.  You see most of what we have learned about goats has been in two forms, by books…lots of books and by experience.

Our first goat triplets we purchased were from the same herd and we brought them to our farm together.  They had been well socialized by the children of that particular farm, so much so they loved (demanded) our attention and hung around us.  They really did just fine acclimating themselves. We could let them out of the corral and not have any issues.  They would munch on whatever they found as long as we were in sight.  They didn’t even mind being tethered if they were together, which didn’t work out too well.  But that is another story.

So the day we go to get our Starbuck, it is a 4 hour one way trip up north.  And then another 4 hour trip home after we pick him up taking only one pit stop, for him not for us.  Have you seen a goat at a rest area?  Most people haven’t and oh the curious looks we got.  Now he was from a fairly large goat herd and not too socialized.  And to be stripped from the herd was a bit traumatic of course.  But I knew once we got him home he’d be just fine, since we had 4 other goats just waiting for him to join them and they were Does.  What buck could possibly be confused about those possibilities.

We arrive home and not wanting to force this little guy into the corral right away I thought we would be so nice and just let him walk out of the crate, mosey around and explore the homestead a bit on his own.  Hindsight is always 20/20, and this was probably the stupidest idea I have ever had.  The first thing on his mind was joining “his” herd and it was not on our homestead.  To get a good picture of the drama that soon transpired you have to understand where our homestead is located. It is in a rural area but we are also part of a lake neighborhood.  Our home is in the lake association but our farm is on the acreage behind it and many of the other homes, thusly the name, Lakeside Country Farm.

So we open the door to the crate, out of compassion, to let this poor distressed animal acclimate himself slowly and what does he do, he immediately jumps out of the crate and begins running around like some crazy mad dog.  My first concern was the road, forget what the neighbors think, I am not having a goat-car accident on our first day!  And the two of us were unable to catch him.  Didn’t realize kids could run so fast and maneuver so well.  And now we are not just running on the homestead but he’s taken off across the back yards and we are doing a lousy job of corralling him.  The neighbors if they were looking would have had some hilarious entertainment.  Two adults, not young adults either, chasing this little goat and it is outsmarting us.  Every time we think we had him corralled from either side he would manage to slip by one of us.  The thought kept running through my mind he had to be getting tired but he was in panic mode and looking for the herd.  All instincts were on red alert and tiring was not an option for him.

Finally after 45 mins of constant chasing he makes a fatal mistake.  We are able to corner him into a small cubby at the neighbor’s garage.  There was only one way in and the same way out and we both had it blocked.  He was caught and we were exhausted.  And he was bleating so loud the neighbors heard it inside their home and came out to see what all the commotion was about.  Sigh!  Trying to explain with a bleating, squirming goat was not easy.  But they chuckled and left us to our humiliation.

So lesson learned.  Place all new kids in corral first to acclimate.  Once they feel part of the herd we can then train them to stay on the farm as they roam freely to browse.  It was not funny then.  We were scared to death and exhausted. But we laugh now and think, oh my what a sight we must have been, an absolute real circus for sure.

Looking forward to Spring when all activity gears up again and more time can be spent outdoors with all of our animals, new and old alike.

The Greenhorn Homesteader