The one I picked up tonight was written in June of 1979, and I was answering a question regarding our dairy goat herd. Just reading what I wrote brought back such memories. Waaaah , I wanna get goats again. (Please, somebody stop me. I don't want to be tied down with twice a day milking right now. I don't want to lie awake nights in mid-winter wondering if the goats are staying warm enough.)
The nucleus of our herd was just being built at that time. We had three Nubian milkers: Maggie, who was 5 years old, and the best goat ever personality-wise and a good, steady milker; Misty, 4 years old, a sweet, small doe who was a lovely frosted silver color; and Debra, 3 years old, a beautiful, red, huge, heavy milker who was the biggest klutz in goat-dom. She couldn't hop up on the milking stand without tripping and getting down wasn't much better. (Ever try to catch a large goat so she didn't fall on the floor?) Gosh darn, she was clumsy.
We had been taking our does down into
The two yearling does not yet producing were Gretchen and Jenny. We had just had two doe kids, Zoey (guess I've always been fond of that name) who was Brisbane's sister, and Emily, one week old, who had just arrived from another homestead and was being bottle fed.
That's another thing I don't want on my list every day right now . . . bottle feeding kid goats three times a day. Or do I? No. NO. NOOOO! But, gosh, thinking of those goats does bring back good memories. Sigh.
4 comments:
Maggie the goat wasn't named after your Scots Grannie, by any chance, was she?
When I was a child, we used to trade our duck eggs (which we all hated) for another farmer's goat's milk (which we all loved.) I've farm-sat goats before, and I understand how canny and challenging they are, but every once in a while, my reasonable mind slips a bit, and all I can recall is the sweet richness of that lovely, lovely milk...
Hi, MaineCelt - When I named Maggie the goat I think I was thinking of both my grandma and the wife of my husband's best high school buddy. That little blue-eyed, blond dynamo farmed right alongside her husband, raised a family, became a pilot and now has her own flying school.
Don't do it!!! I remember our goat days all too clearly! While the baby goats are hilarious when they are springing off of everything in sight, those early, early, early morning milking rounds were NOT fun!
Care to transcribe any select parts from those old letters? I'd love to hear about what W was up to back in those days (well, from what I don't know first hand!).
Claire - Who knows what goodies I may turn up in those old letters? Stay tuned to see what will get published!
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