What is good about goats thread 11/2012

[Alice In TX/MO]

We often get in a rut with our goat problems, so here's an opportunity to speak out about the positive things.

Right now, the goats are my calming force. It's been a very difficult year with my friend dying, being executor for his estate, and now hubby's bad accident.

Going out to milk the goats is VERY soothing. They bring me peace. It's a time of being in tune with nature, rhythmical, and peaceful.

[Backfourty,MI.]

They actually give me much Joy. When the babies are born in the spring I want to spend as much time with them as possible.

The milk is wonderful & you can do so many things with it besides just drink it. So much easier to milk than a cow to & most people don't need all the milk a cow gives in a day anyways.

[LoneStrChic23]

They are the cause of my insanity, and yet they are my sanity!

They make me laugh when I want to cry, and I love that Bleuberry pins her ears & bites most everyone but me.... I should discourage this, but it's just too funny.

I lost my mom to leukemia in June. She was 48. My best friend & goat partner... At times the goats bring on painful memories of what I can't have anymore, but lately, more and more, they are my link to mom.

Some days, if not for the goats, I'd stay in bed all day after the kids have gone to school, but they give me a demanding reason for getting up, going outside & focusing on something besides gloomy, sad thoughts.

Rosie hums to me every morning, and stands quietly next to me, demanding nothing but to share my space.... Tricks, even though she is 6 months old, still wants to curl up in my lap, but settles for following me around to "help" with chores...

They are work, at times, hard work.... Some days a few of them tempt me to send them off to freezer camp, but overall they bring a bit of peace when everything else around me goes wrong.

[Dreamgoat Annie]

My goats make me smile. I love their joie de vivre. I love their drama queen/king antics. I love their strident voices (yes, I have Nubians and Boers but the loudest and most insistant are Jimmy and Esme, the Lamancha twins!) and the Nubians' neediness. They're beautiful. They feed my soul. I cannot imagine life without goats.

Sue

[Sherry in Iowa]

We've had them so long now, that I guess I would be lost without any. My meat herd is old and they are leaving me one by one. My best friend Weezie was the first goat I milked, got to watch her grow up and all the many kids she birthed.

When we got our first milk goat, I was in bad shape. Took me 15 minutes to walk from the front door to the milk stand 50 ft. from the house. I milked outside and hubby would put the goats up and I would milk. I had to milk 2 times a day. I believe they saved me .. literally. Turns out, besides fibro hitting me, we had a gas leak. I think milking the goats saved my butt.

They are forgiving, funny, loving, and full of antics. They love each other and bicker with each other..just like humans. But I see such a lovely majestic animal when I look at them, even my old friends. They have much wisdom and I try to learn what they are trying to pass on to me.

I am so thankful to them, my words cannot do justice to what is in my heart.

[IndyGardenGal]

Whenever they hear me outside, they have to shout for me to come see them. They all have wonderful personalities, we get to snuggle babies in a few months, and they make my big, rough husband turn into a sap too.

Not to mention milk, cheese, soap, and most importantly, cajeta!

[mrs.H]

click the image. it should be a video.

[where I want to]

Great thread- thanks.
The most important thing for me is that my girls make me laugh. When they come over for scratches or when they interact with each other. The goat show is always on.
They also have eaten up the water reed that was too big to root out and you see all over this county. My place is reed-free.
They eat blackberries too- since we are plagued with Himalayas that can reach 15 feet or more high, they are life savers.
They are a joy- most of the time. And even when they are brats, they still make me laugh.

[BoerMomma]

"They are the cause of my insanity, and yet they are my sanity!"

The above statement sums it up!

I love my goats, eventhough this is the first time having them, I am looking forward to spring kidding! They are sweet, no matter how I'm feeling they make it all better! I sometimes have very down days after losing my daughters dad in a snowmobile accident nearly 3 years ago. On those days I just go down and sit on their "play log" and they all come and just stand next to me and hang their heads for a scratch. They are amazing animals

[Backfourty,MI.]

Dh & I always are thankful for our goats especially in the winter. Otherwise when it's so cold out I think we'd hibernate but we know the goats & the rest of our animals are waiting on us in the morning so it gets our butts moving. Once outside it's not a big deal & were glad to be spending the time with them.

The bucks antics, sounds they make & that curling of their lip during rut & breeding season is a Hoot, even though they are peeing all over themselves in the process.

[gone-a-milkin]

My goats give me wonderful fiber to make yarn from.

[CaliannG]

They get me out of bed when all I want to do is curl up and hide from the world. There is nothing like the peace I get when milking, laying my head on the side of one of my girls, and having her pause for a moment in her munching to nuzzle my hair.

There are running, jumping, frolicking kids to make me laugh. Sometimes, there are running, jumping, frolicking does, with their udders floppin' this way and that as they do kid-like acrobatics, that make me laugh even harder.

But sometimes, it is just sitting under a tree in the pasture and having one of my babies, not babies any more but big, milking does, come lay her head in my lap for cuddles and scratches.

They are my life, and it wouldn't be worth living without them.

[Donna1982]

I truly believe my goats make me a better person. They have taught me patience I would never have learn without them. They make me happy so in turn makes me a better girlfriend, daughter, and friend. No matter how sad or mad I am they make it all better. They have made my mother and myself closer due to our love of goats. Goats are just the best and I can't picture life without them.

[Mesa Goat Man]

I just discovered goats 2 1/2 months ago. I have never felt more passionate about anything in my life. If I have had a bad day at work as soon as I get home, I get a pocket of animal crackers and go see my goats. All the problems I thought I had just melt away.

[dunroven]

Nothing makes me feel better than going out and sitting on a particular big old fallen ash tree, and having the goaties surround me. I have one older goat that we have raised. She is the goat in my avatar, and her name is Lucky. She gets on the log behind me, puts her front feet around my neck and lays her head right beside my head. I held her as she was growing up. I believe she is now holding me!

I love to hold Bonsai's head right now. Normally when he's himself that is not something I could do. Right now he's my nearly 5 year old baby and his eyes say it all. "It just feels good when you hold me, so hold me for 1 more minute....please?" I believe if I had no husband, I would be in the barn, living with my Bonsai, or in the pasture with my girls, 24/7.

[Goat Servant]

Dunroven you made me smile with your description of Bonsai.

9mo Rose is always in my space. When I bring out a pan of minerals she hogs in on every clan. They butt her out of the way but she's always right back.
Her auntie will share but no one else does.
That same auntie will shove everyone else out of the way even if she's had her more than fair share.
A pair of sisters eat together & lean into me when they want skritches.
A prego 2 yr old will make a sound like she's just had minerals when she hasnt, as in "Hey it's MY turn."

[mygoat]

I love my goats because they're better people than most people I know.

And the goat owners that I've met over the years - even if it is just through a computer on this forum - are honestly some of the best people I could ever claim as my friends. So willing to help or so willing to ask for help in times of need.

[Shygal]

I love how when I come home from work, my goats come out to welcome me home, they nicker or hum, without even opening their mouth and its just a relaxing sound to me. Ive never heard them make a sound WHILE opening their mouths lol
They help me with chores, sort of like a 3 year old "helps" with chores but they keep me company while I'm doing stuff. They come in the house with me sometimes, they sit with me on the porch

[finnsheep]

To quote Dickens:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us..."

I keep goats (and sheep) because:

There is no greater joy than to give up your warmth and sleep to help bring a helpless creature into the world.

Who else gets to see the stars with such clarity except during those 3 am barn checks?

It's endlessly fascinating to learn about them and nothing motivates me more than to solve their problems.

Nothing's more fun than to pronk with lambs and kids in the pasture.

They give me a good reason to keep up with my often endlessly dull college studies- so that I can get good grades and get out of there and get into vet school so I can spend the rest of my life solving their problems.

They keep you very humble- because how much can any of us possibly know if we are still being taught by them?

[GoldenWood Farm]

Goats helped me through one of the worst times of my life (that is to date) and really kept me alive. I was 15 when I first got into goats and that was when a lot of hard things hit in my life along side the start of my severe depression. The goats where the one thing that grounded me and gave me a reason to get out of bed in the morning and to keep living. Even now when bad things hit I can go out in the barn and just sit and listen while they munch their hay or just do goat things.

They where my shoulder to cry on and what made me laugh on the darkest days. They drive me nuts to this day but I am a better person and I have learned so much by having these wonderful animals in my life . My favorite girl has been with me through everything since I got her at 15 (10yrs ago). She is a stubborn old cuss and bull headed just like me but that girl loves me just as much as I love her. I am HER person and heaven help anyone (or any goat) who says otherwise ().

I have kept up with the goats for many reasons but the biggest is so when I have a husband and family I can give the kids a great farm life.

Justine