Bob Makes Friends

This is Bob. He spends a lot of time in the barnyard.

Everyone seems to want to be his friend. Little Miss Maddie introduces herself.

Bekka gives him a good sniff to see if he would be friend material.

Now Bob returns the favor.

Even big Sally wants to check him out. She certainly got his attention. After all, she's a giant compared to him.

I wish I were as popular as Bob.

Big Hill

The human switched us around again. We can't get into our nice little pasture. We have to go out in the big pasture. Some of the girls figured out that if they are brave enough to cross the drainage ditch, there's a huge hill full of grass.

I did not join them. I kept my kids safely out of that ditch. After all, there was a nice tree and plenty to eat. There's no need to go walking through...WATER!

I must admit, it does look like it would be nice to go over there though. Maybe I can find a bridge, so I don't have to get my hooves wet.

Billy Goat Revenge

The human has been very mean to the big boys lately. They still come to see her when she brings their dinner. Marley still jumps on the fence to greet her and see what's in the pitcher. Jack still tries to get his head in the pitcher to eat from it.

Recently, however, the human has been mean. She's been saying, "Go away. You stink." That's not very nice is it? She jumps away from them and won't even pat them on the head like she used to.

Today, they decided that they would get back at her. Marley got in front; Jack was in back. She couldn't step forward away from Jack; she couldn't step away from Marley. Then they really got into it, a contest to see who could push their face against her more. Oh you should have seen her jump and bounce. She was shrieking and yelling.

It's a good thing she didn't see them raise their front feet and give each other a "high hoof". They were proud of themselves, and she was still muttering about stinking like a billy goat when she came out to give Flower and Bud their bottles.

Lookie Lookie

Do you see what I see?

What's the latest buzzzzz in your neck of the woods?

I hope it doesn't land on my horn!

Cutie and a Lily

Cutie is not happy with the human. She trimmed our feet the other day with the help of the boy straddling us like we were little ponies.

The wet muddy weather has been very bad for our feet. It made it hard for the human to do a good job, and when she got done, Cutie looked like this.
Don't worry, she's not mortally wounded. She's milking it for all she's worth though. I can't complain because I got some hay too when the human gave Cutie some.

Now, if only I could get a good bite of these.

96% Perfect

When my babies Pebbles and Bam Bam were little, I got very sick with worms. I've mentioned that before. The human worked hard to save both me and Bam Bam, and when I recovered, she was nice enough to tell me I could have a year off from having babies to fully recover. She didn't realize that Grover had already decided I was going to have a February baby. That's Grover with the llama right after he came to live with us.

The silly human didn't know he had already done this and she kept saying dumb things like, "If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were pregnant," or "You need to get some meat on your ribs. I swear everything I feed you goes straight to your stomach." Not quite the stomach, Human.

Anyhow, she did finally figure it out. On February 20th, she even told her mom that I was going to have a baby. The next day, I went into labor. Okay, she's well meaning, but sometimes the human isn't real quick.

I really was hoping for that year off, but the contractions kept coming. No baby. Finally, the human went in after my baby and pulled out a giant kid. Honestly, it was the third largest ever born here. There was no ignoring the kid, even though I tried really hard. The human had already started calling my "little boy" Joe. The kid couldn't figure out how to nurse because of its huge size. It was cold, twenty-some degrees, and the baby was starting to get chilled. Finally, we got to move to the heated "Love Shack". The baby still wouldn't nurse, but when Joe squatted to pee, the human finally figured out my daughter was named Joe.

It took Joe a couple of days before she actually figured out to get down on her front knees to nurse me. Until then, the human would milk me, pour it in a bottle and then feed Joe. It didn't take long for the human to fall in love with Joe (me either). She is after all a very sweet friendly girl.

In the picture below Joe is about six weeks old (she's in back) and Belle (in front) was about two weeks old. That's why the human always called, and still does call, Joe "Miss Moose."

She would help in the barnyard by jumping on the human's back whenever she leaned over. She would bounce off the side of the barn. She even managed to jump over the bottom half of the barn door when it was open after she got a bit older. She just kept growing and getting bigger and sweeter.

Imagine my horror when she was not given a collar. She was going to be sold! Why? She did have a cough from when several of us had become ill with pneumonia. (I tried to kill Grover while he was down, but the human wouldn't let me.) Then there were her feet. She did not inherit her feet from me. She got her horrible ever-growing feet from her father. The frogs do not stop growing. They don't get flaps. She ends up walking like she is on platform shoes, especially in the front. It does put a lot of extra stress and strain on her shoulders. This was taken this May, after it had been trimmed several times since the freezing weather was done.

One day she and three other girls were loaded on the truck. She was gone for a couple of hours and came back. I asked her what happened because goats hardly ever come back. She said they were at the sale barn, but there were so many people that the human didn't want to wait for hours to get them off the truck. They got to come back home.

I warned Joe that she wouldn't get to come back home if it happened again. When the human started trying to walk her across the barnyard, she dug those overgrown feet into the ground and yelled, "Maaaaa." I came running and yelled, "Nooooo, My baaaaby." I kept yelling and yelling, and Joe yelled and yelled. I told the human my heart was breaking. Finally, the human just let her go.

Here's Joe during that gangly awkward teenage time. Don't tell her I showed you this picture. See how long her hooves look at an age when most kids haven't even needed a little trim yet.

I don't think the human was happy about keeping Joe, but she was given a collar. She kept saying it was stupid and wanted to know what to do with those feet. I just kept telling her that it would all work out. Silly human. Would anybody else keep a nanny that has to have her feet trimmed every couple of weeks? She's here. She's alive. She's happy. That's worked out!

The human and Joe started getting into arguments. The human would tell Joe she was 95% perfect, and Joe would argue that she only has four feet. That makes her 96% perfect. After a year of this silly argument, the human finally gave in. Joe is 96% perfect.

Joe still has the sweetest disposition. She is an excellent mom and raises big babies, but Joe is retiring to keep extra weight off those feet. That's Joe napping on her kids. Do you think the human will let her keep her daughter Bekka (in front)?

Every so often, when Joe doesn't want to walk on her feet, I have to remind the human that Joe is happy. All you have to do is look at her to know that. I keep telling her to trust herself to fix the feet. Now look that foot.

It's looking better. Soon, she might even be 97% perfect.

Hairbrained Human Ideas

I will say to begin that Jilly has gone through denial and now is in anger. Avoid her horns right now. Hopefully, she will be back to her chipper self soon.

Isn't Vixen a beautiful young lady? I think those dairy ears are just adorable.

Guess what that silly human and her boy did to poor Vixen. Well, after removing her head from the fence, they did this.

It originally had some stick stuck out on each side. The idea was that Vixen would realize that she couldn't put her head through the fence, and it would break her of the habit.

As soon as they got the stick on there Vixen took off running, trying to lose the stick stuck to her. That broke the first side. The human said it would still work. The poor girl looks like a Triceratops.

She gave that idea up when she had to pull Vixen's head out of the fence again. The human told Vixen that next time she had to remove her head, she'd bring the scissors out and remove the tape.

I'm not sure the human has given up the idea of taping something to the horns because I saw her holding a metal spoon up to the fence measuring it for length. Surely, she wouldn't...