Poco Mountain Girl

My friend Erica walked her three goats down the road to our house for a visit the other day.  We had so much fun with them!  The goats are Nubians–a male and two females–and so friendly and curious.

There were goats running in and out of the playhouse, leaping up and down the steps, pattering over our heads on the deck, climbing the woodpile, and munching on bark from the logs.  It was fun to have them scampering around, so happy and interested in everything.

Cash, who is usually reserved around animals, had the time of his life.  He fed the goats sunflower seeds (in the shell) from his hand and proudly told me he ate some, too.  Zia became an instant goat-herdess, and stayed with them, climbing cliffs and forging the forest to “make sure they were ok”.  Caleb was happy just watching.

As for me, I want some goats. 🙂

In the days following the goats’ visit, I made plans for every level patch of our land.  A shed built onto this side of the house, a paddock there where the fire pit is, a pasture up there above the house.  Never mind that the “pasture” is wooded, at a 75-degree angle, and there is no grass–the goats will love it.  There’s a mountain to climb and tree bark to eat, right?

A flash from the past: when I was little, we had two Saanens–a doe and her kid. The mama belonged to all of us, but the kid was a birthday present and technically mine–which is huge when you’re seven.  I loved my “baby goat” (I never named her–I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to choose the perfect name).  I would try to ride the mama goat, poor thing, and my baby goat and I loved butting heads together.

They were so playful and silly, and got into everything.  Papa built a pen for the car (not the goats!) since there was nothing they liked better than to climb on it.  I know a lot of people hate that aspect of goats, but I loved it–probably because goats are a lot like seven year old humans.

So–back to the future–I would really like to have a couple of Nigerian Dwarf kids (have you ever seen anything so cute?) and a mama, if possible. They are tiny, good milkers, friendly, and good with kids.  And at some point, maybe we could throw in a Shetland pony, chickens, and an Australian Shepherd dog.  Suddenly it all seems possible, and so exciting.  My dream of having a little farm might just come to be, and I can hardly wait to see what we can do with our little patch of mountain–which, up until recently, seemed so unworkable.  I’m even regaining hope for a garden at some point…this time in a makeshift greenhouse.

I love being surrounded with growing life and productivity, and I think our year and a half of settling in here has been plenty.  I feel a longing to expand, stretch out my tent stakes, and do something fun on our acre and a third of (fairly vertical) woods.  Maybe, just maybe, we can get started this spring!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2015 at 5:21 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.