Rainy Day with the Goats

It was a cold and rainy day with thunder, lightning, waterspouts over the ocean, flash floods--the whole shebang. Goats do surprisingly well in cold weather, but they hate getting wet. Oscar and Elmo opted to play in the covered patio area and didn't step even one tiny hoof into the yard today.

Our goat girl braved the rain and came over to supervise me as I trimmed the boys' hooves for the first time. I was nervous, but we all made it through unscathed. The goat girl helped me plan for the bottle babies and spent time answering my many questions. I've been texting questions to her every other day for the past two weeks, and let me tell you that I practically have to sit on my hands to keep from texting questions every single day. We also chatted about different goat breeds, keeping milk goats, and the show goat circuit. (I'm this close to being a stage mom...I already have big dreams for Elmo.)

It's humbling to think how much our goat girl (a very nice young woman in her late teens) knows about goats. She started raising them as a little girl in 4-H and now is a successful and respected goat breeder. Even the folks at the local tack and feed store call her when they have a goat to neuter, which she does in exchange for a 45-lb. bag of grain. When I was a little girl I was in 4-H too, but I guess suburban 4-H kids miss out on the good stuff. Instead of raising goats, we did things like put on skits about recycling. Eghh.

The goats went to bed at 6:30 as usual, but I roused them around 9:30 so I could check on their pen. The doghouse was relatively warm, and the pen was dry. I tucked them back in, but I have a long night of spot checks ahead of me if the rain doesn't subside.

Here's a video of the boys playing in the covered area today. Damp weather, yes. Damp spirits? Hardly.