All the goats have new snacks!

All the goats were in desperate need of new browsing opportunities, and my grand plan yesterday was to take care of both groups in one day. Sometimes I get a little delusional when I'm drinking my tea and the sun isn't up yet. I didn't get to leave the house until 12:30 because I spent the morning hand addressing boil water notices to everyone in the water district of which I am the secretary. Sigh. Never a good start to the day. I took one of the puppies over to my friend's house because she said her puppy was bored and needed a play date. We're trying to convince her husband that they need to adopt a second one, and this is part of our evil plan: make him fall in love. I finally made it to the smaller group, who needed me to move the trailer. It went really smoothly, considering this was the first time I have moved a trailer by myself. I usually have a spotter, and someone to help pick up all the fence.

They are very happy with their new parking spot. Usually when I stop by to check on them, they get a little whiny when I leave. New snacks day is the exception. I don't think they even notice I've gone.

One little hiccup with moving the trailer: The bent metal bar that keeps the back doors closed was missing. I looked everywhere and couldn't find it. I can't take it on the road until I replace it, but to move it a hundred yards, I just needed what we call the farmer fix. Use whatever is lying around. Sometimes the farmer fix becomes the permanent fix if it works well enough. This one won't. I used a bent tine from a hay rake.

I went back to get little Bear from his playdate and we decided to try a sleepover! I left him there and went into town to mail my huge stack of notices, and then out to move the fence for the larger group. By this time it was getting close to 4:30, and they were very cranky. I hadn't been there to feed them on time, and it was raining. I've rarely seen such offended goats. I was pretty wiped out by this time, so I just scooted the fence a little to give them enough grass to work on for the evening that they could survive until I got there today. I added another hundred feet of fence this morning, which made them ever so happy!

In this shot you can see where the fence was against all the new grass. They are pretty thorough.

It was a pretty easy job, all things considered. Except that the grass is wet and interspersed with stinging nettles, which I can't always see until after I have raked my hands across them.

In the above picture, I had my head at about fence height. The fence is 42 inches tall, and the grass is quite a bit taller. I'm just a smidge above five feet, so it can feel a lot like swimming in a vaguely hostile green ocean when I'm trudging through all that lugging a fence. Also, the grass was soaking wet, and by the time I got the fence up, so was I. It was a balmy 63 degrees today, though, so I didn't mind too much. At least the water keeps the pollen out of the air. It's really miserable to be setting up fence in grass when the seed heads are at face height. I know I've got fifteen minutes tops to get the job done before the sneezing begins.

I went back to get Bear and we decided to leave him for a second night. That's great news for me. It means I'm 25% less crazy! I drove out to visit a friend who has two sets of twin lambs, and I'm feeling the need to see babies. Unfortunately, the moms weren't so happy with visitors, and kept the little darlings well out of camera range (man, I need a zoom lens). On my way home, though, I saw a pair of Canada geese with their sweet, fluffy little goslings.

Even though it took me two days, everybody is happy and will be well fed for at least seventy two hours. Then I will have to do it all again!