Introducing……the Newest Members of Our Family – “Coconut,” “Oreo,” & “Snowball”
The 3 newest family members of our family “Coconut,” Oreo,” and “Snowball”
If you had asked me even a year ago if I would ever have goats as pets I would have laughed. Goats, seriously! I don’t know how to raise goats, what would I do with them….. Guess what!? Life has a funny way of changing my perspective. We have GOATS! Three adorable, fluffy, social, fun loving, goats that have become such a sweet part of the family!
This one cracks me up……silly Oreo!
The girls immediately loved these little balls of fluff…..and as hard as it is to admit it didn’t take long before they had stolen a piece of my heart too. They are always thrilled to see you. I love driving into the driveway and seeing them come racing across the yard to greet us.
Our little “Oreo Sunday”! He is the smallest of the 3 but makes up for it with his colorful character!
The girls are overjoyed to have goats. They do a pretty good job of taking care of them too. The goats love it when the girls are outside playing. All three are very social and are great with kids. The only thing we are still training them not to do, they’ve gotten better, is to not jump up on people. We have already trained them with several things already. One of the best things we did for training was to teach them to head into the goat pen for their grain or a treat whenever we rang a bell rings so when we need to put them into the pen it is really easy.
Sweet baby “Snowball” coming to say hello! He is the most timid of the 3 goats and especially in the beginning he would bolt to the pen whenever he saw Skipper or if he was startled.
It has been over a year in preparation for these little guys. They are a neat addition to our family or as the girls call it “our small farm”! It all started with me reading an article on goats. Followed by months of researching, building a goat house and pen, and finding the perfect critters to adopt into our family.
Our “Toasted Coconut” chewing happily on some leaves. Coconut’s our adventurous eater, he’ll try anything before the other two goats (even your hair if you get it too close).
These little guys have been a fun addition to the family. Skipper was excited to have more friends in the yard as well. It didn’t take long to train her not to chase the goats and for the goats to not be scared of the big black lab charging through the yard. After researching how to train them to stay in certain parts of the yard we decided to get them collars similar to what we use with Skipper (they wear the collars and the wire for their boundary is underground). After a little trial and error it has worked like a charm. The goats have their boundaries and Skipper has hers. The goats are not allowed in the driveway because they would most likely climb on the vehicles or in the front yard (they would eat any of my flowers on the front porch or garden).
Our twin goats munching on something delicious!
The whole process has been an experience to say the least. There was moments of excitement and even some moments of tears…..I will share a little more of that part of the story a little later.
Curious Oreo, he just had to see what that silver shiny object was in my hands (my camera)!
The goats are always munching on something. They like anything from leaves, bushes, flowers, fruits, vegetables, peanuts, hay, grain, and more. We feed them grain once a day and in the cooler months make sure they have some hay to eat. Most days they will spend out in the yard eating or lounging in the sun. It has been a lot of fun learning what foods they goats love, for example, banana peels are a favorite as are peanuts (whole or just shells). One of their special grain treats smells like black licorice. Almost everyday after the girls get home from school they go immediately to see Skipper and the goats (usually bringing them treats).
Oreo looking over his shoulder to see what was taking Karlie and Brina so long!
All three goats Nigerian Dwarf Wethers and were born in February 2012 so they are not quite a year old. Oreo was born in the mountains of North Carolina. Our twin boys, Snowball and Coconut, were born in the foothills. When the goats only grow to be about the size of a black lab.
Buddies…..the girls love playing out in the yard and the goats love having the girls nearby.
The girls were excited to see meet family members and they have spent hours playing with them. It took us a few weeks before we came up with their names but everyone agreed on “Oreo Sunday”, “Snowball”, and “Toasted Coconut”. It has been quite entertaining to have these little guys around. They have a lot of personality and are always thrilled to see you.
The goats like to climb up onto things….such as fallen tree limbs! Karlie and Brina hanging out with the “billy-billies” as they call them
Snack time!
What Are They Building Now!?
Our family lives on a small quiet street. All our neighbors are retired so when we start a project, specifically one in the yard, everyone is all “curious” about what we are up to. One of our neighbors will sit on the other side of the fence in his lawn chair sipping sweet tea and watch us as we work in the yard. After 10 years of being the entertainment for the neighborhood seeing him pull up his chair just makes me laugh.
We live on what the kids call a “small farm”. The property is over 4 acres with a big yard, creek, and woods. The girls and pets love running and playing in our yard. We’ve even done camp-outs, paintball games, bonfires, target practicing, and a lot of other activities in our yard.
Okay…..so back to the neighbors question “what are they building now”? A little over a year ago I was reading an article about goats, don’t ask me why, just happened to catch my eye during that time. Now I am not a big fan of goat milk or cheese or meat so that wasn’t what caught my attention it was the part about what the goats ate.
While the goat’s digestive system is similar to that of cattle, horses, and sheep they tend to prefer brush and trees over grass (they are more like deer). The reason why that caught my attention was because with our 4 acres we have a lot of trees, leaves, and brush. My husband and I had been talking a week before about spending some more time cleaning the undergrowth in the wooded area of our property so the article intrigued me.
With all that being said our kids LOVE animals (dogs, turtles, horses, cats, you name it), it is one area they have in common. They have been asking for years for a horse (I don’t think that’s going to happen, at least any time soon). A couple months earlier I teased my husband that I was going to get chickens for the girls to raise and so we could have fresh eggs to eat. He vetoed the chicken idea mainly because we have too many wild animals that go through our property (turkeys, deer, racoons, possums, foxes, coyotes, etc….). So when I brought up the idea of getting goats (more as a joke) I figured he would just laugh at my suggestion…..well, he didn’t. He started researching it more and decided that if I was up for it we could consider the possibility in a few months.
Well, a few months went by and we started preparing for the newest members of our family. What began with a simple glance at an article turned into building a goat house. Jake designed and built the whole thing by himself (well, with the help of the girls). The girls were soooooooo excited! Here are some pictures of the process:
Brina hammering away
Brina and Karlie having fun “working” on the goat house
Daddy working with his two helpers!
Brina & Karlie helping Daddy on the roof of the goat house
Brina, Karlie, Mommy, and Skipper painting the goat house. The girls picked out the color “candy apple red”!
Lounging in the Haystack
Karlie and Brina having fun outside
Karlie and Brina taking a break and relaxing in a pile of hay. They were having a grand time playing in it while we were working in the yard. Next thing I knew they both had their lounge chairs in the pile too.
It was cute listening to their conversations as they relaxed in the hay stack. Who knew that a haystack could be a such an awesome place to hang out together?! It was amazing how long they cheerfully played, talked, and giggled while lounging in that little stack of hay!
Sometimes it is the simple things already in the yard that can be the most entertaining for the kids. 🙂
Chickies hanging out on a pile of hay in their lawn chairs…….silly girls!
Academy Sports & Outdoors: Clearance Sale – 88¢ (Over 700 Items)
Academy Sports & Outdoors is having an online clearance sale!
Over 700 items are priced at $0.88 each plus clearance on over 2000 other items. If you are looking to get a birthday gift or stock up on outdoor clothes or items this is a great time to do it. Click on their “Clearance” tab and sort by price “low to high” to see all the clearance items. The shipping rates are a little high but if you are ordering a handful of items at $0.88 each it will offset the delivery charges.Limited supplies so stock up while you can!
