This is actually the end of the evening after a very long day. We have been wanting goats for quite a while, but didn't feel like we could invest the money for all the fencing materials we would need PLUS the price of good dairy goats. We've been looking at Nubians and the milking mommas go for anywhere from $150.00 to $400.00 each, depending on the breeder and the stock they come from. Fencing would've been upwards of $500.00. Obviously food and clothing are more of a priority, so we've been waiting for the right situation to present itself regarding the goats.
We found a listing on Craigslist for 5 goats. 4 nubians: 2 adult female, 1 juvenile female, 1 adult male, and 1 Boer wether. The price boiled down to just around $40.00 each. A bargain in the milk goat world! The owners made us a great deal on the fencing materials as well--just a fraction of the cost we would've spent new. The catch? We had to come & remove it all ourselves.
So, Harold, John Wesley, Cody, William, Jonas, Lena, and I set off early that morning to their house to pull all the posts out of the ground and roll up all the fencing wire. Around 11:00, we had it loaded up and headed for home where we set up a temporary small-ish fenced in area for them. This took a while.
With just a couple hours of daylight left, we headed back to the goat-owners place to pick up the new "kids". A little grain jiggled in the feed dish had them hopping right in! Charlie, Stripe, Flip, Lily, and Gizmo became official members of Hope Valley Farm.
Here is MaKenzie meeting Charlie, the Boer wether, soon after arriving home.
This all happened on MaKenzie's birthday, so we joke that she got goats for her birthday. I wanted to have a party for Lena and MaKenzie together since Lena's birthday would be the next day, however Mom & Dad were going to be leaving the next morning. Since she was home with MaKenzie, Jared, and Matthew while we were out galivanting with the goats, she made the girls a birthday cake. Chocolate, as MaKenzie requested. Yum, it was good!
And here are the beautiful, if a bit mussed, birthday girls. It is almost unbelievable to me that MaKenzie is 7 and Lena is 8! How they are growing!
We sang Happy Birthday, and started serving the cake and ice cream when we noticed someone was missing. Can you guess who?
CODY was missing! I bet you can guess where he was... WITH THE GOATS, of course! That's my animal lover, Cody! A long day, but productive and fun. Lots of work, but many hands make light work. It's fun to spend our days together working and playing. I'm so thankful for all the individual personalities that make up our family. It always amazes me how God put together so many very different people in our family, and it WORKS (well...you know, most of the time :) ). Our differences complement each other and our similarities bind us together. God is so smart!
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