Bye Bye Billy

We got into Goats about a two years ago when we brought home to Boer Doelings, Sunny & Roxie. We were interested in raising their offspring for meat to feed our family and also sell some, whether to be pets or for meat. Originally we were just borrowing Bill to breed the girls to and then were planning on giving him back to his original owners. The thing is, they didn't really want him back and bartered with us. A couple dozen jars of our Fig jam and other canned foods and he was ours. And we loved him. The Hubby would kind of wrestle with him and he loved to get attention from me. Not that he got it when he was especially stinky but that would mean babies were on the way in 4-5 months, too. 

Last summer we had our first kids. A boy by Roxie and two girls from Sunny. We wethered the boy, naming him Pierce, and planning on butchering him sometime this year. The two girls were sold off as pets. 

This year we have four girls born. We again bartered one for a Kune Kune pig - more to come on that in a future post. But the buyer for the last three gals fell through. And recently Billy was giving us more and more reason to keep Pierce and just have a herd of pet goats for now over more kiddings in the future. He'd recently received the nickname of "Butthead" for literal and annoying reasons. 

Maybe had Billy been willing to live in a pen with just his son, Pierce, things would be different, but that didn't work out so well. We tried. It lasted all of 12 hours before he jumped the fence to get back to the ladies. And with the other recent reasons stacking up it was time to say good-bye and fill our freezer. Here is a brief overview of why it was time:

1. Billy was getting Big and we no longer trusted him. He could be a bit of a butt and literally head butt you if you gave any one else attention outside of him. With him getting bigger I no longer felt safe in the goat pen without The Hubby and our girls really weren't allowed in, which made it hard for our oldest to bond with her Pygmy goat. He'd even hooked me a couple of times after I had been giving him attention and then walked off. Those were some knarly bruises. 

2. In January our oldest daughter's pygmy goat, Murray Xmas, was attacked by a coyote. Thankfully, we got out there before it was too late - Murray walked away with a few puncture wounds and was soon moved into the backyard with the dogs and crated at night. But then the rains came. The crate wasn't rain-proof so Murray had to go back into the goat pen. By this point we had re-enforced an area of it with taller fence and a gate we could lock the goats up in at night. Billy learned that he could head butt the door and let everyone out on his own thus nullifying the safety aspect for Murray. 

3. We got Moet, one of our new KuneKune pigs. Billy liked to assert his dominance over her, head butting her and pushing her around. He especially did this during feedings or at 4:30 AM. Having a pig squealing at 4:30 AM tends to wake you up into a panic, especially after the Murray/Coyote encounter. Moet did get some payback on Billy though - she ripped half an ear off in the first day and a half of moving in and proceeded to eat it. 

4. Goat meat, while consumed by the majority of the world, is still too foreign to our friends and acquaintances to be interested in purchasing it. Which is why we are switching to pigs. Who can say no to bacon?!

5. I love Pierce, the only son he sired, and didn't want him to become food (at least any time too soon). As long as he doesn't get unruly like his dad, he gets to stay. 

The Hubby ensured Billy had a quick, painless death. I'll admit it was still hard on me to some extent. At one time we both loved Billy. But while The Hubby took care of Billy, I was able to cuddle with Pierce which I hadn't been able to do in quite some time. And in the days since Billy's disappearance, the whole herd seems a little more relaxed, especially Moet. So thank you Billy for the kids you sired and the meat you will provide us. 

This kind of life definitely isn't for every one, and I am sure some will be harder than others, but I'm proud of the way we are raising our girls to understand where their food comes from. 

Why Country Living?

I often get comments on our recent move of Why? As we begin to transform the baron land into an area that produces it is undeniable that views like this are a major part of the appeal.

 So until we get the Animals, Garden, Ponds and what ever we can think of going, scenes likes these from the back porch will have to do.

C-n-S

The Blank Slate

This is the inaugural post to our new lives. We have a blank canvas to paint our lives in a country setting. What we have to work with: 20 acres, a basic home and imagination.The hope of this blog is to document the progress of the new homestead and how we are able to cope.

There will be animals to raise, crops to be grown, land to be converted to natural native habitat and in the end a sanctuary with an established micro-climate. Along the way we will detail how we have accomplished what we have done, our successes and our failures. Our hope is to help others who want to live a life such as this and help them avoid the pitfalls through our efforts. Below is our Blank Slate.
 

C-n-S