Flying Goats

Yes, this is me smiling while milking my goat.  I ordered a pump milker online called the Henry milker, it is supposed to be non damaging to the teats and gets your milk pretty quick.  They are made by this gentleman in Alaska apparently he created it because he got arthritis and could no longer milk his goats.  I don't have arthritis and the hand milking thing is fine really it is but, I will maybe do it that way next year when she is on her second kidding and has settled down a little bit, but for now I just need a break, and I want some milk for me to drink.  Marzipan didn't mind the milker at all and stood like an angel, I got a decent bit of drinkable milk and was very pleased.  Reversing back to when I got home though, I nearly had a heart attack.  The dogs were napping on the porch, but I heard Marzipan baaaing and it definately was not from the direction of her pen.  Sure enough, that darn goat had escaped and was under the house making a racket.  I couldn't believe she hadn't been eaten by the dogs, she didn't have a scratch on her and went back in her pen just fine.  I figured she escaped by jumping on her house and then doing the leap over the five foot tall fence.  I am pretty impressed, and slightly irritated.  Apparently while we have been gone at work for the last week, she has been plotting her escape.  I can only imagine what ran through her goat brain and told her that today was the day.  I also don't understand her reasoning, because the dogs are out during the day and she is afraid of them.  I don't think I will every understand her, probably shouldn't try.  Well anyways the goat walked away from her escape unscathed which was a miracle, it would have figured that on the day the milker came in the mail the goat died.  Did I mention that that was her first escape?  She escaped again later that night, she must have springs on her feet or something, please understand that she stands a good 19" tall at the shoulder, how she can jump something three times taller than she stands is completely beyond me.  I am sure she was humming, " I believe I can fly" in her goat brain.  The wonderful husband and I had to reinforce the fence, I hate working with welded wire fencing, enough said.


The chicken coop is coming along so wonderfully, I feel like it could really happen.  We got hardware cloth nailed on to the sides and all we have to do is finish assembly, it could maybe, maybe be this weekend.

A small stray dog decided she liked our house and wants to live with us.  The neighbors think it may have belonged to the people who lived in the house before us.  I really don't know, it is a shy little thing and doesn't have a collar. The little dog just followed me around the yard and sat near us when we were working on the coop.  When I walked inside to get something the dog just followed me into the house, and trotted straight to the bedroom.   I shooed it out, but it is still hanging around and I am worried my big dogs will get ahold of it and that will be the end of the little dog.