Saturday, January 7, 2017

GOAT TOWN

Got the goat herder gig.  Starting off just checking on them every other day and putting out some feed, but will do my best to make myself indispensable.  Too many goats (110) to name - but I've already named the two llamas - Lola and Larry.  First official day on the job was mostly about breaking the ice on their water troughs...we just had another couple days of winter.  Back in the 80's by Tuesday.  39,50,19,0,B  

23 comments:

Unknown said...

No shepherd's hook?

John Wells said...

Sam...my shepherd's hook is a camera.

czardastx said...

I'm headed out that way next Friday to run a race at the Big Bend Ranch State Park. Thanks for arranging good weather for me.

Janet said...

My neighbor recently got about 50 goats to keep the brush down around his place. I love listening to them. They are very entertaining to watch.

remmij said...

Goat Town looks like a serious detention facility, have you made contact with the fence (solar powered?)
heard that the goats like to climb on things - any climbable out there? shelter? Lola and Larry may be on the edge of net notoriety.
… not sayin' there is a creepy Peruvian llama guy behind you, but there is a cre…
the pygmy goat knows

Larry G said...

is there enough range for those guys? they look like they've eaten everything in site or is it just he way the photo looks? Are you sure they're not Alpacas?

http://islandalpaca.com/AdvHTML_Upload/Alpaca%20V_%20Lllama(1).jpg

Margery Billd said...

Are you packing for safety to protect the animals? I love goat milk. Do you handle that aspect? Goats are wonderful friends. I hope it works out for you.

remmij said...

some kind of weird hue shifting going on out there in Goatlandia… Lola & Laar don't play that…
in the HTMl code - eBONe
cousin from another mother

Unknown said...

Great job. Hope we can look forward to a "Friday Night Film" on location.

Unknown said...

Quite a herd ...goatherd! Will olive trees not grow over there? Looks very similar to Israel. Goats milk..cheese...and butter healthy and delicious. You can start a goat town stall :-) the goats can pay a way for themselves

Unknown said...

Congratulations. This is so exciting. Can't wait to see videos and to meet Lola and Larry.

John Wells said...

This operation is really just so the owner's property qualifies for an agricultural tax exemption. He eventually plans to market them specifically as meat goats - there are no plans for harvesting the milk. For now he is selling off a few each month to another rancher who is building a herd. There are two solar powered hot strings on the fencing and I got zapped once. There are some little shelters in the pen for them to go into and climb on. They have pretty much stripped everything to the ground and need feed doled out to them - that is my job. Lola and Larry are definitely llamas - you can tell by the ears. At the owners suggestion, I am armed when I make my visits. There will be a GOAT TOWN video in the near future.

Unknown said...

Are there any natural predators in the area for the goats to worry about?

John Wells said...

A mountain lion has jumped the fence a few times. Coyotes can't get in.

Margery Billd said...

Years ago at Ohio State University someone stole the income of many foreign students. So we had a caravan and took the people to Athens, Ohio, by Ohio University to a farm with goats. The students slaughtered the goats. I watched one very friendly goat die but there was nothing I could do about it. They strung the goats up and bled them. They took the meat back to Columbus for their food. The goat meat was not good to me (tough) because I did not know how to cook it. Someone gave me a dish and it was cooked better. A teacher from Iran told me she wanted and liked goat intestines so I gave her some and she became offended. So much for that.

Margery Billd said...

Years ago at Ohio State University someone stole the income of many foreign students. So we had a caravan and took the people to Athens, Ohio, by Ohio University to a farm with goats. The students slaughtered the goats. I watched one very friendly goat die but there was nothing I could do about it. They strung the goats up and bled them. They took the meat back to Columbus for their food. The goat meat was not good to me (tough) because I did not know how to cook it. Someone gave me a dish and it was cooked better. A teacher from Iran told me she wanted and liked goat intestines so I gave her some and she became offended. So much for that.

Margery Billd said...

Look at that. I was just trying to go back and leave the site and it posted twice.

Smackmama said...

Should be Llola and LLary

Larry G said...

Maybe John can make a deal for two new friends for Ben!

;-)

Unknown said...

Cougars and coyotes sound like big time trouble. Hope the llamas help.
Maybe a guard dog or two would be good when you're not there?
Gaurd Dogs & Llamas

Rocky said...

Congrats on the gig!! Just left Sierra blanca so quiet and feel like you can grab the stars. Living the dream mr wells.

Unknown said...

If , I was bloging about Goat's I'd probably call it......The Cabrito Chronicles....jd

Rev.jimmyleebob said...

My ex bro in law in N. Carolina kept goats to mow his 5 acres. Being the compassionate animal lover he is, he built large dog houses on skids so they could get out of the weather.A goat is almost as smart as a dog.They would stand on the roofs in the pouring rain. Like I said, almost as smart as a dog. He'd keep those goats in line with the biggest Chihuahua I've ever seen, went by the handle Terminator. 5 lbs.of pure meanness with a one track mind,goat discipline.