Diamond K Goats

If you ever wondered if goats were smart, wonder no more.  This story is about a goat, a roll of wire and some grass. We had a roll of concrete wire out in the pasture.  This wire had been sitting in the same place for about 3 or 4 months.  Long enough for grass to grow on the inside of the roll.  This was a pretty good size roll of wire and it was wound pretty tight.  One day, for a reason known only to the goat, Shelly decided that the grass growing inside this roll of wire must be the sweetest, crispy, juicy and the best grass in the world to eat! Shelly had horns, not real big horns, but not real small horns either.  With the upmost of care, she put her head through row after row of wire until she reached the grass.  That was the best grass she had ever eaten, and  it was almost the last grass she ever ate.  Goat horns are like fish hooks, they go in, but they don't come out.  She had her head through at least 6 or 7 rows of wire. Remember, this wire is wrapped tight. Now the goats head is stuck, the wire is tight, it can't be unrolled because her head is stuck so deep and the goat is getting a little panicky.  OK, its pretty easy, right, go get some wire cutter and just cut the wire. Wrong, the cutters didn't work, but a hacksaw blade did.  It took awhile, but after 30 minutes of sawing, Shelly was FREE! Oh, and the wire was moved.

Jose' was a Spanish Meat Goat buck I used to own.  When he was small, his horns were burned, but scurs came back.  These "false" horns didn't grow straight, but grew over to the left side of his head. They kind of looked like they were pushed over.  Jose' was a funny guy and was always doing something silly. About 4 years ago, my oldest son Matt was in a car wreck.  His Bronco was brought to the house and put in the pasture.  The driver side door wouldn't close and was always half open.  It was summer time and you know what happenes in the summertime, rain, and you know that goats HATE rain. Well, one day after a rain storm, I looked out in the pasture and what did I see?  Jose' was sitting in the drivers seat with his head out the window.  Well even through the Bronco wasn't moving, it looked like it was because Jose's horns were "blowin" in the wind. 

OK, I know this is suppose to be "goat tails", but this story is good. We walk  3 miles ever night.  One day while out on our walk something wierd happened. We always take our dog Weasel with us and we talk about all kinds of things while we're walking. We pass all kinds of animals: horses, cows, dogs, donkeys. We always walk so far, then turn around and come back. Well this day on our way back, while passing a cow pasture, this cow comes running and mooing up to the fence. She kept mooing VERY loudly. I looked at her and thought, "I think I've seen that cow before, but where?"  She was really having a fit by now, mooing and mooing and pushing on the fence. I looked at her again and then it hit me, DAISY!  Daisy used to belong to my son and he traded her for a steer for the county fair one year. I had not seen her since she was 1 year old. She was now a cow and was going to be having a calf soon. That silly cow heard us talking and knew my voice. She remembered me before I remembered her. Wierd. They say an elephant doesn't forget, well, you can add cows to that list also!

I'm adding this story because we just lost our beloved Turkey "Turk" to a bobcat. Turk LOVED to eat. She was always looking for food and she LOVED people food.  One day I went into the barn to get some grass seed. The seed comes in a white cloth-like bag. I didn't know it, but Turk was watching me from across the pasture.  As I was walking out of the barn I saw her running from across the pasture. Now Turk was BIG, but she could run very fast. She thought I had food in the bag and she was going to eat. I watched as she came running, flopping from side to side with her wings bouncing off the ground helping her keep her balance. How funny she looked. Well we have a pond that is usually full of water this time of year, but with the drought its low.  We also have duckweed growing in the pond. (duckweed is a very small green plant that floats on the top of ponds) Well Turk must have forgot about the pond because she just kept running right off the side of the pond. She flapped her wings and flew for about 2 seconds, then dropped like a rock into the pond. I laughed because it was so funny to see her in the air one second and then poof, she was gone. Then I got a really funny feeling in my stomach, Turkeys can't swim!  I dropped the bag an went flying through the gate into the pasture to save our Turk Girl.  As I reached the edge of the pond, Turk was just coming up the bank.  She was soaking wet and green. She was covered from head to toe with duckweed. She was so funny looking, I had to laugh at her again. She followed me back to the gate and I gave her a big scoop of food for being so silly. 

Last summer, we planted some oak trees in our pastures.  The hose didn't reach the oak tree in the very front pasture, so we would fill buckets with water and dump them on the tree. Well one night I went to water the front tree. I grabbed the bucket, filled it with water and took off across the pasture to water the tree. Well the goats ( who had already put themselves to bed) saw me with a bucket and thought I had food. They all came running after me and of course Ellie Mae was right there with them. Now Ellie has been with the goats since she was 4 months old. She is now three years old. She is a very small mini donkey, but does her job of watching over the goats and she does a very good job. Nothing gets past Ellie. Well, there I was walking with a bucket full of water, in the dark, being chased by 15 goats and one donkey. The goats soon discovered I didn't have any food and quit following me, but Ellie kept coming. I could hear little hooves pounding on the ground, louder and louder they got. I turned around and was shocked to see Ellie running at me full force, ears pinned back and teeth showing. At first I thought, "Oh, she'll know it's me and stop", WRONG! She chased me around and around the tree. I stopped and grabbed her halter and said "Ellie, it's me!" She didn't buy my story and reared up, spun around and started trying to kick me. "This donkey has gone mad" , I thought. After a few more runs around the tree, she took off after the goats. This was my chance to make my get away and I did. I ran and jumped over the fence. That tree only got one bucket of water that night and I learned not to mess around in the pasture when the donkey can't see. Like I said before, she does her job very well.