Category Archives: Goats

Dogs, Farm Stories, Goats, Poultry, Stories

A tale of ducks and turkeys and goats and a dog.

I have a duck in one tub and a dog in the other. And there’s a story behind it.

It’s not the first time we’ve had a duck in the bathtub.

Last time we bought poultry feed we decided to try a cheaper brand. It saved us almost $20 for a month of feed, but it seems to have caused problems for the ducks. Almost two weeks ago a duck had to be brought in for treatment of a prolapsed vent. She got all bound up and tried to eject her innerds. Professor Google provided answers and she got to have daily Epsom salt baths and Preparation H applied to encourage healing. This morning she got released back to the pen, but another one seems to be starting the same problem. We need two people to catch the duck because they are slippery suckers.

Well, the ducks share a pen with the turkeys. The turkeys don’t like anyone messing with their pen or their ducks. They need to go out on grass anyway so we herded the turkeys out of the pen and down to the pond pasture. The goats were at the gate, but the leaf-rake-of-doom kept them far enough back so we could shove turkeys through one at a time.

Then we noticed that one goat had grown too big for his collar. I don’t know how it came on so quickly, but he looked like he was choking and gasping for air. That needed to be dealt with immediately. But he didn’t want to be caught. The other goats were eager to run in defense of him to keep us away. We had a merry chase around the pond and back and forth across the creek. We were getting nowhere and he just got more stressed.

Here’s a word of advice: don’t bother chasing goats to catch them. It works for poultry, but goats are stubborn and smart. They will always escape if you chase. It’s better to lure them in. A coffee can of COB (AKA goat crack) properly applied will get them to do almost anything you want.

So we had a can of goat crack. We had the rake-of-doom and a long stick and a leash for just in case. We got 4 of 5 goats to come and partake of treats. You can guess which one refused. We got 3 of 5 into the other pasture and closed the gate. So now we have the meekest goat (Ritz) and the distressed goat (Moo). They’re easier to manipulate on their own. I walked over to the roofed dog kennel they use as shelter and drop a pile of crack…COB. Ritzy meanders in, happy to have a chance at treats and Moo follows. I step in and close the door.

We aren’t supposed to use horns to manage goats, but they sure are handy. I caught him. My helper straddled and pinned him. I unhooked the collar… finally! Then we let him eat out of the coffee can so the entire encounter could be associated with treats instead of terror. I might have made a mistake in not working with this goat much. He needs to be better socialized to humans.

Okay, the goat is dealt with, the turkeys are hanging out with them and intimidating them while wrestling each other. Meanwhile the dog has been gleefully running in circles, unable to decide if he’s going to “help” us wrangle goats, chase rabbits, or roll in all the smells he usually doesn’t have access to. Guess what he did.

Back to the duck pen. We got the ducks cornered and pulled out the ailing one. Got back to the house and I started filling the tub with water and Epsom salt. The dog followed me in and boy did he smell foul! The minute that duck was settled in her bath I took the dog to the other bathroom to get him cleaned up.

“But Mom! I thought it smelled so good! Why don’t you like my perfume?”

There is something about manure that is irresistible to dogs. Especially male dogs. Most baths given to dogs in this house happen after they have found their way into a pasture and come back crusted in stink. It’s like a 13 year old boy that believes the Axe commercials. Except we all know that repulses rather than attracts.

I got the dog clean. I even finished off with a dab of the boys Old Spice body wash around his neck. We’ll see how he likes that smell. The duck has gotten her treatment and is in the hospital cage for observation. The bathrooms are clean-ish and the used towels in the washer. Let the day go back to the sleepy rainy Saturday we had intended to have.

Blackberry War, Farm Stories, Goats, Stories

This…this means war!

I know nobody is reading this. It doesn’t matter. Let’s talk blackberries. They are delicious when made into jams, jellies, pies, or any of the many other things that can be done with them, right? But when they get growing on a property they can take it over in just a couple of years. I hear that the south has kudzu and there’s poison ivy back east. There are invasive plants wherever you go. My battle is with invasive blackberries.


Himalayan Blackberries grow especially fast. They shoot up canes bigger around than your thumb and 30 feet long. They build on themselves to create mountains 14 feet tall or more if they have support. They are like a tidal wave washing over the land, starting fresh clusters with roots on the end of canes in the fall. Everyone told me that I should mow and then spray everything with herbicide to knock them down and keep them down. I’m not very fond of that idea. It’s tempting and easy, but I don’t like the dependence on poison. I also don’t have easy access to anything that can mow down mountains, and my good brush trimmer has been down for a couple of years. It broke and a helpful friend took it apart and lost the parts. One of these days the parts will turn up. Until then we get to use other methods.

My favorite tools in the blackberry war are simple hand held pruners, a Fiskars billhook, large pruning shears, a curved pitchfork, goats, and a cattle panel. I started out pretty complicated, but now I keep it simple. T-posts and cattle panels fence off an area that needs to be worked over. Then I go in with a single cattle panel, lean it up against the mound of growth that I want to take down, and climb. I’m not a dainty thing and this is one area where my weight is an asset. I jump and crush and smash the panel to the ground. I trim anything that keeps it from descending. Then the goats swarm. We like the berries, goats think the leaves are candy.

When the blackberries are crushed the goats will strip anything resembling greenery from them. Once that is done the canes dry out pretty fast. Then I can cut them close to the ground and rake them into piles for burning. There is a pile waiting in almost every area that the goats have worked. I could probably also let them just rot into the soil, but burning is more satisfying.

There is now plenty to burn. A year ago I felt like I was fighting a losing battle, but now that I have the hang of it we have cleared nearly to the midsection of the property. The only thing holding me back is goat containment. They have little respect for most fences, and my neighbor’s choices of fence are anything but goat-proof. There will have to be some fencing improvement in the near future.

Hey, look at that. Two posts in two days. It’s easier now that I remember that nobody is going to read this stuff. I have a lot more pictures of the blackberry war on Instagram. I joined that platform to share and follow quilty stuff, but instead I have ended up posting a lot of other stuff, including a takeover of the blackberry war hashtag. Feel free to check it out.