Feeding Time!

I wish I got this excited about hay and beans. They're seriously jumping on top of each other to get to the hay...and even though every day for their entire adult lives the person feeding them has put the hay in each of the four available bins..yet every day they FLIP OUT and rush to the first one that gets hay in it - even if they're on the other side of the pen...and even though they must know that the food is going to be put in the bin right next to them... I don't get it. And they LOVE beans. One goat was laying down in one of the bins and wouldn't move, so I dumped the beans on top of her, which was probably the most blissful moment of her life. Dried pinto beans are perhaps twenty times more exciting than alfalfa hay.
At least.

After I fed all the mamas, I went around to the other side of the creamery to feed the kids. By the time I got all their beans spread out, several of the mothers came running from the other side through the gate single file to get more beans. I'm telling you...pinto beans are a huge deal here. Mama goats were pushing baby goats aside to get to the beans...Out of control.


Can you find the daddy goat?
(can't you just hear the "one of these things is not like the other" song in your head?)

This evening I was feeding the babies - hadn't even gotten to the beans yet - and one of the kids put her front hooves up on the fence to get to the hay...I got it all distributed and noticed she still had her hooves up there.... So I got a handful and put it on the ground next to her so she wouldn't have to butt her way into one of bins. With one hoof still on the fence she leaned the rest of her body toward the hay, at which point I realized that her hoof was actually caught -pinched between the double layer of fencing - yet she didn't seem the least bit concerned. She could just barely reach the hay with her hoof up almost parallel with her shoulders...but apparently that was good enough... Ridiculous! I jumped over the fence and lifted her up and pushed the two parts of the fence apart to release her hoof... She just kept eating the whole time - didn't even seem to notice that being attached to the fence might cause any harm or discomfort...or inconvenience...at least not while there was alfalfa within reach.

This afternoon I took a pick ax and went to one of the metal water basins to try to chip away at a huge iceberg bobbing in the middle (too huge to lift out...at least by myself). This was by far the most curious thing that has happened in their world in recent memory. All of the mama goats and all the baby goats and both of the bucks came to watch. I failed. Too much pressure I guess.

I love these goats.