This week we said goodbye to three of our beloved goats. They moved to a new farm, north of Santa Fe. These were the three that we (hopefully) sent away pregnant. Casey, Ana, and Carlotta.
This is Casey. She is such a pretty girl, and she loves animal crackers.
Here are Ana (on the right) and Carlotta (facing the other way). Ana is one of my favorite goats, and I’ve missed her every minute since they left. No one was better at plucking a peanut out of my hand as we both walked than Ana. No one had more expressive ears.
Their new family arrived pulling a horse trailer. They backed up across our pasture, nearly all the way to the gate to the back pen.
We led the goats, one by one, to the trailer - the entire operation went really smoothly. The only goat who seemed distressed was Carlotta’s sister, Elena. I closed the gate after the trailer pulled back out, and walked behind it, walking past Elena’s pen. Elena clearly saw her sister leaving. And she complained loudly about it.
But, other than that, everything went well. Ana stood up and looked around before they left, but Jan said that they’d all sit down on the floor of the trailer as soon as it started moving. Their new family called when they got home to let us know that everyone had arrived safely. It’s going to be a really good home for those goats. And the family promised to give the goats back to us if they ever wanted to get rid of them.
When we went to feed the goats in the back pen this morning, it seemed terribly empty without them. That’s partly because Elena and Isabella are temporarily in the pen with Sam. We’re leaving them there ’til they’re bred. So, that’s five fewer goats in that back pen, and it really makes a difference.
Meanwhile, Coco continues to grow. She’s now a whopping seven pounds. She's bigger than my cat, Bela! She and I go on an adventure every morning. We walk to the chicken coops and check out the action there. We run down the road we live on. And we visit all the various goat pens. Coco is fascinated by the goats, and they are generally all interested in her. When she walks up to the pens, the goats come up to the fence and watch her. They seem to know she’s a baby. Here she is looking at Roger and Leroy. This morning, she actually licked Isabella’s nose.
And speaking of inter-species contact, we have a feather foot who likes to have Jan pet her every morning. It started because this particular hen likes to sleep on the highest perch in the coop.
In the morning, she’s always the last one out. She walks back and forth on that perch, seemingly afraid to jump off. Finally, Jan asked her if she’d like to be carried down off the perch. The chicken didn’t say anything, so Jan just picked her up and set her on the ground outside the coop. After a few mornings of this, they’ve developed a routine where Jan pets her and then gently sets her on the ground. We’re naming her Dahlia, after a chicken Jan had years ago who always wanted to be picked up and carried around.
Oh, and the sand hill cranes are back! One morning I heard their distinctive whirring sound, looked up, and saw a wedge of them flying over. Now I hear them every morning, and I’m glad. The barn swallows have gone, but the cranes are back. It’s nice how the birds take turns with our air space.
This week I learned about Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr. They are Thor’s goats. The Norse god Thor has two goats who draw his chariot. Who knew? Tanngrisnir is Old Norse for “teeth barer” and Tanngnjostr is Old Norse for “teeth grinder”. Here’s Thor, making some thunder, in his chariot with his goats:
Apparently, he eats his goats every night, and in the morning resurrects them with his hammer, Mjolnir. He is careful to wrap all their bones in their skins after he’s eaten. And then his magical hammer blesses them in the morning, causing them to spring back to life.
This is no way to treat goats. Seriously. I would goat-nap them from Thor if I had the chance.
Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr both appear in the Marvel Comics story - saving a bunch of children. They are represented as “Nordic Beasts” in the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game. In the fantasy trilogy, “Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard” (by Rick Riordan) they also appear. He renames them Marvin and Otis - apparently not trusting his audience to enjoy Nordic names. But no one has yet written the epic of saving the goats from being eaten at the end of every freaking day. Someone needs to do that.