Our Baby Goats Are Here!

We finally went to visit Little Blessings Farm, a short drive from us, where Tricia Daley raises her pygora goats. Pygora goats are a cross breed of a small pygmy goat with an angora goat with the long curly coats that can be spun and turned into mohair yarn.

These two sisters have a pygmy mom and an angora dad and were born this past spring. We will hopefully get their birth date from Tricia soon so we can celebrate it when it comes around.

Right now they are super timid and nervous since we brought them home in the dark last night. It was only 6 pm but it was completely black outside. The poor girls stood on the ramp most of the night so I imagine they are pretty tired today. This is the first time they have been separated from their mom and the rest of the herd.
We brought food out this morning and with some coaxing only one would eat from our hands. As soon as we left the pen to get the kids on the bus they started naa-ing out for us to come back. They sound oddly like a child crying right now. The one girl seems to have more of the angora coat with lots of curls and length while the other one is a bit shorter and less curl more like the pygmy's coat.
They need names and we are all a bit stuck so we are giving them some time to get used to the place and for us to get to know them and see their personalities. I kind of like the idea of coming up with something very girly for them. I like the idea that it has something to do with the colour white or the moon and so far Luna is the only thing I can come up with I sort of like.

Names are so tricky at first and then the name seems to just be taken on by the animal and you can't imagine it being any other name. Our cat Baxter, a big black and white boy was named Pixie at the humane society but it seemed so wrong for him. Now he could only be a Baxter or Bax for short and it suits him to a tee. I'm liking the names Cora, Holly, Molly, Lu-lu, and of course the kids don't like those at all and want Frizzy and Fluffy! Short names work better with animals or at least ones that can have a short nickname so you can call them easily.

I really hope these girls are less timid and will be able to be good pets for us to play with, walk and have customers visit. We were spoiled by Coco, Smore and Nana Aggie since they were so easy to have around and had no problem being fussed over and petted. Really they were more like demanding the attention than anything.

I moved 2 cords of wood in our barn a week or more ago on my own so that we can create an indoor pen area for the girls. Goats don't like the rain and with the snow not far away we need to give them a better shelter from the wind and snow. We've got all the things we need to make the pen, Tim just needs some time to nail the thing together. We might even have chickens this spring to live with the goats, we'll see how it goes this winter. I just hope the coyotes don't discover our baby girls. I don't think they could get into the pen but they sure will scare the goats and us! Not to mention once they know they are there they will return over and over to work on the problem of getting into the pen. This year we have a higher number of coyotes in the County and you can hear them most nights and they come pretty close from the sounds of them. Once the river freezes they use that as their main route to move around. Those paw prints are pretty big on those things. Apparently we have hybrid coyotes that have mixed bred with wolves so they can get pretty big. We live very close to McMann Bluff where a few packs live since it is all heavily wooded and a large acreage where they can live undisturbed by people. I need to get one of those crazy horns that they blow at sports games since I don't want to ever own a gun so if the coyotes show up I can run out there making a hell of a wracket so they will be scared off. Or I'll have to start practicing with a slingshot and stones!!