On the farm, we raise Nigeran Dwarf goats. Goats are a great subject for stories because they have interesting personalities and can be very different even within the same family. This brings up memories of our original two bucks. Their names were Coal and Ash. One was grey, Ash and the other jet black, Coal. They learned at a fairly young age to become escape artists.

As they matured, which is usually around 4 months, they need to be seperated from the girls unless you are wanting to breed. Boys are good for exactly 2 things, eating and breeding. They really don't discrimate when breading season rolls around. Since this is a heard that contained Coal and Ash's mother and sisters, we separated them into their own stall in the barn so that they wouldn’t breed back to their mom. We thought, this will work; it's a fully enclosed stall with only one little window about 3.5 feet off the ground. These are the lessons you learn when owning goats. They quickly learned how to jump out of that stall window which wasn’t even something we thought was possible. I wish I had a video of it. We never actually knew that happened but there was no other explaiantion for how every time we checked on them, they were out of that stall.

The next thing we tried was moving them to their own pasture across the driveway from the does. Girl goats are called does, like deer. The boys are bucks. Coal, as the smaller and calmer buck was content with his new living arrangements and stayed put. Ash on the other hand, must have had double the testosterone because any time those girls came into heat he found a way over to them. At first, he was squeezing his way under the fence, crossed the driveway and then under the gate to the girls’ pasture. Catching him and moving him back was an all hands on deck chore!

One day, my sister Allie and her boyfriend, came home to Ash in the doe pasture and set out to catch him. They ran him into the barn thinking a smaller space would be easier to corner him, throw a leash on him and move hime back over. Allie thought she had him when he took a last ditch effort to jump over her and ended up head butting her! His horns to her forehead, she was knocked to the ground and ultimately carried out of the pasture. While she had quite the knot on her head and a bruised ego, she ended up fine. Ash got his wish and stayed in the pasture a while longer. That is life on the farm. Bumps and bruises are par for the course when dealing with animals. Luckily he was on the smaller side of goat sizes!

We were more determined then ever to remedy this escape route by covering the holes and reinforcing the fencing. He was not fazed by this and the next day we came home to a misplaced buck again! We scoured the fence for holes and, finding none, concluded that he must have jumped over! This is a 48 inch fence and little Ash only stood half of that. Maybe we should enroll him in jumping shows! Making the fence higher at this point was not a feasible option as this pasture runs about 1 acre. Having no good course of action, our solution was to find him a new home.

We found a familiy looking for a buck to breed and we just knew that Ash would be more happy roaming with the does! As this was early in our farming ventures, we did not have a pick up truck or trailer yet. When we found someone to buy him, he was loaded into the back of our Jeep Commander and driven to the local western store for the trade off. If you don't know much about goats, bucks enjoy peeing on themselves to attract all the ladies! The musk penetrates any fabric and takes days to wash off your skin. That buck smell probably didn’t come out of the Jeep for weeks! We were told later that he did a great job breeding his new does but continued to show his escape abilities and was quickly traded again. I guess there’s not much a buck goat can ask for than a life traveling around breeding herds of does!

The moral of this story is goats will find a way out if there is one to find. Baby goats are no exception and they can squeeze through even tinier holes! Stay tuned for more funny goat stories in my next blog!