NotSoThoreau

We had something try to get into the chicken house last night around 2am, most likely an old male coon. We think they were using a hole at the bottom of the house to reach in and grab eggs from under the sitting birds. We had a Rock back in that corner that turned out to have no eggs under her after sitting for a month. We’ve had a turkey sitting there recently. Well, brother coon grabbed our rooster by the tail, the one that we’ve been working with all week to even get him in the house. When I heard the noise, I yelled out the window and could hear the rooster run off across the neighbor’s place. He turned up okay today with a few tail feathers missing. We went outside to check but couldn’t get a good light on the trees. I’d heard nails clicking in the maples above the house, so I knew he was still there. About an hour and a half later, I heard him come down. Jeffrey is working on repairs today.

I have the Fourth off and will likely spend it doing nothing. I have a large, grapefruit sized bruise on my left arm from Bucko. He startled as I was stepping across the fence holding onto his rope. It pulled me down onto the fence. Jeffrey thinks it looks like a tattoo. I would call it “Picture of my goat”. The little goatlings are spending less time with mom. We could easily wean all of them, if we had a pen to separate them. It will be good to see the does go off to their new homes. They will pay for Bucko. We will wetherize the bucks and likely keep the orphan wether to train as a cart goat. It’s looking like we will eat the other three. If you’re not willing to eat them, you shouldn’t raise meat goats. Besides, goat meat is tasty!