goats in the city

meet violet and lacy: jp’s valentine’s present to me and mine to him.

lacy is on the left (she’s knocked up), and violet is the sassy one on the hollow trunk. they are nigerian dwarf goats and are about the size of otto (but a little heftier). Once she kids, Lacy will provide us with milk. Both will provide us with loads of entertainment (Violet, as far as we have been told, is sterile. she’s recently been exposed to a buck but has no history of becoming pregnant. so if she is, that would be a shock to us all).

up to two goats are allowed in denver county as use-by-right (same law that permits people to own x-amount of dogs and/or cats without having to apply for a permit for them). we had built the fenced-in-yard for them a year and a half ago knowing that one day we would have goats (we didn’t plan on our flock of chickens being decimated in between that time). there was certainly some preparation involved (securing shed, buying feed, hooking up water warmer) but all the big stuff had already been done (again, thank you mama and papa!).

we drove up to evergreen, loaded them into a dog crate in the back of jp’s pick-up truck, and brought them on home to the PowerDriver Farm. we’ve scheduled most mornings as my responsibility to tend to them. tonight i put them away for the evening and found that i really loved sitting on their bed brushing their hair with a horse brush we picked up at our favorite feed store. they’re still getting used to us and their new environment so i’m working on giving them extra loving and treats (alfalfa cubes!).

(my helpful ranch hands.)

happy valentine’s day, everyone!