Thursday, July 17, 2008

Herding the Goats



Some friends invited us over to their house to help with de-worming the goats, so we thought we would give it a try for the experience.  In order to de-worm  the goats we had to heard them down through all the hills to the main farm house.  Herding the goats was pretty easy work especially when you have a 3 legged dog who knows how to heard sheep on your side.  All you have to do is stand in the direction that you do not want the goats to go so they are forced to go in the direction you want them to go.  Where it gets hard is when two of the dogs who do not know so much about herding the sheep try to help causing the goats to go in the wrong direction.  One time when we were herding the goats, Elena came - not paying attention to anything and looking at the pictures on the camera.  She walked straight into the gap where we were tying to get the goats through, resulting in the goats being completely surrounded so that their only choice was to panic.  The group of goats split in half so that we had to herd one half back to the other.  When we had them all at the farm they did the de-worming.  In order to de-worm you have to catch a goat so that the medicine can be put down the goat's throat.  When the goats were de-wormed,  they let me try catching one of the goats.   I tried and tried to catch one and then I finally did!  Herding the goats back up into the hills was supper easy, all we really did was hop on the 4-wheeler and let the 3 legged dog (his name is Spit) do the work.
-Damon

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