Today, on the Mystery of Why the Hell I'm Not Done With My Chores
I keep a billy goat on site for my dairy herd, because it's just easier for catching the ladies in heat, and billies are top notch blackberry eaters (the ladies are spoiled princesses who won't eat a stinkin' *apple* if it's not cut up for them).
This latest boy is named Sir Percival the Persistent (little guy on the left in the photo), because he has climbed, dug, tore holes in horse fencing, squeezed, sneaked and guilted his way into the ladies' pen more times since he arrived 6 months ago than the two previous billies combined in the 4 years I had them. But Percy is sweet, and handsome, and produces beautiful, friendly babies, so I put up with him.
This morning, I went out to feed and milk, and found Sir Dumbass standing at the gate with my primary milker, baa'ing piteously alongside her like he'd get grain for his troubles too. He'd pried open a small hole the two 20 lb. baby bucklings had found in the fence, and because of the shape of his horns and the shape of the hole, had become "trapped" on the ladies' side of the fence.
I went and retrieved one of my Heavy Duty Fence Repair Panels, aka an old oven grate, and sat down to wire it in place over the hole in the fence. My milkers came over to find out What Was Wrong With the Human. Clearly, I must be injured or incapacitated, because I wasn't attending to their needs. I was sniffed, nibbled, called at like I was a baby, licked, and nuzzled by three goats (including Sir Percival) while trying not to be ticklish during the fence repair. When I got up, the milkers triumphantly ran around me and then over to the gate, as though trying to help me out of the pen in my "compromised" state.
I then had to chase Percy down (because he's docile and friendly as any dog until you actually want to put a leash on him), with the two ladies chasing me and yelling the whole time. I finally snagged him, brought him back to his side of the fence, and finished my chores.
Now I just hope and pray Percy didn't knock up either of the milkers during his jaunt in to their pen. I didn't see, uh, any *evidence* of his passing on either of the lady goats, but I have no idea how long he was in there between when I fed last night at 8pm and this morning at 9am. Wheee!