*meet the kids!

We arrived at Just 4 Goats in Wilmer Alabama on Saturday morning ready to meet our new kids.  It was an sweet experience for me.  Sheila has a TON of goats. She has kids, yearlings, does, does in milk and bucks.  She is trying at this point to thin her herd some, and I can see why!  If we didn't have the ride back home I could have stayed hours petting the larger goats at her place.

One of the many does at Just 4 Goats. Beautiful creatures.

More of the sweet does. They were so amicable and loving, not a stranger in the bunch!

All of the children from this doe smile. Isn't that a sweet trait to carry?

I want to be a goat lady. I want to be a chicken lady. I want to be a crazy cat lady. I want to be a farmer. Oh, wait. Let me check those off my list! I am all of the above.  Sweetness, just sweetness.

Here is Shelia with some of her babies. You could tell it pained her by selling the kids to people she doesn't really know.  The not knowing of if the new owners are going to take care of them properly and love and care for them as she would was really wearing on her.  She did finally tell us she felt good about us as new owners. I assured her we would give proper care to the animals. 

She (Shelia) has a Just 4 Goats store on her property that carries such things as clippers, shampoos, soaps, lotions, and all the things you need to vaccinate your goats.  You can also find meds in her shop as well.  All of the walls were lined with ribbons she has won over the years at shows with her beautiful herd.  She started out rescuing a few goats and after a few years her love for raising healthy high quality goats led her to showing them. 

Here we are in the car on the way home.   We took our Honda Pilot, laid our seats all down and lined the back with tarp and blankets.  The drive home is 2 hours and they were not with held from food or water prior to our picking them up. In fact, she allows her goats to "free feed".  So.. needless to say they pooped and pee'd numerous time!  Oh yeh.  The inside of our vehicle smelled like a barn. I would much rather smell livestock poop instead of dog or cat poop any day.  (Just FYI)

I was telling her about her new home that she would see soon, she was delighted!

I was telling her about all the treats she would find in the field at her new home, she thought it sounded tasty.

Here they are at "home".  The young girl in the front was born just a few months ago and her legal name is Peggy Sue, but we have dubbed her Cleopatra.  All of our girls have queens or royal women's names  from the Egyptian era or there about.  The pretty sable colored one in the back has the legal name Pearl, but we have given her the name Bodica. She and Nefertiti (below) are sired by the same buck, Midas. 

This sweet little one's legal name is Lady Katie but we have given her the name Nefertiti.   Our rabbits have Greek and Norse names : Loki, Athena, Isis, Thor.  Strange, I know. 

Did you know: Goats do not have upper front teeth at all. The have a big pad sort of like an attached thick gum that helps them press things around in their mouth. They do have back molars on top as well as on bottom for grinding food.  These particular teeth are quite sharp so if ever you are visiting here on the far or any other that has goats do not stick your fingers in their cute little mouths.

This is a new adventure for us, it is one of our last pieces to self sufficiency.  We do have a few other things to do before we are self sustained but those things await the sell of our house in NC.  We have just dropped our price again, hoping for an offer soon.