Fall Leaves

There is just something about a pile of leaves that makes you want to jump into them!

 It's hard to be annoyed when you are raking up leaves to have someone or some creature making a mess of it all. The lovely part about all these leaves is that they aren't wasted. We rake them up and bag them for goat and chicken bedding to keep them warm in the winter. 

The funny thing is that the goats will eat their beds.

 We are training Jasper to help with the goats out back. So far he is doing pretty good. He makes a nice distraction so we can actually get something done while the goats are out. Goats are extremely curious and bossy creatures.

 Sven had to check out this really cool pile of leaves!

 So Kaleb knocked all the leaves off the swing platform and down the slide. Jacks passed up ALL the leaves on the ground because the one in the trough slide look far more appetizing.

Goats are actually very picky eaters!

 Jacks loves to try to head butt you when someone is on the swings. More fun with a moving target.

 It always amazes me how much of a time suck it is when we are outside and all the animals want to get in on all the action. Our cats are not afraid of anything but cars and Jasper is doing pretty good with the cats. He just wants to play with them.

 Jasper and Lightning

 Lightning loves to hang out on our shoulders. They love to be held and cuddled. Lightning went from Kaleb's shoulders to mine to the fence post. 

 Victoria was jumping off the swings and into the pile of leaves. Everytime she did this Jacks would get all excited and either run through the middle of the pile right over top of her or run up to her and start chattering goat talk. It was hilarious. We got it on video.

 Lightning laying on his back next to Daphne thinking that he is well hidden.

 Goat grooming. All you need is a leaf rake. These guys love to be raked, brushed, rubbed, scratched...if you have leather work gloves on, Jacks loves, loves, loves for you to rub his face and eyes. You just need to be prepared to take a few extra minutes with him if he sees you with leather work gloves on. 

 Frederick watching from a distance.

 Sven had to come over for some raking too.

 We couldn't leave the girls out. Lizzy started to fall asleep with her raking.

Having goats have been a total pain in the butt sometimes! Like when they have gotten out and practically destroyed the peach trees, the boys push hard on the fences and can bow out cattle panels. If they want something, they will find a way to get it. Or if you have a jumper like Sven. Wow, that little guy was a challenge when he was little. On the other hand, they eat weeds, they are sweet, they provide great responsibilities to kids, you can play with them, they love to interact with you, you can milk them. We have more plans for their uses like making soap, cheese and eventually have them pull a cart. Either way, they have been a wonderful experience for our family.

And we couldn't have done it without all of Jared's building expertise in goat house building, Kaleb's ability to repair any fence, and Victoria's strong muscles in feeding and watering. Daphne is the baby sitter filling in when we aren't home. It's a family affair.