Meet Penny and Albert

Meet the newest additions to our family -- Albert and Penny, our pet goats. Albert is the one with silver fur and is a wether (neutered male). Penny is the one with reddish fur and is a doeling. Albert is a Spanish-Savannah cross and Penny is a Spanish-Boer cross. Here's how we wound up with goats:

We wanted a small animal project for our time in Montana. Our original thought was laying hens. We asked our landlady when we moved in and she said she didn't care but that they would likely attract skunks and weasels. No thanks. We thought some more and decided we could get a dairy goat. We'd have lots of fresh milk for drinking and cheesemaking. We'd also save money on travel because we'd never be able to leave. That didn't actually bother us but we had trouble finding any dairy goats for sale. We were referred to a goat rancher named Yvonne Tucker, who raises meat goats south of Pendroy.

She didn't have any but gave us a few leads and also made a fairly convincing argument for why we should buy a couple of meat goats from her. We called the other leads but struck out. Meat goats it is.

Sunday morning we went out to see Yvonne and her husband Craig's operation, Smoke Ridge. They have hundreds of meat goats. They sell a lot for meat but also appear to be one of the big breeders of Spanish goats in the U.S. We first saw her bottle babies. Then we went down the hill to see some that were for sale. There we saw the future Penny and Albert, both of whom came right up to us and were very friendly. Georgie is absolutely loving this, being in the pen with about 20 goats and several guard dogs. She actually preferred the dogs but if she wants us to get her a dog she'll have to say so in a complete sentence.

Anyway, we continued our tour with a stop at the breeding bucks' pen. Breeding bucks are every bit as disgusting as you can imagine. They exist for one task and everything else is just killing time until that happens.

Finally we went to a large pasture where dozens (100s?) of goats were grazing/browsing. Yvonne called them over and they all came running as a herd. Pretty soon we were all swarmed with goats. Georgie was screaming with delight. Soon though, they realized that we hadn't brought them any gifts and they started to amble away.

We left Yvonne, telling her we were sold. We just needed to make a few adjustments at home.

Then we made our way to Great Falls. We went first to the Big R farm and ranch store. Actually first we went to the drive-thru Starbucks for Nikki. Not too much drive-thru decaf in Dupuyer. Then we made our way to Big R. We got some little things like a waterer and feed bucket. We got a 50lb. bag of salt and a roll of tie wire. And we got Penny a green collar and leash and Albert a purple collar and leash. We are hoping to be able to take time on walks around Dupe.

After Big R we went to Home Depot to work out our fencing issues. Our yard is almost completely fenced. Most of it is woven wire with wood posts and some wood bars across the top. The two things we had to do to make it goat-ready is to close off one area from the cistern to the outer fence and to add a gate to the outer yard. It was supplies for this -- a chain link gate, welded wire fencing, and metal posts -- that we got at Home Depot.

Both of these projects ended up being fairly easy. I did have to use one of the metal posts for the gate though, so we'll need some more of those to make the fence patch more stable. We are almost counting on Penny and Albert crafting some kind of escape plan, we just don't know what it is yet.

Nikki got home late from school today so we had to rush to Conrad to get a few more supplies, then back to Choteau to get our goats. Yvonne was ready for us and took us down to their pen. We loaded both of them together in a big dog carrier (goats don't like to be alone apparently). What a ride home - Albert and Penny were talking to us the whole way. Georgie loved it at first but after a while didn't seem like she wanted to be in a car with two goats.

We let them out and the yard and they started eating our grass right away. They seemed fairly quiet until I walked away and then they started yelling for me to come back. Our landlady Janet helped us finish out the fencing so they could come into the inner yard. Then Janet, Nikki, and I had grilled burgers outside. Then I let the goats in here. I think I will keep them in this inner part at night. It's better fenced and keeps the noise away from the neighbors.

For the last hour or so Penny has been standing on top of her carrier looking in the house at Aslan while Aslan, who is very freaked out, is sitting in the window staring at her.

What an exciting adventure! I am excited to spend the day with them tomorrow. It was dark pretty much as soon as we got set up tonight so none of us really got to enjoy our newest family members.