One of the most joyful parts of having our herd whittled back down to two is that I can return to morning tethering. I still take the girls out for their woodland grazing in the evening, so now I just tether until Abigail grows bored about an hour into her grazing period. To me, our doe doesn't look full after sixty minutes of tethering, but I have to accept that our goat knows what she wants.

Which isn't to say that our pair of capricious beasties don't stop for a few more mouthfuls of succulent treats on the way back to the coop. Here, Lucy is reminding the goats that the porches (a couple of feet to the left of the photo) belong to her.

A few mouthfuls of alfalfa make a good post-breakfast dessert. Then back to the coop to nap and chew their cuds until after the humans' dinner. Such a fun way to start the day, with an hour weeding beside the goats!

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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