For over a month, there have been no goat outings and no joy when I walked up to the goat barn (usually at least half a dozen times a day). So even though taking our new herd out to graze makes me melancholy now, it's also a relief.

Goats eating wild grub the way they ought to! Blue sky! Green leaves! Terror-stricken attitudes when a carefully trained dog walks by! Okay, so we could have done without that last bit, but you get the gist.

At least there's a new puzzle to keep me busy. Edgar came to us from a herd far too large for much human contact, so he has the aspect of a feral cat. It doesn't help that Aurora is quick to assert her herd-queen status and head butt him if he dares to eat anywhere near her regal presence.

So I've taken it slow. By the second day, our wether was willing to eat with me in the barn, by the fourth day he'd nosed my fingers in search of a handout. Day five saw me tentatively taking Aurora and Edgar out to graze in the woods --- no way could I catch the latter to collar him, but he stuck like glue to Aurora's side and was no management problem at all. Day six I petted him while he was looking the other way and Edgar didn't run off like a shot. Who knows what day seven will bring?

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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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