Today, I trimmed hooves. Most of my goats are really well behaved when it comes to this, but I have one doe who hates it with a passion and fights me the entire time! She's getting to be big and not so easy to handle when not compliant, even with her head in the headgate of the milkstand. She fought me so much, that my hand slipped and I got a little too deep on one of her hooves and caused it to bleed. Needless to say, that improved matters a great deal. (That's sarcasm.) I pray she's okay with being milked when the time comes...! I might need to invest in a hobble just in case... The bucks are surprisingly good when getting their hooves trimmed. They particularly like it when I talk to them as though they're babies! They just get cuddly and compliant (as opposed to pushy and ornery!). I'm grateful for that. I'm not sure what I will do when they outgrow the milkstand. Build a ginormous one?
Then, I cleaned out the buck barn. I had planned on waiting until spring to do this, and the barn would have been okay if I had. However, the buck pen (you know, the fenced area outside the barn) is picked clean of all grass (thanks to the chickens that were in there) and was pretty muddy after all the rain. I wanted to put all the buck barn bedding out in the pen to reduce the amount of mud. So, after a few hours with a pitchfork, the deed is done. The bucks have new fresh bedding (wood shavings) over a layer of lime (to neutralize the ammonia) and seem thoroughly pleased with the arrangement. The pen is about 1/3 covered with a mix of waste hay, shavings, and manure, so while not completely covered, it should be a big improvement. From now on, waste hay will go elsewhere and shavings will be the bedding of choice. Shavings don't knit together to form a blanket, and they break down so much nicer.
Least Favorite Chores probably isn't the best name for this post... I really don't mind this stuff that much. I enjoy the work, but just not pushy goats or the smell of the bottom layers of barn bedding... It was good exercise and now I'm ready for a hot shower and some hot cocoa!
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