Goats . . again

I got messing around looking through my "goat archives." All before digital cameras so the quality isn't great.

Here's "headline news" with me and a Tennesse Fainting goat around 30 years ago.

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Here are a couple of kids on the roof of my 1964 Chevelle SS. 327 and Muncie four speed. Great car.

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Here's what our first buck looked like when he was a cute kid . . .

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Here's what that "cute kid" looked like 10 years later . . .

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My wife with one of the kids years back . .

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A couple of new moms with their kids in the woods . .

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Great pics! We have goats too.Mostly Boer,but 1 fainter.Great joke for my city friends! I yell,goat falls over,people gasp, then I laugh!! Never gets old! LOL!! Doug

bet you wish you still had the chevelle!

I've still got my 65 Malibu with a 283, but the 64 SS is gone. Believe it or not it was the only car I had for years and I had four kids back then (the human kind). I drove it 50 miles a day to work all summer and all winter. What a shame. It rusted out so bad - I yanked the engine and trans and scrapped the rest. But yeah, I wish now I'd saved it.

Now that is a neat bunch of pictures. I'm trying to imagine what you look like these days from the old newspaper article. My guess, you still have the beard although it may not quite be the same color, but I'll bet you got a haircut since then!

Here is a picture of my big old Boer Buck that I raised from a kid. He has made us many many kids to sell, and contiues to do so today. He is also an amazingly docile fellow, likes people and will beg for treats. You just have to be careful as he likes to rub on everything including people so you will not only end up smelling like a goat, he might break your leg because he's so darn heavy. His name is Mr. Chevy by the way... (maybe in honor of your old Chevelle?)

Ha ha ha, nice pics, I like the one of them standing on ur car! Lol

Hair IS shorter but all is still there and not grey. My beard is also intact and ALL grey. I will never shave again. Too much work with too little gain. I look like a bum shaved or not.

My wife is the one that is all grey now and she's 12 years younger then me.

That's a nice looking goat. I remember when it was illegal to import Boer Goats into the US and the only way to get one here was by embryo transplant. That's when a breeding pair could sell for $50K. Hard to believe now.

Back maybe 15-20 years ago the Boer was supposed to be the answer to a uniform meat goat to sell to supermarkets. Seems it never quite took off that way.

I never met a goat I didn't like except for a few nasty pigmy goats.

You older guys can remember back in the '50's, with gas at about 30 cents, the family would go for "a drive" on a Sunday after church.

We went for a drive when I was about 7, in 1955, and ended up about 50 miles from home. Dad said he wanted to stop in and see an old guy he knew, Hannibal Justice. We did indeed, and he took us out to the barn, where about 50 goat kids were all over us instantly (me and 2 sisters, one about 4, the other about 10). For those who don't know goats, the kids are even more people friendly than dogs. As we're having a great time fending them off, dad says we can each pick out one (we found out years later that it was all a set-up). We always had some goats during my childhood.

When I was in high school, dad got a call from a stranger- he had heard Dad might be interested in getting some goats. Turns out the guy's dad was a hermit a few miles from us, and died with a bunch of goats. His children were all in Seattle, didn't want to be bothered with them. If we took them all, we could have them for $2 apiece. There were 75, of which about 25 were milking does. Pretty good deal at the time- milking does were $35 and up.

We used them to clear brush land, and little sister and I raised calves with the milk. I milked the goats, sister fed them, and dad bought the calves.

Feeding calves on goat milk is elegant in its simplicity. Get a bunch of calves, and a bunch of buckets. Somebody (me) milks the goats. Someone else (little sister) shuttles the buckets to the calves, who were locked in stanchions. Give buckets to calves, starting at one end and going down the line. Check the buckets as you go along- if bucket is empty, give him another one. If calf is standing with head hung, gasping for breath, he's done, so go on the to next one. When nobody will drink any more, you're done- take the rest of the milk to the house.

Anybody who has ever raised calves is thinking all of them will be dead in a week from scours. Not so- goat milk is much more digestable than cow's milk or replacer- believe it or not, you can feed it free choice. Calves will grow so fast you can almost see it- like corn in Iowa. We never lost a single one.

Sis and I made about $500 that summer- pretty good money at the time. We have some goats now, and our grandkids like them as much as I did, all those years ago.

Neat story Thank you for sharing it with us.

Over in WVA the goat would have more boyfriends than the wifey holding it,she's a little rough.
Fainters are pretty common really and they don't 'faint' they have a muscle seizure.