In the process of moving and getting adjusted to life out here, we let our pasture maintenance slip. Before the goats and horses came, our pastures became pretty overgrown. And then the thistles came. And then they bloomed (such pretty purple blossoms). And then they seeded the hell out if the pastures. I’m sure our neighbors are simultaneously laughing at us and cursing us (since I am sure some of the thistle seeds blew onto their property). I now know why they say to take care of weeds before they seed. I’m afraid this one season is going to take us years of work to undo. Recently I started the de-thistle process. Man. I went through most of one of our small pastures. The main goat pasture. The back end of it is full of flat thistles, with a few tall ones thrown in for good measure. Josephine and I went to town, and still, we did not get them all. Notice I said Josephine and I were in the goat pasture. This is possible because…we no longer have the asshole goats!!! Hooray! Yippee! Party time! We are down to three: our two wonderful, lovely goats named Duck and Billy, and the rental goat, a fat Pygmy goat named Giselle who likes to make a lot of noise, but who is quite well mannered. Now that the asshole goats have moved on to a new farm somewhere with tall fences that they can not leap over, it is safer for Josephine to spend time in the goat pasture with me. And now that she has stopped (for the most part) asking, “Where Bobby Poppy?” (the names of said asshole goats), it is quite pleasant to be able to walk through the pasture or do maintenance without being reared at or head butted or pushed around. Thank the goat lord!
Anyways, thistle time. We have a long road ahead of us, but every day it’s getting easier to do chores with Josephine in tow (in the pasture she spent a lot of time throwing grass into the water troughs, dipping sticks in the water to “paint” on the rocks nearby, and talking about her muscles. She is strange). Taylor even irrigated with Josephine this week without a hitch. You can be sure she had a blast tromping through the waters with her boots on! As for the thistle, one day we will look back and realize that we conquered them. And I will dance a jig (because I am strange, ok? I take after Josephine).
Oh, and one more thing. The neighbors butchered Mister Cow. Right in the pasture directly in front of our living room window. Luckily Taylor saw and closed the window before Josephine could watch. She LOVED Mister Cow. Farm life just got real!
lazy to living 