Goats and the Insanity that is Hunting

Looking back at this blog, I realize I've been bad and haven't updated it.  Largely because fall is the time for general insanity known as hunting.

Lisa and Lulu

From the last week in October through the end of Thanksgiving weekend, we go chasing after animals.  This year, we got our two deer early and have been looking for elk.  Problem is, they're hard to find.  My husband managed to actually get some in his sights, but he couldn't identify whether the elk was a bull or a cow (we've only got Elk A tags which are brow-tined bull elk in our hunting unit.)  So, he passed on the shot, and we haven't seen elk since.  Typical. 

Lisa and Lulu

Lots of people have the idea that hunting is easy.  Those aren't hunters.  Hunting is lots of long hours and rather tiring.  My house is a disaster because everything except the basics gets put off for hunting. Sadly, Thanksgiving interrupts hunting.  But that's kind of important too.  We hunt for meat.  About one third of our meat comes from hunting, which is pretty important.  With the chickens, turkeys, ducks, and goats, we're hoping to provide about 70-80% of our own meat.  That would be good.

So we had the deer processed and sent two goat wethers to process.  In the meantime, I got three more does: one Alpine and two Saanens.  The alpine is a tiny little girl who didn't get a lot of food at her old home, and was adopted by another woman.  The alpine didn't get a lot of interaction because she was so small, so I got her from a Craigslist ad.  She really didn't have a name, so when I dropped by my husband's work, a woman who worked there suggested Delila.  It seemed to fit, so her name is Delila. 

Delila

Then, came Lisa and Lulu.  I bought meat at the Farmer's Market from two different ranchers.  One sells organic beef, but he also has goats.  So, he asked me if I wanted to buy two doelings.  Well, me and my big mouth, I said yes, so his wife brought his doelings here this month.  One actually won a ribbon at a fair.  Their names are Lisa and Lulu.  For a lack of better names, they have stuck. 

Well, hopefully more postings next week!