"Meet Our Farm's New Goats (Was this a bad idea?)"

Where are the goats? Oh dear, they're gone. This is not what I wanted to have happen. Come with me. Come on. Whoa. Come on, my love. There you go. That's what's up. Hurry in there. Come on, buddy. Hey. Come here, baby. You're okay, baby. Come here, come here. Come on, buddy. So yeah, we have goats. Now all we have to do is take them back to the farm. I'm going to lower this side. If you just steady that side. Easy, guys. Easy. This might have been a bad idea. They still don't want to get out. I don't blame you. And they're just dropping pebbles everywhere. Let's get these two in. Come on. Come on. Inside here. Hi, bub. The twins look nervous. Would you like some treats? Aww, you're a sweetie. So they're three weathers. That means that they're male, but they're all castrated. And so we got them from a friend of ours who has a homestead about a mile away from us. And it seemed like just the perfect situation because they were trying to downsize. And we were just looking for a couple of boys to add to the farm and eat some of the weeds. We have a wide variety of weeds to eat, my friend. There's a whole area to explore even, guys. You know, there's pigs. There's dogs. There's barn cats. The dogs will be a new thing to introduce them to, which maybe we'll do in a little bit. Whoa, dropping pellets everywhere. This is your new spot, guys. What do you think? You've got a house. I don't know if this is going to be your permanent house. It used to be Abby's doghouse, but I'm letting you guys use it for a little while. And this area is really just meant to be a training ground because eventually I'm going to train them to electric netting, and then I can move them all over the farm. But they've never really used electric netting before, and so I wanted them to just have a stable fence first and foremost as they got settled out here. We've got to give you guys names. You know, as scared as they are, it's kind of cool that they're, like, following us still. They're not, like, terrified of people. Want some grass? You can eat grass. You can eat the weeds. We're intending to give you as much as you want. We can cut you some tree branches, maybe. Mulberry or apple tree. You immediately have to stick your head outside of that, huh? That's going to be the future home of Allison's berry patch. You guys want some treats? Yeah, you like those, huh? They're called Godeos. Want to try a Godeo? No? You want a Godeo? Yeah, you like it? So these two are brothers. This guy's not their brother. They're Nigerian dwarfs, and he's just a Nigerian. They were both born this spring. I'm not exactly sure how old he is. Oh, you're a sweetheart. You're liking the attention. I'm liking this. Kind of fun. And it only took about 45 seconds before the goats escaped. Come back with me, guys. Come on. Can you come back? Can you come back, please? Come on, buddy. Come on, guys. You got to come back in. Stay with Allison. Oh. Sweetie. Oh, okay. Dude. I got to set up a new fence. Because this is not going to work, clearly. Whoa, whoa. Can you go get the treats? Go get the treats. Right on top of their house. Come on, guys. Come with me. We're going to put them in here. Come on, guys. Come here. I want you to come in here for a minute. Well, I guess the good news is we do have an abundance of pasture weeds growing here that have been growing for the bees that I'm sure the goats would like. Hey, guys. Can you come here? Okay, guys. We're going to have to figure out how to make this area goat-proof because that temp fence was not working. And yeah, we're going to have to introduce you to Abby, but we're going to do that at a medium pace. At a medium pace. Toby's, like, nervous. Toby, come here. Come here. Toby, we have some new residents here on the farm. Can you come with me? Good girl. Good girl. Just be calm. Alright, we'll leave them in here for now. I'm going to set up a temporary fence that will keep them in. I will admit, it's like having my own fan club here. Particularly the way you keep following me around, buddy. Come on, Toby. Don't hide under your face. Toby, what do you think of the new residents? I can tell they make you nervous. Like, you want to protect me. That's so cute. Hey, goats! Come on over this way. You guys don't want to leave this spot, huh? Just take your time. There's plenty to explore. Come on. Whoa! Toby spooked him. They almost knocked me over in the mud. It's okay. That's Toby. He's going to become, like, your best friend. Yeah, Toby's shy. You guys are shy too. We all know each other. We're all friends. Toby's so funny because he's so shy. Hey, hey, hey. Wow, he's brazen. No headbutting the dog. He was like, be careful! That thing will headbutt you. He's not going to headbutt me. They're just trying to figure out who's what. It's his first time ever dealing with goats, I think. They had sheep at the farm where he was born, but I don't think they even had goats. Yeah, Toby dog seems nervous. But I do wonder how Abbey dog is going to do. Abbey, are you ready to come out? Are you going to be on good behavior now? Abbey, no! I want you to settle. Abbey, no! Settle, settle. You guys calm down too. Can we all be friends? You guys got to learn you can't headbutt Abbey. Or Toby. She's my friend, and you guys are my friends. Can we all be friends? I know you guys are not fans of the new visitors, huh? I shouldn't say visitors. Technically they're going to be residents. So I totally realized that my initial plan for fencing was completely inadequate, and I probably should have known better, but I figured it was worth a shot. But as I undertook this plan, you know, I have learned a few things over the years, and one of those things is always to have a plan B. And so I did have some, like, sheep and goat netting, like the temporary electric stuff that I plan to actually train them to. My friend, get back. You're not allowed to do that. Don't even try to do that. You're going to get your head stuck. Get back! Get back! You're a very sweet boy, but oh my golly. You ended up on the wrong side of the fence, kid. Come on, guys. So I'm really hoping that I can make this their habitat. You want some goatios? Abbey dog. Your proximity is not helping things. Can I entice you? Come here. They seem like they're kind of shy and stuck in this corner. That's a good boy. Alright, well I'm going to give you guys some time to just acclimate and get used to this space, okay? So they have a pretty good deal amount of space here. They'll have a chance to get used to the dogs, but they won't be able to fight with the dogs, which I don't want to have happen. So we'll give them a little bit of time and see how they adjust. Also, they'll be able to use this building as a little bit of a goat shelter for at least the next week or two as they get used to this space. Alright, you guys are going to want to back up here because I'm about to set this thing on electric. Yeah, pull your head out there, kid. Here it goes. Yeah, you want to stay away from that fence. You're going to have to learn that that's electric and it's not what you want to rub against. But don't worry, there's like so much other stuff you can explore and play around in. Just stay away from the fence. His butt is dangerously close to that. Not quite close enough. You can explore. There's lots of weeds to eat. They even have some feed for you. They have some water for you. You've got everything you need. But just stay away from the fence, please. Alright, we will check back in with them a little bit later and see how they do. And let's check back in with our goats, which I don't see. Abby, where are the goats? Oh, dear. They're gone. This is not what I wanted to have happen at all. Where are they? Oh, they're not anywhere around here. Have you chickens seen the goats? Oh, no. I think I just saw them. They're in the permaculture orchard. Alright, Abby, let's go. Like, if I were to tell you the thing that I was going to be most scared about when it came to getting goats, I would say that that thing would be worrying about goats that somehow escaped and went into my permaculture orchard and started eating my trees. And here I am with goats for, I don't know, two hours, maybe? And I'm heading out to the permaculture orchard to catch my goats. You know, most of the summer I've kept this open, but I think I'm going to have to close this area off again. Well, I came up where Baby Bee and Alice B. Toklas are. I don't see them here. I think the dogs have a beat on them. I don't want the dogs chasing them all over the place. Less than ideal. But I feel like this is very much on brand for me. Now, for folks who are wondering why I did this inside the permaculture orchard, the reason is because I have this perimeter fence. Like, this situation would be way worse if they were loose elsewhere on the farm. Well, there they are. All the way at the top of the hill. In the furthest back corner. Okay, guys. I need to halter you. You're a good boy. Can I get this in you? There we go. Hang on, buddy. There we go. That's all I wanted. Can I get this one in you? There we go. Come on. Come on. Can you guys come? Can you walk with me? Alright, now I just gotta walk these goats down the hill. Come on, guys. Good boys. Well, you might be hard to keep in place. You're easy to take with me. So I do have that going for us. Come on, guys. You're doing so good. Keep coming with me. Twenty minutes later. You three are stubborn. Come on. Come on. Let's go. Little guy. Big guy. Come on. Inside. Here we go. You wanna go hang out with your brother? Let's go. Now I'm gonna close up the fence again. Everybody warned me about goats being escape artists. Never quite expected it to be this extreme. Such is the way. Alright, let me take off your halters. You guys are doing good with the halters, though. I'm very happy about that. Maybe one day I'll have you walking like dogs. Can I take your halter, sir? There you go. Alright, hopefully they won't escape again. If I had to guess, I think they just, like, got spooked and plowed through the fence. Which is why I wanted to be very careful about training them to this netting. So I think I'm just gonna have to take some time. And young lady, hopefully you're not causing problems here. Can't have a dog chasing my goats around. So hopefully you didn't instigate anything. I hope you're behaving. You're acting like you're embarrassed, which might suggest you're not behaving. Good morning, everybody. Back on the farm for another day, and I'm curious to see if my goats are where I left them last night. You know, yesterday being day one of the goats, I think I had, like, four escapes? Five escapes? I don't know. I hope they did okay over the night. You can see I still have them rigged up in this electric fencing. I don't see either them or the dogs, which is kind of a bad sign. Oop, there's Abby dog. Oop, there's Toby dog back there. Has anybody seen our goat friends? Are they around? Oh, there they are! And how incredibly exciting! They're exactly where we left them. Yeah, I was a little bit worried about potentially having a dog-goat conflict last night. It looks like everybody behaved themselves. The dogs are kind of curious about the goats, but the goats do not like the dogs. Hey, what's up there, guys? How are you doing this morning? Is everybody good? How's it going, buddy? Hi! It's nice that the goats like me, though. They're just not quite sure what to make of these dogs. I do like the fact that they will follow me, which makes their escaping a little bit more tolerable. If they were like my cattle and they were, like, constantly escaping and then hard to catch, I don't know what I would do. But for the most part, they've been pretty friendly. So now the nice part about this area here is they have this shelter, and so I think this is going to be their shelter for the foreseeable future. I like this guy because he's, like, the leader goat, and he's the most friendly of the goats. And I know I'd mentioned yesterday briefly that I have names for all three of our goats. This handsome fella right here, his name is Barnicus. His little brother, who's this fella right here. Oop, careful, don't shock yourself, guys. His name is Telemachus, and my friend right here, his name is Larn. So Barnicus, Telemachus, and Larn. Bonus points to anybody in the comments who can guess what that reference is. So you guys settling into your area? Are you feeling happy about being here? I don't know. The dogs still have you kind of freaked out, but otherwise, I think they're pretty good. Telemachus, it's okay. You don't have to be scared of those dogs. The dogs are actually going to keep you safe. I bet you in a few weeks, you guys are going to be friends with the dogs. Just don't try to headbutt the dogs, because they won't like that. What do you think about the goaty goats, huh? I think Abby has come to the conclusion that she's better off keeping her distance, even though the goats are very curious and very focused on Abby dog. By the way, this is probably a good time to mention we have a brand new Gold Shaw Farm t-shirt available. It's a little chilly this morning, but here it is. It's actually a graphic that I made myself, with a little sort of collage of various drawings that I've made. You have sort of a new version of our logo, you have some cattle, you have both dogs, you have Pablo barn cats down here, you have Ginny barn cat up here, you got some ducks, you got some geese, you got some weird chickens, you got pretty much everything that makes up the farm. It's 100% cotton, it's actually a softer printing style, because I know folks didn't like the printing style we used in the last one, so it's not silk screen, but it's actually like a much softer version of printing for the graphic. And yeah, I'm actually pretty pumped about this shirt, and so if you want to support the farm, you can take a look at the link and get your own shirt. And as is the case with most of our shirts, it'll be only a limited time availability. Good morning, chickeny chickens. Rise and grind, little peepers. You're all becoming so vicious. Pretty soon I'm going to let them go into this area here. They're still just a little bit small that they could slip through these fence holes, and so I don't want them going out just yet. I don't know, what do you guys think? I think I want to let the goatee-otises out while I'm doing chores, let them get a little freedom. Alright, come on out, guys. Come on, Telemachus, come on, Lauren, come on, Barnacus. You guys can come out, you can explore. I'll just be over here taking care of the ducklings. Hello, mother duck. How are you doing this morning? Let's move their food and water. I feel like I'm in the world's dumbest game of Duck, Duck, Deuce. No, no. These guys are getting pretty big. I would say maybe another week or so before I let them go free. As you just saw, Abby was a little too interested in trying to play with these guys for me to want to set them loose just yet. Even though the rest of the flock is very curious about them. And the entire time that we were doing all of that, the boys remained statues. I'll take this as a good sign that you're learning your fence, and you're learning your boundaries. You guys are such sweethearts, you know that? Of course, they won't stop watching Abby. They know to respect Abby, and it seems like Abby knows to respect them. Abby goes back to her job, peeing on the pasture. I don't know if you can see it, but Toby's out there deeper in the permaculture orchard right now. These guys, they just snort at Abby. They do not like her at all. It's okay, guys. Do you want some snacks? I mean, you have so much to munch on here, and I also gave you food, but I don't see you eating a ton right now. But they are leaving their fair share of raisinets on the ground, so I guess that's a good sign. Isn't it, fellas? But if anybody has any suggestions on what to do about that, feel free to leave them down in the comments, and I'll check back in with another video real soon, and we can see how these boys progress. Thanks for watching, everybody.