come on, let’s go on a goat walk!

I’ve mentioned before that we take our goats on walks. The girls come along with us like dogs do, except, being goats, they hoover up fallen leaves like nobody’s business. Yellow tulip poplars leaves are their favorite, so this is the best time of year for walks, as far as they are concerned.

When we let them out of the goat yard, they swarm out and glom on to the nearest tree, so we have to poke and prod them to get them out to the woods. Then we cross the creek and the walk has officially begun. Here we are at the bridge.

Our property is long and skinny so you can walk quite a ways down to the big creek, then up the slope and back to the yurt, in a long oval, never feeling like you’re covering the same territory.

Here we are following the path down along the little creek.

Fancy says, “Ple-e-e-e-se can I have that yellow leaf? Ple-e-e-e-se?”

Fancy is very committed to her leaf hoovering. She often falls behind, not willing to leave any leaf un-gobbled.

Lately, Mochi the Kitty comes with us on these walks. At the cross over part of the walk, there is a huge area of fallen trees from a hurricane about a decade ago. A great climbing area for kids, goats, and cat alike.

The big goats used to climb but once they started being dairy goats for real, their tender udders put a stop to all that. Here they are watching Sophie, Luc, Emma, and Mochi. Is it longing? Or curiosity?

The shepherd and his herd…

Our land covers a patchwork of sections cleared at different times in the past, creating very different kinds of forest. Then that hurricane came through and took down dozens of trees, opening up some areas where new trees are just starting to fill in. But some big old trees still stand, some old oaks, and this one, one of my favorites, a ‘three-tree’ that is, one tree at the bottom that turns into three at the top. Another tulip poplar.

We’re just about to transition out of the deciduous area and into a section of mature pines…

Can you see Mochi in this shot?

The goats always speed up as the walk progresses, because they know treats await them back at the goat yard. They practically RUN at the end. Here they are trotting past another of my favorite trees, a willow oak.

Sophie says, “Thanks for coming on our goat walk! Join us any time!”