This gallery contains 9 photos.
Off to the wild blue yonder for a few days so though I’d leave you with some faces to keep you company. Enjoy Wet Double Trouble Dirty Big“The Precious” Airlpane Sweetest Big Nose Silly Goat Devil Gaot Lenses Flare Kisses Ranch … Continue reading
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Unfortunately we have to keep these beasts fenced in. Anyone who has every had goats knows you have to have good fences. They are masters at getting through gates too. If they can’t get through them they will slowly work … Continue reading
ME! I let the goats into our house garden in the winter but I have to shepherd them or disaster will strike. If you know goats you know what I mean.
You would not believe how fast they can mow down a single little rose bush. This Iceberg rose will was gone in a minute or less.
Right now Cinder has this bush to herself. Everyone moved off to somewhere else. Lucky her. 
Cinnamon passes on the YUCKY ice-covered Spanish lavender. For some reason Lavender is not on any of the goats bucket list.
Jackpot. The herd hit the BIG rose patch. Did you know it is beneficial to strip the roses stocks of leaves a few weeks before you prune them? This is one of the reasons I let the goats in. For me stripping the leaves it a slow task which inevitably draws blood. The goats beg to differ. I just pour a glass of wine or a cup of coffee and watch them do the work for me.
Sweet Pea works on my new climbing Iceberg. This is when disaster can strike. Have to supervise so no broken pots. Especially this pot.
Cinder nibbles on frost bit Coleus. Delicious! Can’t let anything go to waste. Stay right there and keep chomping down Cinder…..you are helping me with my winter cleanup. 
Rosie gets to come in because she belongs with the goats. Except Rosie will have nothing to do with roses. She likes the deer grass though. It needs to be clipped for the winter so she is helping me too 
Adios Amigo’s
Since requests are coming in for MOAR goats here goes. Enjoy our two young Nubian goats, Sweet Pea (Black & White) and her sister Sorrel as they play what we call “King of the Mountain” game. The video is kinda long but well worth the laughs. They can do this for a long time…..neither wants to surrender.
I was going to do a “A Typical Morning at Sundog” post and feature all the animals I feed in the morning but the Manz Brothers were on the prowl and I had my camera in hand. 
As you can see Mangus is alive and doing well. He and Milton think they are “The Bad Boys” now.
They have plenty of trees to scale but the little scrub oak forest next to the barn is their favorite place to practice their new skills.
I hope there is not some unsuspecting birdie up there. It is a good thing the finches did not return to the barn this year. I don’t think they will be back.
Crazed kitty look.
“I may be tiny but I’m looking down on you.”
Meanwhile on the ground Milton is on the prowl. He looks over at Rosie and the goats in the pen who are being so patient waiting for some one to feed them.
“We are in jail. We are hungry. Let us out”.
Rosie watches the Manx brothers in the little forest and wonders why I have not fed her yet. I better hurry and feed or let her and the goats out to browse but I want time to document the Manx Brothers in the little oak forest right now. They are just little kitties and will grow to big kitties soon. After Rosie’s first bray (hee haw) she usually gives me about 5 or maybe up to 10 minutes to act if I am lucky. 
The goats are extremely patient this morning. They are enjoying the mild morning sun.
Mangus eyes locked on Milton from above.
Milton dives for the cherry picker in the wheelbarrow. Hmmm….manure balls, good for batting around. 
“How did Mangus get down there so quick. And what is he up to?”
Mangus does not want to use the litter box any more. Yeah I say.
Good boy. Just wait until he finds the round pen with 60 feet of sand.
“Now what can I do?”
“I feel the need to sharpen my teeth.” Fierce isn’t he?
“Someone’s coming….in the bucket.
“Why I see movement out there. I can’t keep myself in here much longer”
“Out of bucket and look what happens. Don’t laugh.”
I told you they were fierce kitties.
GQ like Rosie and the goats is very patient for his breakfast. He is watching the Manx Brothers play too. I’d better hurry with hay though or the stall banging may start and we don’t want that.
“Who me? I don’t bang stall doors…..unless you ignore me long enough”
I look down from GQ thinking I better start getting hay out and I squint to see Mangus with something flapping in his mouth. It looks like he has caught a tiny fish or something. He crouches and appears to not know what the heck he has. I swing my camera around and can’t get my settings right but oh well. You can see something here. It is NOT a wood rat which is what he is suppose to be feasting on. Mangus is as surprised as I am. “Hmmm…what to do with this?” Then before I could say MEOW…….
Mangus does the spins with a very unlucky creature in mouth. I almost deleted this photo as junk until I looked in the bottom right hand corner. OMG The poor creature was a lizard and he or she is fleeing for his or her life. National Geographic material? 
Mangus wonders “what happened to that thing I had”? 
“Oh well I’ll just find something else to destroy.”
“When in doubt crawl into the blocks.”
Adios Amigo’s!
Rosie and Francis are getting used to being apart. It is sad but it is how it has to be. They both have “jobs to do” and “places to go” Francis is going to her new home soon so in preparation I have put them in separate pens. Learning to be apart is not easy for donkey’s. We used to hear them bray at 2am, 4am, 6am and of course right before we go out to feed around 8am. But we are making PROGRESS! Lately they have dropped the 2 am, 4 am and sometime 6am bray! Sleep is not the only benefit Rockin Roy and I have gained. 
The donkey’s welcome MOST humans even without treats in hand. They halter easily, allow their hoofs to be cleaned and they can be lead somewhere. At least most of the time! LOL Another step in the progress direction is I have taken a leap and purposely let them out of their pens. This is how it goes. On given day Rosie OR Francis gets to come out for the day and play guard donkey. And since I don’t want to panic about them leaving and going back to the wild only one donkey gets out at a time. You see they are joined at the hip and if one stays around the other won’t go far. Of course the thought crosses my mind perhaps they would not leave Sundog if they were out happily grazing together but I don’t want to find out. Francis is going to her new home soon and I do not need chaos in my life. So far this tactic is working EXCEPT Rosie sometimes does not want to go BACK into her pen at the end of a day of freely grazing and browsing with the goats. This behavior tests my patience since the goats and Francis go right back into their pens in the evening. One night I did not have time OR patience with this behavior so Rosie ended up spending the night outside of her pen for the night. The next morning I found her looking a bit embarrassed huddled next to Francis’s pen and Francis. 
She gladly accepted a hug and a treat then allowed me to halter her and lead her into her pen. After that experience she is thinking twice about evading me at put back time. Last night she decided to play run away again. Too bad for her I had plenty of patience and time. Eventually she came around to my way of thinking. In time she will see the value of a nice secure place to spend the night and stop this foolish behavior.
As many of you know I originally I acquired Rosie and Francis to be guard donkeys since we lost a couple of goats to mountain lions last year. When shopping for a guard donkey they say “Jenny’s” which is a female donkey, are the best for guarding. Even so one never knows if the donkey you get, Jenny or Jack, will be well suited for the job. SO it is amazing to me that Rosie and Francis are actually starting to do their jobs. This was my original plan and it is working! Imagine that. Things going as planned.
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Adios Amigo’s until next post.
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