Almost the End of This Goat Lady

My local Co Op started calling me The Goat Lady, I'd walk in and someone would be asking them about goats and the next thing I'd hear was, "there's The Goat Lady, you need to talk to her." I felt privileged for them to refer to me with this nickname and I started using it myself. I even use it as a signature at the end of my text message, but then I started seeing others using the same name. I didn't get mad or jealous, I just felt that maybe "we" were part of a unique group....The Goat Ladies!



Recently though, it was almost the end for this goat lady. The temperatures here in East Tennessee have been almost unbearable. We've had more rain than we need in my opinion and the humidity has to compare with the heat from the surface of the sun. On top of all this, the goats have been plagued with barber pole worm, hoof scald, and hoof rot. The heat and humidity have been so bad that the goats just want to lay around in the shade, therefore they quit browsing and eating the grasses in their small pasture and the weeds have taken over. The weeds then hold in moisture (thank you again humidity) and then when the goats walk through them that moisture stays between their toes and causes the hoof problems, and we all know this is the perfect environment for worms to continually hatch out and infest the goats.

It's just been a rough year. I've lost more goats this summer than I've lost in the entire 11 years I've owned goats! I finally decided enough was enough and that it was time to sell out. Thank God I came to my senses before it was too late. There's no way I could live without goats. If I wasn't The Goat Lady, then who would I be? I did, however, downsize my small herd. I went from 32 goats, down to 22 and I plan on selling two more goats. If there's anyway possible, I plan on keeping the herd numbers at 20 from now on, but there will be times when that's not possible. I have does ready to kid anytime, and more does due in the fall, but of course the kids can be sold to get the numbers back down.

Things are still a little rough, but this Goat Lady has decided to stick around. In a few months, the heat will relinquish, the rains will stop, and we'll all be complaining about how cold it is how we'd love to have rain instead of snow. It's just the way things in East TN go, the weather is always mind boggling.


My hat after feeding, notice the one area not soaked from sweat