Usually, DJ covers Sunday morning chores, both to give me a break and in an effort for us to make
Sunday School on time. This morning, however, I woke early and slipped out just as it was light enough
to see without a flashlight. No early morning kidding. King Tut beginning to crow from the tree nearest
our bedroom, the hens stirring and clucking and getting ready for the day. I whistled for the horses and
gave them alfalfa pellets. They have plenty of hay pulled into their manger from our tilt-floor feeding
system for big round bales and later in the day we can give their bigger feeding complete with soaked
beet pulp, rice bran, and supplements.
A couple of times we have kind of laughed about the big bale in a covered feeder in the goat barnyard.
As they eat out of it, sometimes parts have shifted and trapped one of the goats against a wall behind it.
I would find them, indignant or plaintive dependent upon their personality, waiting for release. This
winter we have added some fencing to contain the bale as it is eaten. Not only to try to prevent
wastage, but hopefully to prevent future shiftings from trapping a goat. “What if it would happen when
we weren’t around, and they couldn’t get to water?” I asked DJ, who seemed to think I was
overreacting.
Yesterday, though, a member of one of my social media groups shared through tears about losing
several baby goats when a layer of hay from a big bale fell on them, smothering them. Others chimed in
with similar awful incidents with full-grown goats, and even a colt who was lost after getting wedged
between large bales in storage. Who would have thought? I remember one of our veterinarian’s
comments, “Goats are just looking for a way to die.” He said it another time about horses. I wonder at
the strange sad incidents he’s been called to assist with.
Farming, even in a little homestead situation like ours, is not for the fainthearted.
Yet, as I return from the freshness of my early morning check on our little kingdom, I am thankful for
each of our creatures and the opportunity to share life with them.