05/21/2026
So it was Bob’s turn to have a no good, horrible goat day. Normally I go get feed on Fridays but it is supposed to be raining so Bob went this afternoon because I had to go to the venue after work. I use an old freezer to keep feed in. Tuesday morning I opened the lid only to find a possum in it. I got it out and scooped the top layer of feed out but the goats took one sniff and would not touch it. I had to go by tractor supply in Jackson (where we work) and pick up a couple of bags after work Tuesday to patch through until we could get to Lexington to get more. So Bob drives to Lexington and picked up our usual order and drove the 30 minutes back home. Pulled up at the barn and went to unload it. He poured in the first bag and it was the wrong thing. This was a dry pellet. We feed co-op 348 which is a course sweet feed. All of co-op’s goat feeds come in an identical bag but the labels are different. He checked all of the labels and sure enough they were all wrong. So he went back to the co-op to get the right stuff. Mind you this is going to be an hour round trip to do this. He gets there and tells the dock guy that he loaded the wrong thing. Ole boy tells him it is all the same and that the goats will eat it. Bob proceeds to tell him that he must not know anything about goats because they won’t appreciate this swill so the exchange is made and he drives back home. As soon as he tops the hill by our barn he sees goats on the side of the road. He pulled in and looked to see where they got out. They were where they were supposed to be when he left. He found the culprit. The screen door by the round bale was closed but not latched. They must of pushed it open and then someone pushed it closed and they couldn’t get back in. I had gone through that door yesterday to take hay to mommas and babies and I must not have latched it good. Back to Bob, he opened the door. The big goats knew they were in trouble so they ran back in. The babies however were not paying attention so then they didn’t know what to do. In a panic Star and Bestie ran down the road. Magnolia Mae was the only grown goat that hadn’t gone back in so they ran to her. The problem was that he needed to get behind them to push them back toward the barn but if he closed the door they would just keep running the other way. If he left it open the other goats would come back out because the mommas have now realized that their babies are separated. He got an empty feed bag and rattled it. This got Magnolia Mae’s attention so she came towards him. The doelings were coming with her but when Star saw Bob she got scared and ran down the road the other way. Bestie decided to stay with her friend so both were off at the speed of mischief away from the barn. They finally realized that they were alone so they ran back to the barn. Bestie finally followed her mom’s panicked cries and went through the door and thankfully Star followed. Crisis averted now unload grain, again. What should have taken an hour has, at this point, taken all afternoon. Bob called me to tell me about his whole misadventure. To his credit he was laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing. I get home right at feed time. I told them they should be ashamed of themselves for giving daddy a hard time. Of course, being goats, they accepted zero blame and tried to turn it back on me, saying that I was negligent with the latch and could have gotten them all killed. Why did I even try to chastise the unrepentant naves?
