Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Get Your Goat


It was a warm, sunny Spring day on Saturday for the Motherhouse OSLSS Get your Goat Workshop with Rachel Gall in Cornwall, CT. Rachel is an elementary school teacher and she made learning about goats fun for both the children and adults attending the workshop. We first got acquainted with Rachel's backyard goats and then actually did some of the work involved with keeping goats, and also fit in a nourishing lunch outside on the porch.




We learned that goats, like us, eat bananas, but they'll eat the peel! Goats also eat whole cloves of garlic!






We identified the three ingredients in the organic grain Rachel feeds her goats: corn, oats, and soybeans!




We looked really closely at the hay the goats eat! Goats like stems, seeds and variety in their hay.




This goat is eating an herbal deworming ball that Rachel made.




We watched Rachel trim one of her goat's hooves. This isn't necessary for goats that have rocks to climb on, their hooves are naturally trimmed!




We filled up a bucket with water for the goats. Goats like fresh, clear water, but they don't drink as much as cows do.





We admired a bright new round hay feeder Rachel's boyfriend made for her goats and we talked about the different types of fencing and the habits of different goats and kidding time ... and milking. Thank you, Rachel, for sharing your experiences and knowledge with us!