Let the Weaning Commence

Whew! This is how my day has gone so far.

Milk Hyacinth; put Pansy and all kids in pasture four; put Billy in with Buffy (who was by herself in pasture two, which is not goat fenced); put Cosmos in with Henry (in pasture three); watch to make sure Henry doesn't kill Cosmos; put Hyacinth in corridor between pastures three and four (which is goat fenced); go out to try to get Hilde in the trailer; on the way see that Billy has escaped pasture two; detour to get Billy corraled; on the way see that Henry is trying to kill Cosmos, who is running for his life along the fence line and Hyacinth is running along other side of fence line, then I'm running across the pasture trying to stop Henry; save Cosmos; look over and see that Hyacinth has miraculously escaped her corridor (must have jumped the fence in a panic to save Cosmos); hold Cosmos so Henry can sniff and understand that Cosmos belongs, but soon after I put Cosmos down, Henry is after him again; get Cosmos out of dangerous pasture while trying to hold Billy in; shuffle six goats in and out of same pasture with the intent of getting them all in pasture three except for Hyacinth because Rose and Cosmos are desperately trying to nurse (I thought they'd be weaned by now, but no); put Hyacinth back in barn. **big sigh**

Now, where was I? Oh yeah, try to get Hilde in trailer. Hilde went right in. I inched the door up slowly in case she tried to leap out, but she was calm. I closed the trailer all up, went and got the truck and Tom and I moved her into pasture two with Buffy. Now Kip is in the big front pasture by himself. The question is whether to leave him out there by himself to night. I really don't want to do that. He's still a little guy and despite all his bluff and bluster, he probably is vulnerable to coyotes.

So I'm going back out this afternoon to see if I can get him in the trailer and move him to the barn. I probably will not be able to do that, but my options are to leave him alone or move Henry and Billy in with him.

Funny observation: When we put Billy in with Buffy, he reared up to head butt her right away. She promptly turned her rear end to him like she was going to give him a kick and he didn't do it again. She immediately established the fact that Billy was not the boss of that pasture and she was not going to put up with his nonsense.