Alaska Wilderness Mom

Ahh….the goat days, I reminisce about days gone by when we had Nigerian and Nubian/Lamancha cross goats…..but do I really miss them?

Sometimes, but not too often. I don’t miss milking at dawn and dusk in -50 below during the dark Alaska winter, hearing endless bleating coming from our back yard while trying to garden in peace, or trying to find people to milk so we can go camping for a night or two. But I sure do miss having an ample supply of delicious cold, rich and creamy goat milk!

We learned a lot about goats in the years we had them here in rural Alaska.

• Firstly, they did very well on rabbit pellets for a general feed. The rabbit pellets we purchased (free shipping to the bush, so that helped a lot with affordability), were mainly composed of timothy hay.
• Doe’s in milk were fed a goat grain ration and a mix of alfalfa pellets.
• They loved cut willows.
• In the early spring, they went nuts over the white spruce tree branches. Very few animals eat spruce; squirrels like the cones/seeds and porcupines will eat spruce, but other than that it’s not a very popular food item for animals in Alaska…..but the goats loved them. Locals around McGrath and the Athabascan Indians of this area love spruce tip tea in the spring-made from pinching off the fresh new spruce tip growth and seeping them in hot water.
• Our goats were spoiled. They say goats will eat anything, but that’s only if they are very hungry. Ours probably weren’t too hungry because they turned their nose up at many foods including lush grass. Of course they’re browsers, but they’ll eat grass when they learn too…..ours just preferred their pellets.
• Hose duct taped on horns worked well for a mama goat that was mostly wild and liked to head butt people.

I obtained and read a handbook on goats (once we had obtained goats) that said beware of the “free goat”. I learned this lesson the hard way! Big Mama goat was free at no cost in dollars, but wild and had never been milked. It was a long road to getting her tamed up and she was a force to be reckoned with when she didn’t want to do something.

The day we went to our friend’s barn to pick up her up, along with her buck offspring, was an education. Getting a halter on her and the buck took an hour, and I learned that goats can crawl up vertical walls. I’d seen wild Dall sheep go straight up rock faces, but to be in a small stall with two goats bolting around in circles and bouncing from one wall corner to the next was impressive. They even hit the ceiling a couple of times! Too bad I didn’t take video….I was too concerned with getting out of there with my life.

Eventually, with halters on, we tried leading them a mile down the road to our house. It didn’t seem like a far distance. But for an animal that’s all goat, unbroken and doesn’t want to budge, it became an epic journey. Mama goat was not going anywhere at 150 lbs of defiance. Instead of hand led, plan B was employed. We hooked both goats up with chains to an ATV 4 wheeler and walked them home. With planted feet, it was more like dragging them home, but we got the job done. We got a lot of strange looks from townsfolk driving by. It’s not everyday you see two goats being dragged down main street in McGrath.

How we learned about hose, horns and duct tape

One time, after changing bedding in the goat barn, Mama goat developed an oozy eye. We thought she had an infection so wanted to apply an antibiotic eye ointment. Josh and I both tried to hold her so I could carefully apply the ointment into the corner of her eye. Boy….was she strong! I could barely believe how much strength 150 lbs of rebellion could muster.

Josh had the bright idea to straddle himself over her neck to hold her head in position. Recall that this goat had sharp horns and knew how to use them. I suggested this might not be the best plan, particularly given we might want more children someday, but he assured me his muscle would outpace her spirit. Wrong. As I went towards the eye with ointment, she gave a great thrust of her head- back and upwards, and Josh went flying across the stall like a rag doll. Mama Goat 1, Josh/Kellie 0! The next day, Mama goat had a new look-two hose pieces duct taped to her sharp horns.

We eventually prevailed with a new plan of backing her into a corner and constraining as much power as possible against 2 walls. Her eye cleared up, but it turned out to be an irritation from fine sawdust we’d switched too, not a bacterial infection.

Mama goat gave great milk but she was a work out all around. Free wasn’t worth the money. I always had to watch her closely with my small children, but one day I turned my back and she head butted my young son in the back…many tears were shed and feelings hurt…..and that was the last straw so to speak for Mama goat.

Next day, a pick up truck drove into the driveway and we all said goodbye and good riddance to her. Her new owner took her to another village in our region where her new purpose was a hedge clipper and brush wacker. She had a lot of freedom and roamed the outskirts of the village. Then she became the village goat, wandering the streets and saying hello to passer biers. Then, in the end, she sadly was tragically attacked by a pit bull dog and that was her demise.