The Village Squire, 1981-06, Page 13Six Achers
"Your hair
is like a flock of
. . . .goats?"
The goat is a much maligned animal.
Before becoming capriologists (goat -
keepers) Don and I KNEW that goats
dined on long johns and linen tablecloths,
tin cans and lilacs. And their sexual
appetite was reputedly just as varied and
prodigious. Playful Pan, the ancient
Greek god of fertility, was supposedly
half man, half guess what!
We are still sorting out facts from
fiction. Contrary to popular belief. goats
are very fussy eaters. They will not touch
hay that has fallen from the manger to the
barn floor. The only part of the tin can
they would relish would be the paper
label. and laundry would be pulled
"capriciously" from the line only as a
joke. However, goats are browsing
animals. and would soon demolish your
forsythia and prized hybrid teas. Gour-
mands, no. Gourmets. yes indeed.
Goats have been domesticated for
thousands of years. Although Bibical
goats were usually the bad guys -
scapegoats, separating the sheep from
the goats and all that - Don and 1 have
appropriated Proverbs 27:27 for oursel-
ves: "There will be enough goats' milk
for your food, for the food of your
household and maintenance for your
maidens", even though our maidens are
a dog. a cat and six little hens.
Abraham. Isaac and Jacob owned huge
herds of goats, ancestors of our present-
day Nubians. those bugle -voiced. Roman-
nosed, pendulous -eared characters that
come in as many colours as Joseph's coat.
King Solomon: wishing to pay his
paramour a compliment, told her "You
are beautiful, my love...your hair is like a
flock of goats moving down the slopes of
Gilead." This flattery must have worked;
Solomon ended up with 700 wives, plus
300 more women in a less formal
relationship.
The Bible also mentions a gift from the
Arabs to King Jehoshaphat of 7,700 he
goats. I'll wager the Arabs made their
presentation during mating season, their
generosity spurred by the overpowering
stench coming from the billygoat corral.
Yes, Virginia, some goats do stink
sometimes. (The male has other nasty
little habits I am too prudish to divulge.
Even two and three week old male kids
are disgustingly precocious.)
We keep only females.
We purchased our first goats after
research turned up such facts as: the
same amount of pasture that feeds one
bovine can sustain 10 "poor man's
cows"; goats' milk is more easily
digested; the animals are intelligent,
relatively hardy and resistant to disease.
Besides. what's the sense of six acres in
the country without livestock?
When we first began shopping. we
heard a variation on the same theme at
farm after farm. Someone in the family
had had an ulcer or other gastro-
intestinal trouble, a doctor had recom-
mended goats' milk. and sufferer's
Yvonne Reynolds and husband la retired
CAF officer] share six rural acres with
one hastily bred part Sheltie. one
Himalayan aristocat. one peasant cat.
and an ever-changing number o/' Bantie
chickens and Saanen and Nubian goats.
health had improved. Eventually each
had eliminated the middleman and was
now getting the healing nostrum directly
from his or her own nannies. We felt we
should apologize for our robust health.
Soon after adding goats' milk to my
diet, I met an acquaintance whose casual
"What's new?" was rewarded with a
five-minute monologue on our latest
venture.
She studied me carefully before reply-
ing, "Well, the milk is working wonders.
Your complexion used to be sort of
blotchy, and now it's cleared up."
I didn't have the heart to tell her I'd
only been drinking the milk for three
days.
by Yvonne Reynolds
I read recently that the Ontario Dairy
Goat Society plans to give Prince Charles
and Lady Diana four young goats as a
wedding gift. If you hear in a year or so
that the Royal Couple are leaping over
high fences at a single bound, butting in
where they don't belong, and generally
acting like kids, you'll know why. 0
the
Villae
Squire
A Window on Western Ontario
available at:
Baylisid:
Blyth:
Brussels:
Clinton:
Exeter:
The Village Market
Nip N' Tuck
Snell's Food Mart
The Blyth Theatre
Blyth Standard
Blyth Saga
The Brussels Post
C & E Variety
G & G Variety
Gord's Variety
Goderleh: Flncher's Ltd.
Triangle Discount
Huron County Pioneer
Museum
Grand Bend: Carole's Craft Cupboard
Listowel: Smith's Red & White
London: Sepoy Stationery
MIiverton: Curiosity Shoppe
Mitchell: Scott's Dept. Store
Parkhill: McIntyre Drugs Ltd.
Sealorth: Larone's Dept. Store
The Huron Expositor
St. Joseph's: Bayview Tourist Tavern
Dining Lounge
St. Marys: Marshall's of St. Marys
Wlldwood Inn
Stratford: Fanfare Books
Gallery Stratford
J.S. Amusements
Wingham: Harris Stationery
Zurkh: Tasty -Nu Bakery
Village Squire
Box 10
Blyth, Ont.
NOM 1H0
VILLAGE SQUIRE/JUNE 1981 PG. 11