NashvilleGab - Nashville news and country music gossip: Fighting with the crazy goat lady across the road

 LOL Still not sure how I came across this but this story is cute, well written and it made me laugh, NO she was NOT  talking about me in particular, but I am sure some of you crazy goat ladies out there can identify. LOL Poor lady,  she doesn't realize how many of us are out there.

NashvilleGab - Nashville news and country music gossip: 
Fighting with the crazy goat lady across the road:


Sigh.

I live out in the country. Stepping outside on a hot and muggy summer's evening means the smell of the dairy farm that's about a mile away. The dairy farm doesn't bother me too much because you can't always smell it, just when the wind blows just right. The crazy goat lady across the road on the other hand drives me plum crazy.

She's batty. It actually started out with the batty old mom who lived there when we first moved in to our house. A couple of years ago the old lady and her husband both died. I was sad. Especially because I referred to her as the batty old goat lady."

Well then the kids moved in.  I assume they are kids of the original old couple but they could be nieces or nephews or aliens or whatever.  Well there is one woman who is always out and about with the goats that I can recognize from afar.  She's always out there chasing her goats or dragging them to the shed to be milked or whatever.  Oh yeah, she tends to wear fluorescent orange vests and rubber boots and a knitted stocking cap.  It helps me to identify her.  Then there are various other people who come and go.  I honestly don't know how many people live there and don't care.  Well it's this one lady with the rubber boots and glow-in-the-dark vest who I can recognize who is the new batty old goat lady.  Read more

BTW Ladies, YOU can find a variety of Crazy Goat Lady designs  in my GetYerGoat Shop at Zazzle and the yard sign is avialable at my GetYerGoat Cafepress shop.

Note to Shannon:  I'm sorry you had to deal with the Crazy Goat Lady across the road,  I assure you.. we are all very similar.. in her defense I can offer she "may" have had a goat killed by dogs once and  now is a bit  overly cautious - I had a little goat killed  (torn up mercilessly) at my front gate by 4 rotts- in MY yard so I know how one can be more defensive  than usual. Most of us goat ladies  live our lives around our goats and a tremendous amount of money, time and effort goes into them - which does not give anyone the right to be mean or rude, but I can sort of see  how she is so crazy about dogs. I apologize for her but wanted you to know she is not alone in her  weirdness - she just happens to be YOUR neighbor .   :)  Thank you though for the smile and well written story. 

Fly Control, Fly Predators in the Goat Yards.

Just got done sprinkling my fly predators out in the goat yards..  the goats followed me thinking I was  giving treats..  and every time I threw a handful they ran to where I tossed them to find.. NOTHING.. LOL They think I'm a meanie. This is my first year with fly predators.. I hope they work. I'd love to leave my back door open and I have no screen on it. I hate flies. (For already emerged adult flies you will have to use fly traps till the predators start killing off all the larvae)

Quick Fly Control Instructions

Wait! Don’t release your Fly Predators until you see a dozen moving around. They are shipped in the pupal (cocoon) stage which are the little black things. Normally they’ll start emerging within 2-7 days after arrival in summer, (later when cooler) but it’s OK if they’re emerging on delivery. They look like tiny little ants with wings. Like this When its cool, keeping them in a warmer area (80-85°F) will speed up their emergence. When it’s hot keep them under 100°F and out of direct sunlight while in the bag.
After emergence starts, release them in the next day or twoas holding them longer than 5 days after that may reduce their effectiveness. Sometimes they are quite stinky, but that does not indicate a problem. Call if none have emerged on the 7th day after delivery in summer (14th day when high temps are 72°F or less). We guarantee live delivery and will replace if necessary.
Release your Fly Predators where pest flies are reproducing. This is often not where you see the adult flies. Sprinkle them out near all areas where there is, or was, fresh manure (or other rotting organic matter) that remains moist. This is where flies reproduce and Fly Predators find and kill them at the pupal stage. Fly Predators themselves do not need or eat moist manure, so don’t leave some behind for them. It’s best to remove all manure or spread it to get it dry within 5 days.
Put Fly Predators out proportionally to how much manure or rotting organic matter is in each area. Put some near the manure corner of corrals, the pasture rough areas, the manure pile as well as arenas and dry lots. Put them along fence lines or places where they won’t get stepped on. For the barn leave 5-10% in the bag and hang it in breezeway.
Fly Predators can travel up to 150 feet, but it’s better to get them within 50 feet of fly breeding areas. Flies can’t reproduce in dried manure or feed, so don’t put Fly Predators there. Even if you muck out daily, put some where manure was if the spot is kept moist from urine. Flies reproduce in rotting vegetation as well as manure. Put Fly Predators near any spoiled hay, feed, round bale feeders, grass clippings, etc.
Try to dry up moist areas such as near water troughs, leaky faucets, under stall mats, etc. Wetter than normal weather usually produces more flies. In that case add more Fly Predators to keep control.
Watch Out for ants, birds and chickens all of which will eat the pupae that Fly Predators are in at arrival. If you have free range chickens or ants put the Fly Predators in open sacks hung off the ground. Hiding them in grass can help with birds.
Keep pesticide sprays away from Fly Predators They are much more sensitive to pesticides than pest files. If you have to spray a horse do it away from any fly breeding area; i.e. not in the stall. If you use a residual spray apply it only to pest fly resting areas (a sunny wall, ceiling rafters) avoiding pest fly reproduction areas (manure, rotting vegetation). Fly Predators will only be found in the reproduction areas.
Fly Predators stop pest fly reproduction but do not affect existing adult flies. It takes about 30 days from first release to see a difference if you start after the pest flies populations have built up. If the fly pressure is great, use double or triple the normal Fly Predator quantity for the first few months to catch up and aggressively reduce adult flies as quickly as possible. For every adult fly you see, half of them will be females who can lay 900 eggs during their 21 day lifetime. Stopping this reproduction quickly helps your Fly Predators gain back control.
To get adult flies you can use traps, sticky paper or bait as these will not harm Fly Predators. Pick the right trap for the kind of flies that are bugging you. Most traps are for House Flies. If you have biting Stable Flies (found typically on legs and cause stomping) get a biting fly trap. Put attractant traps (usually water filled) away from your house or barn as these draw flies from a wide area. Sticky traps don’t draw from a wider area and are OK in barns, but need to be in bright areas. Wide area spraying is often counter productive as it will decimate the Fly Predators and other beneficials so the pest flies will build up even faster without any natural control.
Flies travel 1/4 mile or more so if neighbors have animals suggest they use Fly Predators too or put some of yours there.
Good manure management makes a huge difference. The less manure there is on the property, the less flies you’ll have. Do the best you can to remove it, dry it or concentrate it into one area. If you see a reduction in flies, but still have too many, try 50-100% more Fly Predators for a month or two.

Google Brings The Damn Goats Back

 I guess it's hard to remember when goats were an oddity.. I used to live less than a mile from where Google is located now,  I moved from CA long before Google existed.. :)  But it pleases me to see Google is using goats for brush clearing- Promote the Goat™

Go Green Go Goats by getyergoat
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Google Brings The Damn Goats Back: "Jack McKenna
TechCrunch.com
Thursday, April 15, 2010; 4:19 PM

Google is bringing the goats back this year to keep the grass cut and to provide an excellent opportunity to show that they care about the environment. We made fun of them last year, and even tried to get PETA all riled up about goat's rights. Mostly because it seems the transportation and feeding of the goats sort of offsets the carbon savings from mowing the lawn, making this all a big PR stunt. But MG managed to get three posts out of it, including video with the goats. Sadly he's currently on vacation in Japan, so this will likely conclude our breaking Google goat coverage until next year. Our only hope is that Google eventually genetically engineers the goats to be all black in honor of Earth Day."









PETA On The Google Goats: Let Them Eat Grass (But They Need Perks)
Following up on our story about the hilariously absurd use of goats to mow the lawns around Google’s headquarters instead of lawnmowers, we were able to get a comment from PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA is okay with letting the goats be goats (eating grass and looking cute), but they have some major concerns about how they’ll be treated in doing these tasks.
Says Amy Cook, an Assistant Manager of Marketing for PETA:

PETA has no problem with letting goats do what goats want to do (e.g., look cute and eat weeds), but we do have concerns about how the goats may be transported, whether they are provided with access to shelter during storms and shade as well as water during hot weather, where they are housed when they aren’t “working,” what kind of veterinary care they receive, and what becomes of old and/or excess goats. PETA has found over and over that whenever animals are used by a business to make money, corners are cut and animals often suffer as a result. And that really gets our goat, if you’ll pardon the pun.

Read more:

Google Rents Goats To Replace Lawnmowers (I'm Not Kidding)

In what absolutely reads like an April Fools joke, Google has a post on its blog today explaining how it has rented a herd of goats to replace the lawnmowers that normally cut the grass in the fields around its headquarters. This is Google’s “low-carbon” approach to maintaining its property.
Google is renting the goats from a company called California Grazing. Apparently, every so often a herder will bring about 200 of them to the campus and they’ll roam around for a week eating the grass. Not only that, these goats will fertilize the land at the same time — yes, that way.

Read more:

It's hard for me to remember when I was a city girl living not far from the Google Headquarters (LONG before Google was there)  and thinking  how weird it would be for GOATS of all things to be in the city  eating  what is natural to them.. I mean we only see them at petting zoos in the city right?  I find it funny now having raised goats for 18 years and  not thinking  what my life would be without them.. I love it..

Goat Grand National - Goat racing at it's Best

High-level goat racing from the UK. This video is just too cute not to pass on to my readers! Very Clever way to Promote the Goat™ Enjoy! Complete with tiny stuffed jockeys on their backs ;)

Special Request from GetYerGoat Customers

Request from friends and customers.. If anyone has purchased a GetYerGoat T-shirt or goat shoes or other goat gift product from any of my GetYerGoat Shops, I would love a photo of you in it wearing it or with the goats  wearing it and permission to use this in an upcoming advertising campaign (a model's release).. I need the pics right away as the advertisement  will be created  next week .. so go put your favorite goat shirt on or wear your best goat shoes and take a couple of good photos and give me permission to use them in my ad.. :) I'd sure appreciate it.  no names will be mentioned justa combination of photos.... Thanks!

Crossbreeding goats and sheep Equals a GEEP

Crossbreeding goats and sheep
It looks like a zookeeper's prank: a goat dressed in a sweater of angora. But the odd-looking creature that appeared on the cover of the journal Nature last week is no joke. The animal is a crossbreed of two entirely different species, a goat and a sheep. Inevitably, it has been dubbed a geep.
Now 18 months old and thriving, the geep was produced by the latest tricks of embryo manipulation. Scientists at the Institute of Animal Physiology in Cambridge, England, mingled new embryos from both sheep and goats when each consisted of no more than four to eight cells. Ultimately, these were placed in the wombs of surrogate sheep or goat mothers and allowed to grow to term. Such hybrids are called chimeras (after the mythic monster with a lion's head, goat's body and serpent's tail).
Because each embryo came originally from the fertilized eggs of both a goat and a sheep, the animals had four parents.
The Cambridge experimenters produced a total of six animals with characteristics of both sheep and goats. Only one of them, however, had blood proteins from both species. That animal behaves like a goat and has even tried mating with female goats, but like another hybrid, the mule, its sperm are defective. At Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, West Germany, other embryo manipulators also reported producing goat-sheep.
Though such experimenting is sure to trigger debate, scientists point to practical benefits: it should make it easier to rear embryos of endangered species in the wombs of other species or even create hybrids as valuable as the indomitable mule.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,921546,00.html#ixzz0jVovFj4l

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How NOT to Treat your Goats

Goat Owners out of Control!

I accidentally came across this video while looking for another and I am taking the opportunity to use it as a perfect example of how NOT to treat your goats (sorry it is at the expense of someone's video but Hey they put it out there so I will utilize it. ) I guess these people took medicating the goats as some sort of goat rodeo. I personally am not impressed other than to use it as a lesson on what NEVER to do with your goats. This is Not acceptable.
Now folks I am not anti-children or anti-dog but this video is a prime example of when to put the children up and make sure the dogs are not around to confuse the issue. I truly feel sorry for these goats if these people are the owners as they are up for years of a hectic - and while not exactly abusive but a fine line maybe in my opinion, life. I can well imagine the scenario if I were to try these tactics in my herd of a hundred. WOW. IMHO This situation was Completely Out of Control!


So lessons here?

1. Make sure there are no out of control dogs in the vicinity while handling your goats
2. Make sure there are no children making noises or running after goats
3. DO NOT run after your goats in attempt to "catch " them
4. NEVER EVER allow or worse ask your children to get on the back of a goat- the goat's spine is very delicate and will break easily. Goats are not small horses.
5. Rather than chasing the goats, have an area small enough to have the goats in and CALMLY go in while they are eating , quietly handling them before giving them injections or other medical attention.
6. One thing I noticed was the medication was white and the only white injectable I can think of is penicillin- the handler did Not draw back on the plunger before injecting - penicillin is one of the few medications that can be fatal if gotten into the blood stream, Always draw back before injecting to make sure you are not in a blood vessel.
7. In this particular instance - dogs and goats do not mix and children and goats do not mix.
   

Maybe this guy needs this Goat Attitude T-shirt:

GetYerGoat at Zazzle Says Thank You

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Get your Gifts for Goat Lovers .. :) Happy Holidays! goatlady

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