Bittersweet

I am passionate about my animals. I am passionate about the land. I have to do whats best for both.

Because I don't own my own land as of yet, and the place I rent is too small to sustain the number of goats and sheep I have, my goats and sheep go to a community pasture. Actually, its a win-win situation.
They go up to Elbow, Saskatchewan. There is a serious problem with an invasive shrub called Leafy Spurge. Cows don't like to eat Leafy Spurge, and the Spurge is choking out the grass in the cattle community pasture. Spraying is not really an effective way to control Spurge, so the government put together a grazing program. Sheep and goats LOVE the stuff. So Elbow pasture needs my animals to help clean up the land. And I need Elbow to take my animals off my hands so that my grass can rest and recover for them to graze in the Fall and early Spring.

Today I took the first load of goats. 33 does and 54 kids. They are well looked after up there by an attentive shepherd and guardian dogs, but I will miss them. I look forward to the  day where I will have enough of my own land to keep my animals year round and do some multi-species intensive grazing experiments of my own.

Here is a pic of some of my goat kids the other day. I built a shelter from cattle panels, but the wind demolished the tarps. The kids thought it was an AWESOME playground! They would run up, balancing on the narrow pieces of welded wire, and then slide down. I was alarmed that they might get stuck in the ripped tarp so I took the tarp off shortly after capturing these photos