Lent Day 4: Yoga, Meditation and Goat Wrangling

"I'm selling some of the goats." said Sal, my roomie.  "I've found a buyer and am going to take them to Valley Center.  I've made a cage and we need your help to wrestle the goats up and in."  "Are we going to use a ramp?" I asked.  "Nope.  We wouldn't be able to pull them up it.  We're going to lift them."

Wow.  This was a daunting prospect.  What does one wear to lift a goat?  And what about those horns?!?  I can't really consider myself a "city girl", as I live in a pretty rural town, but living with goats, chickens and a horse has been a whole new experience for me.  The goats initially creeped me out, with their bizarre eyes and the way that they'd stare at me when I walked by.  I didn't like how they stood perfectly still. Watching me.  The horse (Bella) nearly gave me a panic attack a few months ago when I first moved in, when she came running toward me.  She's big and tall and intimidating to someone who has limited experience with horses.  I spoke soothingly to her over my racing heart, and escaped out of the fenced area as quick as I could.  "I'll show you how to deal with the chickens", Sal had said when I was still new.  "Those roosters can really hurt you."

I am proud to report that I am gaining confidence here at the Ranch.  I am not scared of Bella anymore, can go right up to her, pet her, feed her and I'm starting to love her.  Last weekend Christian (roomie #2) and I shared the feeding responsibilities as Sal went camping and I found myself really enjoying caring for the critters.  The goats would come up to me and I fed them hay from my hands.  I can now go into the chicken yard and walk through their throngs, with a handy PVC pole to ward off the aggressive roosters.  One of them tried to terrorize me as I put some new hay into the hen boxes.  When he lunged toward me, wings outstretched hugely, I bonked him in the face with the pole.  He wasn't too impressed, but stayed back a bit.  "I'm just giving them more cushioning for their nesting area," I told him.  He didn't care.  I was the interloper and he needed to protect his girls.

"I'm going to need you around 8:30 A.M.," Sal requested last night.  So I set my alarm for 8:00, did my yoga, 10 minutes of meditation, put on some clothes that I didn't mind getting grubby, and headed down to the barn area.  The goats had been penned in and some had some rope harnesses already attached.  We lured and coaxed them with some chicken feed.  We eventually got all four up the bale of hay, with a big rope lifting their hindquarters, and two of us using their horns to keep them going in the right direction, and got them into the cage.  Sal and Christian loaded themselves into the front and off they went.  I spent a little time with Bella and the remaining goat, I think her name's Dolly, but I'm not sure.  I think of her as "Houdini" because she can get out of the fenced area and I've gotten her back in on more than one occasion.  I told Sal, "Good thing she speaks Dog."  as I coaxed her, having no idea how to communicate in Goat-Speak.  This goat was the only one not related to the others and was never forgiven for it.  Ms. Houdini was kept to keep Bella horse company.  Both of them were making sad sounds, wondering, I presume, where the other 4 had gone.  (I am assuming they were sad.  I have no idea, really, of the inner emotional workings of goats and horses.)

To close out today's ramblings, I'd like to post this morning's meditational thought:

February 21
"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding."
Kahlil Gibran
Today, smile each time you see the color yellow. (Can you feel that shell breaking?)

I smiled when I realized that my PJ shirt was yellow.  I do feel the shell breaking.  One breath at a time.  Thanks for listening.