began early. measuring the opening on the Middle Pen side to the Migration Cooridor. Measuring various pieces of cattle panel, coils of fencing. Decide. Look at how the coil of fencing could most easily be attached so it would be secure if needed, but easily taken down, removed. Haul it and fling it over the fence into the pen. Bang in big nails in the outside post to hook the end of the fencing onto, 5 of them, attach the roll of the coil to the existing fencing with bailing wire so no one could accidently get caught in it. Undo the little door to the Bedroom in the Albatros and secure as closed. No entry. Shovel excess by the gate In so it moved freely. Redo some of the wires that were loose. Undo the hose and pull it to the side so it was not across the "driveway". Repile the weeds that are waiting to be burned, out of the way. Secure the "fake gate" to the Corridor and sit with Them a long time as they came and went back and forth from it, teaching themselves that it was closed, that they couldn't go through. Sit longer. Watch them. Watch them checking everything, noticing how it all was different. Watch them lie down and chew cud quietly in the midst of change. Quiet now. Ok.
Gather together the pellet bucket and wash the 3 xtra feed tubs out front, tilt them to dry in SUN. Bring two of the lightweight ones from the way back. All 5 in place because that's what they are used to. Goats like things to be like what they're used to. Decide which of the soft nylon straps to use as leads. Tie it on each end. Test. ok. Not too long, not too short. Bag the peanuts in the shell and set on the bench. Ready. and Sit then. Just sit with Them…in the SUN that was soft and steady and warm.
Hearing them pull up, get the bone for Tay and put her in her "house" with it. Close the dog door so Chinche couldn't come out. Go open the big gate. They back the horse trailer in. Slick as a whistle. One of the things i admire most in this life. Knowing how to back trailers. They get out. Kelly, late 30's maybe 40 at most is carrying a cloth sack with a bread pan of Banana bread that is still hot from the oven, Watch out. Ok, i set it in the wheelbarrow. Noah, the 9 or 10 year old is out at at the fence. Cliff, Kelly's man, and not so long Kelly's man comes quiet to the fence. He's a
rancher guy.
Kelly talks to Thomas who is for the time staying in the truck with some stuff to do he likes. He is 13 and quite very much Autistic.
I'd met Kelly once at the feed store during the summer. And then they had come here once because they wanted Goats. That was a couple or few months ago and then things happened in their lives and i didn't hear from them. Last week she called. They are ready. Ok. so now it gets tricky to tell.
While i was talking to Kelly, Cliff her Rancher Man let himself into the Pen and was sitting on the picnic table just watching. He's quiet. Says things, but not a lot of things. But the Right things. So Kelly and i are talking and notice and so she and son Noah go in and i go get the nylon rope and fill the pellet bucket so it's ready when it's time. We are just there in the middle pen watching Them and They are quietly moving around, trying to figure out why there are so many people. Thomas comes from the truck and i let him in the gate and he is Happy and Excited and making all manner of interesting noises, wanting to pat then, feel their tails, and they begin moving around faster. Cliff escorts Thomas out of the pen and he continues how he continues outside the pen until Kelly escorts him back to the Truck. A little bit quiet then, but now there is palpable movement of Energy.
I bring in the bucket with the pellets and begin emptying them into the 5 bowls and somehow like magic Cliff has slipped the rope around Barbara's neck and deftly tied it over her nose into a halter and is at the gate ready to go out and he DID and she went, pretty much without fuss and jumped into the horse trailer. Gate closed.
Back. He had tucked the nylon rope in his back pocket so it couldnt be seen and sat a while, but Magic KNEW that the attention was zeroed in on her. Her thinking was NO WAY. She quietly skirted the rim and the feeling of intensity was palpable. We tried to stretch our arms to hold her in the corner by the gate a few times to no avail…she was FAST and DEFT.
To make a long story shorter, about 20 minutes or a half hour, she went into the Guinea Hen Palace and became cornered in the smallest section. Kelly , Noah and I crawled in to bar any way out and Cliff moved in on her. She was panting. He crouched there, stroking her. Silently. Her breathing slowed. He put the nylon strap rope over her head and created again that halter configuration. Waiting some, then leading her out that way. She reared and screamed and flung herself, her tongue, as Goats do, was hanging out like she was dying, he just stood quietly and then when she stopped he knelt and stroked her more. A long time. we just stood. And then he quickly lifted her up and carried her, i opened the gate, had sent Noah to stand at the horse trailer gate,
and he softly set her in. Noah closed the door.
we are two less tonight. Tomorrow it will begin. A ReOrdering of this Herd. it will go on for a few days, probably three.
while everyone else was eating the evening feed, Snowbunny, the grandmother, the matriarch, came to the Middle Pen where it all took place. She stood.
We talked.
this is the soft nylon rope. I need him to teach me how to make that halter.
As they were leaving, the young one, Noah, was ecstatic. Two Goats. He said that he "feels like he was born for it." Maybe he was. Maybe he was. Who knows, really, what we were born for?
windthread 
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