Goats

Dear Reader, 

Although estimates vary it is generally held that goats were first domesticated approximately 9, 500 - 9,900 years ago.  This occurred in southeastern Anatolia although separate instances of domestication happened in Iran approximately 6,500 years ago and in eastern Turkey 2,500 years ago.

Goats have played an essential role in human societies for thousands of years, providing milk, meat and wool, they are also used for clearing vegetation as pack animals and even as pets.  They were one of the first animals to be tamed by humans.  They are intelligent and emotional and can identify their friends and their offspring by their voice alone.

Goats don't just bleat when in distress.  They glare.  A new study shows that farm goats gaze at humans when dealing with a difficult problem.  Their behaviour hints at a form of communication seen in other domestic animals, suggesting a common behaviour among tamed beasts. 

Goat are the most beneficial animals in the world providing meat, milk, fiber, and fertilizer.

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I am interested to know that goats have difficult problems.  What could they be?

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From Francis Kilvert   January 21st  1872 in Radnorshire

'Sunday.   A cold raw frost fog, dark and dreary ....the Chapel bell tolled out sharp and sudden through the white mist to give notice of the service a quarter of an hour beforehand.  The hedges were hoary with rime and frost and the trees were hailing large pieces of ice down into the road.

Few people in chapel....  I thought the markers in the Bible and Prayers had suddenly become very short, and after service Wilding the Clerk told me the church mice has eaten then off.'

From Richard Hayes   January 22nd 1778 in Kent

'Brother dined with us.  Neck of pork roasted.   He put the blind down a little while.  Sun began to weaken the fire.'

   

 

Goats

 

The goats pick their way up

the steep mountain path

nibbling and bleating, tails wagging

silver bells chiming as they stop

to graze, skip and jump upwards.

 

White mignonettes, freesias, lavender bushes

grow in abundance along the well-worn track,

and small taranaki flowers nestle

in the undergrowth.

Overhead a black kite cries

circles and swoops

and the pungent smell of goats

fills the warm lavender air.

 

I see the shepherd boy

swarthy, brown and handsome

sitting on a stone, playing a flute.

He watches his precious goats

with a sharp and knowing eye.

 

As I pass him I smile. He waves.

I dance a step to his music

and with light heart follow the goats,

on my own journey upwards.

 

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With very best wishes, Patricia

 

 

 

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