And so it begins... end of summer and the start of something beautiful... sorta.

The horses are shedding their summer coats. Already. I guess it isn't surprising, they did it around this time last year, too.... but this year it has been so hot and it seems like we are still in the middle of summer. I think the horses enjoyed their summer break, even if two of the three hated the heat. But the heat seems to have broke and it's a lot more pleasant out there so back to work we go.



They are clearly ready for more attention and cuddles:



Good timing, too, because the goats are starting to stink. Well, Parsley is, anyway, and he is rubbing off on the girls. So I can spend a little less time herding goats and a little more driving horses.

It's the start of the breeding season and romance is in the air. And anyone who has been around a buck goat in rut knows what "romance" smells like. It reeks. the girls have virtually no odor at all. But boy oh boy does a buck make up for that! Bucks are single handledly responsible for the reputation goats have for being smelly. Goats are NOT smelly. Does and wethers have less odor to their pen than my horses do, and a lot less than many other kinds of livestock like chickens and pigs. But bucks... they make enough aroma for the entire species.

Parsley's attempts at sweet talking the girls are finally starting to work.



But that doesn't stop him from wanting time with his people:



See the wet looking areas of his face? yeah... if you are a goat person you already know what that is. If you are not a goat person, you don't want to know. I feel so bad because he really wants his usual pets and scritches but his musky smell sticks to everything and is almost impossible to get rid of so I am not real keen to spend a lot of time grooming him. The smell, honestly, doesn't bother me a bit. But I don't think anyone else wants to smell it and I'd hate to go to the grocers reeking of rutting goat musk. As much as I am hoping for a doe out of him and Sage I will be glad when he is wethered and can just be a pet.

He is getting a thick beard and a lovely ridge of hair down his back that I call his mohawk:



I tried to get video of him blubbering and talking to the girls because it is so funny... but he didn't cooperate. Instead I just got a picture of him sticking his tongue out:



This part of the process isn't so beautiful... funny and somewhat disgusting but not beautiful. The beautiful part comes 5 months after the smelly romance when we get, hopefully, babies. By the time the babies are born he won't be a buck anymore and he will be in driving training with the horses, hehe!

Now I am going to start looking for a buck for next year.

Oh, and a job. I'm also looking for a job.