Notes From Goats

Goats have many things to teach us. The development of a sense of humor, real kindness, and problem-solving skills are definitely a few. (That, and the ability to fix anything with duct tape and baling wire.) When we learn to let go of what we want and work with something rather than against it, all sorts of doors open up to new possibilities.

Transcript

Hello folks.

So today's contemplation is on self-talk and putting things in the right context.

Now,

I'm a farm girl and I have goats.

And anyone that's worked with goats either loves them to the moon and back or hates them.

And there's really no in between.

And it's always funny to hear people say,

Oh,

Goats are the greatest.

They're just so sweet and smart and funny.

Or,

Ah,

Goats.

They're jerks.

And it's funny to hear how people talk to themselves and to others about these animals.

Because when goats don't change,

The only thing that's changed is how people are reacting to them.

And I'll give an example.

I have a goat named Patience.

And she's a milk goat.

And milk goats have a long,

Proud history of having funny names that the idea is when you're yelling this name while the animal's running away from you or somewhere like up a tree or something.

It's funny.

Instead of having a very serious name,

They usually have names like Stella.

So when you're screaming Stella down the street,

You're reenacting a movie scene.

One of my girls is Patience.

She's my naughtiest goat.

And I have to yell her name an awful lot.

You know,

When I'd like her to come back or when she's doing something terrible.

And it always makes me giggle.

Not that goats ever do anything terrible.

They just do things that we think they shouldn't be doing.

One of Patience's favorite games is unlatching the gate.

She is very good at that.

And she likes to point out the weakness in the gate and the fence and anywhere that she can possibly climb and exploit and get out.

She's very good at that.

And I'm saying this in a positive way.

Instead of my stupid goat lets herself out,

Turns around,

Lets all the other animals out,

Eats their food,

And then goes and bothers the neighbors and eats their roses.

So instead of saying it that way,

I've reframed it.

Instead of,

Oh,

Patience is out again.

I have to go get the ladder because she's on the neighbor's roof.

I've reframed it in my mind to,

Oh,

Thanks Patience.

Thanks for finding out where the weak spot that I need to fix is in the fence.

I appreciate that.

That's not to say that I think that,

You know,

Every single time she gets out,

But I try and turn it around in my mind.

And see the positive.

One thing I've learned,

These animals are the same.

Goats are goats everywhere.

And if you talk to folks that keep goats in one context,

So in a pen or in a petting zoo,

I'm friends with a petting zoo manager who is just bedeviled by goats.

She is beset by escapees every day and half of her job is chasing goats back into a pen.

And the funny thing is one of my friends is from Morocco.

And now she grew up with goats in a totally different context.

Her area of Morocco that she grew up in is incredibly arid and dry.

And in the dry season in their summer,

There is not a single leaf or blade of grass for any of their livestock to eat.

And the goats to them are a miracle because goats can climb the gnarliest,

Nastiest trees.

They're called argan trees.

We're familiar with argan oil.

We put it in our hair sometimes.

Some of us do.

They can climb these nasty things that the things have thorns the size of your finger.

And there are these ugly squat,

Twisted trees.

And in the dry season,

That's the only source of food for these animals.

That's the only thing green for miles.

And the goats climb right up there and they are content.

And she sent me a video of her goats back home.

Well,

Her mom's goats.

She sent me a video of the goats back home and they're up the tree and wagging their tails and bawing and playing.

They're headbutting each other and they're dancing around like they're on flat ground.

So to them,

They're this incredible blessing,

This animal that can make something out of absolutely nothing.

And they use them for milk.

They use them for meat.

And goat meat is actually pretty good.

I grew up eating it.

I realize that in America,

We don't typically think of that as food.

But,

You know,

In in a lot of other cultures,

Goat meat is an important protein source.

And I happen to like it better than beef.

Shh.

Don't tell everybody else that I prefer goat burgers.

But anyway.

So to them,

You know,

The goats are this miracle.

And as I've started working with goats,

I've started learning to put my goats in the right context.

So when I have them out in a huge pasture,

You know,

They're kind of mischievous.

They run into trouble.

They open gates because they're bored.

They need something to do.

When I fence off a little section of woodlot,

That's forest that's completely unmanaged and wild and full of blackberry and buckthorn and poison ivy.

Oh,

I am so allergic to poison ivy.

I'm the kind of person that gets just big boil all over.

I hate poison ivy.

And goats eat that first.

They love it.

They love the poison ivy and the buckthorn and all the choke cherries and all the nasty brush.

They go for that like it's candy.

They'd prefer that over grass.

So when you put them in a very small section of woodlot,

They're not busy trying to open the gate.

They're not busy breaking out of the fence.

They're busy eating.

And they're so excited.

They push down the little saplings and they chew the bark right off of the buckthorn right around the thorns.

It's the craziest thing to watch.

They eat the blackberries back to almost nothing.

And blackberries are a huge problem.

So when I put my goats in the right context,

What they do is they open up the understory.

And then I can seed it with grass and natives come back in and it turns into pasture that has wonderful,

Beautiful shade covering from trees.

And I am so grateful to my goats.

I'm so glad I have goats when I do that.

When I try to put them in a pen and feed them hay,

Though,

They're little devils.

I'm also incredibly grateful to be able to milk patients.

She gives a half gallon a day.

And you don't have to breed them every single year to milk.

I intend to milk her through.

So that's another incredible blessing.

I love goat yogurt and goat cheese and just goat milk.

There's so much you can do with it.

I make caramel.

I make soap.

I make shampoo.

Goat milk is wonderful.

So when I'm chasing after patients because she's on the neighbor's roof or something,

I have to pause and think,

Do I actually hate goats right now?

Because I'm going to think that I hate goats.

I'm going to say,

Oh,

I hate goats.

I usually pause and think,

Do I hate goats or is my goat out of context?

And reframe it before I get angry.

It's easy to get angry when you're frustrated.

It's very easy and we all do it.

But it's important to pause.

And think,

Am I angry at this thing,

Person being whatever?

Or is this in the wrong context?

I think we've had a lot of things out of context this year,

Especially.

My cousin has adorable twins.

And therefore.

And anyone that's been around that age group.

They weren't going to school,

They weren't going to to pre-K and they had loved pre-K and they weren't going to sports.

And the one does karate and she loves karate and she wasn't getting to go to karate.

So you can imagine where this is going with two four year olds stuck at home all day.

Mom is trying to work from home.

You can imagine,

You know,

There was a lot of,

Oh,

I hate my kids.

And that's not true.

They're just in the wrong context.

They're not in the context where they can be the most happy,

The most productive,

The most successful that they can possibly be.

We all have that.

So my homework for you is to figure out what are your goats?

Are they in a pen?

Are they in the woods?

How can you reframe things in your life?

To turn them around so that they are not a problem,

But a solution.

We all have a lot of things that grind on us.

And there's something to be said for being able to first reframe that thought.

Think,

I don't hate my kids.

I really hate the situation my kids are in right now.

Just be able to reframe it.

I don't hate my goats.

My goats are just not in a situation that makes them the happiest,

Most effective they can possibly ever be.

I don't hate my car.

Its muffler is just not the happiest,

Most effective it could possibly be.

It needs replacing.

There's so many things every day that aren't bad.

They're just out of context.

There is a whole lot of thinking about the law of attraction and you put out what you want to give back.

And that's nice.

That's a good thought.

But there's also the old time Appalachian saying,

Take your problem and look at it until you find your solution.

You know,

Take what's bothering you and solve it with itself.

Basically.

And sometimes it's really just as simple as reframing,

Rethinking,

Rejiggering until you come up with,

Well,

I could tweak this.

I could do that.

I could change this and that.

And this will be a much better experience for everyone involved.

So I've since stopped trying to put patients in a pen.

She has a paddock.

And what I taught her to do was knock on the door with her horns.

And she thinks that's a great trick.

She thinks she's doing something naughty.

She takes the end of her horn and taps on the door.

And it sounds just like the postman knocking.

And she originally taught herself that because I'm dumb and I would open the door every time to think who's knocking on my door.

And actually it was the goat.

She likes to be in the house in the summertime.

She likes to come in for the air conditioning.

My goats are housebroken,

But they don't live in the house.

And I don't encourage them to come in the house.

They're outside animals.

But I let her come in for a couple minutes.

So now every time she gets loose,

She comes onto the back deck,

Knocks on the door and waits for me.

She thinks she's doing something naughty.

Or something expressive.

She's allowed to express herself.

She's not destroying anything.

She's not getting loose and running over to the neighbors to bother them.

We've solved the situation.

So then when she does that and communicates to me that she's bored to tears,

Then I know it's time for me to move the paddock.

To pick up the sticks and rewire all the fencing.

And we do that.

And she's kind of my spokes goat for the whole herd.

And I've noticed since I've been doing that,

My goats are effortless.

They don't break out.

They're not destroying things.

They're not ripping things apart.

They're not tearing down their shelter.

They're not as much of a pain in the butt as goats can be.

So I don't hate goats.

I just have trouble managing goats in a pen setting.

And I've learned that.

I actually love goats.

And there's things in life that we all actually love.

If we put them in the right context.

Friction is a sign that things are out of whack somewhere.

And it's up to us to figure out where to put them.

Good luck with your homework.

And thank you very much for listening.

Have a beautiful day.

Reviews

😂 😂 this was awesome 😎 😆 your goat is a silly 😜

I never had goats but I love them. When I lived in Ireland I’d walk with my toddler and the goats were roaming around freely. They were curious about us and I’d sit on a stone and they would come up and greet me. Thanks for the reminder of reframing my frustration in situations. It does make a big difference in making a frustrating situation better. 🙏🐐

Humorous and helpful lesson from Patience et al