"Barbara O’Brien’s wide-ranging account of Zen history is conveyed with a master storyteller’s ability to keep the forest from getting lost in a myriad of trees. Wearing her scholarship lightly, she blends just the right amount of skepticism about her hagiographic sources with a deep appreciation for the Dharma." — Barry Magid, author of
Nothing Is Hidden and
Ending the Pursuit of Happiness Order here!
I know it’s a “gaggle of geese,” but is it ‘a giggle of goats?’
Nope – it’s a herd, tribe, or trip.
I think we need to lobby Congress to make it ‘a giggle of goats.’
We need to distract that herd, tribe, or trip of Old Goats and Nanny Goats to keep them from doing any more damage.
Let the debate begin! At least we can giggle at that.
As for the video – where’s “The Ed F’in Sullivan Show” when you really need it?
“Tonight, we’ve got a really big shoe…”
Thanks for posting this, Goats deserve a “Good Will Ambassador”.
We haven’t bred in a couple of years, but when babies arrived, it was always extremely entertaining. One year we had a cohort of over twenty baby goats (“kids” just seem to capture their spirit.) They get even more amusing in larger numbers. My aging mother never tired of watching them play “follow the leader” or learning the “goat dance” and the fine points of head butting. She’d bottle feed when caprine maternal instinct failed and it added a lot of joy to her later years. After fourteen years of raising dairy goats, they still make us laugh and hold our interest.
Merry Christmas!!
It’s a shame about the pesky politics stuff; I’d rather just talk about animals.
It’s “flock” of goats. at least so I’ve been told by goat people.
Gosh, I’ve been keeping goats for 14 years, I have always said “herd” although in less formal moments we often use “bunch”. I could well be wrong as I have so often been in life. It is very likely “flock” is totally acceptable. We have also kept sheep and found them comparatively unrewarding, so maybe psychologically, I like to put some distance between the two animals and I’d “separate the sheep from the goats” a bit differently than the Bible does, with goats being the more virtuous. They are smarter, cleaner, more curious and more fun to watch. They are also a lot easier to milk.
Some terms are probably used by people who breed for show and pedigree. Those of us who just keep goats to make cheese and soap use “Wether” for an altered male and “buck” for an intact male like everyone else, but, we’re a pretty informal lot. I rarely hear ‘buckling” or doeling” unless we think a high end breeder might be listening. So, I guess it matters what circles you and your goats travel in.
My wife was friendly with Carl Sandburg’s daughter. She still has “Connemara” and is still known for world class goats. There was a story that people that knew Carl Sandburg’s wife, who was famous and widely respected for goat breeding was married to a man who was also well known for some reason.
When I lived in the West Indies, it was the common wisdom, only somewhat humorous, that the way to tell a sheep from a goat was that a goats tail went up and a sheep’s went down. On our particular island, it was more truth than poetry, or seemed so at the time. I have a more discerning eye now.
That should read “who was widely respected for goat breeding, KNEW THAT SHE was married to a man..”
Goatherd, I think you’re correct and the other goat people I knew must be one of a kind types.
Thanks Lynne, but don’t discount your friends too easily. I seem to have the capacity to retain idiosyncratic tendencies over long periods of time.
I wish we were still making cheese and I could legally share it with you all. There is nothing like raw milk goat cheese. Some of the best cheese you can find is at farmer’s markets, often labelled “NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION”. Raw milk cheeses are legal, but have to be aged 60 days, at least here in NC. That’s fine for hard cheeses, but, I like chevre on the fresh side.
Maybe some of us will visit NC someday soon. You need some way to promote that, I think.