Kung Hei Fat Choy
Year of the Goat, ladies and gentlemen. Though I’ve seen it described on some sites as the Year of the Sheep. I suspect that’s because sheep have better PR.
Sadly, it would appear that the Year of the Goat does not mean we get to head-butt and stink in 2015. Honestly, what is the point?
Did I ever tell y’all about the herd of fainting goats we had when I was small. Yes, it looks like I did.
Posted: February 19th, 2015 under holidays, international, personal.
Comments: 19
Comments
Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: February 19, 2015, 10:51 pm
Well then you should know only the billys stink 🙂 Goats are like dogs that don’t bark, they’re very friendly and fun.
Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: February 19, 2015, 11:17 pm
Goats are like dogs that don’t bark, they’re very friendly and fun.
The nannys can be very needy & very insistent, what with the skulls of solid bones with pokey things. Like the neediest, most insistent, sharp-skulled dog you’ve ever met. I mean, I like goats, but you’d better make sure the one you’re getting is well-adjusted, cos they’re ain’t no adjusting them after the fact. That, & the damned things are a whole lot better at puzzle solving* than dogs.
* And the pen is just a puzzle that needs a good solving 3 or 4 times a day.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 19, 2015, 11:20 pm
I dunno, Christopher. Even goat cheese tastes like goats smell, to me.
Comment from Skandia Recluse
Time: February 19, 2015, 11:34 pm
Goats are very cute on cheezeburger with the kitties and the puppies and the smart mouthed parrots.
Comment from QuasiModo
Time: February 19, 2015, 11:35 pm
Watch live goats on UStream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/goatslive
…they’ve been possessed, that’s why the glowy eyes.
Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: February 19, 2015, 11:55 pm
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 19, 2015, 11:20 pm
I dunno, Christopher. Even goat cheese tastes like goats smell, to me.
I don’t want to know how they get cheese from a billy goat.
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: February 20, 2015, 12:11 am
I used to shout (occasionally, with a glass of wine in my hand) at the fawns on our grounds, “Cabrito! Roasted baby goat, you hearh! Mebbe roasted fawn would taste just as good!” They’d look at me with those big Disney eyes, then go back to eating my Bermuda grass. To my knowledge, no one ever barbecues fawn, but what goes on way back in the hills, mebbe no one talks about. But I don’t know why they wouldn’t taste as good as lamb or kid.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: February 20, 2015, 1:24 am
Well Stark Dickflüssig, many breeders get rid of the pokey things when the goats are still kids. And yes, their skulls are hard, but as long as you keeps track of where they are, you can redirect them fairly easily. Now my only experience is with pygmy goats, so full size is undoubtedly more of a challenge, but getting into a shoving match with them can be fun as long as you’re careful not to injure them. A 5′ field fence seems tall enough to keep the pygmies in as long as you don’t put anything within about 4′ of same. I would expect that regular goats might require something slightly taller.
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: February 20, 2015, 1:37 am
If you like pulled pork, try pulled kid (chivito).
On a hard roll with chimichurri. MM-mm-mm-mm!
Comment from LesterIII
Time: February 20, 2015, 1:45 am
MMMMMMMMMMMMM! Goat curry, goat stew, roasted kid, and I second the chivito & chimichurri. I loves me some goat!
Comment from Paula Douglas
Time: February 20, 2015, 2:54 am
A friend of mine makes a big point of going to the Puyallup fair every year and smelling goats on purpose. Goes right up to them in the pen and takes a big steamy inhalation of goat. It’s the highlight of her fair experience, but I hang around with her anyway. Not at the fair, though. That’s her husband’s job. She’s never mentioned that goats smell like feta, though, so I assumed the aroma was more like hay or something.
Comment from mojo
Time: February 20, 2015, 3:34 am
My Grandpa Stone, lived waaaay up in’a mountains, had some goats that had one set of legs shorter than the other side. Kept ’em upright on the steep slopes, Grandpa explained.
Comment from Subotai Bahadur
Time: February 20, 2015, 5:39 am
Speaking as one of the few regulars here who is Chinese, and who helps put together annual dim sum gatherings and a house party for 40-60 or so extended family in celebration of the New Year [next week I have to start the preparations for making 3 Peking Ducks]; as far as we are concerned, it is the Year of the Sheep. Maybe those crazy Manchus have a thing for goats, but we sons of Han’s calendar says Sheep.
Mind you, goat can be downright tasty.
Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: February 20, 2015, 5:52 am
Its true Goats are really clever, and they can get out of many pens. But if you let them run about they will stick nearby and follow you. As long as they have food and a place to sleep they will stick around and not run off.
Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: February 20, 2015, 3:47 pm
Subotai, some of the Chinese grad students here explained that they distinguish among ewes, rams, and goats by adding a prefix to the “yang” character that is the general term.
Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: February 20, 2015, 4:44 pm
Since you asked (Hey – somebody did ask, right?)
http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/difference-between-sheep-and-goats.html
The [reason for the Confuciusian confusion] is – and note, this isn’t a problem in China – that the word for the eighth animal in the 12-year parade of critters is “yang,” which in Mandarin doesn’t specify between members of the Caprinae subfamily, like “goat” and “sheep” do in English. Some people are even throwing rams into the mix. As The New York Times points out, “Without further qualifiers, yang might mean any such hoofed animal that eats grass and bleats.”
The Japanese, being much more concerned about quality control than the Chinese, are quite clear that it is Year of the Sheep
Comment from technochitlin
Time: February 20, 2015, 5:23 pm
Comment from mojo
My Grandpa Stone, lived waaaay up in’a mountains, had some goats that had one set of legs shorter than the other side. Kept ‘em upright on the steep slopes, Grandpa explained. Pix or it ain’t so 😛
Comment from Argentium G. Tiger
Time: February 21, 2015, 2:44 pm
Goats, you say?
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