06/30/2025
One of my favorite parts of writing about what I learn every day is that a lot of times I get to build off of my previous posts and learn even more!
The velvet ants that we spoke of yesterday also go by the name of killer cow ant. This is because there is a myth that the sting is so painful and powerful that it would kill a cow. And that is how you got a bug that was named cow ant and is neither cow nor ant, but a wasp… without wings, and red velvety, and parasitic. Man, what a strange bug.
This morning at the internship, I did the animal chores on my own. I feel unbelievably cool whenever I get to take care of the animals.
Ready for the animal wrangling stories of the day? Let’s jump in!
First. Goats. I love goats. Goats are my thing. But, goats are hard to contain. And goats sometimes like to be free.
Well, they have a whole herd of goats, but there are two young bucklings they have been raising as bottle babies. They are weaned by this point.
I have to take Nancy in/out of the fence when I milk her. It’s not too hard to get her to move through, but those little goats are there to make a break for it as soon as they can.
The brown one escaped. I dropped what I was doing and went to grab him. He’s just big enough that I can’t exactly pick him up. After much frustration and shoving, I got him back inside the enclosure, but not quickly enough.
Now the white one was out. Same thing, I fought him until I got him back in, but then the brown one got out again.
This happened for like 10 long minutes before I finally outsmarted the little white goat with some grain. Whew! It was quite the escapade!
-Briar Albaugh
I love baby goats! They're so spunky and sassy and absolutely adorable 🥰
We live in the city with pretty jam-packed houses, but there are a few large patches of field in places where they have not yet built houses because of the terrain. However, they do get extremely overgrown and unsightly. So just a couple weeks ago, our HOA worked with a company that brought in 400 goats to clear those patches!! It was crazy, but definitely the coolest thing that’s happened in our neighborhood!