Unintended Consequences

   

        While Monday/first of week/back to the grind duties involved everything from resuming the well-digging to lining up the week's meetings to packing book orders (things one must do to keep a farm running, after all, farming is not exactly a lucrative business proposition in anyone's book) there was one oddly obvious vibe I feel the need to make note of...
      Not blaming Hef (Lord knows I miss him), but I have to say, with the testosterone count now down to nothing but sweet little Charlie-goat (born 3 weeks ago), there was a calm about the place come breakfast time that I had not anticipated. It literally caught me off guard.
      Yes, I'd grown used to Hef's jumping on everyone (as had my nannies). Yes, we'd come to laugh at his rutting and snorting...his peeing on his beard and Lord knows, his smell...But what I had not factored when I went out to feed everyone first day after saying Goodbye to Hef, was how non-competitive the place had become. How very nurturing the very air and atmosphere now that competition for the big guy's attention was no longer an issue.
      To be clear, everyone scrambles for food (no matter how much I feed them; most of my friends with goats, btw, pull back on chow feedings entirely come spring and summer, after all, there's vegetation for goats in these seasons; heck, it's why most folks have goats in the first place).
      But there was a palpable difference in the vibe and energy amongst my girls' energy, post Hef.... Don't know if this is how it is in a nunnery. But my girls were totally laid back and peaceful, now that the competition of winning the guy (or dodging him) was no longer an issue.
      It's something I'll ponder for days (if not weeks) to come...
      Again, not blaming Hef, but given this newfound contrast to compare life to, I now see his presence as more than just physical/animal. His presence represented competition on levels I had not factored before now...Girls against girls...Mothers protecting their own. (Again, not justifying. After all, if someone spots Hef running around Carthage, Tennessee, I'd welcome him back with open arms. But I can't help but note this. Perhaps there was something bigger at play all along.)
      It had not occurred to me what life would be like if nannies were left to raise their babies in peace (until the next go round of raising babies comes up for discussion. Don't get me wrong-- I DO realize there's a need for a buck in the equation to make this all work).
      But just as the Bible speaks of leaving a field fallow after 6 years of planting--to allow the poor and God's creatures to eat whatever might come forth so as to allow the land to renew itself,  I'm now curious to see just how different life might be if my females are given a break after back to back baby-raising...being rewarded by not having to vie for male attention and nutritional sustenance, but instead, being allowed to graze peacefully and enjoy raising their babies.
      I have no scientific answer for my query. Only more questions. But I have to say, there's a lot less head butting going on right now, and I for one, welcome the break.