How Can Someone Hate Me THAT Much? Does She Really Want to Ruin My Life?

How can you not love these cute faces?Photo byShelley Wenger

Anyway, I thought that I really do need to get this off of my chest, so here goes!

I live on a small farmette on six acres in Southern York County Pennsylvania. I raise Boer goats and have worked really hard over the last few years to get a herd that I am proud of. I started with whatever goats I could afford and have worked hard to get well-bred, strong, and colorful dapples. My whole field is full of them (except for the one traditional one that I can't get rid of)!

Anyway, this year, we got a new buck for our girls, and we were excited when color hit the ground. We had some dapples and some interesting-looking babies, and I couldn't be happier with the results of this year's breeding, but then things started going downhill.

Due to the heat this year, we lost a momma. She had lost some weight, but I dewormed her, and we were watching her closely. She was fine the night before, but I went out to a dead mother in the morning.

So, I started bottle-feeding her two babies. I tried to find them homes because I do not enjoy bottle-feeding babies. I put on Facebook that I didn't have time to bottle feed the babies, simply because I thought that sounded better than not enjoying this task. I didn't have any hits unless I wanted to separate the boy from the girl, which I didn't.

So, bottle feed them I did! At first, I fed them multiple times a day, and they ate small amounts at a time (like they would from mom), and then I worked them up to eating bigger meals three to four times a day. I fed them around my schedule (and my children's), but they were being fed regularly.

Everything seemed to start at this point. My neighbor called and complained that they were screaming all of the time, and I must not be feeding them enough. She offered to feed them once for me. I told her that they were eating enough, and they were just very vocal anytime they saw anyone.

At that point, plenty of people were visiting them (because they were so cute). We also had piglets, so we had a lot of people coming to see them, too. For this reason, the goats were very loud, probably multiple times a day, because we were always up there with them (and around).

Three weeks later, the SPCA showed up at my door at 7:15 in the morning. An officer wanted to see my animals because they had a complaint. I was already out feeding. I warned him that I was dealing with worms with my goats, and most of them were looking pretty skinny, but I was treating them.

He came up, helped me feed the bottle babies, and said that everything looked fine. He said that he was called out due to the bottle babies, and pigeons, but he was pleased with how things looked. He said it wasn't often that he got to see healthy animals, so he was happy to come out and see mine!

Then, the imaginable happened. My goats started getting sicker and sicker. I lost my two bottle babies and another baby in one day. A few days later, my strong and healthy (over two hundred pound) buck died.

The buck didn't even show many signs but I had started treating him for worms when the first few girls started showing signs. He was still a healthy pink (it is how you see if your goat has worms), yet he kept going downhill.

Now, worms can be quite nasty, but in the past few years, I have never lost that many animals that quickly. Maybe one here or there, and it was usually babies or my older girls. So, I am not really sure what to say. I have been working really hard to get my girls looking healthier and taking care of the worms. But it just doesn't quite seem right. How can that many goats die that quickly?

Unfortunately, my story continues (and gets worse).

Less than a week later, I got a letter from the township about my animals. It said something about needed a designated space for my animals. Now, when we first bought the property sixteen years ago, we were planning on bringing my horses home. For this reason, we had talked about fencing and buildings at that point. So, I really wasn't sure what the note was all about. I thought we would be fine to have a few goats and a pig or two.

So, on my next day off, I took a drive up to the township where I met with the zoning officer. He said that I had enough land to have the animals that I had, I just didn't have enough of it fenced in. If I was able to fence some more in, I would be fine.

I also needed to downsize on the amount of chickens I had because, per the township, I need an acre only for chickens for every fifteen chickens. I already knew that I needed to downsize on chickens. Chicken math gets crazy (and quickly). I have WAY too many chickens and am actually excited to scale down a little bit.

I left the township feeling alright. I felt like he was a reasonable man and could get started on the fencing. He said as long as he saw progress, we wouldn't need to do anything else. I was feeling hopeful that things would be alright.

A few days later, we came up with a plan for fencing. All we had to do was stay two feet off of the property line. And since our lovely neighbor pulled out the property line markers, we had to go off of his new property line. But we did it anyway.

They sat on top of the hill and watched us for awhile before he decided to come down and give us his opinion on the whole thing. We got cussed at and threatened, just for putting a fence up on our property. He told us that he would take the squalls out, which essentially would flood us out. I must also note here that we helped to put the squalls in a few years ago, due to the rain water.

I just don't know what to do anymore. If I give up and sell my animals, they win. They also take away the reason I wake up some mornings. I just love working around in the pen with my goats and chickens. I feel such peace. How can I give that up? How can anyone expect that?

However, I don't feel safe anymore. Everytime that I go up to feed my animals, at least one of them is watching me. The one doesn't have a job, so she can watch me no matter when I go outside. I have no privacy anymore.

I also worry about weaning time. We are going to have some loud goats, but I feel like I can't do that anymore, because she is going to think that I am starving my animals. I worry about the pigs, because they hit the feeder and that is too loud for my neighbors. I worry about the corn wagon. The goats have learned if they hit it just right with their horns, they can get more corn out, so they spend hours hitting it, which makes the neighbors complain.

I worry about my dog. Though she is a great dog that mainly stays with us or runs around the goat field, is she going to stop and look at their deer in their field? Will they shoot her because she goes to look in the fence?

I worry about my children. They don't really want to go up top either. She thinks that they are too loud also, when they drive their tractors and four-wheelers around.

I am just so tired of worrying and being watched. I can't just have my few acres where I can be free!

But do I really want to pick up and move because my neighbor is a bully? Is it fair? I finally found my dream house (after looking for over a year), and spent the last sixteen years making it my own.

To make matters worse, we were here long before they were. We also used to hang out together every weekend, but it has come to this.

I just have no idea what is going to happen.

Photo byShelley Wenger

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