Sheep and Goats

Check this guy out. He is a Jacob four-horned sheep. Doesn't he look like a living tribal mask? We met this sheep, his herd, two llamas, and some fainting goats when we were up north a two weeks ago. The Jacob sheep is an all around winner as they are bred for both wool and for meat. They have been marked as threatend in the US so it is nice to see their breed being propogated at this tourist spot. They are one of the featured attractions at California's Old Faithful Geyser.

The livestock was much more fun than the geyser, as Mr. C was greatly looking forward to make some goats tip over from shock. Fainting goats don't really faint, but the US stock has been bred with a genetic flaw that makes their legs lock when they are startled so they just fall over. Sadly, a much dissappointed husband and 2 sons tried their very best to yell and scare these little cutties. Yet, the best they could get was one whose back left leg would lock and drag behind him as he fled. This set of goats is either getting genetically stronger or feels like humans storming their pen, arms waving and voices booming, is not impressive.

Though we didn't see the goats tip over. We did get to see the geyser erupt many times. There a had just been an earthquake so the eruptions come closer together,nearly every 5 minutes. Seems that the intervals between shoot off lengthen with an approaching quake and shorten in the aftermath. A neat little side note was that they had displayed the seismograph readings from each of the earthquakes from our childhoods, the 1994 Northridge quake for me and the 1989 Loma Prieta quake for Mr. C.