Le Capanne

Aunty’s tales: tales from our aunty Amelia, remembering when she was a child, free in the countryside where now we run the agriturismo Le Capanne.

Go to “change” the goat

“It was the work of the little ones, it simply meant: change the place of the goat, move her from where she is because she has already eaten all the grass around her. Take her a bit further so she can graze on fresh grass.
Our goat was tethered with a long rope to prevent her running away and being in danger of a bad fall from a steep embankment. In this way, two or three times a day she was moved, “changed” in fact.

Our goat was nice to me because she would come to eat the corn out of my hands and it tickled. There was an understanding between the two of us, so much so that if by chance she escaped, it was me who went to look for her and bring her home. They said she was naughty and stubborn and perhaps it was actually true.

She was able to destroy the whole vegetable garden in no time at all. Once, curious as she was, after the salad, she tried the hot peppers, then rubbed her mouth on the grass for half an hour to find a bit of relief. And how she bleated!
She gave us excellent milk; my mother milked while I, candle in hand, tried to illuminate the little stall where we kept the goat.
The best moment was the birth of the kids. There is nothing more enjoyable than seeing the little kids jumping, running and playing amongst themselves. One moment they’re in front of you and the next, they’ve climbed up an olive tree, then they quickly chase each other around and, even at only a few weeks old, they already have the instinct to “butt” you with their little heads.
Once a kid was orphaned, he had a black mark on his nose and I called him “Toppino Nero” and, for a long time, he was my playmate; he followed me everywhere, he looked for me, made me laugh.
And maybe it’s precisely because of the fact that I was close to these animals in my childhood, that even today it has been said that I’m as stubborn as a goat…“