The Goats of New Perlican

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Edited by Dale Jarvis
#001
GOATS OF
NEW PERLICAN
Edited by Terra Barrett & Kelly Drover
Oral History Roadshow Series #001
Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador
Intangible Cultural Heritage Office
St. John’s, NL, Canada
Layout / design by Jessie Meyer
2017
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The people from long ago
Came across the Sea
To settle here in Newfoundland
With all their family
They brought the goat
For food and milk
To help them to survive
No grocery stores or dairy farms
Those things we could provide
From way back then
And up till now
The goat is still around
For a pet it could be found
The male goat had
Great big horns
And whiskers on his chin
But the female was small in size
They were kept in a pen
The goats were fitted with a yoke
Before going out in spring
To frolic on the pastures
They would eat most anything
"The Goat"
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By Susie Smith
The women sometimes got a fright
When hanging out their clothes
Right in the butt she would get a poke
From Billy bucks big nose
They roam the hills and mountains
When the weather was fine
But, when the rain was coming
They would parade home in a line
They would take shelter under stages
And under flakes and stores
And when the rain was over
They would climb the hills once more
Men used the goat for hauling wood
Because they were so strong
With very little cash to feed
Just grass from off the lawn
Nothing more there is to say
About the stubborn goat
But it’s part of our Heritage
That is all I goin’ quote.
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Introduction
According to Norse mythology, the mighty god of thunder,
Thor, had a chariot pulled by two wondrous goats. The first goat
was named Teeth-barer; the second was named Teeth-grinder.
When Thor got hungry (which was often, I suspect), he would
slaughter the goats, skin them, and cook their meat in a pot. As
he ate, he would lick the bones clean, and toss them onto the
fresh goatskin. When Thor was done, he would wrap the bones
up in the skins, raise his magic hammer Mjöllnir and bless the
bundles. Teeth-barer and Teeth-grinder would then jump back
up, restored to their full health and ready to pull the chariot
wherever their master wanted to go.
People have been telling tales about goats for a long time.
They were amongst the first domesticated animals, and
archaeologists have excavated goat bones in human settlements
10,000 years old. People kept goats for milk, for meat, as beasts
of burden, and as pets, and when Europeans arrived to settle
on the shores of Newfoundland, they brought their goats with
them. Goats were easier to care for and feed than cattle, and
while Newfoundland might not have been made for chariots, it
was definitely made for goats.
It seems that every other person we met in New Perlican had a
memory (good or bad) of goats. When the Heritage Foundation
of Newfoundland and Labrador worked with the town to host
the “Goat Tea and other Animal Tales” storytelling event as
part of our Oral History Roadshow programme, a crowd of
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people gathered at the town hall,
and told story after story about
these special animals and their
place in the community life of
New Perlican.
This booklet is a result of that night
of stories and the interviews that
followed. A special thank you to
all our storytellers, seniors, goat-owners,
partners, and funders
that helped with the production of
this booklet, and to Terra Barrett
and Kelly Drover for pulling it all together. Eileen Matthews
was instrumental in helping organize the Goat Tea, making
introductions, and tracking down goat enthusiasts for Terra and
Kelly to interview. Thank you, Eileen!
Thank you to the participants:
George Burrage, Bertha Conway, Louise Coombs, Rex Cotter,
Betsy Hefford, David Kelly, Thelma Manning, Bill Martin,
Bill Matthews, Ed Matthews, Ches Peddle, Ron Peddle,
Winston Peddle, Melvin Penney, Ron Piercey, Cyril Pinsent,
Susie Smith, Grant Tucker, Charlie Warren, Max Warren,
and Phil Warren.
By Dale Jarvis
"Thor" (1901) by Johannes Gehrts
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New Perlican seemed to have more goats than anywhere else.
–Grant Tucker
I would say there must have been at least two hundred goats in
New Perlican. Some people had two up top on the slides. But
there were a lot of people. And then there were horses. There
were a lot of horses. –Ron Peddle
The cows, and sheep, and the goats, and the horses: they would
all roam the roads. You would never know when you would go for
a walk in the road at night and no lights on the pole you would
never know if you were going to bump into a goat or a horse or
a cow or something on the road. You had to be very careful and
take a flashlight in the night time for sure. –Susie (Legge) Smith
Goats were a very important part of the time. I grew up in the
Depression. Goats helped us cope with the situation. They were
used for various things: they were used for beast of burden, they
were used for helping out on many chores. We had male goats
and female goats as well. Sometimes they were used as pets.
–Cyril Pinsent
The sheep and goats and that, I mean it was unbelievable. When
I started driving first, it was unbelievable out there. If I parked
the car, in front of my mother’s house, where we owned the land
anyway, right around there, I parked the car there, and when I
got up the next morning there’d be nothing but old goats’ buttons.
Sometimes they’d get their horns right around the car. Jeez
they’d scratch the paint right off of it. –Bill Martin
GOATS OF NEW PERLICAN
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GOATS OF NEW PERLICAN
Ron Peddle’s goat Shawna Dawna. Photo by Kelly Drover
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I lived on the south side of New Perlican, which was across the
main bridge there in New Perlican, going towards Winterton. If
my memory serves me correct, there were about 30 families on
the south side of New Perlican. Out of that there were probably
about half of that had goats. Those that didn’t have horses had
goats for working, particularly for working the wood. So there
were quite a few goats on the south side. I reckon that were about
15 families, or 16 families, that had goats. Of one or two. And as
I said they were primarily used for working goats. There was
some female goats that people used for milk. And then there was
also, sometimes the goats would be used for meals. Fresh meat,
something like that. –Rex Cotter
There were lots on the southside where I lived. Most everyone had
goats. Well they were always in the way. We would be playing hide
and seek and certain places we would be afraid to go because we
were afraid there were goats. There were so many goats around.
But I had no experience growing up because we had none. But a
crowd of us going around – you had to make your own fun at that
time anyway- we would be playing hide and seek and that and we
would be afraid to meet the goats. The buck goats with their horns
and everything we would be afraid of them anyway. I know that
much – we were really afraid of the buck goats they stinked and
everything else, we were afraid to go near them. Yes my stinked
if you went near them and they had those horns and you would
see them fighting. Flicking together and fighting and we would be
frightened to death of them. –Betsy (Seward) Hefford
When the two met, the Southside of New Perlican herd and the
Harbour herd, I remember seeing them meeting on the long
GOATS OF NEW PERLICAN
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bridge one day. And the two dominant males met, and it was
like what you see on television with the rocky mountain sheep
butting heads. –Bill Matthews
I knew a lot of goats when I growing up but we didn’t have any
because my dad was crippled all the time but where I lived there
was lots of goats on the go all day long. When we were growing
up, the part of Perlican that I lived, nighttime they would be
lying on the road because there were no cars anyway. I’m ninety
years old. But when we were there playing, all we saw were goats’
buttons, goats’ buttons. –Betsy (Seward) Hefford
We drank water from Harry’s Brook all my life, that's what we
grew up on, water from this pond actually, the pond that goes
down Harry's Brook and goes out into the ocean. And all during
my days here, there were flakes on that, over the brook. You'd go
down and dip up a bucket of water and there was a goats’ button
in it, and you threw the bucket of water away and dip out another
one and you might have two in that one. And the third one you
didn't throw it away, you flicked out the goats’ button and you
come on home with the water. And that was common, and we're
all still alive. –Max Warren
There’s an old story that goes way back with Dad and Uncle
Wilson first saw the goats’ buttons – guess what they thought
they were? Little candies. –Bill Matthews
GOATS OF NEW PERLICAN
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Goats are known for being very proud animals and a goat has the
very short tail. When it is stuck right up that indicates the pride
and the kind of arrogance of the goat. It can look like a very proud
animal so it has a personality. There is no doubt about that.
–Phil Warren
One of the unique things, I guess, about goats too is, unlike horse,
most horse are the same colour, they’re brown, they’re black,
they’re brown, whatever. Goats were spotted mostly. Yeah they
were different colours. So you didn’t have to mark them. Unlike
sheep, people had sheep, and they had a dozen sheep and of
course they would have their initials probably painted on them
somewhat in some form. Or something tied around their horns.
But most goats were unique in the fact that, my goat was brown
and white in different places, there was no problem identifying
them...You know your goat just by looking at it. –Rex Cotter
CHARACTERISTICS
Goats outside of Ron Peddle’s barn. Photo by Terra Barrett
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I learned that goats, even after they are trained, are strong-willed,
independent thinkers and they have a mind of their own.
–Phil Warren
Oh they were all different.
Some were brown and white,
some were all white, and some
were black and white. Some
were all brown. They were all
colours. You could always tell.
Now the sheep were different.
The sheep had to be marked.
When you let your sheep out in
the spring of the year, they had
to be marked. Sometimes they
used to put paint on their wool.
They sheared the sheep before
they go away in the spring of
the year and they’d put paint on the side of their body with the
initial of the person who owned the sheep. And as the wool grew
out, the paint grew out with the wool. By the next spring the
paint was gone out of the wool. But the goats...you could always
identify your own goat. Enough markings on the goats to identify
your own. –Susie (Legge) Smith
I’m of the opinion that they were very important. Now there
would be a segment of the population who do not believe that.
It certainly was not influenced by the children's literature who
were very unkind to goats, weren't they? You take stories like
CHARACTERISTICS
Susie Smith. Photo by Terra Barrett
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Billy Goats Gruff and so on. Even Holy Writ spoke with disdain
about goats. They’re mentioned several times in the Bible, they
were even cast with disdain on the left hand. They were not
accepted by all people. –Cyril Pinsent
People didn’t like them. And no history of goats would be
complete without that, there’s a portion of our inhabitants who
actually disliked, they hated goats. Because in the summer they
would be wandering everywhere, and they would leave a lot of
mess, they would eat the flowers and plants that people didn’t
have fenced in, and they would also rind, or remove the bark from
some of their trees. That was not widely accepted by the older
generations. –Cyril Pinsent
Stubbornness
We had two goats. We had Abel and Cain and that’s what they
called them. Abel and Cain. One was a little bit smaller than
the other one and dad loved animals, he fed them well. So in
the morning you would go up in the barn. A good, cold morning.
There were a lot of mornings I didn’t want to have to go up to the
barn but my old man would get me up about five o’clock in the
morning, I would go up and we used to give them oats. A tub of
oats every morning and a bit of hay and then you would get them
ready and you would go in in the woods then. But the little one
was pretty cute. He hooked him up to the slide, the horncat they
used to call that. Hook them up to the slide, he was alright going in
because they never had no load on the slide but coming out when
you get a load the little one used to slack back a bit, right? So the
CHARACTERISTICS
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CHARACTERISTICS
Ron Peddle talking about the horncat slide. Photo by Terra Barrett
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other one had the load and the old man used to get some mad b’y.
[Laughter] My dad used to be some mad so one day he jumped off
the slide, well we used to have the rope too not very many times
you would get on the wood, you would walk along with the goats.
You would help them. But this morning he got some mad. He
went up, he runned up and grabbed the goat by the head and bit
his ear, the little fellow’s ear and after that as soon as he would
get off the slide and walk towards the goat he would stretch right
out b’y he would almost bust the line trying to haul fast. I used to
do some laughing, that’s all he had to do was walk towards him.
But anyway after he get out and where we lived out the road out
there there is a little bit of a hill and the barn was up on the back
so mom used to buy the Girl Guide cookies right? I don’t think
we ever eat them. I guess I shouldn’t be saying that about the
Girl Guide cookies either I guess. But anyway she would go up
in the garden when she would see them coming up the driveway,
up the road, Mom used to go out on the back of the house. She
used to give them the cookies and they used to see mom coming
out and giving them cookies, and when they would see mom they
would start pulling again. They would take off across the garden
pulling the wood, to get the wood up to the barn then mom would
come out and give them a couple of Girl Guide cookies. That was
a treat sort of thing. Only for that I don’t think you would’ve got
them up there. –Ron Peddle
The goat itself is a stubborn thing. I remember going in with
Frank’s goat one time, and the little horncat or sled that John
Mills made me coming down over a hill and something startled
the goat. And of course the path was beaten but the goat startled
and jumped off into the deep snow with the load of wood and
CHARACTERISTICS
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everything. Well it was more trouble getting the goat out then I
did getting the wood out. –Bill Matthews
I bought a goat from a fella...this one was kind of a brownie, blackie,
whitie spots, right you know. It was a male goat, a buck goat. And
I used to take her out for a ride in the winter and she’d haul me
around see. But she’d get into a fit and she’d stop. And no way you
couldn’t get that goat to move. So anyway, I was telling a cousin
of mine, telling him about it. And he said, “What you got to do is,
you get off and you take the ear and put it between your teeth”, he
said, “And bite.” And he said, “You won’t have no more trouble.”
So of course I didn’t know no difference, and I done it. And I was
going there, along the high road, and she stopped and oh she got
balky, she wouldn’t go nowhere, she wouldn’t do nothing, so on
and so forth. So I said, “Oh ok I’ll bite your ear, buddy.” That’s
what I done. So when I bit her ear, of course you knows what she
done, she shook her head, you know with the pain. And just about
hauled the teeth out of my head. I had a tooth ache for days and
days and days. –Melvin Penney
As a small boy I went into the woods to get the goats, you know?
The goat decided she didn’t want to come home. And I tried
to stop her but I never really. When the goat gets that in her,
you’ve gotta have a lot of strength. And I never had the strength
to stop her so she dragged me out into the woods, you know?
–Ron Piercey
Another time we were coming out and we got up to the bridge in
Perlican and we looked and saw his eyes going up over the hill and
he was trying to get up over the hill and it was Charlie Seaward
CHARACTERISTICS
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and there wasn’t much snow on the road, a bit of gravel. I guess
the goat got a bit balky like a mule and wouldn’t pull anymore
with Charlie’s chopped wood on the slide. The goat wouldn’t pull
and we were waiting behind with our load of wood. We couldn’t
get by because there was only a little path on the side of the road
with a bit of snow on it. So anyway he went up to his house and
came back and he lifted up the goat’s tail and whacked whatever
he had on his hand on the goat’s rear end and anyway it bucks
it’s head and away it goes with a load of wood to start him off up
over the hill. We asked later what it was and apparently he had a
handful of salt and pepper! –Winston Peddle
Mischief
CHARACTERISTICS
One of Ron Peddle’s goats in barn. Photo by Kelly Drover.
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Goats are all over and they can destroy things as well. Women
who had clothes on the line would be very upset when goats would
appear and attempt to eat them or destroy them. –Phil Warren
In the morning Silv got up to get her ready to go in the woods. He
tackled her and put the slide there alongside here and he came
back in the house and he said I haven’t got very much tobacco
(because he used to chew) and he pushed it down in his pocket
and he went out and tackled her on and got ready to go and when
he stooped down the piece of tobacco came out of his pocket and
fell on the ground and nothing should the goat do but grab it and
chew it! You should see the dirt coming out of her mouth where
she was chewing tobacco. Well didn’t he get mad! That was all
the tobacco he had. –Bertha (Legge) Conway
They could almost eat everything. But one summer the rumor
spread amongst us...the fences for the gardens were by wriggles
or pickets but around the houses is was palings. And the palings
were white washed with lime every year. So there was rumor
around, I don’t know where it came from, that if you added fish
salt to your lime you would get a beautiful white sheen on your
palings. So we couldn’t afford to use salt that we bought so we
added the salt which had been put on turbot then removed before
it was shipped and mixed it with our lime. And true enough we
had a beautiful sheen of white on our palings. And we were proud
boys that we did that. Alas, the next morning when we got up and
looked out, we found out the goats had licked everything off. Just
the palings left. –Cyril Pinsent
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Bonfire night was a very important part of our life that we took
up again, the cycle of life. The children every year, you did the
same kinds of events and preparing for bonfire night and getting
trees and sometimes using goats to haul trees. You would get
them and pile them up and bring them to an area and burn them
on bonfire night commemorating the attempt on the house of
parliament in England. What you would do is gather other stuff
from the community – not just trees, old fences, boats, sometimes
you stole things like outhouses, which you shouldn’t have, to be
burned on bonfire night. –Phil Warren
Down where I lived, I lived up on the hill. I was just standing
there one day doing something, I don’t know if I was feeding
the goats, but I guess I was looking away, and one just gave me a
nudge on the rear end, and tumble, tumble, tumble. As they say in
Newfoundland “arse over kettle.” –Rex Cotter
One night Silv left the store door open and she got out of the pen.
She knocked down the pen door and she got out of the pen and
came out through the door and she come up on the platform and
she started doing like this on the door. [knocking her head] We
were in bed so I said, “My – somebody’s to the door.” So he got
out of bed and went out and when he went out this was the goat.
Knocking on the door! And he said, “You want your breakfast!”
[laughter] So when he went out she took off running - the goat
did - out through the yard and in the road and he took off after
the goat with his bare feet. He never had socks on. Nothing on
because he just got out of bed. But he took off after her and he
went, oh my, he must have went twenty or thirty feet before he
caught her. –Bertha (Legge) Conway
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When we were kids you would catch one sometimes and try to
get on his back but you wouldn’t be on his back very long before
he had you off. And there would be saucy goats too. You had to
be careful with goats. Especially after they were running all
summer used to being on their own. When you bend over they
are likely to come up and nail you. You had to watch out for that.
–Ron Peddle
CHARACTERISTICS
Ron Peddle. Photo by Terra Barrett
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CHARACTERISTICS
Now our goat Nancy was a kind of a pet thing, you know. I know
she annoyed a lot of people around, because she would get in, like
on one person here, had a pair of pantyhose or something on the
clothesline. Nancy goes in and she get it and she starts chewing,
chewing, chewing, and sort of spoil the pantyhose. She’d go out
around the store, Green’s store, used to be out around the foot of
the lane there. She would go out around the store and the kids
would be going in buying chips and cheesies, and whatever. They
would have to give her some, and if they didn’t she would go
along and nudge them and nudge them until they gave her some.
And there were dogs on the loose as well, but the dogs only run
Goats in front of the old post office on Harbour Road, early 1960s. Photo courtesy
Heritage New Perlican/Bertha Conway
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CHARACTERISTICS
after an animal if the animal shows fright and runs away. Nancy
wasn’t afraid of dogs and she’d just go sniff at the dogs and the
dogs would say, “Well there’s no sport here,” and leave her alone.
–Grant Tucker
And they were dangerous too. Like...if you were tormenting
them. There was some of them had a temperament that was a
bit on the boiling side, you know. I can remember one time, there
was a line up at the post office, just before Christmas, and there
was one came down over the hill, where they used to be up on
Norman’s Hill, that’s where they used to hang out in the daytime.
And I remember that buck came down and put its old head down
like that and charged through the crowd. But nobody got hurt,
but everybody seen him coming on down. –Bill Martin
Now Nancy, our goat, she used to go berry picking, with the
women. And I know Brenda, my wife, and the neighbour just out
the road, used to go in berry picking. When they’d get a spot of
berries, you know, they’d start picking. And Nancy would have
her spot too, and you dare not go over and pick in Nancy’s spot. I
know in one case she bucked the missus out the road, and rolled
her over down in the bushes because she came along to try and
pick berries in her spot. –Grant Tucker
Before I got married I lived down by the brook and our neighbour,
used to call her Aunt Becky Warren. She had a milk goat and
her name was Nancy. Every evening you’d hear Aunt Becky call
the goat, “Nancy, Nancy, Nancy!” So when I’d hear Aunt Becky
calling the goat, “Nancy!” I’d go up over the hill to see if I could
see the goat for her, and drive the goat home. And my friend,
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CHARACTERISTICS
sometimes my friend be with me. But anyhow this day I was by
myself looking for the goat, trying to drive the goat home. I fell
down and cut my knee, real bad cut. I was a long time before I
could walk on my knee. But I was looking for Aunt Becky’s goat,
and dad had to come up and bring me down from up on the hill,
up back of the house. He had to bring me down because I had my
knee cut. Aunt Becky used to milk her goat every morning before
she let her out and then in the evenings when she’d call her, she’d
come home and milk the goat. –Susie (Legge) Smith
My brother had a goat when he was about 8 or 9 years old. He
never could get the goat to go. He would tackle it up on the slide
and he would never get it to go. So, he used to say, “Help me now
to get it in the road.” So I’d help him to get it in over the new
road so far. Of course when you’d get it in so far we would be in
a hurry to get home. So we’d sit on, he’d sit in on the slide on one
beam and I’d sit on the other and we’d get a hurry in time home.
–Susie (Legge) Smith
Then nighttime. When we were out playing in the nighttime
they would be all laid down in the middle of the road everywhere.
–Betsy (Seward) Hefford
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CHARACTERISTICS
Shawna Dawna, one of Ron Peddle’s goats. Photo by Terra Barrett
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BREAKING THE GOAT
I found from day one that they were intelligent despite what
people said about how pigheaded and stubborn they were. They
certainly were difficult to train. You had to, we called it “break
the goat in”. That’s the terminology we used and unfortunately
we used a kind of reed of some type or a whip to train the goat,
but when the goat was trained the goat would follow on the path
and would take you on a slide and this would be the fun part of
it in the winter. But it was also used to haul like a pony was – we
didn’t have dogs. There were very few dogs in New Perlican used
for winter sleighs and taking young people, children around the
community or hauling wood. Very few dogs but people did have
goats, and as I said people used them for milk and meat as well.
–Phil Warren
I thought they could be taught. They could be taught to keep on
trails. Once you went in the woods and loaded your load of wood
with the goat, the goat knew its way home so you had very few
problems doing that. –Phil Warren
“There is a novel kind of sport which a few of the young men
of this town have lately taken up - it is goat-driving. A pair
of large goats is secured (William goats), and then a four-wheeled
vehicle, nicely painted, is attached to them and after
a little practice they make very good time on long journeys.”
Harbor Grace Standard
St. John’s Notes - May 11th, 1894
GOAT FACTS
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DOCTORING GOATS
The goats they used in the woods,
the male goats, they would
have to be neutered, you know,
otherwise they’d be too wild and
you wouldn’t be able to handle
them. They’d have to be neutered.
There’s stories about that too, I
don’t know how far you want to go
into that. But neutering the goat,
I know a very crude method, you
don’t mind me telling it? Would be
to cut the scrotum open, take out the testicles and fill the scrotum
full of Jeyes Fluid. Now, Jeyes Fluid was a kind of antiseptic, that
they used. They used it in gardens, you know, it was an agricultural
product. Fill it with Jeyes Fluid. And they would get over it and after
a while it would heal and they’d be fine. Then they became a little
more advanced and a fellow Frank Callahan in New Perlican, he
had what they call a bloodless castrator, which is kind of like a pair
of pliers where they would, the external part, they would manage to
pinch the duct, you know, and that would also serve. Now that was
painful but there was no blood. –Grant Tucker
I know there was one gentleman Mr. Callahan, he used to do that.
Whether or not it was because he had the very uniqueness of
being the 7th son of the 7th son, and he could stop blood. He could
put away warts. He put away warts on my hand, I never saw a
wart since. You know, he could do wonders. He could charm a
tooth if you had a toothache. But put a worm on his hand and it
would die. I guess, I don’t know if it was because he could stop
blood from flowing. –Rex Cotter
Grant Tucker. Photo by Terra Barrett
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KEEPING GOATS
You’ve got to keep their toenails cut. They can get foot rot when
the dirt gets up under them and they get infections but usually
after all winter you would cut their toenails before you let them
out and then when you were bringing them in in the fall you
would cut their toenails again. When I was growing up here they
were a short legged goat with long hair. I would say crossed with
a Toggenburg goat because a Toggenburg goat has longer hair.
I would say mostly that’s where they came from but they were
all crossed. I mean there were all these goats breeding with
one another so there were probably a few Heinz 57 among them
anyways. –Ron Peddle
Every bit of scraps from the table and things like that, that was
all recycled in the goats’ buttons. That could have been put on
the grounds too, and a little bit of hay that they used too, in their
pens. They say smell sticks in your brain more than anything. I
can still smell the old goat’s pen. –Bill Matthews
They’ll eat anything I mean a goat, they’ll come down and eat stuff
off the clothesline if you’re not careful. A goat will eat anything.
They’ll eat almost any kind of weed. They’ll clean your vegetable
garden out in a few minutes if you are not careful. –Ron Peddle
What do goats eat?
Hay. See you would cut so much hay in the summer and dry it and
put it away in the stable loft somewhere keep it all winter and we
used to cook potato scraps and scraps off our vegetables and put
them on the stove and boil them and give them their breakfast
to eat. –Bertha (Legge) Conway
26
USEFULNESS
At that time I would say
New Perlican had probably
more goats per capita than
any other community on the
shore. I’m sure Winterton
and Heart’s Content had
their share but we had a
lot of goats. And they were
used mostly for two or three
purposes. Pets, yeah they
were pets in my case my first
goat was a pet. It was used
to help work if you wanted
to get wood from the woods
we used a goat to haul and
people used it for meat and
of course milk. It was used for what else? Meat, milk, manure I
supposed we used. So these are the uses. But the attitude towards
goats was always more negative then. They were always seen as
being cantankerous and determined, difficult to train and some
of that may have come from the Bible. –Phil Warren
One of the things that I think about goats is we practiced our
carpentry skills, building goats’ pens, as a boy. I can remember
going to people's houses say, well on Saturday or whatever, we've
got to fix up the goats pens. That's where we got our carpentry
skills. Learn how to chop and round out sticks, and saw, you
know what I mean, and hammer. There was no screws at the time
so it was hammer. Lots of times we would use rope, old pieces of
fishing line, to tie it together. Making yokes for the goats, cause
Sylvanus Seward. Photo courtesy of
Heritage New Perlican
27
that time it, wasn't to keep the goats in, at that time it was to keep
them out of your garden. –Max Warren
They roamed all summer long, so they kept the grass down. And
the stuff growing, the nuisance stuff, the alders, they kept them
down. And they lived off the fir trees. They kept everything really,
better than the lawn mowers of today. Because at that time the
roads were narrow and you usually had about four, five, six feet
of grass on either side so they kept that mowed down. Firewood.
Logs. Everything, practically everything came out with goats.
They weren’t expensive to keep. And they kept the woods in good
condition. Most people could afford a goat, but a horse was a big
item. –Ed Matthews
The goats used to haul the water with the barrels. Sometimes
had the barrel on the sleigh in the wintertime and pull the water
to the door. Then you’d bring it in put it in your barrel, put your
barrel in the porch. And get the wood, I don’t know what other
chores. I spose whatever chores were to be done...you hear tell of
hoops years ago? Barrel hoops, I don’t know if you heard tell of
that. But they used to cut big alders and split ‘em and make hoops
for the barrels that the old people used to make. They used to
make, they used to call it bundles, but it’d be so many bundles,
and after you’d get so many bundles of hoops made, they’d
have to take them down to Winterton because that’s where the
merchant they used to take the hoops to. I remember my husband
telling me one time that he took three goats on the slide, and his
grandfather, and they went to Winterton. It was quite a way to
Winterton. Before you get to Winterton there was a big hill, so
when they got to the top of the hill, his grandfather said to him,
USEFULNESS
28
“You can go on, now.” He said, “I’ll dodge on behind you.” So my
husband got on the slide, with the hoops and came on, came down
over the hill so fast he passed along by the merchant's store. He
never stopped ‘cause the goats wouldn’t stop, and they passed
along by the merchant’s store. And his grandfather got there
and he wasn’t there. And he said to, there was a couple of men
there, “Did you see a young feller here with the goats and hoops?”
And the men said, “B’y he might be in Hant’s Harbour now.”
USEFULNESS
Unidentified goat with water barrel. Photo courtesy of Rex Cotter
29
USEFULNESS
He said, “He passed along here like a shot out of a gun.” He said,
“He could be in Hant’s Harbour now.” Anyhow, he had to turn
around and come back with the hoops. Like I said they were a
great help. –Susie (Legge) Smith
I know when my father had three goats - but I forget their names.
Sister Bett was saying she thought that one of them was named
Juicy Fruit. Perhaps he was, I don’t know. But we had one beautiful
one - a brown, multicoloured, the colour of a brown lab with white
spots and a few darker spots. Beautiful goat he was. But in the
wintertime my father had a kind of sleigh that he put the water
barrel on and went to the well and filled it up on that and the goat
would pull the sleigh. –Thelma (Callahan) Manning
It was common to see a horncat with a goat tied onto it, with a
fellow...and he also had a piece of rope tied onto the sled itself,
wrapped around his shoulders. So he was helping the goat as
well. Yeah, they came home a lot faster then they went in. They
knew what was happening and I guess they didn't get fed until
they got home. That was the objective to bring them, to get them
home was not to feed them. –Max Warren
When you would be in the woods with a slide you would be
coming down over the hill and you had a stick out and the goat
would be out ahead and the fellow here would be holding on and
skidding down over the hill to keep it from running into the goat.
–Ches Peddle
30
YOKES
Years ago they used to put
collars on them so they
wouldn’t get into gardens
but that’s illegal you are not
allowed to do that anymore.
It was a yoke it came down
and went across like a
triangle actually. And they
put it over their horn and
they screw up together and
let them go. –Ron Peddle
Now in the spring before
they were let go to run wild
everywhere. But before
they were let go a yoke was placed on their neck. Now the yoke was
made from three sticks. Two short ones about an inch in diameter,
and one long one. Now there’s a reason for the yokes. Every square
inch, I would say, of the land during these years in New Perlican
was fenced in with either wriggle fence or pickets. And the yokes
were put on the goats so they wouldn't get into the gardens and eat
the grass. They also, were free to roam wherever they wished. It
was a common sight in the ‘30s and ‘40s in the summer to see goats
wandering in the path and the roads. –Cyril Pinsent
A yoke is, well an oxen’s yoke is a thing that goes over their neck
for pulling. But the goat’s yoke was a triangular, three pieces of
wood nailed together. And of course if you know anything about
goats they will eat anything, anywhere, anytime, pretty well,
Including clothes lines and the rind off of the wood, and they will
Goats wearing yokes on Pinsent’s Lane, 1940s.
Photo courtesy of Heritage New Perlican
31
clear the land for you. But they will also want to get in at young
cabbages, and will stick their head in. So this yoke would block
them from getting through gaps in the fence to get at different
vegetables and stuff like that. That didn’t go over too good with
people growing vegetables. –Bill Matthews
I have a lot of stories that I could tell about goats, harnessing
them and yoking them. In order to prevent them from getting into
gardens or getting out if you had them in you put a yoke on them.
A yoke was a triangular wood that you nailed together, with two
sides of the same length that you put together and nailed them,
nailed one across the bottom and that prevented them from
getting into gardens. You yoked them. So every spring you yoked
your animals because in New Perlican your goats were free
to roam and so were other animals until more recent years. In
New Perlican we had Newfoundland ponies that were in fenced
pastures but goats were always free so they went from house
to house picking up the scraps, eating the scraps of potatoes,
and turnip and carrot that was thrown out, leftovers. They ate
anything. –Phil Warren
They could jump better than a deer, so most people had to put
what they called a yoke on them. A triangle of wood on their
neck all summer long so they wouldn’t jump the fences for their
vegetable. –Ed Matthews
In the winter they were barred in the store, and put in the pen in
the store. And in the spring the goats were let out to roam. Usually
they’d go up here in those woods up on the back of Perlican.
People used to have gardens, and they’d have their vegetables in
YOKES
32
the garden. Sometimes the goats would get in, so they’d have
to put this yoke on the goat. Triangular boards nailed across.
They’d have to put the yokes on the goat so that they wouldn’t
get in the garden. –Susie (Legge) Smith
Well when I grew up - heavens up knows that wasn’t yesterday
- goats were used for everything! To get wood out of the forest.
For hauling it on sleighs in the wintertimes. In the summertime
all the goats were let free and they all wore collars. The collars
were for if there was a hole in the fence they couldn’t get in
because this collar was made out of wood and shaped like a
triangle so that the goats couldn’t get in at the vegetables in the
garden. So before they were all let loose the owners used to put
the yokes on them. –Thelma (Callahan) Manning
YOKES
“Police Office, Harbor Grace, 16th May, 1884. In accordance
with Chapter 79 of the Consolidated Statutes...All Goats
running at large must be yoked, each with a good substantial
yoke, of which the lower bar shall be 3 feet, and the upper bar
not less than 18 inches in length otherwise may be impounded
in the nearest common pound by any person. Penalty not
exceeding $2.00 - with costs.”
Harbor Grace Standard
May 14th, 1884
GOAT FACTS
33
GOATS AS PETS
When my children
were small, there was a
fellow in New Perlican
who had a goat whose
mother had died, I
believe, and he had to
wean it on a bottle, you
know. We took it in here
and we made a pet out
of it. That goat would
play like a dog, with the
children. There was a
pile of rocks out here
in front of the house
where they dug up for
water and sewer. Big
boulders right, they’re
gone now. The kids
and the goat would
play jump the rocks,
you know jumping from rock to rock. And the goat was better at
it then the kids, and the goat knew it! Alice, my daughter, and I
were talking about her the other day, and when she looks back
she says it was the best pet we ever had. And my young fellow
in the wheelchair, he’d go out in the harbour there sometimes
during the day, and he would always come back for supper. And
the goat would come back, and as he’d be coming up the hill she’d
be behind pushing his wheelchair. She had a couple of kids, and
the kids were ok,and then another year she had another couple of
kids and she never recovered from the birthing. She died, a very
Bella the goat. Photo by Terra Barrett
34
GOATS AS PETS
sad day. I took her in St. John’s, Nancy we called her, took her
in St. John’s to the vet, that was the only vet available then. Not
much he could do for her. Brought her back home and she died
out in the porch. Sad, very sad but that’s it, that’s part of goats.
–Grant Tucker
Another time we were
having a party up to the
house, a birthday party
for one of the youngsters
I think. Their father went
out in the stable and took
the goat out of the pen
tied her tail up to her leg
where she wouldn’t dirt
on the floor and brought
her in the house and
put her in the kitchen
alongside the youngsters.
Well did they ever have
a time with that goat.
Yes that’s what they did.
–Bertha (Legge) Conway
I had a goat, I was about 13 I guess, probably about 13 when I
had a goat for the first time. It was a small goat. I didn’t use it for
work, this was strictly for pleasure with me, a little boy. But I had
it connected up, harnessed up to my slide, what we call these
days horn slide which was used to in the wood. But I didn’t do
any wood cutting I don’t remember. But anyway the goat was not
Bertha Conway. Photo by Terra Barrett
35
trained to be used to the reins, because, rig a horse and you go to
the right, pull on the right rein. Go to the left, pull on the left. And
the same thing applies to goats. But unfortunately my goat was
not trained, a young goat. So wherever the goat went I went not
vice versa. I had it for a year or so and then I guess I had enough
of the goat and I gave it to my grandfather in Victoria. He had it
for a while, and then one day he had it for Sunday dinner. So that
was the end of my goat. It had an unusual name, it was called
Stockling. –Rex Cotter
I’ve got a real great goat story. We went to New Perlican and I had
two or three children then, so I drove down and they were doing
the water and sewage down there and there was this goat that
had kind of been raised as a pet and it was called Tina and it was
never tied on. Well nothing was tied on in those days, people were
fenced in and the gardens were fenced in and the animals were all
on the loose. So every time the men bent down to do something,
Tina would hit them, she would butt them, drive them in a hole
or something right? So they had to get rid of it. So I bought it for
five dollars and had it all trussed up. Someone trussed it up for
me and put it in the trunk and brought it up to Heart’s Content,
going to bring it to Pouch Cove as we were visiting my parents
then, right? So up she comes and let the goat out and my father
had a boxer called Boo and as soon as Boo saw the goat he had it
as quick as that by the throat was going to kill it, the goat couldn’t
breathe. So what my father did was grab the two of them and
run across the road and hold the two of them underwater. The
goat had to go under too because the two of them were so close
together and when the dog started drowning he let go then he
grabbed the dog and everything was okay after that. So Tina
GOATS AS PETS
36
came to Pouch Cove and we had her all that summer and she
was lovely. She used to come in here in the morning and they
used to have bunk beds in the bedroom and she used to go in
and she would get on the bed and pull the covers back with her
teeth. She was really cute. Pull the covers back so they would
get up and everything. –Patricia (Hicks) Cumby
He had a goat and the goat had kids and the mom didn’t take
one of the goats, one of the kids so my mom took the baby goat
and put a little bed by the
stove and got a baby bottle.
The goat would lay there
and my mom would feed the
goat the bottle. It became
domesticated. My mom fed
the goat the bottle and goat
got to the point where it was
domesticated and we would
let it outside and it would
come in the house and lie in
its bed. My dad, my stepdad,
just loved animals. He had a
horse that he didn’t even have
to put anything on the horse it
would just follow him around.
He used to feed the wild cats
too, so he just loved animals and the animals took a really good
liking to him. I can’t remember how long we had the goat but I
know the mom goat, my mom used to milk the goat, and we used
to drink the goat milk. And it was really good! Really good milk.
One of Ron Peddle’s kids.
Photo by Kelly Drover
GOATS AS PETS
37
Anyway this little kid goat got used to being inside and we didn’t
know what to do with it. Anyway my stepdad and mom decided
to give the goat to Grant Tucker’s little guy. –Louise Coombs
I just remember that the little goat used to go outside and if you
left the door open she would come back in and lie down by the
stove in her little bed. It was just like a cat or a dog. It was so cute.
I remember my mom used to get up at night and feed this goat a
bottle. –Louise Coombs
Silv Seaward, we used to hang out there when we were young
and he had a goat and we would be all there sat down and by and
by he would get up and go out and next thing you know you saw
the goat coming in the door. He would be going around with the
goat. There would probably be fifteen or twenty in the house. He
would go all around with the goat and the goat never bothered.
She just went around. He used to do that all the time. I remember
one time the goat got up on her two legs and hit him with her
two horns and blackened his two eyes. That’s true, a true story.
–Ches Peddle
Markie was my pet goat. You notice in the picture, I have a little
horncat hooked up to my goat and that goat pulled me around
and all that stuff. Around our property, close by. Anyhow, it was
a pet goat, he came by name. When I called him, he came. I fed
him, he ate scraps like every other goat that was a pet in town.
He hauled little bits of wood for me when I was a kid. We burnt
wood certainly and I hauled him around the yard and all over. I
was pretty young as you can see in that picture, but anyhow, as
it turned out , I thought the world of the goat and the goat was
GOATS AS PETS
38
my friend, pet and all that. Anyhow, my goats came to an end
about three years after I had the goat, when somebody wanted
to buy my goat. They had a kid and the kid wanted a pet. These
people knew my dad, through my dad being well known up and
down the shore in Trinity Bay due to his taxi service that he
had. I didn’t want to sell the goat but I thought about it after a
while and thought some other little kid is going to enjoy the
goat like I did. We sold the goat to these folks, and about three
weeks after I wanted to go visit the goat. It wasn’t a good time,
I think the people told my dad, or for some reason I couldn’t go
and visit the goat. About a month or so, two months after that, I
wanted to go and visit the goat. I got into, sortof like a little huff
because I couldn’t go and see the goat. My dad broke the news
GOATS AS PETS
Charlie Warren and his goat Markie. Photo courtesy of Charlie Warren.
39
GOATS AS PETS
to me that the people killed the goat and ate it. They had the
goat for a meal… I’m not kidding you, I was upset for months.
I’m not kidding, as you can see I was pretty young there, in that
picture...My dad found out they slaughtered the goat, and ate
it. That was not the reason I wanted to sell the goat, that’s for
sure...I cried for two or three months after that. I was broken.
I was really, really disappointed and even at that age, I knew it
wasn’t right. But anyhow, I guess they were hungrier than we
were. And I’m telling you, anybody will tell you that we were
pretty poor when I was growing up. We could've used a goat for
a meal ourself if it wasn’t a pet. –Charlie Warren
“Boys Rescue Stranded Goats - Spaniard’s Bay, Oct. 29 -
“Goats have always had high notions, but when they take on
the role of Lucifer to ascend too high there is bound to be a
fall. And they are not the best loved of animals whether they
go high or low, poor creatures, yet someone is always ready to
get them out of a tight spot when ill luck befalls them.”
“Boys Rescue Stranded Goats - Spaniard’s Bay”
The Daily News
November 1st, 1956
GOAT FACTS
40
GOAT MILK
See you can drink goats’ milk right from the tap pretty much
because goats’ milk doesn’t have to be pasteurized whereas cows’
milk had to be pasteurized. –Ron Peddle
Goats’ milk was a popular thing, you know. I remember my
mother saying they drank goats’ milk quite a bit. When you grew
up, see that was common. There were more goats around then
there was cows, let’s put it that way. –Max Warren
There was one gentleman here, Charlie Warren, that raised
milk goats. He used to milk them and people would get a taste
of goats’ milk. Some people found that goats’ milk was good for
babies that had certain digestive problems or whatever, and
Charlie would always give them a bottle of milk for the babies,
but I don’t think he ever got to the commercial operation level.
And knowing Charlie they were probably bigger pets then they
were milk producers. –Bill Matthews
I was raised on goats’ milk. Milk goats were kept, just in case a
child was born and the mother couldn’t feed the child. According
to what they say, goats’ milk is probably the most nutritious, you
know. Anyway, I was raised on goats’ milk, as were many children
these times, right. And even if mother had milk, the goats’ milk
was sometimes used as a supplement you know as an additional.
So, goats are always really part of the scene. –Grant Tucker
41
PREDICTING THE WEATHER
Everybody will tell you that, that they're a good prediction of the
weather. I can remember mom, sun is shining and the goats are
coming down from the new road, cause they would go and feed
in the woods. And you saw 60 or 70 goats running down, the sun
is shining, you better get your clothes off the line. That was one
of the key things, Mom would say, “Come on help me with the
clothes. We gotta get it in because rain is coming.” Sure enough,
guaranteed you're going to have rain. The goats were good at
that, predictions. –Max Warren
See when it was going to rain all the goats would be in the woods
and when it was going to rain they’d come all out in a big line. Every
one following the other. All the time and they would go in under
flakes out of the rain but when you see them coming you would
say, “Oh, we’re going to have rain.” –Bertha (Legge) Conway
They were great forecasters for the weather, because they would
go into the woods of course I guess to get the greens they would
eat from the grass in the woods, just up over the hills on the south
side. But if the rain was going to come, we would know before any
forecast, and more accurate forecast. Yes they would all come
down out of the woods, and go underneath the flakes on the south
side. One common place was underneath what used to be the
home of the S.U.F., the fishermen’s building which is now where
they have a coffee shop down there. Yeah, and that was all just
open space underneath there. Until the rain came, they would go
in there when the rain came, and a half an hour after they came
out. You’d be sure when they left the rain was off, and they’d go
back into the woods again. –Rex Cotter
42
PREDICTING THE WEATHER
Goats in the community were known to indicate what weather
was expected. If goats were eating they browsed. They didn’t
graze they browsed and they ate trees and tips of trees. If they
were in the weather and it looks as if it was going to get a storm,
rain, goats would often come out of the woods and get into
protected areas of the community. When you saw the goats
coming out as a herd from the forest nearby you could expect rain
or some kind of stormy weather. They were an indicator of that.
So in the community they served a lot of purposes. –Phil Warren
I was always fascinated by the number of goats and many times
I heard someone comment about how the goats predicted the
weather. Depending which way they were heading either up
or down the road was an indication of whether it was going to
be wet and windy, sunny or a strong wind was brewing. If they
just lazed around, the weather was going to be calm. This one
particular time, there was a group of them that came into the
lane by Uncle Jim Grant's house and around the back door. His
wife Aunt Bertha said we needed to drive them away so out we
went. The majority started to leave when we got shooing them,
but of course there was a few stubborn ones including a small kid
whose horns were just long enough to hold onto and were sharp.
He bucked me in the leg with the tip of the horn. I grabbed him by
the horns and started to lead him towards the road. It had rained
earlier and there was a puddle of water beside the house. Just
as Aunt Bertha started to say "Let go because he will jump" and
before I had a chance to react, he jumped and I went face first
into the puddle of muddy water. I thought Aunt Bertha was going
to split her sides laughing. The shocked look on my face must
43
have been worth the cash. That event is one of my fond memories
of my times in New Perlican. –David Kelly
That was always the habit. Towards evening here the goats would
file out of the woods and then of course they would go back again
in the morning. I remember one time in the sixties, it must have
been the early sixties – there was an eclipse of the sun and that
particular eclipse darkened the whole area pretty dark and as
the sun was going into the eclipse, here the goats started coming
out of the woods, took up their spot underneath the flakes and
stages and then all of sudden the sun came out again and here the
goats were confused and you could actually see the confusion on
their faces so they filed back in the woods again. –Grant Tucker
They were also a good weather forecast. Only one we had at the
time. When you’d get up in the morning in the summer time
they’d go in the woods fifteen, twenty in a group. If they came
out before supper time, everyone ran to take up their hay or fish,
whatever was drying because it was going to rain...So that was
the forecast for rain or a good day...They were the forecasters of
the day. Better than Eddie Sheerr. –Ed Matthews
If you expected rain. Wherever they were they were headed back
to get under some sort of a ledge or something to get out from
the rain. They could tell beforehand when the rain was going to
come. And they’d be there under cover by the time the rain arrive.
–Ron Piercey
Oh they would be fighting with each other all the time. Bang!
Bang with the horns banging together. It would be quiet like it
PREDICTING THE WEATHER
44
is here now and by and by you would see them running along,
probably 25 or 30 of them and then the old people would go on
the flake and tear up the fish because it was guaranteed to rain.
It was a better forecast. –Ches Peddle
PREDICTING THE WEATHER
Ches Peddle. Photo by Terra Barrett
45
A MEAL OF GOAT
Usually people had a cow or two and they would slaughter in the
fall. They would have pigs, pigs were popular and you bought a
small pig in the spring and of course fed it all summer with fish
and vegetables, leftover food was often given to the pigs. So goats,
sheep to a lesser degree, because you’ve got the wool of course
as well as the mutton, some Newfoundland ponies, some cows,
lots of hens and so on of course because in the thirties people
raised their own meats and their vegetables and they used their
vegetables to feed their animals and slaughtered them in the fall
for food for the winter. They shared of course. If someone had a
cow and killed a cow in slaughter in the fall other people in the
community got their share of meat. –Phil Warren
They were put on earth to eat. Like sheeps, or cows, or whatever.
But they are fed well and treated well up there. –Ron Peddle
I know right now in rural Newfoundland I believe there is a
market for it because Middle Eastern people like goat and there
is nothing done commercially I don’t think. There is only one or
two people in the community with goats right now and one of
those gentlemen told me it was no sweat to sell a goat in the fall.
–Bill Matthews
I had another goat. So mom figured a bit of goat meat would be
good you know, help us along. A fair sized family of us. So I said,
“Yeah, I’ll kill the goat, if that’s what you want. You want some
meat.” I got her in the barn, there by the pond, and I got her rein….
I took a knife and the knife, wasn’t very sharp, and I didn’t know
no difference see, being 11 years old, or maybe even 12. Well I
took the knife to cut her throat, that was the first thing to do. Of
46
A MEAL OF GOAT
course the goat didn’t want to die, and she was going all over the
place, there with her throat cut. All over the place, blood flying
everywhere. I got frightened to death. Because now I didn’t know
what to do. So anyway, I finally, I done the job and started in
skinnin’ her. So this fella came in, and this was the same fella that
told me about biting her ear. And I said, “Don’t tell me nothin.” I
said, “Almost lost my teeth last time you told me something.” He
said, “What are you doing anyway?”. “Boy,” I said, “I’m peeling
this one now.” What I should have said was, “I’m skinnin’ her.”
My word was I was peeling her. I was a bit on the comical side
anyway. And boy, he laughed and he laughed and laughed and
he laughed. –Melvin Penney
You can put it in the oven like a roast in a roasting pot. Now the
way we like it here... I like goat but you don’t want goat cooked
a whole lot. It’s not like pork chops where pork has to be cooked
well. I usually take a frying pan, an iron frying pan, and I put a
little bit of oil in it and you get it hot. You want your frying pan
good and hot and then we put just a couple of little pieces of fat
pork and put it in and then a little bit of soy sauce and then bit
of pepper and a little bit of salt and the chops. You get your goat
chops and you just chuck them in and they sizzle and you only
want it cooking for a couple of minutes. If you overcook goat it’s
going to curl up and it’s going to be shoe leather. You can cook
goat medium rare – a little bit red. –Ron Peddle
The two young bucks I had, when they got old enough someone
said, “You should kill them now for the winter,” right? So anyway,
I said, “Come on, cause I’m fed up with this.” I got in the back seat
of the car, someone else was driving my car. We went out and
47
three or four rounds of ammunition, we were trying to shoot ‘em
see, because you couldn’t get near ‘em. They were going mad, I
mean. And they could go to, up the side of the hill or in around
the cliff. In around on the back of where I had the house in the
cove, they used to go up there to hang out up there. They’d go
right up a path. You’d never say anything would get up there,
right? So then, I got another feller out there see, Charlie Seward,
who’s dead now. But Charlie went in, got in the back seat of the
car and I drove along and bang, bang, bang, like that. That was it.
We went to work, and we got them out in Charlie’s stable and he
skinned ‘em and everything . We were going to have the big feed
that night out there in another house. When we got it cooked, I
couldn’t eat it. I wasn’t, you know, I said, “Naw, I don’t like that
now.” My brother and the rest of the crowd was there, they went
into it. Loved it! –Bill Martin
I can remember eating goats. Sometimes now, if anybody had a
goat and you killed the goat...back then years ago there seemed
to be a lot of, a lot of meat and they'd share. Sometimes when
you knew somebody had a goat they'd bring you a meal, a roast
off their goat and same way with the sheep. They'd do the same
thing when they'd kill the sheep. That was mutton. And they'd
bring you a meal of mutton. Everybody shared years ago when
you had things like that. –Susie (Legge) Smith
Just the same as you would a roast of meat. Same thing with
onion and water and in your roaster. Of course so long a time.
Now my daughter and them, they just won a half a goat and half
a lamb and it was only recently I was up there and had some. It’s
not a choice dish for people, not today, but now the older people
A MEAL OF GOAT
48
are used to it, they don’t mind. But it’s almost the same as fresh
meat. Not a big lot of difference in it. Dependent on the way you
cook it too. Because people now use more sauces and things like
that on their meat and ribs but the goat was only just cooked with
ordinary salt and pepper. Usually a little bit of salt pork. Salt and
pepper and onion. But it was a delicious meal, I tell you, when
we were small everything was good. Cause we didn’t have full
and plenty lots of times. So, things like that used to be a treat.
–Susie (Legge) Smith
A MEAL OF GOAT
“Hanover had 178,634 fruit trees planted along its streets.
How long, what with the goats and the kids, two legged and
four, would fruit trees remain and the fruit ripening in
the the streets over “this Newfoundland of ours.” Broken
windows, chipped mouldings, broken down fences, stolen
crab-apples, flower-robbed cemeteries answer; Not Long.
Parents, teachers, pulpits and press, constabulary and
Court House, all good citizens can do their part to prevent
the pump of destructiveness becoming so highly developed as
it is in the cranium of the average Terranovan youth. As for
the goats, they are the despair of the farmer, the legislator,
and the political economist.”
Harbor Grace Standard
March 22nd, 1907
GOAT FACTS
49
STINKY BUCKS
A buck goat, a male goat, we always called them “stinky buck.”
There was a powerful odor. If you happened to touch the goat or
anything, get it on your hands you’d never get it off. Now these
are the goats that weren’t altered, or weren’t neutered. Old Frank
Callahan used to say, not neutered, he used to say altered. The
goats that weren’t neutered they did give off a powerful smell, and
not a pleasant one. But then again, there was all kinds of smells
around then, so it just sort of blended in with everything else.
Because there was fish you know, rotting in the beaches, and the
blubber barrels you know with a smell. All of that was all part of,
I suppose, part of the ambient smell, you know. Nobody seemed
to notice it and just took it as a matter of course. –Grant Tucker
I think that's the same as when the moose go into rut at a certain
time of the year, and I think the buck goat goes into a rut and he
sprayed himself and that was the smell that you were getting,
the foul smell. I don't think they were like that all the time, once
the rut is over and the breeding's done, that's an attraction that's
all. But they did. You knew, you knew there was one, definitely,
in the vicinity at that time, at a particular time of the year. No
doubting it. –Max Warren
The Stinky Buck Club. First when I came home from the main-land,
it was a great relief to get home from the allergies and
all of that stuff in the summer time and we weren’t immune to
having parties at my place on the deck and whatever. We used
to have a Tory Road party when people would come around,
almost like a street party.
50
STINKY BUCKS
Out of boredom I guess, one night we were talking about the
different, like the Orangemen and the Masons and the this and
that, and why in the world couldn’t we start something? Not that
we didn’t have a few drinks in. And so we decided.
I lived next door of course to the surgery that I mentioned
earlier, about where Frank Piercey used to castrate them. And
of course we lived next door to the surgery. The old storehouse
was still there then. So we put a name on the old storehouse, “The
Surgery”, and of course a lot of questions were asked about that.
Then as the night grew on, I said “let’s start a club.” And what
are we going to call the club related to rural Newfoundland? We
called it the Stinky Buck Club. One thing led to another, oh we
had a lot of fun. A lot of laughing. There were people from Halifax
there, that lived in Halifax, and native Newfoundlanders who
had planned to come home. We would use it as a conversation
piece and we started, not a charter of rights, but more or less a
bunch of rules for the membership in the Stinky Buck Club.
I worked away most of my life, and was still running back and
forth sometimes to the mainland to work, and we were told that
next year when we met we should have a membership explosion,
and we started to write up these rules anyway. It was just a great
bit of fun. I remember one of the membership fees, of course
this was an exclusive club. To get into it, we set it, I think it was
$150,000 for initiation. You know, that made lot of sense. The
next year when Boyd and a few of the other people came home,
we just couldn’t figure out how people weren’t joining our club.
We finally brought it down; the initiation fee was a little high.
51
Then there were a bunch of other
symbols that we developed. Like
the Masonic and that have their
symbols, so we gotta have our
symbols. So we made a pair of
cardboard horns and a yoke,
because the yoke was what kept
the goats out of people’s, cabbage
gardens. And there was one..oh
yes chin whisker. So the initiation
rite I guess, was to wear this,
horns, and the chin whisker, and
the yoke. And it was a yoke, boy
we laughed. Oh man, we had a lot
of fun. –Bill Matthews
Oh my yes for sure. There was one used to come up from
Winterton, a big goat that used to come up from Winterton, with
great big horns, in summertime. And when she’d pass along,
oh my! They used to call them the stinky bucks, and they were
definitely sticky bucks. They were really, really...that was the big
father goat. And the other ones now they used to doctor, that’s
the ones they used to use in the woods. Because you’d never be
able to bar it in your store or anything like that to use for in the
woods. You'd have to get rid of that smell. For sure. But the little
she goats, the [oh] goats we used to call them, they never used to
smell, never smelled at all. –Susie (Legge) Smith
STINKY BUCKS
Bill Matthews. Photo by Terra Barrett
52
We always had a few hens but then I tried to talk the wife into
getting goats. She wouldn’t let me have a dog. I wanted to have
a goat or a dog well she said you are not getting a dog so you can
have a goat. So that’s how we got into goats, right? Same with the
sheep, the rams were bad too. They’ll buck you. We used to catch
them and catching them wasn’t easy. We used to find a place
down the harbour where Raymond Pitt’s and them had a house
there. There was a little lane, hardly enough room for two people
to go through, and we used to all get together. The old fellows
would get the young fellows to go chase the goats for them to get
them home. We used to drive them out to this lane and then one
fellow had to get on the other side of the lane and when you get
them in there they had to go single file to get through the lane and
on the other side when the goat come through he would make the
big jump and grab him by the horns and everybody would jump
on and grab the horns to try to get a rope around it right. You
would make a few hitches around his horns. That’s how we used
to catch them. –Ron Peddle
People used to give us a chocolate
bar or an apple if we would go
and catch their goat for them.
We used to try and corner them,
two or three of us get together,
boys, and try and corner a goat.
We weren't very successful at it, I
can guarantee you that. We could
only back them up so far and then
they're coming at you, right. So,
that was one of my experiences
CATCHING GOATS
Max Warren. Photo by Terra Barrett
53
with the goats, getting pushed over. Definitely as a child. But we
would just carry on. We were brave enough to venture again the
next day, and try it again . But there were always one or two goats
that you were scared of. –Max Warren
See years ago they let everything go, all the animals were let go.
As soon as the weather breaks they were gone. Then in the fall
you would go looking for your animals. Now with sheep they
used to have a bit of paint on them so you could know your sheep
but the goats I mean everybody knew the goats pretty well. You
would go in then with a crowd of young fellows to catch the goats
and bring them home and put them in your barn and rear them
up for in the woods. –Ron Peddle
CATCHING GOATS
Goats in Ron Peddle’s barn. Photo by Terra Barrett
54
GOATS ON ICE
They were no good on ice I remember that. Some people, and I
didn’t know this, I never saw it in action, but some people made
boots for their goats and put little, I guess you’d call tacks or
sparbles in to protect the feet of the goat on ice, and I guess they
would struggle along and pull their load. –Bill Matthews
I was in the woods with my father. Goats they were unhandy
on the ice. It was in the late winter and there was a little pool of
water around the edge of the pond. Coming out, we had two goats,
we always had two goats on the slide. One goat got tangled up in
the traces of the other. My father went and stooped down to clear
them out. One goat came up from behind and hit him in the rear
end and put him right out into a pool of water. –Cyril Pinsent
They were good, strong. Only thing was when it came to on the
ponds when is was slippery, they were useless. They were no
good on ice. –Ed Matthews
When they would get to the pond they used to stop and they
used to have knit socks to put over their hoof and that way they
wouldn’t slip on the pond. They made out of a bit of rope about
that length to put over his little hoof. If you wouldn’t put that on
they’d be all over the place, slipping around hey? –Ches Peddle
There was another fellow and he never had no socks, he used to
put them on the load of wood. He got the goat and put her on the
load of wood and he hauled the goat and the load of wood over the
pond. That’s true. A fellow by the name of [Harrison William] did
for a long while. –Ches Peddle
55
Knit. The boots were knit. Made of wool so they would stick to
the ice. Years ago if you were walking in over the pond and it was
blowing a gale of wind over the pond you take the rubbers off,
your boots and go on and walk on in a pair of woolen socks. That’s
the same as the goat. –Ches Peddle
I remember one time we were coming out of the woods with the
goats. We got up to this big pond, big pond in Perlican…. So I had
to take the goats and put them on top of the load of wood. Half
way over the pond we went ... Me, the goat, and a load of wood to
get to the other side of the pond. The ice was pure ice, and we had
to wait a while. Then we finally got the goat going again on the
side of the pond. It took a while but about an hour later we finally
got back home with the goat, and wood. –Winston Peddle
I used to use a goat and my father was away so I cut firewood. In
the fall before the snow came we would go in and cut the wood
to be hauled out and cut up for firewood in the winter. So in
September, October, November I would go in and cut wood and
pile it, and sometimes stick it up so that when the snow came you
could use your slide to pull it out. I would have all of this done
in September, October so when the snow came in December,
January we would go in on Saturday mornings in particular. It
may sound funny but I was always very competitive so I would
always want to be one of the first with the goat harnessed to the
slide go in and load up wood. One year I went further in. Every
year you go a little further in to get the right amount of wood.
You had to go around a pond so you would go in and often tie the
goat to a tree at the mouth of the pond and you would go across
the pond, load up your wood, and come back across the pond,
GOATS ON ICE
56
which is easy, and tackle the goat on and go home. Usually it was
downhill so you had to be careful that you kept the wood behind
the goat because the goat was good on level or on up hill. One
winter I, being creative, decided I would take the goat around the
pond going in because goats were not very good on ice. They’re
not like horses which are shod. I took the goat up around the pond
on the path staying clear of the ice, loaded up the slide with wood
and decided instead of going down around the pond again going
home, I would put the goat on the slide on the wood and slide it
across the pond. It didn’t work. Instead of me dragging the goat
on the slide the goat on the wood just didn’t work. I had it on top
of the wood first. I thought I trained it to stay there but it didn’t
and I ended up dragging the goat and the wood across the pond.
I’ll never forget that experience. –Phil Warren
GOATS ON ICE
Bella the goat. Photo by Kelly Drover
57
LAUGHING GOATS
Well sometimes I stretch the truth a little bit. I don’t say anything
real bad but I do stretch the truth sometimes. But anyway we had
these people up in the garden from Ontario. Well-dressed people
and I don’t think they had ever seen goats in their life really. I’m
not just picking on Ontario either, but they came up and the buck
I got, the big old Tom, when they comes in heat they’ve got these
habit of curling their lip right up over their nose and they put their
head up in the air like they are sniffing. They stick their tongue
out around and some people call it tasting the air for the scent of
other animals or goats whatever. But anyway they came up and
they were looking over the fence. Now I knew he was going to do
this it was just a matter of time. When they come in heat they
are at it all the time. So I said to the lady, “I’ll see if I can get him
to laugh for you in a minute.” She looked at me right foolish as
if to say, “Oh yeah, laughing goat.” Sure enough I didn’t have the
words out of my mouth, b’y and he turned around looking at me
and he put the head up and his lip came right up over his nose and
he was showing his teeth and he is sniffing. Well you talk about
people getting excited. Missus grabbed the camera and she was
flicking and taking all these pictures, and the old fellow that
was there with her, there was three or four of them, he looked at
me and he said, “My god, that’s amazing. Amazing! How in the
world did you get a goat to do that? Get him laughing?” I said, “I
was weeks training him out there. Spent hours trying to get him
laugh.” Anyway they went off happy as larks. It made their day.
So they went off over to the coffee shop I guess. I went over to the
coffee shop the next day, I walk in and she said, “My god, you’re
something else.” I said, “Why? What’s going on?” She said, “We
had a couple of people from Ontario the other day who said they
travelled all over Newfoundland and all across Canada but the
58
LAUGHING GOATS
only thing that stands out of it all was we went to Newfoundland
over to Mr. Peddle’s and he’s got a goat over there and the darn
thing laughs at you. He chuckles away. I can’t believe it.” So my
wife came home, Mary came home and I was telling my wife and
Mary said, “You told them the difference of that though?” And I
said, “No, they went off happy – that’s the main thing.” [Laughter]
They’ve got good memories of Newfoundland. –Ron Peddle
Ron Peddle’s goat Tom. Photo by Kelly Drover
59
A GOAT PAINTING
Commissioned From Art Andrews
Phil Warren and sculpture by Esau George of a goat with horncat. Photo by Terra Barrett
60
A GOAT PAINTING
Commissioned From Art Andrews
61
A GOAT PAINTING
Commissioned From Art Andrews
As an art collector, I bought several paintings of goats. And one
year I asked Art Andrews who was an artist from Winterton who
lived in St. John’s and painted a lot, he was a graphic artist as
well, if he would paint me a painting of a goat, near a fence… So I
said to Art, “Will you paint me a goat on the hillside in Winterton
near a fence, the traditional fence?” I was trying to incorporate
in this painting, the culture, the goat culture. And he did. The
painting is in the Winterton museum. When I went to pick up the
painting and I said how much do I owe he said, “If this goat were
slaughtered and cleaned it would weigh about thirty pounds.”
He said, “I called Montreal and goat meat yesterday was three
dollars and thirty something cents a pound.” So he said, “How
about ninety dollars for the painting?” So I gave him ninety nine,
ninety nine and I’ll always remember. –Phil Warren
62
GEORGE BURRAGE’S GOAT ART
AND MEMORIES
Folk art goat by George Burrage
63
GEORGE BURRAGE’S GOAT ART
AND MEMORIES
New Perlican Aboriginals, that’s what I call them and it seems as
if they were always here, all through my childhood and adolescent
years. The most stubborn, cantankerous, mischievous animal
the Good Lord ever created (in my opinion). They actually knew
how to “Get your Goat”, excuse the pun.
I’d guess that 75% or more of all goats were called Bill, but that
didn’t matter because if there was 50 or 60 goats in a herd and you
just called out “Bill” a couple times, every goat there would look
at you but the only one that left the group was your goat. I guess
that goat recognized your voice and it would come to you, unless
- you had a piece of rope in your hand or hanging from your body
somewhere. There it was tail up over its back and gone over the
hill in the opposite direction as fast as its four legs could carry it
and every other goat right on its tail. And they don’t even know
why but there’s something not right here. So you throw your hat
on the ground, cuss under your breath because you know that
goat might not be seen for another week, now he don’t trust you,
until he forgets this little mistake you just made.
Now realizing the mistake you just made and knowing you needs
that goat to haul caplin for the garden, your only hope is rain,
‘cause it don’t matter where it’s at (somewhere between Winterton
and Hearts Content) all those goats are coming home, and, they’re
coming on the run. They always do, it’s a mad dash for the flakes
around the landwash. Goats do not like rain or getting wet.
All that’s well and fine, you know where the goat is but you have
to almost crawl in there to get at it and be assured it’s always
the last one in. You can do what you like, jump up and down,
64
yell and scream, run around in circles (soon to be committed
to the insane loonie bin) that goat is just not moving, no Sir. It’s
just laying there, chewing its cud, and thinking “you wants me,
you come get me.” Ready to commit mass murder - you go home,
defeated once again by a goat that you know is just laughing at
you behind your back.
I remember when we use to let ours go in the spring, I always
said a silent little prayer I wouldn’t see that thing anymore ‘till
at least November.
The goat is gone out of your care for now, but it’s still your goat
and every cabbage patch in New Perlican is in danger. Goats have
been known to hide and watch for their opportunity to chew
on some tender young cabbage shoots. I remember when I was
young, there was this one goat, an old codger, who (according to
rumour) used to walk past cabbage gardens, around the corner
and then walk backwards into the garden behind the shed, just
so if anyone saw the tracks it looked like two goats walked by.
A goat, by definition has horns and cloven hoofs. Remind you
of anything?
Some of the old fellers used to bite their goats ears to get them to
go in the woods hauling firewood. I tried that once, somewhere
in my early teens and let me tell you, it does not work. All that
happens is you piss off the goat who knows he’s getting you back
for that. Then one day when our guard is down and your backside
is like a target, BANG!! You’re sitting on a cushion for a week or
so. A goat is like an elephant, who never forgets.
GEORGE BURRAGE’S GOAT ART
AND MEMORIES
65
We, (as did a lot of people) had a little pair of booties for our goat
when it was slippery. They had a wooden bottom, with small nails
drove through that and four in. long leather leggings with a lace
through them for tieing at the top. These worked really good on
the pond. However while we were getting firewood, these had to
be taken off, if not the goat would eat it all except for the bottom
with the nails.
Goats do not like going to, or being in the woods, but coming
out was a totally different situation. Whatever how much wood
you could put on that sled that goat could haul it and not even
break a sweat, just because it was going home. A goat would
do anything to get home, we always had to be on your toes and
keep an eye on the goat. Never let go of the horns rope, never
tie the knot towards the goat. He will untie it. Never leave your
axe within reach, he’d break the handle off with his horns. All of
this to get back home.
Goats really enjoy Sundays, there was no woods on that day. Plus
they got all the pot-liquor from Sunday dinner and would drink
it all, blow up like a football. Good thing there was no woods
because I’m sure he would bust!
Of course the yew goats were for milk and multiplying while
most of the bucks were used for labour tasks. All those had to be
castrated at a very young age and of course we had our own local
vet, one Mr. Frank Piercey, whose only instruments, I believe,
were hot water, razor blade and iodine. And that’s enough about
that. Castration was a necessity, otherwise you’d end up with a
goat known as a “Stinky Buck!” and that’s exactly what it was.
GEORGE BURRAGE’S GOAT ART
AND MEMORIES
66
Long hair all matted up, stink to high heaven, grumbled all day,
and sometimes saucy as a stray cat.
I remember one night I was on my way out to the harbour to meet up
with the boys and took a shortcut over the spelling hill. Almost dark
and foggy, when I got up on the hill, sounded like someone talking
and I was getting closer with each stop. No street lights then, when it
got dark it was dark. Anyway I dodged on then right ahead of me, up
in the bit of sky light about 10 or 12 feet, loomed the biggest, ugliest,
stinky buck that I ever saw, sounded like he was really cussin’ at me,
ready to kill me with those big curly horns. Well I near had a heart
attack. Then I panicked, yes Sir I spun around on a dime back the
way I came, or so I thought. I guess not ‘cause next thing I knew I
was head over heels over a horse that was laying down there. Well
what a commotion. The poor old horse was scrawlling to get on its
feet, I lost it and started screaming like a banshee. What a fright.
Well I don’t know what happened to the horse but, after I got back
home, and the things I wished on that goat! Well it didn’t happen
cause I didn’t see any bolts of lightning or anything, and I saw the
goat couple days later. Stinky Bucks, I hates ‘em.
I could never understand why some people had two goats, why
ask for twice the trouble when it’s hard enough on the nerves to
deal with one. I’ve tried but I just cannot understand why anyone
in a sound mind would put themselves through that. Maybe in
that way I was blessed. We had only one.
Anyway thats a couple little stories about goats and my humble
opinion about them. Hope you enjoyed. –George Burrage
GEORGE BURRAGE’S GOAT ART
AND MEMORIES
67
GOATS IN THE GRAVEYARD
Oh yes – that worked out really well. The graveyard is ajoining
to my land. A fence went up between the two lands. So Eileen
who is into this heritage thing – I’ll tell you how that happened.
Down in Florida or somewhere down there they had grape vine
and they started bringing goats in and letting them go out they
go and they used to eat the leaves off the grape vine but they
wouldn’t eat the grapes or anything. They would have to pick the
leaves so that the sun could get the grapes but they tried goats so
Goats in St. Augustine Anglican Cemetery. 2016. Photo by Kelly Drover
68
they brought goats in and they were doing a wonderful job. They
loved the leaves so they ate the leaves and open up the grapes for
the sun so I was watching this and anyway the old graveyard out
here, which goes back a long time I can barely remember when
the last fellow was buried in it, but anyway I mentioned to Eileen
one time, “We should let the goats out there.” Another good thing
with goats now too is they only drop buttons, it’s not like a sheep
where you’ve got a mess. Anyway she said yes I’ll look into it so I
believe they got a little grant and they put the wire up and put a
gate there by my land and from the road you couldn’t see across
the graveyard. It was all these bushes, and birch, all grown in.
And they cleaned it right up! It was great for them and it was
great for me too because it gave the goats more room to roam
around. –Ron Peddle
GOATS IN THE GRAVEYARD
According to the Census of Newfoundland and Labrador
there were 15, 071 goats in the province in 1935. In 1945
there were 516 people in New Perlican and 159 goats.
Approximately 1 goat for every 3 people.
GOAT FACTS
69
THE END OF AN ERA
Once we got the council here and then people started complaining
that the goats were getting in their gardens and tearing up
everything and there was dirt down around the water areas. So
finally they said if you’ve got animals they have got to be fenced in.
And that was the end of animals running wild. –Ron Peddle
Kid in Ron Peddle's barn. Photo by Kelly Drover
70
Kelly Drover (left) and George Burrage. Photo by Terra Barrett
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