The Butchering of Brunch

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, Marco and I butchered our first goat! We have 25 pounds of goat meat in our freezer all courtesy of our one year old goat, Brunch. We got Brunch last summer with the intention of eventually butchering him for goat meat. Unlike the other goats we have, Brunch was smaller (not desireable in a breeding goat), louder (also an undesirable trait) and disliked by the other animals. Goats usally pair up into buddies, unfortunately for Brunch he never got a buddy. We gave him a great life on the farm, plenty of food and space to run around in. The past few months he's given us headaches. He learned how to escape from our grazing area and taught our others goats how to escape too! He began to smell aweful (which is common for male goats) and we could hear him bellowing from miles away.
Marco and I decided when we had a free day, we would butcher him. On a free Saturday we knew it was time for Brunch to pay his dues. The day before we seperated him from the other goats and kept him in the barn. This was so he wouldn't have a lot of food in his stomache on butchering day. Around noon we thanked him for the food he would provide us, popped a cap in him and strung him up a tree. The first step in butchering is to remove the animal's skin. That was the most time consuming part of the whole process. We wanted to keep the hide, so we were careful about how we took it off. Once that was off, we removed the guts and powerwashed the meat to get rid of excess fur and fat. The weather was perfect, just cold enough but not freezing, to allow the meat to tenderize outside. We kept him strung up off the ground for two days - this allowed the meat to tenderize which makes cutting the meat easier. On the day we decided to take him down and process him, we noticed several woodpeckers and nuthatches discovered the tasty treat hanging from the tree. We had to shoo away several woodpeckers which began pecking on the meat!
We brought the body into the house, rinsed off any left-over fur and cut the meat into portions. That way, we can take meat out of the freezer little by little. The next day we decided to taste our newly aquired goat meat. We cut the meat into small pieces and marinated it in lime, seasoning salt and worschister sauce. We accompanied in with refried beans and vegetable rice. We put it all in a taco and discovered goat meat isn't so bad! It has a nice texture and a good flavor. When people ask what it tastes like we say "well, it's not beef or chicken or pork...it's goat meat...it has it's own taste."
We took pictures of the whole process, but I'm debating whether I want to show the pictures...they're graphic - but pretty neat! Overall, it was a great experience and Marco and I are now experts in the butchering of goats!
Hopefully by next summer we'll have more baby goats born and more meat in the near future!