The Journey Continued!

I know you're all just anxious to hear about my continued journey, and I don't want to disappoint, so I thought I should keep going with my stories.  Last I left you (before I had to go eat some hay), we were visiting Isobelle and her friends.  Here is the entrance to their lovely farm.  There is a helpful "critter crossing" sign so that nobody would run me over.  Small goats can be dangerous on the road!  See the lovely stream?!

My lady had some special things to give to Isobelle's lady. First, she gave her some things called "house plants."  I really don't understand the need for plants in her house.  If she wants to eat something, she should go outside and nibble on some twigs and leaves and grass.  Who needs plants in the house when you can go outside to eat?  Anyway, my lady and Isobelle's lady spent a long time looking at my lady's plants.  I think my lady was telling her their names.

Or perhaps she was telling her which ones were tastiest?  They sure looked happy about it though!  

My lady wasn't allowed to take plants over the border to Can of Duck Canada.  It doesn't seem to matter that there are plants that grow ON the border and they all share the same dirt.  I mean really, those customs officers must be a bit soft in the head.  Maybe they've been butted a few too many times?

Speaking of being butted, my lady just went right on into the pasture with Isobelle and her goat friends without worrying about Durin and Dayel.  They are two boy goats who are a little bit feisty sometimes, and they like to butt.  If you look at Isobelle's blog here, you will see a picture of Dayel trying to butt me through the fence! It was better for me to stay on the other side of the fence.  My lady went and fed everybody peppermints, and so did Isobelle's lady.  They are very brave, but the goats didn't butt them.  Maybe it was because of the peppermints?

Isobelle lives in a place with some sort of scary looking trees.  I think I might be a bit worried there at night, in case the kerfoozleumps come out of the trees.  Isobelle told me that kerfoozleumps are sometimes seen in her state of New York.

 My lady also gave a lot of chickens to Isobelle's lady.  I don't know how she managed it, but Isobelle's lady gave all of them names!  She is very creative that way.  She also has a lot more eggs now than she used to!  I think she will be having a lot of omelets!  You can see the chickens on Isobelle's blog too, but I'd rather you didn't because there is a picture of my bum in a diaper on there too, and that's rude.

My lady also went to visit with all of the dogs at Isobelle's farm, and she loves all the dogs, but I think she has a special friend in Kezia.  Here is my lady snuggling with Kezia, which made me kind of jealous, but then I found out that poor little Kezia has a hip problem, and she is going to need a big scary surgery.  It will be sort of like my spaying surgery, but different, and a LOT more expensive.  Stay tuned for future blog posts about Kezia and her surgery.  My lady will be auctioning off some of her handspun yarn to help raise some pennies for Kezia's surgery!  It's going to be exciting!

So we had to keep going, even though we would have liked to stay with Isobelle for a longer time.  Our next state is very difficult to say.  You have to listen carefully when I tell you.  It's Mass of Chew Sits.  Now you might say to yourself, what on earth does that mean?  I, being a goat of great and broad knowledge, can tell you that.  It means that this state was founded by large groups of ruminants (sheep and goats mostly) and there were so many, it was a "mass" of them.  Back in the day when we didn't have big words like ruminants, because the humans didn't know about all our digestive parts, they described all ruminants as "chew sits" because that is what we do.  A lot.  We chew.  Then we sit (or lie) down.  Chew.  Sit.  Chew.  Sit.  Get it?  So it was "Mass of Chew Sits" because of all the chewing and sitting goats and sheep.  I was honoured to visit such a great state.

While we were there, we had to visit the rest stop, of course, to see what was on offer for the Chew Sits.  Here I am checking out the grass (which was a bit short, mind you, perhaps due to other chewers?)

But then, I discovered a new treat!  Pine cones!  I ate several of them.  I did not have those on my previous farm and so these were a very exciting new adventure for me.  Crunchy, good flavour, and nice texture.  All in all, a great chew experience.

After all that chewing, I was a little thirsty, so we had to get some water.  I am pretty good at determining which bottles are full of water, and I make my needs clearly known to my lady, so she has no question in her mind about my level of thirst.  I prefer Fiji mineral water.  It's good for my horns.  Oh, by the way, in this picture, you can see that I am *just* starting to get my beard!  I am such a grown up goat now!

After Mass of Chew Sits, we had only 2 states left!  Our next state was just a very short drive through, because we only had to go through a small corner of it.  The state is called New Hamster.

I'm not sure why this is the name.  I didn't see any hamsters at all.  Here is a hamster from Wikipedia.

I think it is also a sort of Chew-Sit animal.  Perhaps the ruminants went to Mass of Chew Sits and the hamsters didn't have enough food there so they went to New Hamster.

Our last state before Can of Duck was Maine!  Here is the bridge to Maine.  I'll have to wait and tell you about Maine in my next episode, because I've got to go chew and sit now.

Goatie kisses from Lucky Nickel to all my fans!!

Moments with Number

As Lucky Nickel has told you already, we went to visit Isobelle and her friends on the long journey from Iowa to Canada.  Isobelle lives with other goats and some mini horses, and also a wonderful retired racehorse named Number.

I am particularly fond of Number.

He's very gentle, and I feel drawn to him somehow. Maybe it's because, when I was about 8 or 9 years old, I went to summer horse-riding camp, so he reminds me of my childhood.

Maybe it's because he's a retired racer, just like my greyhound, and I know how much he appreciates the wonderful home he has with Bev and her other four-legged friends.

Or maybe, it's because he brought me some very precious moments of peace and tranquility on a long and stressful journey, which was a rare and special gift.

Thank you Number, for your calming presence and your lovely soft nose.  Sending you long distance love!

More Cross-Country Adventures with Lucky Nickel

Well, it's been a goat's age since I was able to post anything.  My lady has been so busy with this moving business, it's really quite complicated.  I'm glad I didn't have to plan it.  Over 5 days, we traveled through 9 states and 2 Canadian provinces!  I am an extremely well traveled goat - probably one of the most experienced in this area, anyway.

We started out in Iowa, of course.  It was the only state I had ever known, because it's where I was born.  This was our last Iowa sunset.  It made my lady cry.

I really wasn't to sure about this whole driving thing.  I mean, I like being in the car - in fact, I like jumping on top of the car when my lady leaves the sun roof open, and then I get inside and practice driving and popping my head out the window to stick my tongue out at bad drivers.  This time, I had to be in a crate!  I usually get to run around inside the back of the car, but my lady said it was for my own safety.  This meant I could not lay my head on my lady's shoulder while she is driving, which I really like to do.

This is me in my crate.  It makes it very difficult for me to keep proper control of things going on around me.  How am I supposed to supervise from here?!

Here was the truck we took, with all the things in it that my lady owns.  Actually, she got rid of a lot of stuff before we left, but you would never know it.  We even needed an extra trailer!

My lady says goodbye to Iowa.  You can't tell but she had been crying because she was sad to be leaving so many friends and good times behind, and she loved her farm, but she has new adventures to go to.  Saying goodbye is always difficult for humans.  I was just excited about it.  Goats don't cry.

It wasn't just me in the car!  We took 10 chickens with us to our friends Bev and her goat Isobelle.  My lady determined that taking the chickens over the border was very complicated because of something called a "core of teens" and my lady doesn't really like teenagers very much.  She said the chickens would have had to be with the "core of teens" for 30 days, in a small room, so that they didn't give diseases to anybody.  I don't know what the teenagers have to do to stop chickens from giving diseases.  These government regulations are very strange.  I really don't understand this business at all, but my lady said it was a "pain in the bum" except she didn't say bum, because she was mad about it.  So, we had 10 chickens with us and they laid eggs on the way to New York.

Our first state after Iowa was Ill-a-noy.  Don't worry, we didn't get ill there. Chick-ago is a big city there, which my lady has visited before, but we didn't go there.  We just kept driving.  It was night time, so we didn't see much there.  We stayed overnight in Ill-a-noy just after we passed Chick-ago because we only left Iowa at around 3:30 pm.  My lady took me for night-time walks around the hotel that she stayed in, and I got to taste new shrubs!

The next morning, we got on the road again.   after Ill-a-noy came Indy-Anna! 

Indy was in a whole bunch of movies in which he wore a hat and looked for treasures and traveled to interesting places.  I don't know who Anna was.  Anyway, we didn't find Indy or Anna there.  It was fairly quick driving through that state.

After Indy-Anna, we went to Oh! Hi-o!  

The people there must always be surprised to see you, so they say Oh!  Hi-o! when they meet you.  Everywhere else, people say the short form which is just "hi" but not in Oh!  Hi-o!  We stopped at a rest stop there where I talked to lots of people, but that was in my last post so I won't talk about that again. 

I forgot to say that Izzy the cat came with us.  She was with the male unit, in the truck.  The male unit is my lady's friend.  Sometimes he took me for walks too!  I quite like him.  Here is the male unit with the cat in the truck.  He smiles a lot.  

After Oh! Hi-o! we visited Pencil-Vanilla.  I didn't get to eat any pencils there, so I don't know if they taste like vanilla or not.  It was a very long state to drive through.  Sometimes the roads were very bumpy.  We visited a rest stop there, and there were some very unusual chickens at the rest stop on a bench.  My lady took a picture of them for me.  I wanted to remember those funny looking chickens.  We don't usually see these in Iowa.

Our next state was New York!  I was very excited to be there because of meeting Isobelle and her lady, Bev.  But I'll have to write about that later because I'm a tired goat and I need my beauty sleep.    Stay tuned for my next adventure posting soon!

On the move!

Not a lot of time for a long post today.  My lady says we need to get going, and I am ready for my next public appearance.  See, I glow like the shining star that I am!  I am probably the first goat EVER to ride in the back of a Jetta from Iowa all the way to Nova Scotia Canada.

So far, I have been spotted in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and now in Pennsylvania.  Yesterday, I was a big hit with a bus tour of senior humans!  They all wanted to pet me and I had my picture taken countless times.  Here you can see them all coming over to visit me.  I am on the sidewalk, sort of to the left, with my lady.  It's a bit hard to see me.  Just follow the crowd...

My lady's friend took me for exercise.  I think he's still a little confused about what species I am.  Oh well, it was the thought that counts.  She says he's going to be around a lot so I need to goatucate him (that's goat education) about a few things.

Oh goodness, she is hurrying me along...we really must go....but I will post again soon!  Goatie kisses!!!

Three Wishes

Yesterday I had one of those funny hypothetical discussions with someone, about what one would wish for if one had three wishes.  The parameters required no "global wishes" such as world peace and cures for various dreadful diseases, which (hopefully) most of us would wish for if such things were possible.  These had to be wishes for oneself.  I thought, I pondered, and I imagined.  I came up with my first wish fairly quickly.  I wished that I could have a long, healthy life, and that I would eventually pass on quite painlessly and without great suffering.  To me, that was a reasonable wish, as far as wishes go.

I had to try a bit harder with my second wish.  I was initially stumped for a while...but I came up with the wish that at the end of my life, I wish that I will be able to look back without any regret.  I want to know that I made the best decisions I could, given the knowledge I had at any given time, and that I never threw away a worthy opportunity.  I wanted to feel that I'd lived life to the best of my ability, and that I'd learned from mistakes, rather than becoming bitter or frustrated by them.

So it came to the third wish.  I considered carefully....what else could I wish for, specifically for myself, that I really, really wanted?  After a while, what I really, really wanted was the ability to come up with a third wish!  In all seriousness, I couldn't really come up with one.  Sure, I could wish for a million dollars or a fancy car or a fully functioning fibre mill in my backyard.  But really....did I really wish for those things?  No.  Fancy cars are no more useful than my 2002 Jetta.  I don't want to be responsible for the upkeep of a fully functional fibre mill.  A million dollars would be great for setting up a sheep and goat sanctuary, but that's not "for me" as much as it is for them.  Anyway, having too much money brings people out of the woodwork who think they're entitled to some of it, and causes no end of heartache.

This led me to think about my life, and who I am, and brought me to the rather wonderful conclusion that I have all I need, or I have the ability to get what I need.  I do not really wish for anything more than what I have.  This was a sort of "epiphany" moment for me, because I don't really think very often in abstract terms of wishes that cannot be fulfilled.  More than anything, my inability to find a third wish helped me realize that I must be on the right track in life, that I could have the luxury of not really needing a third wish.

I've thought about it several times since the conversation, but I still can't come up with a good third wish.  I've toyed with frivolous ideas like a lifetime supply of key lime cheesecake, or aged gouda cheese, or even Bendick's Bittermints (a delicious British chocolate covered mint fondant confection).  I thought I was onto something when I decided to wish for a garden that always looked beautiful and took care of itself, but really, that takes away the joy of gardening.  The closest I've come so far is a house that cleans itself.  I'm not a natural house-cleaner.

So I take it out to you, my blog readers - what are your three wishes, for yourself, and only yourself?  What am I forgetting or missing?  Or do you, too, find it hard to think of wishes?

...and so I cried

Last week was a very sad week.  Not everyone understands the bonds that can be formed with farm animals.  All of them - chickens, sheep, donkeys, goats, llamas and alpacas, horses, cows...and any other barnyard resident - can all become family members.  When I knew I was moving to Canada, I knew I could not take my whole "family" with me.  I tried to choose wisely and carefully.  As you can well imagine, Lucky Nickel was unquestionably one to make the journey.  She herself deemed it must happen!  When it came to the sheep, I was torn.  I wanted to take Marshmallow, who had been my house-lamb, and had spent her early days sleeping on my pillow.  She had integrated well into the flock though, and I felt she was well adjusted.  On the other hand, I had Kenzie, the little runty black lamb from my former Blue-faced Leicester ewe, Black Pearl.  I felt that due to her size, she needed extra care.  Her sisters had not had an easy life.  One had died in early days, for unknown reasons.  The second had gone to a local farm where an unexpected dog attack had ended her short life.  I was determined that Kenzie should live, and so I decided to take her with me.

In order to get female ruminants over the border into Canada, they either had to come from a premises that was certified scrapie-free for at least 5 years (which I could not provide, since I had only owned my farm for 3 years and had never sought scrapie certification) or they had to be spayed.  I chose to spay Lucky Nickel and Kenzie in order to take them with me and comply with the regulations.

My vet kindly allowed me to observe the spaying operations first hand, which were very interesting for me.  I was not at all disturbed by the inside view of my animals - they are marvelous living "machines" with a wonderful physiology that I find fascinating.  I was confident after the operations that all had gone well.  Due to their long incisions with multiple stitches, I had to keep them in the house for a number of days to prevent any infection.  Both of them wore "Depends" undergarments for women (size small!) and t-shirts, with safety pins used to keep the Depends in place and thus keep the wounds covered.  The first couple of days, both were very quiet.  I put them in my basement unfinished area with lots of blankets, food and water, and frequent visits from me.  The fact that my house was still on the market was a complicating factor!  I could tell from her stance that Lucky Nickel was in some pain - note her hunched back.

Kenzie seemed fine, and much more perky than Lucky Nickel, even right after the operation.

On Day 3, Lucky Nickel "penetrated the defenses" and made her way upstairs, where she wreaked havoc upon my show-ready home.  She upended most of my potted plants and liberally distributed dirt.

She also upended my beading supplies sending a rainbow of coloured glass beads in all directions on carpet and hardwood floors.

She played with toilet paper decoration of the house, scattered some goat berries around, and finally settled in on my bed where she made the covers into a nest and waited for me to come home.

Meanwhile, quiet little Kenzie stayed in the basement, and when I checked on her, I found she had not passed any solid wastes.  I worried that she wasn't eating due to pain, and gave her banamine for pain relief and held her in my lap for a time.

On Day 4, Lucky Nickel returned to the barn, still with her t-shirt and Depends, in order to keep clean.  She was not easy to contain in the house.  Kenzie remained inside, not eating, not pooping.  I noticed that she had a lump at the end of her incision.  It didn't feel hot or infected, and it was quite firm, so I thought it was just localized swelling from the trauma of the spay.

On Day 5, Lucky Nickel was bouncing around on hay bales as if nothing had happened.  Kenzie was quiet, listless, and remained unmotivated to eat.  I really began to worry.  I called the vet and made an appointment for her.  The next day she went in and they thought she was constipated.  She spent a day on fluids and milk of magnesia.  No effect.  The next day, they decided to operate.

Tragically, a loop of bowel had pushed its way through the internal layer of stitches, causing a blockage (and causing the lump that I had felt).  Her colon tissue was only just beginning to die, after 5 days, which the vet said was really surprising, and an indicator of how healthy she had been.  They removed a portion of her colon, sutured the ends back together, and hoped for the best.  The best was not to come.  She died that night, in the cold steel kennels that usually hold dogs and cats.  Alone and in pain.

I did this to her.  I chose to take her with me.  I chose to get her spayed.  I chose my own selfish desires to take a sheep with me on my long journey, so that I could have the comfort of their company when I arrived, and feel that I had taken part of what I had started here in Iowa.  If I had not taken her, she probably would have gone to the same home where her sister went.  Her sister was bigger - would Kenzie have been the one to die in the dog attack if she had been there?  I cannot say.  All I know for sure is that I was trying to make the right decision, and I failed her.  This has eaten at me all week.  I have had her cremated and will take her ashes with me to the home that she was meant to have.  I hope she will forgive me my selfishness.  I have cried enough tears to sink a canoe this week, and they're just not stopping.

Lucky Nickel has continued to thrive and is behaving in all her usual ways.  She is horrified at the fact that she now has to wear an enormous COW tag in her ear for ID purposes.  I have promised her that I can remove it when we are settled in Nova Scotia.  She says she is NOT a COW!  It makes her ear droopy and uneven with the other one, which is slightly amusing, but I try not to laugh at her.

She has to have her stitches removed soon, and needs to have tuberculosis and brucellosis tests in order to cross the border, but those are simple tests and non-invasive.  I am tremendously grateful that she has not suffered any ill effects from the operation to have her spayed.  It is also good for her in the sense that I would never want her to be accidentally bred.  Her mother died as a result of a pelvic opening that was too small to allow both the head and feet of Lucky Nickel's brother to pass.  Chances were good that Lucky Nickel would also have difficulties in birthing kids.

In other news (which is actually good news but is still sad for me), my two angora bunnies went to a wonderful new home at Hedgeapple Farm this week.  I bought my first registered Icelandic sheep there, and have spent many good times at my spinning guild with the farm's owners.  I know my rabbits are in good hands.  In addition, Valentino, the ultimate curly-whirly angora wether found a new home on an alpaca farm, and unexpectedly, Horton, Misky and Larke all went with him.  While I am thrilled that my animals have wonderful new homes, it is still hard as they leave, each one taking a little piece of my heart and mind.

Despite all the unhappy news, I did have a huge weight lifted from me this week.  I actually sold my farm, and am now just waiting for the inspection and closing.  This is incredible, given that it has been on the market just a few days over 3 months, and given the dreadful state of the US housing market.  I am in awe.  When one is doing the right things in one's life, somehow, the pieces seem to fall into place.  I have no other way to explain this turn of events.  My mind just keeps saying the same thing over and over...."meant to be."   I wish I could say the same for Kenzie.

Val has a Haircut

Shhhh!  It's me, Lucky Nickel!  Don't tell my lady that I'm doing this post.  She is very sad these days and says she isn't quite ready to write about what happened, but I am OK, so I am writing a quick post for you!

My lady  tried to overcome some of her sadness by spending time with us.  She looked at Valentino, our curly-whirly angora buck, and I heard her say "Val, you are a disgusting mess.  I am going to clean you up."  Well, Val had so much curly fybur* around his ears that he didn't hear that comment.  Next thing he knew, he was up on the sheep shearing stand, and my lady was standing there with a variety of shearing supplies and a determined look on her face.  Here's the result:

Do you see in that picture, above, how Osmo is hiding in the hut?  He thinks he might get clipped too, but he's silly, because he doesn't have fybur* so he can't be clipped!  Val looks much better without all his heavy, matted, dirty fleece, that got all muddy through the winter.  Did you all know that Val is my Dad?  He doesn't have his spare brain any more so he can't be a Dad again, so I was lucky to be born, wasn't I!

After she sheared him (mostly using Fiskars hand scissors), he did a lot of scratching with his horns, and little bits of fybur* went floating around.

My lady then noticed that, in contrast to his usual mellow behaviour, he has begun sparring with Osmo and running around more energetically, so she thinks he is feeling much better.

Well, I'm sure you'll hear from my lady soon.  In the meantime, you can all just swoon over my Dad.

*Fybur - the proper goat spelling for the fleece that goats grow.....I should know...I'm a goat!