Important Events

I've missed reporting on so many things - here's a short roundup.

Braeburn and Mr. Bechtel went to England and happened to be in London on the Queen's birthday. Here she is straight from Braeburn's camera.

Golden Delicious once again won Grand Champion at the county fair with her Alpine Dairy Goat, Maggie.

We built a fence to keep our chickens from terrorizing the neighbors. The Jeep became the fence puller, tool storing vehicle for the project. Good fences make good neighbors and all that...

And lastly, but Very Important. Granny Smith was baptized by his Daddy.

Introducing Cindy!!!

"You ought to see my Cindy, she lives a way down south

and she's so sweet the honey bees swarm around her mouth."

Our family cow has arrived! Mr. Bechtel drove over to Twin Falls yesterday to pick her up. Here was our first glimpse of her...

She unloaded like a dream even though she'd been stuck in a trailer for 5 hours. Look at those beautiful eyes. Golden Delicious says they're so big you could swim in them.

And here she is checking out her new home. We hope she likes it.

We've been trying names out for days and days and when she was finally in the barn Golden Delicious said, "what about Cindy?" The Spy twins said, "Yes! Cindy it is!" But Granny Smith is still holding out for 'Toffee', which I have to admit is a great name too. Her name before we got her was Alaythea, but we don't think that fits so it's Cindy for now.

She's three years old, bred to calve in May, quite small even for a Jersey and as sweet as honey. Wait, maybe we should name her Honey!

Yukon

We are sad that Winesap and Alaskan Wild Berry lost their dog Yukon. We have lots of good memories of Yukon going back to when Golden Delicious picked him out as a little puppy.

He was the best dog and we love him. We hope Jack turns out to be just as good.

Will You Goat to Homecoming With Me?

Braeburn's homecoming dance saga has become the stuff of local legends. So here is the story for posterity.

Being on a farm and having access to animals really increases creative options. Braeburn slipped over to Katie's house when he knew she would be busy. (Golden Delicious was at a party over there - she was our secret agent...)

Quickly, he and the spy twins unloaded the goat tote from the back of the truck onto her front lawn, tucked one of our yearling goats inside the tote, and stuck the sign (which was on an old real estate sign) into the ground and left. Successful operation in under 60 seconds. They trusted the maaahing goat to alert the party.

Golden Delicious came home and said, yes, the invitation was received. Then they just had to wait til later to go secretly retrieve the goat.

At about midnight Mr. Bechtel and the spy twins thought they'd just run over quick and get the goat. Unfortunately, the goat escaped while loading... Not being with the herd, she didn't stick around but shot across the cul-de-sac into the neighbors yard.

The boys tried to find her. They even came home and got the mother goat loaded up so she could call to her baby. No luck. Imagine sitting in a dark cul-de-sac in the middle of the night with a goat calling in the back. They finally gave up the chase when people's alarms and motion lights started going off as the boys slipped from one back yard to the next.

The next morning was sunday and Braeburn and the Spy Twins were back on the search bright and early. I was worried thinking dogs had certainly eaten her as she tried to find her way home. Poor thing. After they left I got a call from other neighbors asking if we'd lost a goat. Yes! Their kids were out chasing it but couldn't catch it. I called Mr. Bechtel and they chased the goat through fields, backyards, horse pastures, and finally to another house. The poor goat was exhausted and jumped into a window well where Mr. Bechtel caught it. Miraculously the goat was perfectly fine.

At church Braeburn was cornered by several people either laughing or wondering if "he was that boy in the blue truck who kept them awake all night..."

So, all's well that ends well. Katie responded with goat cheese and crackers saying, "thank you for cheesing me. Of course I'll go."

I think they had a great time. We do think Golden Delicious should train her goats to endure these things nobly and without running away, though.

The Local Lake

Our neighbors figured out their irrigation system this year and have started watering en masse.

The ground is saturated and it often takes 3 or 4 days for the water to soak in. So we have a nice lake view from our back porch.

Orange Kittens

These are two of the MANY kittens we have on the farm right now. We're hoping these will go down to Winesap and Alaskan Wild Berry and their family.

Currant Pie

Great-Grandma R. has been promising Mr. Bechtel a currant pie for a long time (I don't know how he got that lucky). Here she is with the Spy Twins. We were lucky and he shared with all of us. Yum.