Wouldn't It Be Nice If We Had More Goats...

Noted goat fanciers The Beach Boys certainly knew the magic and companionship of these fine ruminant animals.

That's why we recently acquired three Nigerian Dwarf goats . They are very entertaining and rambunctious and they should only get to about 40 to 60 pounds. I am also happy to report that the wife was 100% on board with these ones. Meet the cast of Entourage: Goat Edition:

From the Left: Vince (black with brown highlights), Turtle (all black), Johnny Drama (white with dark highlights)

Johnny Drama seems to be the ring leader. He is also the largest and most outgoing of the trio.

Vince is kinda shy and reserved, but with beautiful markings. These guys love climbing up on their little balance beam.

Ike looks on as Henry gives Johnny Drama a big kiss on the belly.

Violet isn't totally sold on the goat thing yet.

This one is pretty cute.

We keep the chemicals in the pantry...

Henry loves to run around the house nude and throw diapers everywhere. Sometimes I wish he would focus a little more on the potty training and a little less on the shenanigans... It's time to grow up, PUNK!!

We've got a good feeling about the goats. These ones were from a hobbyist breeder as opposed to Todd who came from someone appeared to troll livestock auctions for cheap leftovers. We know the new guys have had vaccinations, they have also been castrated and dehorned. That sounds kinda harsh, but it is encouraged for goats that are going to be in regular contact with children. As I responsible stockman of goats, it was my duty to consider this. Side note: I finally got a pitchfork.

We had a goat blessing ceremony last weekend. Julie's friend Crystal did the blessing. She is not a person of the cloth, but she's pretty much the most religious person that I know and "super duper spiritual", so we went with it. Just wanted to cover all the bases so these guys don't die on me. The blessing ceremony was followed by a goat observation hour with wine and cheese.

Everything is going pretty well. We are trying to adjust to the new schedule as Julie goes back to school and the kids go back to daycare. It took like two days at daycare for Henry to bring home his first illness. I think we all have had sore throats and colds and what not for a couple weeks.

Violet is doing pretty good. She is getting stronger and is sleeping more at night. We have been putting them both to bed at around seven o'clock with few problems. Violet will sometimes sleep through the night, but will typically wake up once at two or four in the morning. We are getting up at 5:30 or so.

Henry just does some outright cute stuff. He will often wake up just before our alarms go off on the weekdays or just too early on weekends. When he wakes up he will come into bed with us and we try to get him to sleep for a while longer. Sometimes he just lays there and stares at me while I pretend to sleep and after a while he will peel my eyes open with his little fingers and whisper "daddy, seepin?" or "daddy, get up." This morning we made him sing me the good morning song before I got out of bed. The Good Morning Song was a tradition we started with Henry anytime we had to wake him up. We thought it was mean to wake up a sleeping kid and it was the least we could do. This was the first time he sang it and he knew it pretty good. Needless to say, it was pretty cute.

Also, and I don't know where he came up with this, Henry will sometimes yell at the wife and I during supper or during a car ride "NO TALKING!!" For some reason, I guess he just likes to enjoy the silence sometimes. That's ok. But it can be annoying when two grown ups are trying to talk about stuff. He'll keep saying it and saying it and we have to tell him to chill out.

It is supposed to be nice this weekend and I am hoping to get a large amount of siding put up.

I have been kicking around the idea of getting Henry a haircut next week.

Let Me Tell You a Story of Heartache & Loss of Todd

Last Friday Todd mysteriously and suddenly passed away. I gave him water in the morning and he seemed fine and fresh as a daisy. Then, we went to the Minnesota State Fair and returned in the mid-afternoon and I found him laying there dead.

I consulted my book Goats For the Complete Boob! and reread the Why is my goat dead? chapter. I have narrowed it down to two possibilities. It was either bloat or some type of genetic thing. I am leaning towards bloat. Although, I am no expert and am not qualified to perform goat autopsies.

I explained to Henry what had happened and that Todd would be buried in the ground from here on out, but also that he was very happy to be there. We had a small and simple funeral service at dusk. For some reason Henry thinks a shark killed Todd and that is what he is telling everyone at daycare. The other day, out of nowhere, he told me "Todd died... Sad... DADDY GET NEW TODD'S!!!!". I guess he is taking the whole ordeal in stride.

If I had more advanced skills with computer software I would make a video/photo montage of our short time with Todd set to Carly Simon's Nobody Does it Better.

So, I believe we are going to try again with the goats. However, in the back of my mind I worry that I am a huge idiot and that maybe it could have been something I had unknowingly done that killed Todd. And I will keep acquiring and killing off these gentle and loving creatures. I guess if another mysterious livestock death occurs I may have to take that as a sign and abandon my dreams of animal husbandry altogether...

Here's me at the State Fair with my little posse. We borrowed Grandma Judy's double stroller and it worked out pretty sweet.

The whole point of the State Fair is to look at the baby animals and then wander around annoyed and eat unhealthy food, right? That is why we only go every five years. Henry and I split a plate of french fries covered with melted "cheese".

Now that I have had a chance to look at these pictures I have to say how disgusting the scene from the picture below is. I am sitting on a dirty curb just a stone's throw from the most violated and disrespected toilets in the civilized world, eating a heaping plate of cheese drenched french fries with my son, licking said cheese off of my fingers. Real nice.

This is sad and ironic. Henry was really jazzed to check out all of the livestock barns and he would go to every pen and point and yell "TODD!"

Hey Violet, 1986 called and they want their onesie back...

Violet in sepia...

She is really good at making faces...

Our 5,000 lineal feet of siding came in last week. My brother-in-law and father-in-law were kind enough to help with the staining. We got a real good chunk of it done.

Henry likes to sweep our new sidewalk.

I'm still not quite sure of the chain of events that lead to the moustache and soul patch... Momma did it...

It has been eighteen months of patiently waiting for Henry to truly be able to fit into his kung fu outfit. This is his other kung fu outfit with the gold dragon stitched on it. We had him do some high kicks and jump off the stairs and other assorted stunts. I think he is actually hitting himself in the jimmy in this photo to prove his strength and high threshold for pain...