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...