There are adorable baby goats, blooming flowers, chicken eggs in the laying baskets and a box load of fabric waiting to be sewn up.  Life’s good.

My lettuce, arugula and snow peas are coming along swimmingly.  This week I’ll till out the back garden and put in the corn and potatoes (I’m also thinking some butternut squash is in order, considering it freezes well and I looove it).  I’ve got lots of herbs and tomatoes started inside waiting to go out, and we’re going to enclose a spot out front where we’ve got strawberries and rhubarb.  I need to keep those hungry deer from mowing it all down!!!  (Is it too late to plant some asparagus in there???)

My peonies are about to burst.  I can’t wait!  Peonies and lilacs are my favorite flowers.  I have a small lilac bush but it has never bloomed – I am not sure we have the right climate for them.  Up in New York there were massive lilac bushes and trees all over – it was always the best time of year for me when they were in bloom.

I couldn’t help but pick up a marigold pot for the front porch.  I think next time I will grab a few of those Martha Washington type marigolds – they’re lovely.

The past weekend we were busy showing off the adorable twins!  They are so cuddly I can’t even stand it.

They’re doing fantastically well, and Milkshakes is a natural at the mommy thing.

Yes, that’s leopard – print fleece they’re wearing.  I needed to make them little jackets since it’s still been getting rather chilly at night, and this was all I had.  It’s left over from Maddie’s Halloween costume circa 2000.   Check out Frodo’s ears – airplane ears!  That’s how I tell them apart.  Finn’s ears are floppier, but Frodo keeps his out straight all the time.

See?  Airplane ears.

Jerry does this all day.  He’s dying of curiosity.  He hasnt’ been allowed in with them yet because he doesn’t like having the door closed behind him.  I’ve been holding the little guys up for him to sniff at so he can get to know them, and he love love loves them.  He sniffs and nuzzles and smiles……and I suspect he thinks they’re his babies.

But they aren’t, are they?  And so I shall tell you a tale…a tale of their father’s true identity…a tale which only those of you I’ve spoken with in person have heard.

With apologies to certain uncles, aunts and cousins……

Way back when I entered the Goat Giveaway that Susie was sponsoring, people started realizing that when I said I love animals and I want a farm , I wasn’t just talking out my back end…I meant it.  Some of those people got to thinking.  Thinking about a goat they had that had worn out his welcome.

So it happened that when I did not win the goats I got a call from a dear relative of Paul’s informing me that I had won one beautiful purebred Saanen billy goatwho was no longer being cared for the way he deserved.  A loving, friendly but lonely guy who would love to come live in the country where there would be chickens and a llama and kids to play with him and nurture him.  I had heard that he had found himself in some mischief recently (due to his lonliness); he had a penchant for breaking into the house and following Paul’s uncle around the kitchen.  I found it charmingly hialrious, this image of David standing at his kitchen stove, then, upon hearing some strange noise behind him, turning to discover Hunter the goat standing there, chewing his cud, watching the cooking happen.  Sure, I would take this loveable but lonely guy. I had acquired Milkshakes from a local farm and figured they’d keep each other happy.

This is what went down.

We got home from Mexico on a Tuesday night, right around dark.  We had driven all day after picking the kids up in New York and I was beat.  Hunter was expected sometime that evening and Paul planned to wait up.

Around 1 o’clock in the morning, the truck pulls up, the back is opened, and from the way Paul tells it…this wild – eyed, stinky as all – get – out BEAST emerges from the darkness.  We estimate this guy weighed around 250 lbs.  Hunter immediately went to work chasing Jerry and Milkshakes all around.

In the morning I woke up to signs posted over every door stating that none of the kids should be let near Hunter without an adult.  Hmm…well that’s curious, I thought.  I soon discovered that this loveable lonely guy also had a thing for butting.  Hard.

I couldn’t feed the other animals without nearly getting knocked down.  Emily was terrified to go in the pen to take care of the chickens.  Milkshakes sported a look that made me want to bring her in the house with me, and Jerry stayed as far away as he could at all times. Hunter seemed unconcerned by all of this, happily chewing on the electric fencing wires!!

He lasted two days before I found a lovely woman in a neighboring town who raised purebred Saanen females but had been searching for an affordable male.  I happily gave him to her.  He went to a small dairy farm with 12 females to mate.

So there you have it – the story of how this stinky guy fathered this cute little guy and his brother.

And I am glad he did.