A Pretty Perfect Day

The weather was near perfect today. I didn't even mind the late afternoon shower. In fact, I stayed in the garden weeding until the rain changed from an easy-to-live-with drizzle to a more steady downpour. After a half hour I was back outside in the late afternoon sun, grazing the goats on the still-wet lawn. Bliss.

We visited Spinning Spider Creamery earlier this afternoon for their open house. Chris Owen taught the dairy goat class I took this spring at the Organic Growers School, which was supposed to convince me that I didn't want goats (yeah, we know how that turned out...). We checked out the milking shed, saw the creamery with it's coolers full of aging cheese (Chris had some bleu cheese that I'm dying to try, but it's not ready yet.). Monkey got to milk a goat and actually did well considering the size of her tiny hands. She was more interested in the litter of Cairn Terrier puppies than the goats, however. I'm really in awe of that family. They all pitch in and everyone is involved with the farm. The goats are lovely and well cared for. The boys are personable and talkative. They all are knowledgable and friendly (the boys, that is. The goats are friendly, but I'm not sure that they are very knowledgable). I can't wait until we can milk Dulcinea and Aggie Grunker.

While at the farm I struck up a conversation with a woman named Esther, who is a friend of the Owens and raises sheep. In the course of conversation she found out I had chickens and casually, in a tone I should have recognized, asked me if I would like a couple of geese. I should have run, but I said "Yes!" (You thought I would say, "No"???) I really wanted geese and have been quite sad since I lost the last four. Esther ordered 5 American Buff and 5 Crested Roman geese this spring (10 is the minimum order). They are now about a month old and she doesn't want to keep them all. So it looks like later this week we'll have two new geese on the farm - I think Crested Roman, as she said she had been trying to get the Buffs for several years. Let's hope they have better luck than the past geese. Now that we have the duck pen, I think they'll be safe. Don't you like when life throws you those pleasant little surprises? I was really just hoping to check out the goats, ask a few questions and pick up some more fresh chevre and now I get a few geese as well.

Liz has tagged me for a photo of my favorite view from home, so here it is:

The view from my office.

Life does indeed toss us some good little treats every now and again.

Addendum: Thanks to Liz for pointing out that my goose link was not quite right. Now you may check them out!