Let's Start At The Very Beginning...

A Very Good Place To Start...
                                Especially After The Lovely Lynn & HRH Quilt Sue
                  Have Heralded That Accompanied  In Ones Arrival in Livermore to attend the
                                                Quilting In The Garden Show
                                                                      Would Also Be Several Goats! 
                                                            I the "Goatherd"...

We did, in fact, arrive in California, with eight beloved Nubian Does who belong to our daughter.  Several of them being on the "vintage" side since her Goat Breeding and Exhibiting essentially ended with her acceptance into Vet School in 2007.  Many weeks of preparation and sweating the details came into play when making certain that every i was dotted and every t crossed so that we entered the State of California legally and having met every requirement to be allowed to cross the State Line by the "Border Patrol" as my husband likes to refer to them. Several evenings were dedicated to trimming hooves, worming, immunizing and entertaining the Vet, a former classmate of our daughters, who came out to peek over the fence to make sure no one had obvious signs of disease, open wounds or parasitic conditions...three heads...that sort of thing...

Emma & daughters Kellen (for BSU's standout QB Kellen Moore) aka Wild Thang and her piebald sister who is in another home now.

McKellyn & Callie O'Malley (yes, daughter loves Greys Anatomy)

Willow and Lilys rump...yes Mr. Joe...rump!

Not pictured...yet...Bee (Callies Mom)

& my best masseuse, Abby, Mother of Emma & Grandmother of Wild Thang!

But really...who could resist these faces...except possibly the management of the lovely Alden Lane Nursery Staff who would be running about protecting beautiful plant specimens from certain consumption!

Naughty Lynn!  Naughty Sue!





Also along as deliberate distraction and Adoration Soaker Upper was Maecee, my pampered Velcro baby.

She never leaves home without her beloved pillow pet, our Boise State Mascot, Buster Bronco.

 All seatbelted in and content.  Is she not the sweetest, I ask you???

Eleven hours from Idaho to their new home in Northern California at the base of the Sierras, the eight girls rode quietly and contented in our stock trailer, bedded in with pine shavings, glorious wonderful certified weed free hay and tubs of water filled enough to have plenty to drink but not so much as to slosh about.  We left at 6:30 Idaho time and arrived at 4:30 California time.  We then helped the kids finish up the securing of the fence in the girls new holding pen where they have a lovely shelter & will remain together with one sheep until they are more accustomed to their new surroundings and fences on the remainder of the 10 acres they now inhabit are secured.  By the time we unloaded them it was well after dark and they were a little confused and rattled by their new gently sloping home.  We stayed with them, showing them where fences, house, hay & water were by flashlight...and then they discovered the equivalent of Goat Potato Chips (yes Sue, I hear you...Crisps!) all the little dry fallen leaves around the pen...the baas gave way to Munch Munch Munch...they had had discovered Gold!  Eureka!!!!!!!!

Not everything went as smoothly...in the darkness we then had the issue of where to "drop" the trailer so it wouldn't be in the way while we spent the rest of our week playing!  A spot was finally decided upon...and as my husband turned around to walk back to the truck to begin the process of turning it around and jockey-ing it into just the perfect spot...he ran smack-dab into some part of the back door of the trailer...(that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!)...we heard the thud...and as he approached touching his forehead saying "I'm not bleeding I don't think, am I?" I calmly summoned my Veterinarian daughter over to inspect the gushing inch + wound on his forehead.  It was examined by flashlight as best we could...cleaned up a smidge and discussed whether or not, once again, Dad would require sutures on his noggin.  
I was going to insert the photo of the wound here, but decided it might be a bit much for some, especially after I edited the photo & really zoomed in on the wound.  I have to remember that not everyone who might read this discusses such things as surgical procedures around the dining room table.
 The bleeding stopped, the trailer was parked, we hailed goodnight to son in laws Grandma and the goats and headed back to the city...where in the comfort and better light of the kids condo it was determined we would not need to make a trip to the Vet Clinic to suture Dads forehead...a little liquid skin adhesive was applied and then we were off to have a late dinner on the breezy In & Out Burger patio while watching the kids come and go in their various Homecoming Dance "costumes"...the girls usually in impossible shoes and the boys creatively layered in vests and untucked shirts with flowing ties.

What a Day!

And Now you Have the Beginning of the Fun, Giddyness and Adventures yet to be...

Nancie Anne