Been busy

We are back into a drought again; same old story.  So I am once again moving soaker hoses from one row to another, pulling up weeds or hoeing them down.  I make Alexa the timer for how long my soaker-hose does its job, so I don’t forget.

I pay for my time in the garden with pain, but thank God for Tylenol.  Here’s the thing:  I don’t have to have a garden.  But I have all the time in the world to do what I love to do, even if it hurts.  It makes me happy, seeing so many tomatoes on the vines.  I have found some signs of blight on the lower limbs of some plants, but I’m sure I’ll get some tomatoes off those plants before the blight goes too far.  I planted far too many tomatoes, but they are the prime reason I garden at all.  I come inside and start telling Cliff all my trials and achievements outside.  He told me once he can see how happy I am when I come in the house after gardening.  

For many years my Jersey cows kept me happy in the same way a garden does now.  I loved everything about milking cows, and they were real pets.  When they were lying down chewing their cud, I’d sometimes sit down on the ground and lean back on their belly with my eyes shut, until the flies that bothered them in summer decided to bother me too.  

Sunday evening a lady on Facebook said she was selling her goats because her daughter wanted to show goats, and she had to sell the ones she has to buy registered ones.  She mentioned some of them were milkers, so I messaged her.  I’ve had goats before, and I milked one of them long ago.  I told her I’d like a pregnant goat.  She showed me pictures of some of them.  The price seemed right.

However, she wanted me to by a wether (a neutered male) also, because the pregnant goat would “get depressed” without another goat; goats are herd animals, like cows.

I was halfway interested anyway, although I really didn’t want to pay $75 for a male goat I didn’t want.  But I told her I had to talk to my husband, and I’d see what he had to say.  He was sitting right beside me watching TV.  He has never really been a fan of goats, but he has told me at different times that if I wanted one, he’d put up with it.  I showed him the picture of the goat I would like to buy.  

When all was said and done, I decided to pass.  I’m smart enough to know at this time of my life, not everything I want is what I really need.

But I’m still laughing, thinking about someone worrying that a lone goat would be depressed.  Yes, goats and cows are herd animals;  but I’ve bought cows from a herd and brought them to a home when we had no other farm animal around.  They will spend maybe three days mooing and walking the fence; then they are just fine.  Goats are the same.  They miss their friends, then get over it.