There’s no reason in the universe to get up that early, he said the night before. But there it was, 3:30 in the morning, and I dragged myself around, making coffee and a little breakfast sandwich, then it was off to pick up Sophie. It was our last practice trip before the TRT. We were doing three days, two nights in the wilderness. We had a long way to go. By the time we loaded Read more…
It was Tuesday when the Virginia City Highlands Property Owner’s Association told me we were not welcome to hike to the petroglyphs with our goats and if we veered off the road at all, we were trespassing. No foraging, no camping, and if we went, we should cross our fingers we “don’t run into the wrong property owners”. Deciding that was code for – Someone Will Shoot Your Goats Because This Is Nevada, we decided Read more…
I was a total wreck. Being a wreck isn’t helping you prepare, he said. But I was a wreck anyway. I couldn’t sleep, worrying about all the things I was responsible for that weren’t done and all of the Dreadful Things That Could Happen. But eventually Friday came and I went to Carson and realized I didn’t have weed-free food, and we were headed into California into a National Forest. So Mom took me to Read more…
So then it was back to the DMV at 6am again. And Christina showed up like the champ she is, and held my place in line while I hung out with the truck and the new trailer and kept my fingers and toes tightly crossed. And I gave her a Donut. Of Appreciation. And I just poked around on Facebook while she had to deal with the armed guards and the crazy white guy on Read more…
None of it is right. None of it. The DMV VIN inspection lady said. You needed to do a million things differently than you did. So we’re just screwed? I asked her. Pretty much, yes. She said. Well, that’s basically what she said anyway. But she said I could get a movement permit for the horse trailer so I could at least be driving it around legally until the title was fixed, so I met Read more…
It was 5:01 a.m. when I got to Sophie’s. I teased myself for being one minute late. We were trying to see what it was like to work the goats super mega early in the morning, as we would on trail. She hopped in with two energy drinks and we were off. We watched the dawn break as we drove and it was still cold while we geared up the goats. Bosco was having a Read more…
Did you see the donkey yet? Kristin asked. Yeah, he’s right over there. We pointed. The guy with the donkey wanted to talk, but Sally the Donkey didn’t want anything to do with our goats. Sharkey even went up to say hello and Sally’s heart just about fell to her ankles with fear. Sophie scooted us along, how she does. We went a different way. We wound around, gradually down. The bushes were higher. The Read more…
I took an Ativan. I was so stressed out about what he’d say. It’ll be a great journey. He said as he microchipped them all. They need more muscle mass and a little more weight, that’s true, but they’ll be fine. He said. After I showed him our itinerary. They’re not in bad shape at all. They should hike 7.5 miles 3x per week, keep eating black oil sunflower seeds and calf manna. Deworm them Read more…
The sky was icee-berry-blue-flavored and I could just eat the whole thing up. Amanda met us and we squealed and hugged each other and danced around a bit because it had been so long, and then it was off to the goats. Amanda wore her dress and leggings and hiking shoes and we were soooo happy about that. She helped me figure out weights on panniers since my replacement scale from packgoats.com hadn’t arrived yet. Read more…
So I shoved him with my foot, because what else was I supposed to do? Bosco had Oatcake’s back leg between his horns and twisted it until Oatcake fell on the ground crying. We were yelling at Bosco, and so I shoved him with my foot and squirted him with a squirt bottle and he let go. Oatcake lay there, all dressed up and sad. I was so angry at Bosco and so upset for Read more…