WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU...

...keeps you up all night! In keeping with our plan of "voluntary simplicity", we are having to find new homes for most of our pets. Last Saturday we took four of our goats to their new, awesome, home at Heidi's little farm in South Jordan. She had been ready for them for a few weeks, but it took me a while to finally say, "Okay, I'm ready to let my babies go." The story would be kind of funny if I wasn't still in mourning, but I'll tell it anyway...

Transporting goats is a little more difficult than dogs or cats. You can't just put them in the backseat! Goats are constantly rumenating (chewing their cud), which means they are constantly eliminating (think pee and poop). I had been trying to come up with a way to get all four, full-sized goats to their new home for some time, and Jeff had been trying to come up with a way to get my mom's piano out of our house, and more recently garage for about six years. Being the smartie-pants that he is (we've established this in previous posts), Jeff devised a plan to take care of both problems at once. UHaul! So early Saturday morning we wheeled the piano out of the garage and up the ramp, tied it securely at the front of the truck, and were ready for delivery number one... or so I thought. That was when Jeff informed me that we were paying 79 cents per mile, and that we were only making one trip! Hmmm... I wonder how well my mom is going to like this plan? Out to the barn we went to get the goats (remember the eliminating?), and into the back of the truck they went. It took some shuffling and a lot of food to get everyone situated. That's when Kaylee mumbled to me, "The goats are climbing on the piano." As soon as the door to the back came down, Jack started wailing.
When Jack wails, it sounds like he is dying a violent and bloody death. He kept wailing the entire trip and I am just glad we didn't run into anyone in law enforcement. Can you imagine the list of violations? "No officer, we've never been convicted of animal cruelty." "No sir, we don't normally treat our good furniture this way." We made it to Heidi's without a glitch, unloaded the goats and said our sad goodbyes. Next stop, Kay's house. Luckily she wasn't home when we got there, otherwise the process would have taken even longer, due her hyperventilating right there in the driveway. Tim seemed fine with things though, bless his good natured and laid back little heart, so we wheeled the piano down the ramp and into THEIR garage. Kaylee played a few goodbye notes, and damned if that piano wasn't still in perfect tune!

Despite my reservations about this ill-gotten plan, it all worked out pretty well. After some hard-core hose and nozzle action, the back of the truck looked good as new. It only took me four days to come to terms with my grief, and post about it. I am happy with the home situation we found for my goaties, so hopefully my good luck will continue while we find new homes for cats, dogs, chickens, and ponies. Then, maybe, I can start sleeping at night again. My only regret, I guess, was my decision not to warn my mom about eating those chocolate covered raisins in her piano!