Granted, after almost 30 years of marriage, it’s difficult to be surprised by anything my wife does around the house or farm. Through the years, I’ve been shocked by; opening the dishwasher and finding a cow skull staring back at me, because she thought it would make an attractive wall hanging, if only she could get it clean; Or, jumping over the fence in her best Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a calf that I had just pulled and pronounced it, “beyond help.” She saved the calf.
But, three Saturdays ago, Judy surprised me once again when I entered the house around noontime. I had just finished the morning feeding and was more than ready for a good, hearty lunch when I opened the door and heard, what sounded exactly like, a crying baby. Make that two crying babies as I distinctly heard two different pitches of, “waah, waah,” echoing simultaneously. Cautiously, I walked up the hall and peeked around the corner, into the kitchen, where I found two baby goats anxiously awaiting their bottles of milk from my smiling wife.
“What have you gone and done?” I asked with more than a bit of disdain.
“How do you like them?” my wife responded.
“I’d like them a whole lot more if they were standing in someone else’s kitchen right now.”
Judy started laughing and then assured me that the young kids would only be there for a couple of hours before she presented them as a birthday gift at a party scheduled for later in the afternoon.
“Whew!”
My wife’s office manager is a wonderful young lady that lives in our community and her young son was celebrating his 3rd birthday on that Saturday with a party just a few miles from our home. Chase is great little boy that talks non-stop and is just as cute as a button. Even though they live in the country, they just have a house and lot that is surrounded by pastureland filled with cattle. Chase is enamored with the sight of baby calves this time of year, and since they don’t have facilities for raising a baby calf, Judy thought these little goats would be just the ticket to appease the boys ‘farming instincts.’
Needless to say, the goats were the hit of the party when Judy and I arrived with the little guys. All the kids wanted to take turns feeding and petting the goats while envying Chase as the luckiest kid in the world. Even Chase’s dad, who is a native New Yorker, was enthralled with satisfaction of realizing that he was now a ‘livestock owner.’ His mother, who has grown up in this area and is somewhat familiar with animals, was slightly less excited. As a matter of fact, Sarah’s first comment was, “Do you mean to tell me these goats are for Chase to take home and KEEP?”
“Yep, congratulations and Happy Birthday to Chase,” my wife replied.
It’s been three weeks, now, and Sarah tells me that the goats are doing just fine and Chase loves them to death, feeding and taking care of them. The little kids are enjoying having the run of a large yard, staying in the safety of the garage at night, and climbing everything in sight, including the playground equipment, automobiles, gazebos and the sundeck. She’s also pretty sure they will enjoy all the shrubbery in the yard when springtime gets here as well.
Keep in mind that Sarah told all this to me, since she still refuses to talk to my wife.
Jerry Crownover farms in Lawrence County. He is a former professor of Agriculture Education at Missouri State University, and is an author and professional speaker. To contact Jerry, go to ozarksfn.com and click on ‘Contact Us.’
