It’s been quite the week. Mia had her birthday last Sunday. Four years old, oh my! And then of course, the big move. I’m going to copypaste some Facebook posts from the week. I’ve been too tired to spellcheck, so they’re as is. As they were.

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Okay, here’s the story of the day. It’s going to be a long one.
Like night and day. I spent a couple of hours with Mia and Mio before the transport arrived. Completely alone with them, not a person in sight. The fenced bum lot, everything worn down and broken and dirty and no one around. Flash forward a couple of hours and we’re out in the sun with green all around, with animals and friendly, caring people, kids wanting to see the new goats and repairs being made, work being done and kids playing. It was like going from one sci-fi reality to another. The first one dystopian, the other one… what’s the opposite of dystopian?
Okay, that’s taking it a little far. But it was just a completely different feeling at the new place.
I will miss our playground, though. Even though things have deteriorated over time it’s still a place I’ve gone to for 12ish years. It’s like a second home and there’s a part of me that’s sad to not be going there. Even if it’s temporary. But so it goes.
The transport itself wasn’t the nicest thing. It took some pushing and pulling to get the girls into the ‘bus’ vehicle. Just taking them out to the road where they’re normally not allowed to be, they knew something was up. And going into the dark space in the bus was not something they did happily. It’s times like that you wish you could explain to them what was going on and why it was for their own good. But you can’t of course, just like you can’t explain to your own brain why it shouldn’t be afraid of the things you’re afraid of. But we got them in and the drive wasn’t too long so it wasn’t that bad after all. And i’m glad I got to go with them and help Alice get them along. That at least made things a little smoother.
So we got to the new playground. That’s when it started getting tougher for me. Because new place, new people. Can’t see faces, can’t see in the stable, can’t remember things said, don’t know where to go etc etc anxiety rising. It was scary for a blind phobic who avoids change. But that’s the good thing about not having a choice, you can’t just stop and sit down and cry. Gotta keep going, gotta meet everyone, gotta see everything. Gotta move forward. Gotta take care of the goats.
And everyone was really nice. Really. The guy in charge is called Finbarr. I love that name. I think it’s Irish. He basically said “You gotta be able to do everything you could at the old place”. They got me a key right away, told me I could take the goats out more or less as I pleased. They practically said “You’re the guy who knows the goats, you tell US how it’s done”. Partially because, and this is the only real let down of the day, Pernille wasn’t there. The woman who used to work at the old playground. She’s out on sick leave. Long term. I’m not sure when or if I’ll get to see her. But she was the one mainly in charge of the animals so they were kind of asking me if I thought how they were doing was fine. Haha. Well, the place seems amazing. There’s a lot more space. And it’s all green. The horses and the goats have like 2-3 folds that are connected. They can all mix, but the goats can withdraw to their own fenced area if they don’t want to mingle with the horses. I have a feeling our gals might appreciate that. Already on day one there was a couple of “Uh oh, run away there’s a giant beast coming our way” situations. But it’s really nice. So much grass and vegetation. And they showed me a fold down another path where I could also take the goats if I wanted. And I got my ropes with me if I want to take them out for walks. I have to say it just seems like it’s all geared a lot more towards catering for the animals than at our old place. With people around. It feels alive.
When we took Mia and Mio out of the bus we went straight for the stable. Where they met the other goats. As seen in the photo I posted. Spirrevip and A38. Spirrevip is a loaner who took over from Peanut. And she was going home today. Which is a shame, because she was adorably tiny. I was talking to a young lady, I think her name was Anne. She told me she was 20 and she had kind of started out with their horses as I had started out with our goats. Just hanging around and becoming part of the place. She talked a lot to me. That’s the kind of thing that makes me my phobia flare up. I hope I didn’t come off rude or standoffish. I’m just painfully shy and incapable of conversation. But anyway, she talked quite a lot to me and one of the things she told me is that the first time she saw Spirrevip she had thought it was a new baby that had been born. Because she’s just so little. But if everything went according to plan today after I left then I won’t be seeing Spirrevip anymore.
But I’ll be seeing plenty of A38. I know the name seems odd. It’s the name of a Danish breakfast product. A kind of yoghurtish thing, if I remember correctly. When Mia and Mio came into the stable, A38 was looking in and started butting her head against the wall. Aww. Like she was trying to appear strong and powerful. Mio is considerably bigger and stronger, though. There was some sniffing, headbutting and chasing among everyone. A38 and Spirrevip had to retreat, though. They spent most of the time keeping a safe distance to Mia and Mio. I hope when things settle down and Spirrevip is gone, that A38 and our gals will become a group together. There’s enough space, though, that they don’t have to get on each others nerves if they don’t want to. But I hope they’ll gel. We’ll see. A38 seemed very friendly once she saw that I wasn’t a danger. A peanut or two helped with that. Crunchy goodness. She reminds me a lot of my old friend Mads. That pygmy look. She’s smaller than him, though. Different feet. But still. The pygmyish face. Memories.
Is there anything I have forgotten? My first impression is very good. Plenty of space, plenty of life, plenty of green. I think it will be very good for Mia and Mio. And I’ll cope too. It’s not too far away. I’m not sure I’ll be able to walk there, it’s a little too far for my worn legs. With nasty traffic crossings. But the route seems manageable by bus. I’ll have to spend some money on a bus card, but it should be okay. I’ll get used to it
It’ll be more difficult on the bad mornings, though. When it’s hard to get out of bed. The prospect of a bus ride and all the newness is going to make it even more tempting to stay in bed. But we’ll see. I don’t know if I’ll cut down on goat time or maybe I’ll enjoy it so much there that I’ll go more often. Who knows. We’ll see. If it wasn’t for the further distance, more complicated travel and scary newness then I’d say this was perfect. We’re off to a good start. And when things settle down a little we’ll find our new new normal.
I’m really tired now, though. It’s going to be exhausting, and I’m going to have so much photo and video to edit probably. I’ll be behind on things for a while. But day by day, that still works. I am greatful that things went well, that I’m there to help get Mia and Mio adjusted and that they’ll be well taken care of now, whether I’m there or not.
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Good goat times today. Phew. Things are still looking good.
(Another long one coming up).
I had an appointment at the eye doc first. (No news = good news). Normally I’d go straight home after that because the eyedrops mess up what little sight I have. But under the circumstances I felt like I had to go check up on Mio and Mia. Make sure they were doing okay and that they didn’t think I’d abandoned them at the new place. I found them out in the horse pen. They didn’t see me at first. The place is so big, harder to spot the arriving Lasse. So I said hi to A38 first. She’s still a little bit unsure of things, I’m not sure if she’s used to weird humans wanting to hang out with the goats like that. But she seems real mellow and likes being scratched and cuddled. When Mia and Mio spotted me they bleated out and came running. For cuddles and treats. And they crowded me when I sat down. Lots of scratchyes and nuzzling.
It’s a beautiful, warm and sunny day. It was nice walking around the place with the ladies. I went and checked out the smaller pen that connected to the big horse pen. There are big trees in there so it’s all dark and shady. The ladies were a little unsure of it. You never know what lurks in the dark forest! I think they’ve found themselves a favourite spot. You can see it in the photo I posted on Mia’s page. They like to sit at the gate to the horse pen. There’s a bit of hard dirt with no grass. They like pawing the dirt and then sitting down.
My impression of the place is still really good. I think it’s especially good for when I’m not around. At the old place they would be lucky if they got to be out in the little pen we had. I think they probably spent more time locked up inside than I’m comfortable. Here they have more time outside. And when they’re outside there’s more space, and greenery. I don’t even really need to take them out grazing anymore. Because now they just live in a big grazing area.
The people there are seem really nice too. Ophelia came shortly after I arrived. She was there yesterday too. I think I heard someone say she was a temp. She might be there replacing Pernille. She seems to be handling the animals a lot. We talked a little. About how the girls were settling in (quite well I think) and how they’re getting along with A38. Yesterday there was a bit of headbutting and chasing. Today it seemed more relaxed. Although A38 did usually back off when Mia and Mio came too close. But they did sit down not too far apart at one point. It would be nice if they could come together as one group when thing settle. Ophelia told me that when Spirrevip arrived A38 was after her a lot at first. I think it was her first chance to be top in the hierarchy, because Spirrevip is so small. But after some initial clashes they became very close. It would be nice if that could happen again. But with Mio and Mia being family I don’t know if they’ll let A38 get that close. We’ll see. As long as they get along okay. And I think they will. It was nice talking to Ophelia about it all. Later Jakob came. He was the one who gave me the key yesterday and helped me fill in registration papers. Gave me his phone number too, and Finbarr’s too. He seems really nice. Big, outgoing, outdoorsy. Seemes like the kind of guy who gets a good idea about fixing something up for the animals and gets it done. Of course that’s just the first impression from a blind guy, could be completely wrong! But they seem like good people, and the whole atmosphere of the place just feels really nice.
The bus route doesn’t seem too bad either. I get nervous when I need to learn a new bus route. But it’s not bad. Travel time won’t be much longer than to the other place when I take the bus. So far it’s a relief how well things have gone.

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Good goat times today. Three in a row.
Blogging time again.
Today was my first time going there on my own. On Monday I rode with Alice and the goats. Yesterday my dad accompanied me from the eye doc. So today was my first solo trip. And it was fine. The bus route is easier than I thought. I still don’t like taking the bus. But it’s an easy trip.
Just when I got there Anne was about to let the goats out. She’d already let the horses out, she told me that she’d wanted to take them by the kindergarten to impress her mother, who works there. Haha. Mia was bleating, impatient to be let out. “That’s one thing I didn’t miss, goats screaming after me when I’m letting them out”. Yeah, I don’t think their pygmies have Mia’s slightly hysterical voice when impatient.
So the horses were in a different pen today and the goats and I had all the big pens to ourselves. I took advantage but going for a little run with them. A big grass field with no obstacles, I can sort of half-run without fearing to fall too much. And the girls speeding along with me. Anne brought a bunch of willow branches for the goats. Enough to snack on all day. And it was another beautiful and warm day. Sitting under the blue sky, toasting in the sun with the goats sitting around me. Percfect.
There’s still a little tension between our gals and A38, though. I feel a little bad for her. Having her Spirrevip taken away and then two big monster goats taking over the territory. Oh dear. She’s a sweetheart. Keeping her distance mostly to Mia and Mio. But they did sit down not too far from each other at one point. Hopefully it’ll get better and better. At least they’re not fighting. Although Mia did chase her off quite forcefully when she saw me approaching her to cuddle her a little. “My uncle!”.
Yeah, I think Mia is a little attached to me. Which makes it hard to leave. She was hollering after me even louder than she used to at out old place. Screaming like she was being tortured as I went out of sight. I walked by a woman with a couple of kids who had to laugh and ask “Are those your goats?”. And then someone doing some gardening, I think it was Jakob, said “They’re calling for you!”. Yeah, I don’t think their pygmies scream for them when they leave either.
But I managed to tear myself away. And then I decided to walk home. Since the bus route was so easy I figured I’d test walking. Only thing is that the bus route takes a little detour, it goes a little too far actually and then you have to walk 10-15 minutes back from the bus stop to get to the playground. I wanted to see if I could find a shortcut so I didn’t have to walk in a big semi circle to get back to the bus route. This meant walking around in a unfamiliar neighbourhood. Blind and with no sense of direction. Uh oh. I had to give up after a while as I was close to getting lost and had no idea how to get to the big bus road. So I went back to where I started (and once again had to walk by Mia and Mio and walk away while Mia screamed after me. Oh dear). But I decided to try again with a different route. And this time I managed to find the right way, after a lot of aimless wandering. All in all I think I walked around for an hour and half before I was home. My legs are going to pay me back for that tomorrow… but I managed to prove to myself that I could find my way and the shortcut should shave 15-20 minutes off the walk probably. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to walk there every time. If my legs can survive that. But maybe if I cut down on exercise biking and do the walking instead. I’m not sure that’s enough exercise for my pizza lifestyle, though. But we’ll see. At least both the bus trip and the walking trip is easier than I’d feared. So that’s good.
And to make a long story short, that’s how we invented fire. Tomorrow chapter 2: How we tamed the mammoths.
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It’s been… a good week. I needed that. This week that I was so afraid of has turned out to be everything I could have hoped for, and more. The big move went without a hitch. Mia and Mio seem happy at the new place. I’m glad I could go with them on the ride and be there a lot the first days. I’m happy about how things have turned out.

They crowded me a lot the first day or two. Suddenly there was a lot more space than they were used to. And big old horses. But it seems like such a good place for them. The feeling is so different now. I don’t like saying bad things about our old playground. I’ve been going there for some 12 years, I already miss it a bit this week. It’s been important to me. But it was just in a negative spiral. All the things going wrong. There was just a feeling of hopelessness there at times. I hope they can rebuild it and change course. Most of the time I’d be taking the goats out on my own and I’d barely see anyone. Apart from the lone dogwalkers. Once in a while there would be groups of kids coming by. Often with their adults asking “When does it open? Why aren’t the animals out?”. I just took care of the goats, everything else would be closed more and more often. And with things falling into disrepair and vandalism and the house burning down, it just wasn’t as pleasant a place to visit. Which meant fewer visitors. Which meant fewer ressources being allocated still. Just on Monday when we were moving the goats Alice told me that they’d had to let another member of staff go because of budget cuts. Even though I enjoyed taking the goats out on my own it just seemed almost desolate at times. Compared to the new place which is full of life. People and animals. Space and greenery. I know the girls are well taken care of when I’m not there. It’s just so nice. A feeling of positivity that I haven’t felt in a long time. And so much to deal with which has helped take my mind off other things. The constant grief of losing Palle has lifted a little. I still feel sad when I think about what happened, of course. How stupid and careless and avoidable it was. So unfair that the world was robbed of such a lovely goat for no reason. I can’t help imagining him in the new place. It’s so easy getting Mia and Mio to run along with me in the open space. I can only imagine how Palle would have gone nutters and jumped around with me. Hopefully there’s even more evergreen space where he is now. I miss those hugs.
Let’s hope things keep going well. I still have lots of physical and mental issues to deal with. But it’s all a little easier when the goat situation is good. And thank you everyone, again, as always, for being there. With cards and presents and Facebookering. I got a little teary eyed opening the packages with the painting of Kamel and the figure of Palle. To go with the other beautiful things made or sent by you guys this year. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that little old me and these goats have made so many good friends and nice people from around the world. You could choose to spend your time doing anything with anyone, I’m glad you choose to spend some of it with me. I’m really nothing special, but with you guys we are. Thank you.
AND LIVE FROM AARHUS IT’S SUNDAY NIGHT
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Alrighty then. Onwards with photos from the week. Mia, Mio, A38 and a bit of Spirrevip. But first, some presents I have received from kind people. A Lost bobblehead, a little painting of Kamel and a ceramic figure of Palle. I love them all, very much. I am so lucky to have gotten to know such good people.

And videos.

And that’s all for this week, see you in the next one.

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