I have had a couple of days with computer trouble and migraine, so I’m a little late with the goat deliveries. I’m going to have to just skip the chit chat and go straight to the embedded media. And by that I mean it’s time for the goat pictures and videos of the week awards!

I’m not sure, but I think I may have dropped some raisins under the bench…

Kamel looking sweet. I think she’s starting to get a little woollier too.

Mio under the apple trees. With the playground main house in the background.

Bobby the goatsheep. I guess he looks so lamby because of his black fur. The whiter wool really sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s harder to see when Mio for example gets woolly because she’s already completely white.

Kamel in mid head roll.

And Kamel in mid… something? Duuude, the sky is totally touching the ground. All over. Dude.

A single black hair on Mia’s back. Well, maybe it’s two or three. But it’s still pretty cute!

And a little zoomed out view of it.

For the videos we start with a closeup look at Mio. She is a big girl now. Or at least bigger than she was before. So it goes.

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Goatlog part 1 from Monday. When I got to the playground I was a little late. But that turned out to be good, since the place was closed. I said hello to the goats through the windows. And half an hour later the place opened up. I think Preben had been separated from the ladies all weekend because he was very excited when they were all let out into the fold. Even more chasing around than usual. And then Sigrid brought in some hay and they were all excited about that too.

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Goatlog part 2 from Monday. At the beginning you can see Mio has just escaped through the fence to get away from Preben. And Mia follows her out. And then Sigrid comes and takes them away. No point putting them back in the fold if they can just get out again. So she took them to the apple trees and tied Mio down there. Bob was not happy about that. Being alone with Preben, and Kamel. He was very upset and ran around and baahed a lot. He doesn’t usually talk that much but he would not shut up about this. He even managed to jump through the fence too, but he ended up in the mud with the horses and no Sigrid to help him so he had to jump back into the fold. I hoped he’d calm down, but eventually I went and asked Alice if it was okay that I set him free because he was so unhappy. And I got the all clear so I took him out of the fold. You can see him running up to join Mio and Mia. Yummy fallen apples under the apple trees. Then Mia got very excited and started running around and jumping all over the place. It was kinda hard to follow her with the camera, but I love when goats just start running back and forth for no apparent reason.

There definitely are two cliques at the playground. Kamel and Preben stick together, mostly because Kamel needs Preben’s protection against Mio. And Bob sticks with Mio and Mia, mostly because even though he doesn’t always get along perfectly with Mio it’s still a lot better than being with Preben. So that’s kind of like two groups. But then when Preben is not in the fold Kamel and Bob often stick together because they get along reasonably well and Mio is quite dominating when Preben isn’t there. It’s fun to follow the office politics!

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Speaking of office politics, Mia of course is the baby so she sticks with mama Mio and gets chased around by the others from time to time. But she’s getting bigger. And she is an only child so she has had a lot of attention and adoration. Not least from uncle Plume. So she’s pretty confident. In the goatlog from Thursday you can see her standing her ground against Bob and briefly almost butting heads with Kamel. For a second I thought she was going to start doing the jumping headbutts against her. But of course she doesn’t have very big horns yet, so that wouldn’t be a good idea. But she’s a self-assured little lady.
You can also see a bit of me gathering branches and arranging them for the goats. They have taken my agility setup away, but I can still arrange the branches so they stick upright and the goats can nibble at the bark and play around with them a little.
PS. Look out for the helicopter! And the bunny! And the horse! And the dog!

After spending time with the goats on Thursday I went to my parents’ place. For soup. Mmm soup. Mother’s soup is still the best in the world. IAnd there is still a little left in my fridge now. There’s nothing like tasty, warm soup on cold days. Have I mentioned that my parents will be moving in January? So this was one of the last soup suppers in my childhood home. Sentimentality. But I’ll probably write more about that another time. Now it’s time to go.

Go go go!

I have had a nice week. Been feeling mostly fairly happy, and managed to hold on to the positivity. Trying to steer things in a better direction. It’s an uphill struggle sometimes, but I’m doing my best.

I got some new winter clothes from amazon. They really help. Last week I went home shivering and shaking from the cold. This week has been much better. It will get colder of course, but I have more warm clothes coming in the mail. So I am hopeful this winter I’ll be able to keep going to the playground more than once a week and stay longer hours. That is an important part in making me happy.

I love my newsnow pants. I don’t know why I insisted on wearing jeans in past winters. With my poor circulation I should have been more proactive.

Had a trip to the eye doctor this week as well. My bi-annual checkup. Didn’t take long. Things are still stable, so that’s good. That is pretty much the best I can hope for. Being stable at a reasonable level. Gotta be happy with what I have.

Let’s take a trip to the playground now.

First something of a rarity. A picture of me without goats! Well, Mia was actually in the shot but she was just putting up her bum, so I cropped that out. I just wanted a look at my new winter coat. We’ll see how long it lasts. It was nice and clean for 15 minutes or so. Then it had hoofprints and mud and hair all over it. And smelled like buck. Oh well, that’s the price you pay for having goat friends!

The lovely Mia.

I can’t get enough of those ears.

Keeping a hold of things.

Not quite a rainbow bridge.

The unbarkening.

Here’s looking at you kid.

And this is a video still. Of Mia standing on Mio’s back. I just love it, I just do.

Miiiiiio.

*poke*

Sigrid asked me if I didn’t have a lot of good pictures by now. She said they’d like some copies. I actually ordered prints of some of my photos recently and I was planning to give them to the playground for christmas. I am not entirely happy with the quality of the prints though. And Sigrid said I could just come in and they’d burn copies. Which made me think that since they have computers at the playground I can just make a DVD of all my pictures. Going back to 2003. It’s thousands of pictures though, I’m not sure that’s exactly what they were thinking. But I’m hoping they’ll like it. Per and Alice have been working there all the time I’ve known it. Hopefully they’ll enjoy seeing pictures from way back when. It will take some time to prepare, but I like the idea of all my pictures, all the time I have spent at the playground, being shared and part of the place.

When I got there on Friday Mio and Mia had escaped from the pen. They were in the horse field. But that place is one big mudflat this time of year. So they were sort of standing isolated on a little island of firm ground. I don’t know how they got out there. Mio ought to be way too big to get through the newly rebuilt fence. But I imagine that she fled in a panic from Preben’s unwanted advances and somehow got through. And Mia then followed. It’s hard to keep out (or in) a motivated goat.

And Mio has picked up Magnethe’s old habit of going halfway up on the bench next to me when I’m sitting there. With her front legs up on the bench. To beg for treats. The perfect position for me to scratch her neck. Magnethe used to love that so much, she’d whir her head around and show her teeth and poke her tongue out. Mio doesn’t get that excited but she does seem to enjoy it. I wonder why she has started doing that now, she never really used to do it before. I’d like to think Magnethe peeked into one of her dreams and whispered in her ear: “pssst, try this trick. It always got me treats”. They all have their little tricks to get to me. Mia knows if she jumps up on my back she’ll probably get a raisin. And Bob jumps up with his front legs on me. Sometimes he’ll poke me with his hooves and I’ll grab a hoof and then he’ll push against my hand to propel himself upwards. And then he’ll get a treat. How can I resist their sweetness? I am defenseless.

Let’s have some videos.

First off the video of Mia jumping up and standing on Mio’s back. It reminds me of the old polaroid of young Mads standing on the sheep. Is there anything cuter than a little goat standing on a bigger goat? (Or sheep). You can hear me laughing in the video. It was a delightfully surprising moment.

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A goatlog from Monday. There’s a look at the budgies at the end, as requested by Debster. Who is just about the only one reading this so I don’t know why I’m pretending otherwise! But before the birds there is cuteness with the goats. I managed to lift Bob! Can you believe it. He’s so heavy, I shouldn’t even be able to do that. And it’s probably not that nice for him so I promise not to keep doing it. But it’s just so sweet. I remember when he was a little baby and I’d hold him. Aw. He’s still my little boy.

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And goatlog from Friday. Another appearance by Bodil and Sif. Bob really wanted to get his hoof on those doggie treats. In the beginning you can see Mio and Mia’s escape. Or the end of it at least. And there’s a bit where Mio steals a banana peel from my pocket. I didn’t even notice until I watched the video at home. Sneaky girl! She loves those banana peels. I can’t believe I used to just throw them out. What a waste when you have goats.

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That’s my week. Pretty good. Hope yours has been as well. Here’s to the next one.