Catch-ups

This summer has been busy, and so somehow I haven't been able to catch you up on goings-on of late. The baby goats are already 5 weeks old, and really big (well, relatively speaking), but I don't have good pictures of them being quite this big and running and climbing and chewing all over everything and everyone, which is what they seem to do best these days. So I'll settle for posting some slightly older pictures and assume that eventually I'll get some better climbing shots in here (hopefully before they get older and once again less springy) :) So here's Frosty and the babies (now named Ed & Gigi) and then Ed & Gigi on their own, probably both within their first few weeks.





I have to catch you up first on their being born. It was actually all pretty seamless, Frosty took care of it all. Mike and I had been planning to put new straw in the kennel and close Frosty in there for the nights near when we thought she was ready to kid, so that she would have some space to herself, without the other goats bugging her all the time. And of course we kept running out of time to set it all up, but the night that we finally did, about an hour after we put her in the new pen, probably around 10pm, we heard a bigger-than-normal goat yell. And went out and there was one baby goat on the ground being licked. And then Mike went inside to get some towels, and while he was there, there was another goat yell and another baby. Took a little bit of helping to get Ed & Gigi to be able to nurse, and Mike and I both spent the rest of the night getting up every couple hours to check that everyone was still okay and warm enough, but that was about it. They've all been quite self-sufficient.

Anyway, even without getting to see them more consistently in pictures, you can still see fast changes -- here from climbing during their first couple days to running around several weeks later.





Meanwhile, the other goats have also adjusted well to the babies. At first there was a bunch of head-butting (which doesn't really seem fair when the kids are so tiny, although I guess that's how it works) but now everyone seems to get along fine. And by now the babies are almost as tall (but not nearly as wide) as the adults. Dublin, who was so, well, mean, when we first got her, has really mellowed out and has taken to letting Gigi climb on her and stand on her back. Frosty, no longer pregnant, no longer hides from Dublin's head-butts, and so I think the two have established a more stable and realistic pecking order, which maybe has helped as well.

Anyway, that's pretty much the scoop on the goats. Ooh, and our chickens just started laying eggs! They have been hiding them in little corners of buildings and little holes in the ground rather than in our belatedly-installed laying boxes made out of milk crates, but I'm sure we'll all settle into a routine sooner or later -- for now it's a daily treasure hunt.

Besides that, we've got here a few wedding pictures (borrowed from people who've sent their photos along -- thank you!) and pictures from the Enchantment Lakes wilderness area nearby where Mike and I went camping post-wedding... with, of course, a little commentary here and there. I'll try to get some additional photos up on some site somewhere at some point so those of you who like details can browse through them. But here's a start.

Wedding pics:


The roof of our house plus some of the tops of shade tents, taken from the nearby hill.


Our pitchfork inspired requests to pose as "Cashmere Gothic."


Signing paperwork.... and, well, these next ones are all pretty self-explanatory too so no more captions for now.











Anyway, we lucked out with a lovely day, and really felt honored by all the people who were able to make it out to celebrate with us and by all the tons of help friends and family provided -- as, of course, even a reasonably laid-back wedding takes some planning. It was also nice in that "long lost" friends and family got to spend some time with each other. And it is not too often in life that you get to see people you know from so many different places together in a spot where many of them wouldn't have ended up going otherwise. So I, and Mike too I think, really appreciated it all quite a lot.

That said (you know I can't just leave it at that), I have to say that the process of getting married is (at least from my perspective) kind of a pain in the butt. And perhaps, in many cases, the wedding is as much (or more) for other people as it is for the people getting married... and while I really appreciate being able to provide that opportunity for other people (as I've also really enjoyed going to other peoples' weddings over time), nevertheless the cultural lore suggests that that's not quite how you're supposed to feel.

And so that cultural lore makes it hard to publicly express anything but sheer happy-glowies at a wedding without disappointing others or somehow diminishing their happiness about it -- so, I'll just say a little of it here. Please don't get me wrong -- I wouldn't have wanted to get married in any other way, and I don't have problems with the institution of marriage -- but I guess to me it rings somewhat false to celebrate something gradual and ever-changing as if it were a one-time event. I understand that weddings give some sort of societal credibility to a relationship, and I understand that it's nice to establish markers so that we make time to appreciate and celebrate pieces of life, but, well... it's kind of like a dissertation (and I do have to credit Mike for this analogy).

With a dissertation, it's not really about the dissertation defense. It's about the multi-year process of learning (which is in itself both rewarding and annoying and a privilege and a pain), and which was preceded by other seasons of learning and which will be followed by other seasons of learning, albeit in different capacities. And so, while defending a dissertation can be a big deal, if we're really being honest about it, the work and the accomplishment and the real core of it came before, over time, and comes afterwards for many years following. By focusing too much on the defense, we tend to miss or minimize the bigger process, and perhaps tend to candy-coat it as well. So I guess what I'm saying is that it would feel more true to me to celebrate life things in little small everyday bits and pieces rather than bigger "more legitimate" celebrations.

Of course, a lot of good came from our wedding, as with most, and I'm very happy about the marriage... but all in all the wedding itself was, for me, a mixed bag -- and I don't think it actually should have been or could have been otherwise.

But in any case, enough of all that :).

After the house emptied out, Mike and I went backpacking for 5 days in the mountains nearby -- and the trail up was STEEP and the trail down was STEEP, but it was a nice trip. The Enchantments is to Washingtonians a little like the Boundary Waters is to Minnesotans (but more mountainy) -- you need to get a permit to camp there (so as to limit the number of people in the "wilderness" at any given time), and it really is a beautiful beautiful spot, but when you get up there, it's just like a parallel universe, just 6000 feet higher and full of people on vacation (well, except for the people who do the loop in one 18-mile 6000-foot elevation gain day as their trail run -- note that in most places, I'd consider myself to be in average shape; here, I'm way at the bottom of normal).

Anyway, it was a lovely outing away, nice to be outdoors and walking, and it has been good since then too to be getting back to normal, back to routines, and back to the day-to-day.

Hiking pics:


On the way up.


We mis-estimated time and had to sleep one night on the steep-ish (but pretty!) gravelly bouldery rocky ascent trail. We found the one spot the whole way up that was flat enough to accomodate a tent.


These photos don't quite do it all justice, but the Upper Enchantments (at 7800 feet) looks like the moon...


...while the Lower Enchantments looks like fairyland peppered with mini-trees and bigger mountain goats.


On the way down.


Snow Lakes from above.


Me hiding in zee lower corner with zee big backpack for scale.


I wouldn't quite call Mike hiding but it still works for scale.

So, with that, we'll call it a day -- til next blog time.