What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Being retired is somewhat a permanent vacation.  Unless you decide to have a farm.  But we will get to that in a minute.

August 17 was drive to Raleigh Day.  Nine hours later we were there!  Hugs all around, then hit the sack.  August 18 was drive to Stockton, NJ day.  Ten hours later (taking the scenic route up 85 and left at Richmond, and right on 81North) we found ourselves at a detour.  Only fifteen minutes it took to figure out the detour and we were at my brother Bob's house.  Hugs, and out to dinner, then bed.  Next day, we went for our favorite bagel (notice I said "our") then drove over to High Bridge to pick up my son, Tristan and his girlfriend, Tracy.  Their train from New York was delayed a bit due to a fire on the tracks (!) but they were only 20 minutes late.  Hugs all around, and we headed home.  Saturday Tristan and Gary did some work for Bob.  Gary cut the grass and Tristan prepared a 1905 Ford fender for painting.  Bob does restorative work on antique cars as a hobby.  Tracy and I went shopping in downtown Frenchtown, an historic old town on the Delaware.  Lots of antiques, boutiques and cafes.  Fun times!  We had a burger grill that night for dinner and Tracy made macaroons for dessert!  No time for a picture, they were gone immediately!

Sunday morning we were expecting 20 or so people for a picnic.  My other brother, Kirk, brought 10 pounds of black sea bass he had caught (his hobby is fishing) and mixed up a spicy batter and fried it all!  That only took 5 hours but he kept it coming!

Tristan adds Tabasco

This was a special picnic because my 91 year old uncle had moved down to NJ from Vermont this summer and he was the guest of honor. I had not seen him in about 10 years since my Dad's funeral.   Looks pretty good, eh?  Still likes a beer or two..

Uncle Ollie

 My niece, Jennifer, and her little girl, Gaby were welcomed at the door.  She'll be three in Dec.

And believe it or not, not one person took a group photo!  Arrrrughghg.  Perhaps because it was sooo hot and humid and then rained in the middle of the picnic.  Even more humid later, but I did get to spend time with every person.  It was wonderful.  And we will do it again with even more people next time.

Doing some research on goats, I found a farm in Virginia just a couple hours north of Raleigh with Nigerian goats and a bed and breakfast!  We decided to leave Stockton a day early, drive to Harrisonburg, VA and spend the night.  Get up the next morning and drive to Red Oak for dinner, breakfast and a lesson on goats!  We left on Tuesday with nice weather and landed in Harrisburg where Gary wanted to find something for dinner in our room.  He came back an hour later with a fruit cup, a hummus and crackers and a chocolate bar.  Yum.  BUT, he found an Amish Antique Barn that opened at 10 am.   Ohhh, lots of fun there.  He found an inexpensive cowboy hat, I found some material and a couple Mason jars for my collection.  TONS of stuff, and we stayed longer than expected, and even for an Amish turkey Ruben on homemade rye bread.  Delish!

Finally we got going and drove through farm country that was straight from the picture books.  Just charming.  We found The Cornerstone Farm after driving by, and it was a farmhouse with a wrap around porch and comfy chairs and flowers all around it.  A bee was interested in the Salvia...

Barb was finishing up some phone calls, so we walked around to see the animals.  They had:  ponies, horses, goats, 3 guard dogs, an Alpaca and llama, chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks and guinea hens and bunnies and one little lamb on 92 acres.  Whew.  There were only two owners, Barb and Wade (who was in Colorado on vaca).  And this brings me to my earlier point.  With a farm there is no vacation - together!  Wade also works as a corrections officer with the Virginia DOC.  So he was off with some buddies sporting something.  Barb was left with all the animals and a foster young lady of 16.  She was still in school, so helped with chores when she got home at 4 pm.  

Saying Hello

Two Old Goats

We enjoyed meeting the goats, and I asked many questions.  She did sell the babies, but it would be too much of a ride to bring them to Florida.  She is 'drying them off' (slowly  discontinue milking) so that they will be ready to breed in October.  The babies take about 5 months gestation, and come usually in multiples. So the goaties did not need milking at night, just in the morning. 

Barb was wonderful, and answered every one of my questions, and then cooked us a delicious chicken dinner ("no one we know") with pie and icecream for dessert.  We fed the goaties, gave them some hay and closed them in for the evening.  Gary and I retired to our room, took a shower and did some reading on some goat politics.  Farmers can have it rough in this era, too.  But I can't go into it here.

Seven am and up at at 'em with some fresh coffee with fresh raw goats milk.  YUM!!!  Then out to the barn to feed the babies and milk a few.

Barb showed me what to look for when purchasing a goat.  Conformation, breeding history, and health records were all important.  They are all adorable and only 22" at the withers for the does, 23" for the bucks.  She had about 8 bucks, but they were kept on the other side of the house, far away from the does.  A male buck can impregnate a doe at 8 weeks.  So you decide quickly what your plans are when the babies are born, oh yep.

The does love to be milked because they get grain while you are milking them.  They just jump on the bench, you clip their collar to the stand, and they begin to eat.  Meanwhile, you clean the teats, check the milk quality with a strip cup, and begin to millk.  It takes (for everyone but me) 5 minutes to milk each goat.  But all four were very patient while I tried to get the milk IN the cup and not all over me.  That skill needs some practice, but it's not hard.  Usually Barb uses a pail, but it was easier for me to try to hit the opening of the cup, rather than the specially lidded pail.

After the milking was done, we let them out to play, and while Barb was getting breakfast food ready, we watched the babies play with a plastic 'boat'. 

Playing peekaboo.

 And Bethel -

eating the grass that is always greener on the other side of the fence...


Soon the farm bell rang.  Come and git it!  First we had to choose our eggs.  Hmmm, even though they all taste the same, I chose a dark brown one, and a tan one, and Gary chose two tan ones.  

While they were frying up, I had a really good taste of fresh goats milk.  It is very sweet and creamy.  Nigerian's have the most butterfat in their milk which makes great cheese and soap.  Both of what I want to do, so of course, I need the right goat.

And this is a Farmer's Breakfast!   Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh

We really didn't work that hard to have eaten all that, so we called it brunch and didn't eat until later that night.

This small creature is a velvet ant. Which isn't an ant at all, but a wingless wasp.  I had never seen anything like that in Florida, just fire ants.  But they live here apparently.  These guys are really hard to kill.  It took me 4 times scrunching my feet on it to separate it and kill it.  Their sting is so strong, it is dubbed the "cow killer".  Ouch.  Don't touch.  

We left later that afternoon, and drove down to Raleigh, stopping in Clarksville and Oxford at antique shops before we arrived at our daughter, Mandy's.  But that's another story.

Life is good and FUN!