Wednesday Dose of Cute: Other People's Cute, Tractor Woes, and a Little Barnyard Animal Challenge

Many of you have expressed an interest in hearing more about what my day to day life is like out here in the country—both the good and the bad parts—so lately I've been trying to include more farm life tidbits and stories in some of my posts. I'm also still working that Frequently Asked Farmgirl Questions page. The FAFQ page is up!

There are so many things I've learned during the past 16 years that I simply take for granted, until I stop and remind myself things like there was a time when I had no idea what a bottle baby was, let alone anything about taking care of one, and that maybe you'd like to know something about them, too, rather than just seeing the pictures.

Of course once I start writing I have a tendency to ramble on, and since I'm not a very fast writer, these sort of posts take me a while to complete. My goal is to get back to sharing something here every day, with longer posts interspersed between the shorter ones, along with lots more recipes.

If you enjoy these farm life tidbits and stories and would like to see more of them, I'd love for you to let me know. And if you come here more for the pictures than the words, please let me know that, too! Anonymous comments can be left, and you're also welcome to email me: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com. It can sometimes take me a while to reply to e-mail, but as always, your feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Saturday Daily Dose of Cute: Goat Chowder (Not A Recipe)

This bottle baby drinks more than milk.

You know it's going to be an interesting visit to a new friend's farm when you climb out of the driver's seat of your car and a baby Boer goat jumps in.

After I'd scooped him up and deposited him back on the ground (a small amount of cuddling may have been involved in the process), Chowder ("the grandkids named him") proceeded to nuzzle my leg and nibble daintily on my knee, duck under electric fence wires so he could follow us as we walked around the fields, play with some rocks, and look so darn adorable I must have squealed "He's so cute!" about 300 times.

At one point while we were sitting around talking about everything from Kubota tractors to the best way to deal with seed ticks (duct tape!) and enjoying the sweeping views of the surrounding countryside, Chowder began heading determinedly toward the small patio table next to us.

I grabbed up my camera case assuming he was about to eat it (because you always hear that goats eat everything), but was quickly informed that what Chowder was really going after was my soda. He was then given a small drink.

This amusing little guy, who is slated to become a "teaser goat" to help bring the does in heat during breeding season ("He'll still have all his equipment, he'll just be shooting blanks") didn't come home with me that day, but somebody else did. More about our newest four-footed member of the farm hopefully soon. Hint: It's not a goat. Update: Meet her here!

© FarmgirlFare.com, the soda slurping foodie farm blog where despite my saying repeatedly over the years that I would never, ever have goats, there are probably going to be a few of these brush and bramble eaters in our near farm future. No dairy goats, though.

"We're trying to reduce your workload, not increase it," Joe reminded me when I said something about homemade goat cheese. "There's no way you want to have to milk a goat twice a day, every single day." And despite the dreamy cheese idea, he's absolutely right—although he's the one who's pushing for the goats. "But no nannies—and no babies!"