Guess what we did today!!

We drove our goats in UNICORN FORMATION for the first time this afternoon! We had Sonic and Scout hitched to the big wagon for the first time. They did splendidly! We’ve only ever hitched them to the small garden cart two times and that was sometime last spring. But as if hitching them to the big cart and using bits for the first time wasn’t enough, we attached a singletree to the front of the team pole and drove Finn out front!

It was a little chaotic for the first moment or two while Finn twisted and tried to turn round to face the others, but Phil stayed at his head and got him straightened out. Once we got Finn walking it went magnificently. He tried once or twice more to turn around when we’d stop the carriage, but after he got tangled up on the traces and reins one time he quit doing that. He’s a very smart goat and figured it out very quickly. No one had to walk at his head after the first 50 yards or so and Phil and I both took turns driving with the other walking a little behind, ready to jump into the action if the goats misbehaved. But once we were halfway around the circle without any major mishaps, we both got in the carriage and rode together the rest of the way. It was amazing!

I hope we can practice enough to drive them like this in the two Christmas parades in December! It’s a little weird handling two sets of reins but we soon got used to it. There are a few things I still need to adjust because our hitch isn’t quite balanced correctly, but I’m mighty impressed with how our goats handled this entirely new experience. (A new experience for ALL of us, I might add! I’ve never driven a unicorn hitch or even a four-in-hand before, and unicorn hitches are one of the harder hitches to handle.) GOOD BOYS!!!

It’s been a while since I’ve paid much attention to this blog. My apologies. I’ve lazily allowed Phil to take it over with links to his livestreams, which are wonderful but they don’t tell the stories. At some point I may go back and fill in all the blanks over the last couple of years, but we’ll see.

Does anyone remember my costume from the ’80’s party back in February 2020? I’ve been waiting impatiently to resurrect it with a goat in tow and last night I finally got the chance! I went as Jareth the Goblin King from the movie Labyrinth and I dressed Maya up as Toby.

The reference:

I’m a big pudgy and the outfit is form-fitting without layers, but I bundled up underneath and was popping at the seams. Nevermind. I stayed warm enough with all those long johns and undershirts! A lot of folks don’t get the reference these days but the ones who did thought it was the best costume there. Maya, of course, stole the show. My favorite was when kids would come over to get candy, see Maya, and immediately forget all about trick-or-treat because they wanted to pet the baby goat. Maya was awesome. She was completely chill all evening and let everyone pet her. She wasn’t afraid of any of the costumes – not even dinosaurs, werewolves, or jellyfish. A few folks came up to introduce their dogs to her despite my telling them please not to. She never once startled or backed away from any of the be-costumed dogs. She was amazing! 

Phil went as a pirate and froze to death without his long johns and gloves:

And here was our truck setup. I think it came out rather well this year! We had less than one hour to carve all these pumpkins after Phil got off work. I think they came out rather well!