The Go-Go Goats
Posted at 4:30 AM on July 9, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(25 Comments)
At the top of our World Summary of Goat News, Barb sent pictures (click for a closer view) and writes to inform us that the two youngsters, Artie and Tammy, are leaving Blackhoof Township for a new home today. She says:
Artie and Tammy are going to a nice little farm north of Duluth to a family with two children. Originally the family said they wanted one doe - Tammy - but the little girl said she didn't want to split up the brother and sister (she has a bigger brother just like Tammy does) so they took them both. We are very happy that they are going to such a loving home.Desiree, Dream's doeling, left us yesterday for her new home also! This is a week of departures. Desi also went to an excellent home - again a family with 2 small children who have one milking doe and wanted another.
I imagine there is a combination of satisfaction and sadness that comes with sending these endearing creatures to live elsewhere. Even if someone has a frustrating tendency to leap onto your lap with all four hoofs when you least expect it, it is still possible to feel a bit wistful at her departure.
Barb penned a few lines as a farewell salute to Tammy and Artie.
Artie, Tammy, brother, sister. Taught by Dodger - lesson learned To be Noodles, weird and wiry. Quick and agile. Not concerned.But so loving - soft and nibbly, Leap in laps - lean on legs,
Itchy-scratchy tops of headsies. Brushing, petting, Foodtime begs.Grew so quickly, in a moment. Strong and healthy - eager to roam
Ready now to try new pastures. Wish you well In your hew home.
When I left home for good, my mother gave me a whole box of Hostess Ding Dongs for the journey. What's your most memorable farewell gift?
Comments (25)
Barb, I can't believe they are already ready to leave mom...seems like they were just born! Wish them "ha det bra" for me.
Can'g remember ever receiving a farewell gift. Looking forward to reading what the other Heartlanders have received.
thanks, Dale - for saluting Artie and Tammy. yeah, Cynthia - it seems like yesterday that we were deciding on names for T & A.
i'm off to take husband to the airport (he's not going to a new family - just visiting a friend) so i'll catch y'all on the replay...
not exactly a "going away" gift, but when i had to be away from Hub for 9 months (not prison, Donna!) he would send me, in each letter, a wad of fur that he had combed off the cat.
Dale: This is not a comment on the blog, but it is a goat related question. Will you be at the State Fair this year? We just got home from a two week vacation, so if you announced it I missed it. Every year we take a party of our friends to the State Fair show. We are afraid this year we will have to change our ROUTINE. ARRGH. Goats could have a major role in the State Fair show.
A friend of mine gave me an original handwritten music manuscript of a piece he had composed for me when I moved away from the city where we both had lived. :-)
Happy Thursday!
My mother was raised on a dairy farm where they bottled milk and delivered it locally. My dad saved one of the cardboard milk bottle caps that he found in some old things and gave it to me. It wasn't given to me as a going away gift in the way Dale got the Ding Dongs, but it is a gift associated with saying good bye in some way. The caps has the name Hill Crest Dairy Farm on it.
Jacque, and anyone else planning the rest of your summer: Dale and Radio Heartland WILL indeed be at the Minnesota State Fair this summer. We will be doing a live show on the first Friday of the fair, August 28th from the MPR booth at the fair near the intersection of Judson and Nelson. We won't be there at the crack of dawn, however. We start at 9am and finish at 11am.
Once again, we have great music lined up for our show: The Ditchlilies, a duo from just across the Mississippi will join us. Also, Bojono (Boyd Lee, Joe Cruz and Noah Hoehn) will be there. And, Ann Reed too. Hope you can make it!
I love the pictures of the goats! Especially the one of the goat-in-the-lap. Haha, made my morning! The only going-away present I've ever received was a scrapbook of pictures my friends made for me before I went to college. It brings back great memories. I look at it often :)
I can't get over that goats will jump right into your lap. Do they outgrow that Barb, and if they don't, do you have to threaten to send them to detention school or they'll wind up in PRISON?? (you slay me!)
A long time ago, on my wedding day, my dad was overcome with emotion, and for the first time in my life I saw him cry. The marriage fell apart, but the memory of his tears and the realization that he loved me much more than I knew, will forever remain.
Ed Ames AND Tom Waits? This show totally does it for me! Another lovely song is Slaid Cleaves' One Good Year.
Thanks all for sharing the goats! Topped off by Tom Waits! What could be better?
Guess I've never gone far enough away for long enough to get a going away present. My mom did bring homemade birthday cake to my college dorm my freshman year of college - that made me very popular, since my birthday is in September and just far enough into the school year for people to start to feel a little homesick. (Fortunately for Mom, the trip was short - from south Minneapolis all the way across the river to St. Paul.)
Off topic: I'm off today for the first day of work at a shiny new job (after 6+ mos. without). Glad I can start at a time that allows me my same RH routine in the morning - and happy that my day starts with goats today.
Happy Thursday all!
Thanks for the songs! Don't know that I'll be digging out a cave just yet (besides that I think I'll be five stories up) - and I don't think I'll become independently wealthy like the dwarves - but I'm hoping for happy and busy at the new job.
Thanks for the Stage Door show broadcast yesterday! I really enjoyed it.
I was the first of our group to leave for college freshman year and my best friend (often late) ran after the moving train to toss me (hanging out the door) a Raggedy Ann doll that I still have. Did you know trains have a bar in the doorway that can be used fo just such a purpose?
A song I'd love to hear even more than, One Good Year, is Richard Shindell's, Gethsemani Goodbye, if I haven't used up my quota for requests this week. AND it really suits today's topic, don't you think?
Hello all! I got a wonderful surprize gift from my mother for my wedding. She gathered favorite recipies from all the women in my family. She put them together in a beautiful little photo album.
Hello,
Thanks much for playing Tom Waits this morning, Dale, while I was enroute. And it is indeed a bit startling for a regular person such as myself to hear oneself on the radio! Just glad I had something to offer in support of RH.
When one of my brothers moved out, Mom gave him a cookbook. She was very afraid that he would starve to death. She relayed this to me when I moved out and said, "I'm not worried about you. You'll do fine." That, in itself, isn't a bad parting gift.
Good Morning!
A few weeks after I moved away from home, a book came in the mail from my Mom. It was 5X5 book of the comic character Ziggy (Remember him? Created by Tom Wilson). The title was "Since You've Been Gone", and showed numerous one panel cartoons of Ziggy in situations where things are just 'not right', e.g, the sun should not be giving you raspberries when you look out the window in the morning.
I was very touched and surprised to get that little book, and kept it for years. I eventually lost it in a move made much later.
Any songs in the library by anyone named Ziggy?
Thanks!
Sorry to post so soon again, but thanks to Google, I learned that the correct name of the Ziggy book is "When You're Not Around". Going to see if I can find that book somewhere.
Thanks for bringing up the idea, Dale!
good story, teri---perhaps dale can dig up some david bowie/ziggy stardust songs!!
(yeah, right)
congrats, anna, if you're checking back, on your new job!!!
i'm too sad about the baby goats leaving to say anything about that :-(
Donna - yes, they DO leap into my lap. i have many little hoof-shaped black and blue marks to testify. but i would imagine anyone's goat would do that if given half a chance. it's not my lap - it's the challenge of leaping up onto anything. Spot and Opie are entering that stage now. they have no fear. last week Nibby (almost full grown chubby boy) tried leaping into my lap. uffda.
and Kay, please don't be sad. we still have Spot and Opie. Desi, Artie and Tammy will be in very good hands (and not far away, so if i thought they were not being cared for i'd just go get them back :-)
in future, when i can't find good homes for the kids anymore i will stop breeding the girls.
gonna tune in at 11:30 to listen to "It's Good to Be a Goat" - sounds like fun, Dale! thanks so much!!
"What's your most memorable farewell gift?"
What an amazing question. It might have been unintentional, but a certain person gave me a whole new perspective on life. Unfortunately, it was a gift - a legacy really - that involved his passing.
Dale - love the song - thanks so much. although i disagree with the "never, ever sassy" part. how did you find it? Tammy and Artie say thanks for the sendoff and good wishes..
from what i can tell, goats are not sentimental. Dream has not missed Desi (and she'd be happy to not miss Spot and Opie too)
we'll see how Dodger does tonight.
Anna - congratulations on the new job! yipeee!!
Good Afternoon Heartlanders--better late than never! Busy morning here in St Paul. The raspberries are red, ready and prolific! Picked a bunch this morning (and yesterday and the day before!) and we have made raspberry ice cream, raspberry mousse and raspberry-sour cream muffins. Yum. Now the cherries are ripening as well, so there may be a pie in the near future.
Anyway. Most memorable farewell gift has to be January my senior year of college. We had just returned from a January study abroad in Mexico and 3 of us were returning to school in southern MN and 7 of our group returned to school in St Paul. When we arrived at MSP and said goodbye to our now good friends, I got a huge unexpected hug from one of the guys in the group. The rest, is history. Ended up marrying him 3 yrs later. :+)
First, I wish I could listen 24-7. You guys are playing the songs of my dreams.
Second, I am a little embarrassed to admit I loved the Ed Ames song this morning. It took me back to Denver around 1968, riding with my dad down to the hall to pay his union dues. He listened to KHOW AM and was a big fan of the song. My current tastes have evolved some, but I appreciate hearing a song I never thought I'd hear again. Brought back good memories. Thanks.
Loved the goat photos, especially in the lap. I don't even know them, nor do I know much about goats except through this blog, but the poem and the goodbye story brought tears to my eyes. Thanks for sharing these bittersweet moments. Good luck to them in their new homes.
Dale/Mike, thanks for playing Nancy Griffith (Speed of the Sound of Loneliness) yesterday afternoon. One of my favorites. Thanks!
- Become a Member
- Member Connect Accounts
- Leadership Circle
- Sustaining Members
- Member Discounts
- Become a Sponsor
- Tax Information
- Planned Giving
- Vehicle Donation
- Donate Stock