Goats and Cheese

My sister who loves animals and is really good with them, is working at a goat farm in Greenville near her house. She had offered for our family to go one night and see her and the farm and let the kids come and see the kids. ha ha

Well, not thinking Matt would go with me. And not wanting to do this alone I had hesitated. My Aunt was also invited and thought it would be good for us to do this trip together. Great plan!

With all the excitement and plans Matt didn't want to be left out so he decided to go after all.

The first group of goats that we saw were teenagers who were not milked or bottle fed so we had no dealings with these guys.

Addie is such a precious girl. She just oooed and awwwwed over every single goat. "It's so koot." She would say with this sweet tilt to her head. (cute-for those needing a translation)

When we walked into the barn Liz was full tilt into her milking. This is a goat cheese farm with about 400 milking goats! Can you believe it! Milking 400 goats twice a day. Lizzy does the evening shift about four nights a week.

The goats were very interested in the party of on lookers tonight. (that would be us). But they just stood there and relaxed for their milking. The goats are milked in groups. They are tagged if they are on medication or if they have newborns, and a few other details so that their milk is handled properly.

Here is one of the mamas. Can you see her two baby bumps? Goats usually have two to three kids at  a time. We were lucky to see brand new babies that were only three days old. And Liz said that the next night a couple of the goats had babies.

This is the large space where groups of goats were to go through on the way to milking. In front of Corbin is the large male. King of the empire here. I am not sure how many males there are but he was rather excited and would jump off the wooden slats on the wall into the air and run around his pin.

Corbin and Addie wanted to get in the pin right away and pet the goats. Lizzy's only warning was that they might try and eat your shirt.

I think that this one did try a nibble of Addie's shirt.

Well, don't be afraid. Can you tell that Corbin is super cautious.

Aunt Terri was Aiden's tour guide and he loved being held and cooed over. Terri and I were joking about her "Ralph Lauren" rubber boots that she wore out to the farm. Terri is now a city gal. Dad and his siblings lived on the Ohio River off hwy 111 as small children.

 The kids started to relax and warm up to the goats.

 Addie is just so happy to pet them.

Notice that the goats are just as tall as she is.

Woah now, I think I am getting a little too close

These are the new babies that are only three days old.

We will come back and bottle feed these guys later

 Here is my little farmer girl. She had so much fun.

Matt talked the kids into letting the kids suck on their finger. They just giggled and giggled at the feeling.

Now these kids are a couple of weeks old and can feed out of the bucket now.

I thought this was so clever.

This was such fun watching the kids play together. They would run around together and chase each other.

See the children's slide outside? The goats love to jump and play on this equipment too.

Headed back to feed the newborns

It takes Liz about an hour to feed the 12 newborns by hand. She was much more efficient than us.

Corbin had fun but  you could tell he wanted to watch everything first.

Of course Matt has had animals around him his entire life. He raised cows, pigs, chickens and house pets as hobby farmers. He has no fear of animals. I try and let the kids see that and not influence them with my stand offish behavior toward animals. I don't get into them like they do.

But here I am. I did help feed the babies. I spilled milk all over my leg and sat in milk on the bucket. But we had a great time. Everyone loved seeing the whole operation at work.

So have you ever tried goat cheese? I am not a fan. I love goat milk, wish we could get some closer to us.

5K Adventure Run

So, this post has been sitting here waiting for Matthew to write. I loaded the photos and tried to get Matt to make an entry this time. I guess I will go on without him.

Matt casually asked if we were busy Aug. 11th that he and JR were going to do a race. In my mind I was thinking of the bike race that we did a long time ago. As the day gets nearer I find out it is a running race. I laughed right away, because Matt has never said anything about liking to run. And then the details come out.

JR and his brother Matt had discovered these Adventure runs that pop up around the state and tried a few and wanted Matt to do this one with them. Crawling in the mud and running from obstacle to obstacle sounded like a good time so Matt agreed. This was something I wanted to see.

Here are the three amigos

I had asked Matt a week or two before if he was going to do any running to prepare for this adventure but he said that he would be ready. (no training had happened before the race)
Another funny point was that before the race we were to go to the Ramseys for dinner with the fam. I wanted to go with them and watch and so did Kim. When we talked about what to eat I had asked about the things they should have before they run and Matt said the run was just for fun and we are eating steak. "OK" with big eyes, I agreed. I just couldn't picture what was going to happen. I trusted him and thought he was approaching this in a numerous way.

The guys signed up for the 7:30p heat. There were several groups and sets running and the course was pretty long.
The race was at the old speedway in Charlestown. They made each person in the car arriving sign a waiver stating that any persons that enter the property was responsible for any risk involved. ha

There was not a very large crowd I thought.

The far tree line is where the runners all began. We could see some runners coming in from the previous heat and the muscled military heat runners were coming in around 24 min.

The sun was beating down at the beginning. This was the best heat to be running in as the sun was not hot anymore and it was still daylight for the run.

Charge! They all begin the run

Kim and Baby Porter and I enjoyed watching all the excitement around us.

This is looking back at the stadium. We could walk to the end here and see all of the other parts to the race.

Here comes Matthew. The boys had agreed to stay together. Murphy lead our little band of three. You can see behind him the cargo trailer they had to climb over. JR was in a lot of pain from this point of the race on. He had injured his foot and it was hurting pretty badly.

Here is one of the crawling points.

This course just wound all around the speedway.

Now they get to the mud pit. The guys were saying this was a pretty gross part of the race. Looks like it would be in a cow field they said.

Matt and Matt trucking on.

You can see the timer here.

So Matt Murphy and Matt Ramsey finished pretty close and near the end JR was a little behind. His shoes also had problems staying on. So these guys finished around 36min.

What a muddy dirty race. I had failed to get an after shot when they got off the track and they had already hosed off.

but here is what most people looked like at the end of the race.

Matt love it and would love to do a another adventure run. I am so proud of him. He did fantastic.
My fit 37 year old man

Labor Day Weekend Fun

There were so many different titles that could have highlighted our weekend, like winner winner chicken dinner, family time, or caving. But I decided to go with the old tried and true title that was an umbrella to it all. This is going to be a larger post as I want to do all three days at one time.

First off I can't believe it has been over two weeks since my last post. I know you guys are not but I thought I was getting better at this.

Saturday: Wiffle Ball Tournament and Jones Family

We signed up to bring a team to our church picnic. What a fun time. There was The Teeters: Adam, Erin, and Dawson (Layla on the side lines), the Armstrongs: Steven, Karen (Brooklyn on the side lines), Tracy Blackburn (Mike recovering from surgery didn't come and Ashton on another team), Bucky Galloway, and the Wilkins: Jacob, Christie, (Owen on another team and Byron and Ella on the side lines). the Murphys were all there kids with toys and pac'n'plays ready to make a day of it.

I have not had so much fun playing sports in so long. This old baby mama has been on the side lines a while. We had such a blast running and fielding the ball. Our team name "Chicken Dinner"

That's right! As in Winner winner chicken dinner! :)

Tracy and I were talking before people showed up that if no one did show up that means we win right? And she proceeds to do this cheer and dance. Too funny. Well, after three games we did win. There was a four team bracket and we won all three games we played. 

Cannot tell you how sore Matt was after all the falling, swinging, rolling, sliding and splits that he did giving the game his all. Great bonding time for our team. It was so funny at church Sunday how everyone was asking if the other person was as sore as they were. It was nice to see the younger people aching like us older ones did. My sore spots were minor, but I didn't do all the cool action moves Matt did either. 

We played from 10a-2:30p the kids were pretty tired of being there at the ball field, Corbin tried ball and did great but totally board after his first hit. He wouldn't even run through the bases, just gave up after standing on first. Glad we didn't sign up for ball. Going to check into soccer.

So we leave around 3 and my family is coming over at 5p. I still had to go to the grocery and do a few things first. Oops running behind on things this weekend. The running joke was all weekend that I needed to mop my kitchen floor. It needs it so bad after all the canning I have been doing. But somehow it still is not done.

Adam had called in the week to see about hanging out. We don't hang out near often enough. So invited the fam over for dinner. Chilli Dogs, roasted potatoes, salad and chips hit the spot after such a hard day at play. Funny how our immediate family has 12 people! Just wait till all the girls get married!

What a great Saturday.

Sunday: Church and the Murphys

This day was more on the low down and a good thing, Matt can barely move. I had rubbed his back with Muscle rub sat night and our room smelled of menthol. It was funny to watch Matt hobble around today. 

Church was great! Talking about being Saboteurs -freedom fighters and merci-naries for Jesus. We were challenged to bring mercy to someone who needs it in our worlds of influence this week. I know who God wants me to help, but don't know how yet.

I invited Matt's parents over for dinner. We had a great time I made Italian wraps, Roasted potatoes (left over) and homemade Ice Cream (strawberry).  We played this new game Phase 10 with dice. Great times! I love games and anytime I can get the Murphys to play it is a success.

Another night to rub down Matt's back. Menthol

Monday: Squire Boone Caverns and Party with the Neighbors

I have pictures of our day at the caves. The kids had gotten free passes to go to Squire Boone Caverns and I hadn't been since I was a kid. Matt had never been. So off we went for our family day of fun.

Let me tell you camera in hand on our "field trip" I have never felt so much like my mother.

Corbin couldn't get over the fact that we were going to a real cave. Would there be bats? Oh, goodness I secretly hoped there wouldn't be.

Matt was strapping the carrier on when he asked who had used it last (obviously being too tight for him). Our friends Jason and Rachelle had borrowed it. "Well, Jason is a skinny fella." "Honey, you are quite thick." ha ha The lady next to us couldn't contain her laughter and neither could I.

Stalactites

This one is called bacon

Yes, I took this photo. beautiful pic of the caves and the lights.

Stalagmites

Aiden almost hit the sides a few times. He didn't really like the cave. The kids kept walking on the edge. Goodness, you couldn't take your eyes off of them for a minute.

The last six min of the trip was cut short as they were doing some construction on the cave path. A few of the places I remembered as a kid we did not get to see.

The lights in the cave are so beautiful.

Smile big for the camera...put your arm around each other...."again, my mother coming out". Corbin thought it great fun to make this grumpy face rather than please his mother.

The grist mill was so pretty. It was rainy

My little girl was oh so willing to let me take her pics today.

My precious girl

She decided that she just had to touch the water.

She couldn't quite reach.

Ok, this may be a mistake, but the joy on his face when we let him buy this slingshot was great. Tonight before bed he was playing with it and stretching it behind his head. It snapped when he let go and the wooden part hit the back of his head so hard that the deer head fell off. He cried, poor baby.

We would always get our family photo here in front of the wagon growing up and guess what? The wagon is still here. Of course we had to carry on the tradition. Matt said, "just like when we take our pic in front of the Smokey Mountain sign every time?" Yea, yea! I say excitedly - just like my mom.

There was this scavenger hunt we did through the village. At every shop you found the answer to the question and at the end they gave the kids rock candy. The lady gave the kids two six pack bags. They were tickled to death.

Later that day I needed to mop the kitchen before our neighbors came over for a cookout. The mopping didn't happen. We have been meaning to have Chris and Dawn over for the longest time. So, today was the day. (We have lived here 5 years now) Good times. We made steaks with mushroom sauce and homemade peach ice cream. They brought salad and scalloped potatoes. Yummy weekend

We had a great holiday weekend! Corbin doesn't want to go to school and Matt doesn't want to go to work. At least I can take today a little slower. Our quote...."Good times, good times".