Issues

This last week has been memorable to say the least.

During the week I spent most of my free time cleaning out the old shed, fixing it up, and building a goat proof fence for the purpose of protecting our garden.

In case you have not heard - the thought of getting a goat has moved from being a not so distant future thing to a completed thing. Alison has been watching the classifieds and we found two that we wanted to get.

We also were wanting some chickens, but a ward member was had a surplus of four chickens, so we went over to their house and got them.

Perhaps I will be uncle Farmer Mike instead of uncle Pirate Mike.

Unfortunately everything has not been smooth sailing. We got one of the goats Saturday at 3:00, and by 6:00 we had a visit from the Salt Lake County Animal Control Unit. Apparently someone was bothered by the goat and decided to call the government instead of talking to me.

The story that the animal control guy told was that they had received a complaint that we had a goat and were not giving it food or water. When he arrived he saw our food and water, but told us that we "can't just get goats". I told him that we are A-1 zoned, and therefore could get goats, and then he said that it wasn't his jurisdiction anyway (Why did he come over again if it wasn't his jurisdiction?). He then told me that we had to get a chicken license and I told him that I would. He gave me the number, but they were closed for the evening anyway.

I am just sad that whoever called animal control on me didn't just talk to me first. It doesn't seem a very mature thing to do. We have since talked with our neighbor on one side, but she said that it wasn't her, and doesn't mind that we got goats. I suppose that we will see if the neighbor on the other side does the same.

Goat milk tastes different than cows milk (I don't particularly like the taste of cows milk, so don't take my word for anything, but goat milk tastes just as good as cows milk): it has a more savory flavor. I would imagine that it would taste excellent in cheese, and you wouldn't notice the difference over cereal.

I made a smoothie out of goat milk, and it was so creamy. All I added was fruit and milk, and it was a great smoothie.

If the city comes and takes our goats away, I hope that it happens after I get enough milk to make a cheese :).

But seriously, I do hope that our neighbors admit that they called the animal control and we can talk it through. I am not particularly confrontational, but getting the government involved in a neighborhood dispute should be something that is done _after_ trying to talk to the person that you have a problem with.

I still have not gotten the new cards that I printed (the ones that were printed to fix the color problems created through a RGB to CMYK conversion.) Here's to hoping that I get them soon.

Dominion Dark Ages is out. It seems to be a cool set. I don't think that I will get it until I get the other ones (there are so many expansions that I personally don't see it likely that I will get them all. I don't have that kind of money.)

We had stake conference this weekend. It was really good.
 
Also, we got three eggs from our chickens so far. Way better than the chickens that my companions got on my mission. :)