December 16, 2019 · 7:17 am

Some of the Kids have Arrived

This year has been pretty bleak in the goat department with only one baby being born. Now that we’ve reached December and most of the herd is pregnant with Elvis’s love children, well, it’s time to rearrange living quarters to accommodate the newbies and their overprotective mamas.

The first set out of the gate were these two, a boy and a girl.  One of the triplets, Jolina, the tailless, moseyed on over to investigate and got trapped in the barrica (barrel) for a few hours when mama goat wouldn’t let her close to her new babies. If you remember, Jolina lost her tail when she got overly curious about Red right after he was born. Cookie just bit it off. Apparently, Jolina hasn’t learned her lesson. Oh Jolina! When will you learn?

Mama goat’s young daughter also gave birth just minutes after. She only had one girl and my husband, Papa Chivo, was disappointed. But seeing how this is her first birth, a healthy and happy girl kid is ok in my book.

Like three peas in a pod!

Because overcrowding is an issue, even before Terry came to live with us, the stalls had to be repurposed to lodge the new little ones. So right now, all mamas and babies are in Lady’s stall and Lady is housed in the patio with Fred and George Puppers. Since Terry and George still haven’t made peace, Terry is in the backyard. 

But what about Buster Rabbit? Unfortunately, a few days before Terry came to us, someone left the ajibe door open and Buster Rabbit fell in the well. Isn’t there a fable about a rabbit and a well? Sadly, there was no happy ending for Buster in this case. So Terry took over the backyard.

Several of the other goats are so heavily laden with progeny they can hardly walk. My husband is predicting triplets, but I say just twins will be quite enough.

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December 13, 2019 · 7:49 am

Kitty in the Hanging Gardens

Did you know that cats only meow at humans? Apparently, meowing has developed just for communication with their human slaves. (See Why Do Cats Meow at Humans?) And did you know that cats respond better women because of their higher pitched voices? (See Surprising Things You Never Knew About Your Cat) 

Well, Kitty believes she is the ruler of my little front porch garden. She’s reserved a section for her litter box and another area behind the lavender for lounging. She meows at me if she feels I haven’t watered the plants enough. Once I take up the hose to do her bidding, she throws herself at my feet and lies there criticizing. She’s even attacked plants she’s unhappy with, like Jasmine and Rue. Or maybe she’s just pruning?

Although she doesn’t like some of the scented plants I added in an effort to keep her from creating more litter areas, she loves the smell of freshly washed clothes. When I bring a basket out to hang, she rushes over and crawls in the clean pile and rolls around in joy, leaving cat hair behind. Who knew that Foca detergent had such an effect on cats?

I’ve placed an old bath mat among the plants so she can watch my gardening without me accidently stepping on her tail. She has deemed it acceptable and queenly observes my actions from there. After all, she is highly offended if I accidentally get water on her while tending to my plants. 

I’ve changed the size of her food dish, thinking a larger dish with more food will keep her from complaining so much. Alas, it’s not the size of the dish but the fact that she can see the bottom of it that causes her remonstrations. The same is true of her water dish. It’s now a small bucket so there’s no chance of her running out, however she gets huffy if a leaf or stray bug falls in. Her water is not PURE. 

It’s difficult to manage such a furry diva but I’ve found that if I anticipate her complaints, she complains less. She might just get me trained yet.

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December 11, 2019 · 7:43 am

Road Worthy At Last

With my updated license in hand along with the original title with a new line ceeding the rights to the motorcycle in question to me with my correct legal name, we headed to the Oficina Recaudadora. We didn’t have to wait too long before we were in front of the same girl who said nothing could be done with our previous stack of documentation the last time.

There was some shuffling of papers while I gave her my updated license, the old license plate, the CFE bill, the old permission to circulate card, and the motorcycle title. Fortunately, this girl wasn’t offended when I waved papers triumphantly as I found them. She had me write “CANCELADO” over the incorrect endorsement on the back of the title and everything was hunkey dory.

She entered some information and let me know that the motorcycle owed $631 pesos from prior years that I would have to pay (la baja). Then there was the current value of the motorcycle which would determine how much I would have to pay to get a new permission to circulate card (la alta). She had to request that information from the powers that be, I’m assuming in Guanajuato, so while we waited for that response, she did the rest of the paperwork. 

I watched as she pulled up the address on the CFE bill on Google maps. She asked me to confirm the address. Yes, it was my sister-in-law’s house. Since the picture was taken in 2015, you can clearly see the two meters that caused the issue with the #1A and #1 problem. Currently, there is only one electric meter, the second one having been removed some time ago.

Anyway, she printed out the picture from Google maps to include in my file and told us to take a seat. We waited awhile. Finally, she called me back up and said she had the response about the value of the motorcycle. She asked whether I was going to pay with a debit card or cash. Since my debit card is from a US bank and gets flagged everytime I use it for a transaction besides an ATM withdrawal in Mexico, cash it would be.

She gave us a paper to take down the block to where the Italika motorcycles were sold. There’s a Banco Azteca desk there. So we went and paid $1,131 pesos for la baja and la alta and came back.  After another wait, the girl gave me my new license plate and new permission to circulate card. My moto is road worthy at last! Yippee!

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