#4 - Spring Break Trip to Nashville to visit Emily and Jonathan

Tera and Erik and Jacob and Megan took advantage of new non-stop flights from the Provo airport into Nashville and spent spring break on the Wadi Rum goat farm in Dixon, Tennessee. With Emily and Jonathan. We got see a bit into their life of work and school and farming, and helped with all the farm chores, including milking goats, feeding baby goats, collecting duck eggs, letting the chickens and ducks in and out each morning and evening, with a bit of food to boot.  Plus we put up some fence, built some goat shelters. A couple of baby goats were born while we there as well.
 
Highlights:

• Playing with new baby goats
• Building the milker and teaching the babies an better method
• Going to the Grand Ole Opry
• Lending and hand to Jonathan and Emily to ease the burden of the farm
• Tour of Vanderbilt University

Highlights:

• Playing with new baby goats – Emily and Jonathan had 5 pregnant does this spring, and by the time we arrived, three of them had given birth.  We were hoping that while we were there, some more goats would arrive, and we were not disappointed.  Emily and Jonathan walked the fields one afternoon, and found 2 new babies.  The mother had delivered and prepped the little-uns with no help whatsoever.  Baby goats are pretty cute, and the nature of goats to pop out fully grown and ready to walk and run and eat and need relatively little care. 
• Building the goat milker and teaching the babies a better method – Emily and Jonathan had been hand feeding all the babies until we arrived (the number of babies would eventually get to 10), but they had a 5 gallon bucket nipple ring contraption in mind.  I watched the how-to video, and helped Emily to build it.  Then we had to get each of the babies used to the new nipples, and the hands free method, and the new angle of the nipple. it took a few days of trying, morning, noon and night, but eventually by the time we left, all the babies were using the hands free milking bucket system.  It was so much less work for the farmer.  Success!
• Going to the Nashville, Vanderbilty, and the Grand Ole Opry – We spent a afternoon and evening in the city, and got a tour of Vanderbilt University and Jonathan’s Doctoral research labs.  We spent the evening in the famous country music house the Grand Ole Opry.  We had a rip-roarin time with the singers and acts (though it was time for a few of the singers to hang up their hat, a little to old for my tastes)
• Lending and hand to Jonathan and Emily to ease the burden of the farm – I had just spend a week with Emily and Jonathan and Nana a few weeks previous.  We had gone to Indiana to remodel one of my houses, and we surprised Emily and Jonathan on the way home with a remodeling visit.  I remodeled their bathroom with the help of Nana.  To return just a few weeks later was great, and we did some more projects, including the milker, and cleaning up the yard, and loading junk on the trailer, and building out the goose coop extension, and building a goat shed in the back, and taking responsibility for many of the daily chores.  Emily and Jonathan were wonderful hosts, and we tried to be good thankful workers.