You are no doubt wondering how the crazy Chuns fared on their trip to Kansas City with a large U-haul and a van full of goats and chickens. Well, I'll tell you - it was an Oddyssey!
But before I commence the tale, I'd like to thank you all for your love and support. Without your help and elbow grease, we would not have been able to more or less meet our self-imposed deadline. We were really getting anxious to be over here with Ki, even though that meant leaving all of you for a time. Without your packing, lifting, hauling, loading, cleaning, sorting, and keeping us company, we would have fallen all apart in the process. Anyway, thank you! And if you're ever out in Kansas City to see the sites, come see us, too. We're at 1438 E. Haven Lane, Olathe, Kansas 66062, just off I-35 south of Santa Fe.
At first I was so excited to finally have a place to go to, to be with Ki, that I was ready to load the goats into the back of the van, drive it up onto one of those auto transports, climb into the U-haul cab with Leanne and Levi, and hit the road, just the three of us. Then one night, after a long day of sorting and packing (believe it or not, we did do a lot of that before you all came on Thursday and Friday!), it suddenly hit me that I was going to be, first, driving for at least 18 hours with a heavy, swaying load; second, taking probably several hours to unload, and then driving another 6 hours round trip to deliver the goats to the farm, plus taking an hour or two to get them situated and give a goat-milking lesson. That all made me think twice about driving the whole way by myself! So, I invited Cody, my big little brother, to help out, to which he readily agreed. Bless him! And here we are, safe and sound!
But now, as to how we got here, that is a story . . . .
Most of you last saw us sometime on the evening of August 25th, Thursday night, after one more long day of packing and scrubbing, And most of you knew we planned to load the goats into the back of our Honda Odyssey and head off through the Rocky Mountains and over the Great Plains to Tanager Hill Farm (my sister AJ's place) in southeastern Kansas before heading up to join Ki in Olathe. Friday morning found me coaxing three hesitant goats into the back of my van which had first been "floored" with three layers of 7 ml plastic and a healthy dose of duct tape to keep it stuck to vinyl sides of the inside of the van, plus a couple of fork fulls of straw. We had taken the seats out and put them in the U-haul to be carried over the prairie to Kansas City, so we tethered the goats to the steel seat "grips" so as to keep them somewhat stationary. Last thing I wanted was the ceiling of my van poked full of goat horn holes. In addition, my mother and I had a chicken rodeo in the backyard - sorry, Sister Watkins, if we woke you up! - to capture Hank, the infamous crow-er, and his girlfriend, Glory, the only hen that actually "sat" on eggs (matter of fact, she hatched three eggs before we departed). We codged together a two story chicken condo composed of a large plastic planter (that our live Christmas tree came in), upended, with Glory inside, and topped by a smallish paper box with holes punched for Hank to get some air by. The whole thing was duct taped together and then duct taped to the vinyl insides of the van for stability. Logan would be proud.
Once the goats and chickens were safely loaded, we prayed mightily for Providential care and set off with Cody and Leanne in the U-haul, Levi and I in the Oddysey! Thanks to all your wonderful packing, Cody's load seemed to ride well, with very little swaying from side to side, and we made good time going down the road. We did stop in Coalville to gas up and then off we went on the long haul. We stayed together until Cheyenne, then Levi and I peeled off and headed south toward AJ's place and let Cody and Leanne continue on I-80. They made it to Kearney, Nebraska that night and slept over in a hotel. The next day, Sunday, they drove on into KC and were met by 12 strapping elders from Olathe 1st ward. Ki had been to church in the morning and recruited their help for unloading. I hear that what took us 2 full days to load, they unloaded in 45 minutes. We were sorry to call them out on the Sabbath but felt that the ox was in mire, so to speak. We were grateful for their help.
Meantime, Levi and I pit stopped in Fort Collins to see Ki's sister and wound up staying the night. We tethered the goats outside the van for a few hours to let them get their land legs, nibble some grass, and also to milk Mama. And we cleaned out the muck. You can imagine us driving the 7 1/2 hours to Fort Collins with our conversations punctuated by the sounds of goats urinating or plopping little "goat berries" down on the straw covered plastic. Other than that, the goats made no sound and in fact rode along in a state of complete relaxation, except for Fred who stood front and center with his horned head between Levi and I, looking intently down the road or side to side as if to make sure we were going the right direction. He was pretty curious about the whole thing and kept Levi and I company all the way. Mama and Alex just lay down and slept. We did have a little excitement when we pulled out the green grapes, all plump and juicy. Fred leaned so far over Levi's seat on his tip toes, trying to wrap those hairy lips around Levi's supply, that we were obliged to put the grapes away or else share them with him, which we did . . . one for Levi, one for Beth, one for Fred. As long as he knew he was getting his fair share, he was content to stand in place like a civilized goat. The only other sound from the critters was the occasional unhappy "cockadoodle" from Hank.We did get some curious and funny looks from people driving down the road who happened to parallel us long enough to really see what was in the van. When we stopped for gas, people came up to us and said, mostly incredulously, "Are those GOATS in there??!!" They thought that was a novel, and pretty cool, way to transport the kids.
We were glad to get to Ft. Collins, though, because after 7 hours, the plastic floor was more like (plug your ears . . . uh, cover your eyes, if you don't want to be disgusted) a urine pool than a barn stall. Yeah. Goats pee a lot! In Ft. Collins Patti and Ryan helped us clean out, dry out, and air out the back and replenish it with wood chips which are a LOT more absorbent than straw (next time you plan to transport goats in your van, remember that -- use wood chips, not straw). After spending a wonderful evening with Patti and Ryan and little Evan, eating pizza, milking the goat together, visiting, we loaded the van in preparation for the next day's travel and then put the goats in too. We wanted to protect them from marauding coyotes and also have them already loaded so we could make an early start. We hoped they would be as peaceful in there all by themselves all night as they had been while driving down the road with us. Turns out, they were. It must've felt like a cozy little stall to them. When Levi and I got up at 4:00 a.m. to start again, they all stood up from their resting places to greet us but then settled right back down to sleep as we went down the road. I found it a surprisingly comforting, pastoral experience riding across the prairie in our modern wagon with the AC and the Gospel Country music, while keeping company with goats.
We did have a hitch along the way - about 20 miles north of Wichita, the transmission stuttered and we smelled burnt transmission fluid. I know, because it's happened before. Providentially, we were not 100 yards from an exit to Casey's Gas & Convenience, so we pulled off straight away and coasted to a stop in front of the shop. Problem was, Kansas was sweltering hot that day and now we had no AC. We only sat there pondering what to do for 30 seconds - that's all it took for the smell of super heated goat droppings (and stuff) to hit our olfactory nerves. We knew if we didn't get the goats out of there, not only would they die of heat exhaustion, but we would most certainly die of COD, catastrophic olfactory destruction. Anyway, it seemed the humane thing to do. Problem was, it was a busy day at Casey's. There were lots of people to see the side doors and hatch fly open, and a flurry of caprine activity as the goats disembarked. I didn't look up, but Levi tells me people were flat staring and that he was quite embarrassed. Luckily there was a fence to tether them to and long bit of deep grass for them to enjoy while we figured out what to do. And a hydrant from which we filled their water bucket repeatedly (oh, good, just what they needed . . . ). We also carried the chicken condo out and put it under a tree to try and revive Hank and Glory with some water and bird seed. Good thing we did - they were both pretty wilted. The short story is that the critters all enjoyed a snack and a good stretch while I rounded up a mechanic and tow truck. We drove 12 miles to his air conditioned shop where I paid him $120 for the tow, a couple of quarts of transmission fluid, and his short course on where to find the fill hole for Honda transmission fluid (turns out that while he was a really nice guy and probably an able mechanic, with a very comfortable air conditioned shop, he didn't know much about Honda's). In the end, we both decided the Honda was drivable but needed an expert to look over the transmission when I got to Olathe. Levi and I were grateful for his help, especially that he humored us with the goats and chickens and provided a very comfortable place to be while he checked things over. We did decide it's best not to travel on Sunday if you don't have to. If I'd been a little more confident in the mechanic-ing department, I would've just put some transmission fluid in myself and saved us the 5 hours and $120 bucks. Still and all, though, we were back on the road. We finally got to AJ's place around 10:00 p.m., well past dark, but we bedded the goats and chickens down in their new homes and they seemed wonderfully happy to have finally arrived! I must say, we were too! We pulled the plastic barnyard floor out of the van so that it wouldn't bake goat smells into the vinyl all night and then went up to the cabin where Mitch, Tate's brother and caretaker of the farm while they are in Alaska teaching, was an excellent host, sharing hunks of his freshly baked bread with us, and a lovely cold shower. We fell into Walt and Ella's bunk beds and slept soundly til morning.
In the morning we gave Mitch a goat milking lesson, helped with a few chores, and then got on the road, anxious to finally get to Olathe and rendezvous with Cody, Leanne, and Ki. We had a pleasant drive without incident, even though we traveled a bit slowly for fear of dropping our transmission out in the middle of the road - the three hour trip took us four. But it's such a beautiful drive that before we knew it, we had arrived! We found Leanne and Cody resting and waiting for us. The beds were all set up and boxes placed strategically here and there. After a round of hugs and kisses, we went to work with a vengeance, unpacking and organizing, and within a couple of hours we had everything sufficiently stowed. It's a small place and we had gotten rid of a lot of stuff or left it at home in Lehi, so it didn't take us long to get situated.
When Ki came home from work we celebrated with a lasagna dinner and dedicated the new home. It is lovely to be here.
We miss all of you, but somehow we feel that we are in the right place at the right time. If we figure out the why's and wherefore's we will let you know. For now we are content to leave it in the Lord's hands.
More from the Wee Chuns later . . . .
