Lead Cow and Chief Goatherd (or, How I Spent my Summer Vacation, part 2)

Learning Spanish, dragging recalcitrant escaped goats, fighting in a prayer labyrinth, eating garden fresh peas and carrots, dealing with a very flat tire on the way to a wedding, negotiating unfamiliar gravel roads in the dark during a rainstorm, winning at horseshoes, losing at pool, and riding herd on a collection of old Circle K-ers... yup, that's how I spent my summer vacation.

This past weekend was our friends Margaret & Morgan's wedding in Melfort, Saskatchewan. 18 former Circle K-ers decided to attend, so we carpooled our way down there and 13 of the 18 stayed together at the Shady Vale Retreat. (shadyvaleretreat.com. Highly recommended.) We'd planned to leave from east Edmonton on Friday morning at 10:15 but were slightly delayed by one friend getting into a car accident on the way to his ride's house. Fortunately, he (and the group wedding presents) were fine, it was the other driver's fault, and hopefully he'll come out of it slightly richer (or at least with a newly fixed car). Despite the hour's delay, we were still on track for our 5pm rendezvous with Val in Saskatoon and made it to the BBQ at Margaret's farm by 9pm or thereabouts. The 8 hours of driving duties were split between Simon (his car), Rem and I and in-car entertainment included lap-top based handwriting analysis and crossword puzzles (would you have guessed "beadiest" as a synonym for "spangliest?"), an attempt at singing, some ipod listening, eating a great variety of junk food, sleeping, and of course lots of conversation.

The wedding was lovely, and remarkably short for a Catholic ceremony - I think it was only 25 minutes max. Since Margaret's Catholic and Morgan wanted a short ceremony, I think the compromise they came up with bodes well for their negotiations in the future. Margaret looked amazing, and doubly so when you know she only paid about $50 for her poofy white wedding dress - that was a price I could really get behind! Despite a VERY flat tire on Simon's car, we managed to limp into Melfort (about 70kms from our cabins) in time for the ceremony and get it fixed right afterwards for a measly $20 and 30 minutes. Great gratitude and carma go to Josh for carrying a car lighter-powered air compressor and saving us changing a tire on the roadside in dress clothes.

The reception was held at a really nice community hall in nearby Pleasantdale and featured pit-cooked roast beef, perogies (yum!), new potatoes, non-boozy Saskatoon berry champagne, a really good country band (!), a chocolate fountain, three kinds of wedding cake, fireworks (thank god none of those pyros got hurt!) and an open bar. The dance floor was full nearly all night and I for one had a fabulous time. We always knew Margaret knew how to party!

Driving back to the cabins that night was interesting, as we had some impressive sheet lightening to watch and some killer washboard road to navigate. Chris told us the next day that there was a paved route we could have taken instead of the gravel. Ooops. At least I missed the deer that jumped across the road in front of us. When we got back to our cabins, we discovered the power was out and wandered about in the dark trying to follow our cabins walls until our kind host found us and brought us flashlights. The poor guy was up until the wee hours of the morning helping the Saskpower guy and then waiting for Margaret and Morgan who got lost trying to find the place in the dark and eventually went home to Margaret's house and slept on an air mattress in a spare bedroom. How romantic, eh?

Seven of us decided to stay an extra day to see Margaret and Morgan, so Sunday was largely spent eating at her parents' farm, lounging around her house and watching them open our presents. We eventually adjourned to the cabins so Rem could make dinner (pizza, with salad by Val) and busied ourselves outside fooling around in the prayer labyrinth, playing horseshoes and visiting the goats. Now, I'm not much of a farm kid, really, but this crew is entirely city kids and in comparison I look like Ol' McDonald (ei ei o!). I managed to sidle into the goat pen without letting the goats out and called to the next person behind me to be careful to block the gate entirely. Thomas apparently didn't understand that I really meant that entirely part and the goats eagerly escaped on either side of him.

Since none of us particularly wanted to go tell our host that we'd released his goats, we were now faced with the challenge of getting them back into the pen. I've never herded a goat before and have to admit that their small size makes them trickier than pigs or horses. Also, we were completely without ropes, boards, halters, or other artificial means of actually controlling the animals. However, these goats were fitted with handles, so if you could get close enough to grab a horn and managed to hang on despite the head tossing, it was possible to drag it along. After a false start or two, I got a hold of one goat and dragged it most of the way back to the pen. I was running out of steam fighting it, though, so Simon grabbed it around the middle and we ran along the last two dozen steps into the pen. While I held on to Goat # 1, the others eventually managed to herd # 2 through the gate and, full of relief, we slammed the door. I didn't realize until afterward that Lana, our chief photographer, had spent more of her time taking pictures than actually trying to herd the goats!

After supper with Morgan & Margaret, we sat up and yakked for a few hours until our newly-wedded friends were falling over from exhaustion. They went to bed and most of the rest of us adjourned to the games room to play pool (Val beat me quite handily), darts (I think Chris & I lost to Thomas' team) and the jukebox.

Monday we were up fairly bright and early and made a quick visit to meet Margaret's cows before heading for home. Margaret introduced one white cow as "the lead cow - she's like Steph. When she gets moving, eventually everyone follows her". I'm trying to take that as a compliment. Rem reminded me that the analogy only works if everyone in the group is a cow which rather makes it okay.

The trip home was pleasantly uneventful, aside from Simon having to drive through quite a rainstorm with only slightly functional windshield wipers. It was a delightful 4 days but now I think I need 4 days of sleep to recover!