Miss Geraldine Goat’s health has been an ongoing blog topic of late. 

Towards the end of her pregnancy she looked to lose her spark; everything – not just her belly – seemed just a little too heavy. The birth of her beautiful goat blokes at least cleared one dilemma for us: Steve the vet needed to be called. His down-to-earth, no-nonsense advice had her beating birth paralysis and back on her feet, but she was still a little lack lustre.

Her coat wasn’t shining, her eyes lacked that calculating twinkle and, most scarily of all, Miss Leia was beginning to throw her literal and figurative weight around the paddock. We were worried. Then, in the space of a couple of hours, the abscess that had been hiding in her udder made itself known, Steve the vet once again worked his magic, and we played that waiting game animal owners the world over will identify with. Over the last couple of weekends we were able to undertake the last item on the checklist to full-Geraldine recovery: we clipped her hooves. That this took all hands on deck and there are still a few bruises showing is an indication our first lady of the paddock is back to her old self. 

She can now make the giant leap onto the new milking stand

Pose nonchalantly for her adoring public

and, most importantly, keep Miss Leia firmly in her place as 2IC

She’s never been one to hide her true feelings, has our Geraldine. You know when she’s happy…and when she’s not; a Pleaser she is not. In fact, the words chosen by The Renovator for his recent turn as Sage sum her ethos up perfectly.

We human Homesteaders could well do with taking a leaf out of both Geraldine’s and Oprah associate, Iyanla’s book. It would do us well to remember, we decided over Caramalised Onion and Blue Cheese stuffed bread Monkey Balls and Doctor Here’s Spicy Courgette Cake, that we are allowed to speak our feelings and thoughts both popular and not so much. As long as we do so respectfully, how they are received is not our worry.

And with that decided, our Sage hosts boarded a plane for Auckland and Adele’s third and last NZ concert well aware that some of our number do not share their adulation for this straight-talking, feet-on-the-ground lady’s singing. That one of us described it to sound to their ears like she was singing through a mouthful of Mars bar mattered not a jot to them. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion; they responded by loving every moment of their rain-soaked adventure.