Take Joy!

So, it's been a busy few days . . .

Let's see, where to begin? First of all, my friend Trudy's melanoma surgery was successful, so thank you all very much for your prayers and good wishes. She's recuperating now, sore but on the mend.

Saturday's inaugural tailgate market went well: no rain, breezy and cool, and we had more people than usual for an opening day. And new vendors! One of whom came up—or down, perhaps; I'm not positive just where he lives—the mountain in an 1890 two-wheeled horse cart, complete with horse. I got a chance to pet his horse, too. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera . . . I'm taking it for certain this week. We sold a bunch of jam, some honey, most of the bread I'd baked (banana black-walnut, apricot-pecan, and strawberry-almond last week. I'll probably add blueberry-orange this week.), one adult's apron (I DO wish I'd gotten around to some pictures, but I was running late—it was a teacup print, red and black on white, with red bias binding), two child's aprons, three little floppy animals, a child's hat, all the eggs . . . I took the two jesters I'd had in my Etsy shop; neither of them sold, but I have a possible order for another, made to match the lady's bedroom with some fabric she has left from doing something.

We came home, I took a nap and woke up to find this on the kitchen counter:
Ten racks full of honeycomb! (Actually, it wasn't quite that yellow, but it was getting dark and the flash did weird things). John had checked one of the hives that wasn't very active, and apparently it was because they had plenty to eat already . . . so he spent Saturday evening dealing with honey. (In case you're wondering, he strained it through a pair of hose I had in the drawer.)

So now we have this:
Forty-some jars, in fact.

Sunday, Karolyn and David brought Riley and Eliza to visit, if only for a couple of hours (David has allergies, and everything is blooming . . . ). We performed the ritual Feeding of the Goats and Chickens:

(Eliza favors throwing her corn over the fence by the handful; Riley prefers to poke his through the holes, one kernel at a time.)

Then we adjourned to the house and ate macaroni and cheese and hot dogs, after which Riley spent a happy half hour pulling weeds out of the grass while Eliza and I planted petunias in a hanging basket. Then she read Peter Rabbit to me (most of it, anyway; we had to break off with Peter hiding in the watering can).

She tried on the new clothes I'd made her (and Bella tried on hers, too):

And we got a good look at where her teeth used to be—she's lost five now, and has two permanent teeth in on the bottom.

The visit was over all too soon—I'll be glad when she can spend a long weekend this summer.

As they were getting ready to leave, John came in with a basket of broccoli from the garden; Eliza looked at it and said, "I like broccoli." How about that?! So we gave her a bunch to take home.

Yesterday our new bees arrived (the post office called at six, but neither of us woke up in time to get to the phone, so I didn't find out until eight, by which time they were quite ready to be rid of our bees!), so John spent the day getting them into their hives. I did the laundry and made another apron for this week's market. Today I did some mending, chased escaped hens out of the asparagus, worked on some little floppy animals, cooked a pot of navy beans to make bean salad, and cut out several more aprons and things. Tomorrow is my yearly exam, and then a trip to the farmers' market for more strawberries (to freeze and dry, and some to eat) and ramps to pickle (if we can find any; it's getting late), and possibly by the fabric store to look for some lining fabric to go with some fabric I already have . . . and to the post office. I have seven baby hats ready to go to Afghanistan. Other than that, I probably won't get much done—the doctor's office always wipes me out. But I do need to finish a swap piece that is now a week overdue . . .

This is what I was sent, to make something from:

I'm working on it. I have A Plan!

Earth Day

So, in honor of Earth Day, I grubbed in the dirt . . . er, earth. Did a bit of weeding—I ought to be pulling up ground ivy, but it's still blooming and the bees are working it, so I pulled up what had finished, along with some grass and fed the whole bunch to the chickens, who were extremely enthusiastic. Planted catnip, two hummingbird sage plants, a bunch of dianthus, some regular sage, some oregano (actually, some more oregano—I took some from the front bed, which is being taken over by the Oregano Mafia, and planted it in a pot so I can have fresh oregano all winter. I hope.), some parsley-in-a-pot (same reason), a spotted dead nettle down in the rock garden . . . still to plant are a flat of golden marguerites, a flat of gold alyssum, a mixture of poppies and shasta daisies, some more parsley and a few dill plants (these destined for a pot, I think; we can sow seed in the garden), three clematis plants, and some blue stuff that we just liked. Oh, and a flat of delphiniums that John has plans for; yesterday he planted a flat of lupines under the grapevine.

I had 'help' from Earl, who rolled happily in the mulch
and Sam, who spent most of the afternoon cleverly camouflaged in the daffodils

and Maggie, who just watched.

Other than that, I did a load of sheets and towels and hung them out—it was lovely and breezy, and they were dry by midafternoon—and baked a couple of loaves of buttermilk bread. I cooked yesterday: hamburgers, enough for today too, and potato salad, and egg salad, and gelatin (I have given up Jello, at least for now; this was made with Knox gelatin and a mixture of apricot nectar and tangerine juice), and hamburger buns, which made nice sandwiches with egg salad for today's lunch. John and Roger built a new pen for the pheasants, and then ate the leftover hamburgers and potato salad. I worked some on Riley's dinosaur (only three fins and a couple of spikes left!); I should have it far enough along to get fabric for a bag this weekend.

Next I think I need to look up some rhubarb recipes:

Busy, Busy, Busy

We have been! Our tax refund is here, so we have been busy stimulating the economy for the past couple of days . . . we now have 40 new bales of  hay for William and the goats; fence and posts to construct a new pen for the pheasants, as the baby chicks and turkeys will soon be needing the current pheasant pen when they outgrow the brooder box; new shelving for my working corner, so I shall present the semblance of organization; a carful of plants from the greenhouse owned by John's sister and brother-in-law (we get the family discount); several new big pots and three big bags of potting soil (I'm going to try some container gardening this year—mostly herbs and peppers, I think), and a new pair of garden gloves so I can attempt to remove some of the vagrant brambles; ten bales of straw for the garden, several big bags of fertilizer and some more bags of something else that I can't remember right now; shavings to re-bed the chicken houses; and a truckload of mulch. All that involved the past two days—and a lot of walking on concrete—as well as today for John. I spent the day running all the irritating little errands that I hate to inflict on him, for he has no tolerance for standing in lines! I went to: Barnes and Noble for the new Quilting Arts, Lowe's for another bag of potting soil, Michael's for gel pens and a sea sponge (which they didn't have), Walmart for another cooler to use delivering eggs (which they didn't have, and I wasn't too upset; I hate spending money at Walmart), AC Moore for a sea sponge (which they did have, so I bought two) and a size 14 crochet hook, Hancock for a pattern and fabric for a new apron (for me—mine are getting pretty ratty looking, what with goats sticking their feet in the pockets and all) and some rickrack to trim a pair of bellbottoms for Eliza, the post office, and the grocery store (where I forgot to get any Fancy Feast, but did remember the tangerine juice I forgot last time I was there).

Then I came home, ate a bowl of leftover chicken casserole for lunch, and rested my feet. And my knees. And my brain . . . I loathe shopping, which is why I try to do a bunch of it at once and be done with it.

At any rate, here are my lovely new shelves:
Just look at all that *ahem* organization! (John refers to it as "the buzzard's nest," but we shall ignore him.) There is, of course, still a pile of boxes of stuff over to the right of the set of drawers, but we shall ignore those also, since they're out of the way. This gives me a way to get the boxes of things-in-progress or things-to-be-in-progress-soon up off the counter and frees up more space to make a mess spread out a project. And more space for the cats to spread out on, too. . .

To finish off, here is a gratuitous goat picture:

Zeekie and Junior, the apple of his mother's eye and the spittin' image of his father.

Oh, My Aching Back

I spent yesterday moving things—furniture, weeds—and now I'm paying for it. I am terribly out of shape (which, of course, begs the questions of whether I was ever in shape, but nevermind . . . ), and so stiff I can barely move. A hot shower this morning may be in order. A long hot shower. (John spent the day up in Leroy's pasture, cutting up next winter's heat. So I'm not the only one with sore muscles!)

I cleaned up the pit that the living room has become, now that the incubator is finished and installed (filled with turkey eggs and a couple of pheasant eggs, and we shall see what transpires) atop the oil stove (which we no longer use, the price of oil being what it is). That involved taking all the drying amaryllis pots out onto the back porch to finish drying out of my sight, as well as the paperwhites which have finished drying and are awaiting an empty pot to stick them into to see whether they'll bloom again next year; however, all the soon-to-be empty pots are currently full of amaryllis, so . . . I also picked up and disposed of a lot of trash that had accumulated on the [unused and in the way] sofa over the course of the past several weeks, moved a couple dozen boxes of canning jars waiting to be either stored (somewhere else) or used, vacuumed, moved a bunch of other stuff and decided that wasn't a good idea, so I moved it back . . . Living room is somewhat of a misnomer, as no one actually uses it for anything other than storage. The only reason anyone spends time in there is  John's computer, there being nowhere else to put it. So far we have a freezer, a small refrigerator (cheesemaking may be imminent, as soon as someone finds time to actually do it), two incubators (one of is Leroy's, and will be going home soon, I hope), a tub of goat-related paraphernalia, three tubs of bee stuff, a dehydrator (which I hope to replace with an outside solar dryer this summer), all my tailgate things (except the jam, which is in the well house), two sets of faux-wrought-iron folded-up folding shelves, the aforementioned oil stove, the TV which no one watches and which is currently doing duty as a cat bed, a couple of chairs, the sofa (which I'd remove if there was anywhere else to put it), a folding screen (it did camouflage the wires at the back of John's computer, but had to be folded up when cats began to perch on top of it so it fell over), a filing cabinet with a pile of stuff-to-be-filed on top of it, and a giant pile of stuff in the corner (a pile which John has been promising to sort out for a couple of years now, but hasn't gotten around to yet. I just look the other way.).

At any rate, I finished in there, went to the post office and the grocery store, and decided to go out and pick violets for jelly, since they're blooming nicely in the front. However, in order to reach the violets, it was necessary to cut down all the old stalks that I'd left standing over the winter since the birds were eating seeds from them, which involved carrying the cut-off things to the compost pile . . . I never got any violets picked, but the flower beds look a lot better. Violets today, perhaps, if my back will allow it.

The rhubarb has bounced after the weekend's inch of rain; I can cut some soon. The leeks and onions look good, too, and the cabbage/broccoli/cauliflower plants. Since I wasn't accomplishing anything I'd started to do, I listened to the birds (mating time, and the air is full of birdsong all day long), watched hawks circling on the thermals  (they began with five, then peeled off one at a time until there was only one left, crying all the time. Such eerie cries. . . I wonder what they think, looking down at the earth from so high? Or if they just surrender to the joy of flight?), moved the buckets of rocks and water that the bees drink out of (one over by the hives, one under the chestnut tree), and wandered down in the woods and took a couple of pictures.

I missed most of the bloodroot, but here are a few blooms:
(See those strappy leaves to the right of the bloodroot? Ramps! Spring comes to the mountains! I'm not picking mine; I'm leaving them to spread. We did stop at Kings Produce on the way home from somewhere on Friday, though, simply because they had fresh ramps—then we had ramps and fried potatoes for supper.)

Trilliums getting ready to bloom:

Sweet woodruff coming up in the rock garden. (Which reminds me, I have a bleeding heart and some lilies of the valley that I need to get planted down there . . . )

Grape hyacinths among the daylillies in one of the front beds

And cowslips just below them

What's left of my forsythia after a tree fell on it last year . . .

Blue-eyed grass

And Maggie on the back steps . . .

Now, about that hot shower . . .

It's Been a Busy Couple of Days

Monday I went for the annual mammogram—one thing I'll say for the folks at Asheville Radiology. They're fast. I was in and out in about 20 minutes. Then I came home and took a nap.

Tuesday . . . what did I do Tuesday? Cleaned up, mostly. Finished one of Emma's birthday dresses. Nearly finished the embroidered bag. Cooked a nice big pot of pinto beans with the almost-last of the Easter Ham, and made corncakes to go with it. Began Emma's other birthday dress—so far I have the bodice finished, but I forgot to look for buttons at the fabric store today, which means I will have to go back tomorrow or Friday (since they need to be mailed by Saturday). Scrubbed the bathtub. Took a nap. . .

Today, we went to: Lowe's, for birdseed, another small birdfeeder, a couple of smallish plastic boxes in which to store projects-in-progress in order to keep Earl from wallowing on them while I'm asleep,  and various pieces of stuff with which to build an incubator. (With all these hens laying madly, I don't see why I ought to order dibs. We should be able to hatch some . . . and some turkeys, too, to sell later.) PetSmart, for the next month's dry and canned catfood, cat litter (I had coupons!), and to price cat trees. (Exorbitant. But ours is pretty much past its prime—trans.: fit only for the deck outside—and we really need a new one. Maybe in another week or two. Must save egg money . . . ) Hancock, for muslin to make a seed bed cover, more pink thread (since it seems that every other thing I make is pink), embroidery thread to match a piece of fabric I'm working with (only to discover that they no longer carry DMC, but something called Sterling. I opted for DMC perle cotton instead.), and fabric to go with other fabric that surfaced in The Stash the other day . . . but I forgot, as aforementioned, to look at buttons. Which means that I will have to go back and face temptation once again, in the form of on-sale seersucker, which would make lovely little girl sundresses . . . Post Office, to mail a few bills and retrieve mail, which turned out to be highly uninteresting: more bills and three fat-lady-clothing catalogs. Ingles, for the larger part of the next month's groceries. Flour, cornmeal, canned stuff, etc. Plus exorbitantly priced prescriptions. (The copay has changed, and not for the better. On the other hand, insurance now mandates that we switch to a mail-order pharmacy, which will be about 1/3 cheaper. I don't like it, particularly, but . . . neither do I want to pay full price for my drugs.) Came home, put away groceries, put away cat food, left bird seed, bird feeder and incubator parts on the sofa to be put away later. Brought laundry in and put it away, except one shirt which needs ironing . . . sometime. Feet hurt (concrete floors in Lowe's), head hurt (Bradford pears blooming EVERYWHERE), pocketbook hurt. Took a nap . . .

Bloodroot is blooming down in the hollow; I need to get down there with the camera tomorrow. Also need to finish the other dress tomorrow. Must wash sheets and towels tomorrow or the next day, before it rains again. Also need to go by Barnes & Noble to buy Emma a birthday book. (New tradition: grandchildren get BananaWear and books for birthdays. Their other grandparents buy them plenty of toys. Besides, I love shopping for children's books.) For now, though, I have acquired a copy of Firebird by R. Garcia y Robertson, so I am retiring to the rocker (after removing a cat) for the rest of the evening.

No wonder my birdseed bill is so high! Go eat out of your own feeder, you mooch!

Saturday's Main Event

. . . feeding Valentine, of course!

On the lap is better, under the watchful eye of William—it looks as if she's nibbling on Uncle William's ear, doesn't it?

This is one of the reasons we always wear old clothes in the goat lot. (The other is that Jesse has a tendency to chew holes in the back of one's shirt while one's attention is elsewhere.)

Goat treats for Uncle William. Frank was eating, too, but he wandered off; everyone else circled around like vultures, but declined to descend and eat. Maybe next time.

Odds and Ends, Bits and Pieces . . .

All the amaryllises are blooming at once! Aren't they gorgeous?

Especially this double one:

It's actually more coral than this; I had the flash on (because I forgot to take these until late afternoon) so the color isn't true.

There are crocuses outside, and daffodils in bud:

We should have blooms tomorrow or the next day! It's early for them (the ones in the yard won't be blooming for another couple of weeks), but these are in a bed on the south side of the house, where they get light reflected from the white siding.

Rhubarb is beginning to poke up, too; I can see the red crowns just breaking the ground. And the feverfew made it over the winter, too—it's in the middle of the rhubard bed, and must be moved as soon as it's warmer.

The first of the seed orders is here; soon it will be time to turn the chickens back into the goat lot, clean the chicken houses (oh, what fun! I can hardly wait!) and spread the straw/manure on the garden to be tilled in before we plant. There are several wheelbarrow-loads of peed-on straw in the goat lot, too. (Hey—free fertilizer is not to be despised!)

And radish season is coming . . .

Let's see, what else good is happening?

My electric bill went down $20; I didn't use the dryer last month (well, except for one time when the bathmats didn't get dry, because I was dumb and hung them on the back porch drying rack instead of on the clothesline). It's still higher in the winter, because we have a small heater in the wellhouse where the jam is stored, and lights in the chicken houses, but it HAS gone down.

The gas card bill for last month was only $85, down from $125 the month before—I have pretty much quit going out other than the one day I go and run whatever errands are unavoidable, and John doesn't go as far for coffee now (the coffee shop where he used to go every day to meet his cronies is closed for a month or so for renovations—the plumbing leaked and rotted the floor joists—so they are stuck with the Waffle House, which is a lot closer). Of course, it will go up again in May when the tailgate begins and we drive to Black Mountain every Saturday . . . but hopefully we'll make enough to offset the increase.

My hair has finally gotten long enough for me to stick it up in a ponytail! It's not particularly flattering, but it's out of my way, and that's what I'm interested in.

The ginger root that I've been patiently (well, maybe not quite so patiently) nurturing for the past month or so has finally sprouted! If you look very, very closely at the pot of dirt, you may see a tiny greenish pointy thing in the center . . .  At this rate, I may possibly have an actual plant by 2009.

I finished Riley's fleece pig (pink and blue plaid); pictures tomorrow, before I mail it.

There's a doll in the works—not yet, but I'm thinking on her. I have a lovely pile of blue and red prints, and a red and white stripe for her legs. (Also, I found a pretty little blue and white stripe today at Hancock—perfect for doll legs!)

We went to Hancock today to look at patterns (on sale, naturally)—I want to make Eliza a pair of bell bottoms. The closest I could find was slightly flared, so I settled for that until I can look online. When we got home, I cut out her pants (blue and peach flowers and butterflies) and a top to go with them, and a dress for her from some vintage polyester. (Yes, I know 'vintage polyester' sounds odd, but this is some that John's mother had had for ages; it's that lovely smooth thin knit. I remember having dresses made of it when I was in high school, which was longer ago than I am prepared to disclose. She gave me two pieces; this one is a coral-ish small flower print on a beige ground, and looks pretty and antique-y. The other is . . . well, pretty ugly. Maybe it will look better if I stash it somewhere for a few months.) And I also cut out matching outfits for Bella, of course.

I also have a doll body drawn out and ready to sew up, and a little bitty fabric bear (made from the leftovers of Joseph the Rat's jacket), and I'm about to begin working on an embroidery project—it's a tote bag with an embroidered panel on the front; I had gotten everything together back in the winter, and just never got around to doing it. But today I bought a package of water-soluble stabilizer to draw the pattern on and embroider over, and we shall see how that works . . .

The embroidery is my evening project; I don't do a lot of machine sewing at night, for two reasons: one, I don't see all that well at night, and two, my sewing machine is right by the back door and if I'm over there, the cats all take it as license to wander in and out all evening. If it's warm enough to leave the door open, that's fine, but if I have to get up and let someone in or out every five minutes, I might as well just stand by the door and not try to do anything else! So I work on things I can do in my rocker, under the good light: crochet or embroidery, or reading, or holding cats . . .

I've finished half a dozen hats to send to the afghans for Afghans project, and I need to get them in the mail this week, too! (Picture tomorrow also, if I don't forget . . . )

And that's what's going on here . . . and there are always goats, of course!

Little Goats, and Other Stuff

It was nice and warm (well, relatively speaking; this is January, after all!) yesterday, so I went down to help feed/water/gather eggs, and saw this:

While the big goats (and William, of course) were eating, where were the little goats? Why, under the feed trough, nice and cozy!  I don't see how they all got under there, but they did.

Some people, though, had little tolerance for me and my camera . . .

Come, children, let's just go away from the crazy woman and her camera!

Other doings yesterday: We went to Lowe's to get a replacement drain-opening-thing for the bathtub, some thistle seed, and a small birdfeeder to hand in the grape arbor. Also purchased, though not on the original list, were a bleeding heart and some lilies of the valley for the rock garden and a couple of new daylily plants. Then to Barnes & Noble for a circus book to send Eliza along with her clown costume. We settled on a copy of Dr. Seuss' s If I Ran The Circus; I'm not a big Seuss fan (yes, I know—heresy!), but his earlier books are nice. Also bought the new Art Doll Quarterly—which I haven't had time to sit down and look at yet—and a book for Emma, Seven Chinese Sisters, the latest Fine Cooking for me, American Archaeology for John, and another book that he wanted. (I was looking for the new Quilting Arts, but it wasn't out yet . . . my book-and-magazine consumption has to diminish. I've pretty much stopped buying Somerset Studio and all its attendant magazines, because they're always just more of the same. Now I think I'll not buy any more Belle Armoire or Cloth Paper Scissors, either, for the same reasons. The past few issues have been mostly more of the same, and it's too off-the-wall for me lately; and all too many articles seem to be along the lines of "here's this project that will require you to buy new product X, and will produce something not useful for anything" . . . not that there's anything wrong with art for art's sake, but I'm just tired of that. I want to sew, and to make simpler things, so I'm going back to my old patterns and magazines—I was up in the attic the other day, hauling down the drying rack, and came across two elderly cardboard file boxes full of doll and toy patterns from the 80's (mostly); some were Mom's and some were mine, and I'd forgotten about them . . . so I went to Hancock for pattern boxes, and am planning to spend a happy afternoon sorting someday soon.

Oh—I also picked up a copy of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion (my favorite guilty pleasure—I could never live in a house like those, not with all these cats and my general disorderliness, but I love to look at other people's). There's a pattern for cloth ballet flats that I'm thinking some small girls of my acquaintance might like . . . seeing as how 2008 is going to be The Year I Use Up Some of The Stash. . . maybe.

Now, Chinese New Year is February 7 this year, and it's the Year of the Rat; does anyone know where I might find a stuffed rat pattern?

This, That, and the Other

It's cold. 10 last night, 12 the night before . . . the house is full of disgruntled cats, who really really want to go out, but don't want to get their feet cold . . . we are mostly sitting by the stove and reading/sewing/crocheting, or napping, with periodic forays out to thaw water for various livestock. No, not much going on around here.

I am involved in an emergency costume production: Karolyn called Friday to announce that Eliza's school is having a circus on February 7th, Eliza has decided to be a clown, and can I please make her a costume? Well, yes, I can, so John and I made plans to visit the fabric store on Saturday—snow was forecast (though it didn't materialize) and it would be a good weekend to sew, and I'd seen some pink and purple Valentine's material that I thought would make a nice costume, along with lots of rickrack and perhaps some ball fringe . . . on Saturday morning, half an hour before we left, Karolyn called back—pink and purple would not do, we need red with white polka dots ("Like a real clown, Mommy!"). But is there anything fabric that is red with white polka dots to be had? Of course not . . .that would be entirely too easy, wouldn't it? I ended up with a 1/4" red and white check, a red with small white dots, a remnant of white with red dots (a ruffled collar, perhaps?), lots of white and red rickrack, some red ribbon with white polka dots on it, and a quarter yard of white felt, from which I intend to cut large circles and applique them onto the costume.

And we shall see what transpires . . .

I also have run across some things you might want to take a look at:

Pictures of Lucy, the newest cat at Rosehaven Cottage . . .

Another Lucy, posting on her shadow side . . .

Nancy's thoughts on buying clothes for the farm life . . .

"Pity the Nation," an alarmingly pertinent quote from Kahlil Gibran at Child of Illusion . . .

The text of Towanda's powerful sermon yesterday . . .

And Ian Welsh's thoughtful and frightening post at Firedoglake.

(Eugene, in his native environment—his mom sent me a few pictures)

What I Did Over the Weekend . . .

Made a wonderful pot of soup, for one thing. I used Ed Bruske's recipe (here, at The Slow Cook), modified somewhat: I didn't blend any of it for a smoother soup—for one thing, the blender died over the summer and we haven't bothered remembered to replace it yet; besides, I like chunky soup better. I used dried thyme since I forget to get any fresh at the store, and added some crumbled bacon on top; John (major carnivore that he is) also added some leftover sausage to his. There is no picture, since we ate first and thought about photography later, but we also had corn muffins and some canned peaches that needed eating up. And there's enough for two meals (or one meal and chicken leftovers—it's SO nice not to waste things that we have grown tired of eating!) in the refrigerator yet . . .

It didn't really take long, either (though you do have to remember to soak the beans the night before, which is why we didn't have it on Saturday as I'd planned). I spent an hour or so puttering around in the kitchen, chopping things and getting it ready, and then went away and let it cook for three hours or so. Then I cooked a little bacon and made the muffins, and we ate happily, and then sat by the stove and read and digested for most of the evening.

Let's see, what else did I do?

Crocheted a bit (more hats—good mindless, relaxing work); I have three hats ready to seam up now. Made a dress and hat and panties for Emma's new baby doll, to match (well, the fabric matches, if not the style) her new skirt. Finished up some little beanbag frogs and cats for the summer market. Read a bit. Forayed out to Office Max to make copies of a pattern I'm going to try next, so I don't have to cut up my original, to Michael's to replace my Pigma pens that are now several years old and drying up, and to Target to buy vitamins. Hauled wood in from the porch. (We have an equitable division of labor, I think: John hauls it down from the woodpile a couple of times a week and replenishes the porch stack, and I keep the woodrack inside filled. Suits me, anyway.)

And we spent an enjoyable hour or so yesterday watching the goats from the back porch: they (and Uncle William, of course) went down the hill into the flat space at the bottom, then up the other hill (a matter of a couple  hundred yards, but they never went up that hill in the summer) and back down to the flat space, browsing as they went, and accompanied by many, many (or so it seemed; actually there were only six) little goats bouncing along. Eddie was in the lead, and Uncle William brought up the rear, either because he's slower or because he was keeping an eye on everyone. (We trimmed his feet last week, and he's getting around a lot better. I hope they keep this up—for one thing, they can eat up the honeysuckle before it engulfs everything, and it will help keep their feet worn down so we don't have to trim them so often.)

Then the annoying dog from next door (not Eugene, of course; anyway, he was at the kennel while his people were out of town for the weekend) ran over the his side of the fence, making a great deal of noise, and everyone hurriedly came back up the hill. Besides, it was time for supper . . .

(Heads are in the feed trough, thus the charming shots of goat butts . . . )