Laurie, one of my spinning friends, is the most out-of-the-box person I know. In fact, Laurie is so out-of-the-box creative that I don’t think she’s ever IN the box!
Laurie came to spinning last week, spread a bed sheet over her lap and the floor, and started picking the vegetable matter and other unspinnable stuff out of a fleece. She casually remarked how much nicer it was to work on a fleece INSIDE in the air conditioning instead of OUTSIDE on the skirting table.
That thought came back to me tonite after I had done all the homework I could stand. I grabbed an extra sheet, my bag of “Grace” fleece, and plopped down in the living room. Grace was young when she was sheared, and I was only working on her blanket. Three and one-half hours later, I had a beautiful light fluffy fleece, ready to be washed!
Thanks, Laurie!
1. We can actually see progress in the perimeter fence building. A few fenceposts are actually set in the ground with concrete. Due to a miscommunication about the whereabouts of the gates, the crew took off on a long holiday weekend and won’t be back at work until Tuesday. I’m trying to stay patient.
is now down so low that it is too close to the building that will become my studio and the new home for the rabbits. So a call to an electrician was in order. He will be out next Friday to assess the situation, and to replace the electrical box which has been, uh, “modified” over the years with a lot of wire and electrical tape. 
me up and we went to the office to handle the business end of the deal! Now Mel is an interesting guy. It wasn’t until I got down to the office and Mel handed me the title that I realized that the trailer had no license plates. Seems Mel had never had the trailer put in his name when he bought it, and when he needed to take it somewhere, he just stuck a license plate on it from some other vehicle. I guess that had worked fine for Mel, but it left me with 140 miles to drive and no license plate on the trailer. I thanked my lucky stars that I had brought the right hardware to get the lights and brakes to work, shrugged my shoulders, and headed on down the road.
Once we got to Farmersville, we unloaded the boxes and little bit of patio furniture, put the dogs in the house in the air conditioning, and Ken backed the trailer into the equipment barn (sort of – we BOTH have a lot to learn about trailer parking!). Then it was time to go look at the puppies. Ken had found a litter of Anatolian/Great Pyrenees livestock guard dogs, and was determined to have some.
even look at the puppies because we were so fascinated with the goats! They have 5 kids for sale (in case you’re looking for a diary goat), and Mary has seen to it that they are friendly. Her mama goats are trained well. When she opens the fence, a goat walks out and straight up on the milking stand where Mary milks her while the goat eats a bite. Once Mary has all the milk she needs (I watched her milk 2 goats), she funnels the milk into empty water bottles, puts a nipple on them, and feeds the milk to the kids. It was a real treat to watch her and the goats both! Mary explains that this helps the goats be friendly and makes them easier to manage even into adulthood. Her adult goats proved the point!
Okay, it doesn’t have the same “ring” as The wheels on the bus… but it sure describes my day! 
had graciously taken care of the rabbits while I was gone, plus re-staked the tomatoes to repair the storm damage. He had also caught a summer cold, so I am doubly grateful that he did the chores anyway.
With everything in such nice shape, I had a moment to stop and look at the flowers. We have about 1/5th of the yard planted in native Texas grasses and wildflowers, and they are doing great. The flowers are blooming and that section of the yard gets prettier every day. It’s wonderful to sit on the patio and look out there in the morning with a cup of hot coffee, and it’s a great place for the rabbits to play!
