Monday Musings.

I have started romancing the Me.  It all started when I was doing a blitzkrieg clean through the house - nothing like facing wind and snow to make you suddenly very interested in cleaning the inside of the house.  I took a look at my bed and realized that I had never made pillow shams for the back pillows.  I guess I figured that I was the only one looking at them and who cared.  Well, gosh darn it, I do!  So I hauled out my sewing machine and imagination (heaven forbid I use a pattern....) and whipped up two shams in about a half hour.  And they are darn nice!  It becomes too easy to forget to treat yourself nicely.  To make your space pleasant to look at just for you.  I doubt very much if I will be dragging out the good china and lighting the candles with every meal, but I am going to try not to slide down that slippery slope....

Speaking of romance, I spent most of Friday afternoon standing around watching goat sex.  I had been hanging up my three loads of laundry, trying to make the most of the last lovely day for quite a while, when I happened to look over at the goats.  Sage was wagging her tail like a dog and cozying up to Chickie at every opportunity.  He was not buying all this "friendliness" and avoided her like the plague.  I dropped the laundry basket and sprinted into the house -- we had heat!!!  I emailed my friend AnnMarie, who called me and we arranged for her to bring one of her bucks over for a 'date'.  So, there in the last nice day of fall, with the sun shining, everyone - including the sheep and llama, who were lined up along the fence line - stood around nonchalantly while my little baby doe became a future milking doe (we hope).  AnnMarie and I talked farms, goats, DIY, llamas, feed prices, vet bills, self-reliance, and milking stands.  Her handsome little buck, Troy, was in heaven and he and Sage hit it off famously.

As AnnMarie drove away with a sleepy but happy Troy in the back of her old van, it struck me that there is much kindness and generosity in the world.  This was the first time AnnMarie and I had ever met - actually.  She doesn't know me from Adam, and vice versa.  She has a Nigerian Dwarf dairy operation - a small one - but she hand milks 25 does every day.  And cares for a bunch of rescued llamas.  She works hard and manages to scrape by.  Yet, here she was, taking a chunk of time out of her busy afternoon for my benefit.  She is also taking Sage and Chick to their own little section of her farm three weeks before Sage is due so she'll be there when Sage kids (and has promised to call me no matter what the time).  She will then teach Sage how to milk.  And me, too.  And, when we're comfortable with it, she will send the Chickie/Sage/kids family home with a milking stand that her brother is making.  For free.  Asking nothing at all in exchange for all of this time and effort.  She knows that I am trying to sell Sage and figured it would be an easier sale with a doe in milk.

As bad as things are in the world, there are plenty of good, kind and generous people.  As a matter of fact, alot of them are floating right out there - not so far away - in the blogosphere.  It gives you comfort and courage to know that it's not all bad and it's okay to be hopeful.