Look...

....at the size of this leaf...

Dang!

p.s.
I have so much to share with you: happenings around the farm, visits with wonderful donkeys, vacation travels, and various miscellaneous updates, but this here gigantic leaf is all I have for now.
...Back soon.

Off we go

We love road trips, so we've decided to take one.

First up on our trip agenda is to drive due south to visit a sweet friend and all her beautiful donkeys. Can you imagine the smile on my face and the anticipation in my heart right now?

After that? Well, the agenda is pretty blank. We haven't quite decided where we'll head yet. But we're big on exploring and this is part of the fun about road trips - it's ok to wait until the last minute before you decide which direction to go.

Happy October 18th!

Found this on the ground last night

You know what this means, right?

Poor pretty-boy Roopert only has one tail feather left:

Fortunately, he doesn't appear to feel that his studly-factor has been impacted in any way.

It must be tough being a chicken and beginning your molt just when the days get shorter and the weather turns drastically cooler.

Wordless Wednesday: Big boot, little frog

One year ago

One year ago yesterday, I took these pictures.

One year ago today, I still had three of my six foster donkeys:

...and my index fingers and thumbs would be almost black at times from rubbing the insides of donkey ears. They loved this.

This time, one year ago, I had fallen completely and totally in love.

Today, I really miss my donkeys.
Pistol:

Ian:

and Brownie:

If I had things to do over again, I'd do some of them very differently.

I'd still have donkeys.

First frost means...

I put on my long underwear before I go out in the morning:

There are tomato pots in my living room:


I have hope that the remaining fruit will still ripen. These are my two favorite heirloom tomato plants this year, the Riesentraube:

...and the Starpit Imperial:

There are tomato vines from the garden hanging in the barn with the hope that these will still ripen, too:

Bubba, the Costata Romanesca zucchini, has been covered with a towel to keep him from freezing:

Since the freezing temps aren't expected for more than a day or two, I'm hoping to extend his growing period. He's getting to be a very big novelty zucchini.

The goat boys are getting their winter coats:

First frost also means it's time to take the sun shade off the chicken run:

I can't be in denial any longer. Fall is here!

In my part of Oregon today

The sun is shining:

I had to wear my fingerless gloves this morning because it was so chilly:

Reggie was unimpressed:

But Pete thought they added a certain something:

In town, gas is $2.67 a gallon for unleaded:

Milk is on special:

Eggs are now being sold from a farm here in town:

The cover of this week's Readers Digest is a horse with very pretty hair:

The big event in my little town is coming up this Saturday night:

I finally returned my overdue library book:

Pears are ripe. Right this second:

And that's what's up today. All is well.

A weekend of friends and ...llamas!

Wow. What a weekend.

A girlfriend of mine, TK, flew up from California (to cheer on her brother who was running in the Portland Marathon) and was able to come out to the farm for a visit. I was so excited to see her, meet her boyfriend, Jeff, and see her brother, Brett, again. They were kind enough to bring some glorious Oregon fall sunshine with them as a gift. Sunshine, as you may know, always makes me very happy.

Since my son Aidan continues to become extremely tall, we always think it's great fun to measure our guests against my growing boy:

TK's pouty face is because the last time she hung out with Aidan, he only came up to her shoulder. Time flies...

Of course we had to visit with Pete and Reggie, the goats. And since I'm not one to pass up good help, I asked Brett to help me give the goat boys their de-worming medicine. Not knowing what he was getting into, of course he said yes:

Clearly, from the look on his face, he didn't hate it. Pete and Reggie actually made him laugh. A lot.

Here's TK, politely asking Pete to let her back into the goat house:

He said no.

Eventually, TK pulled out Pete and Reggie's leashes and then they knew it was time for their walk:

They get very excited when it's time to go for a walk:

Intrigued by the tales of Roopert the rooster chasing away all male "intruders" to his coop, Brett just had to test his luck by letting Roop out of the chicken run. Brave man:

But Roopert was on his best behavior on this day and decided attacking the guests wasn't the best plan. Still, you can bet, none of the guests took their eyes off him while he was strutting his pretty self around...

It was a fun afternoon - I've missed you, TK. ♥

"So what about the llamas?" You may be asking. Well. A llama breeder contacted me about some rescue llamas she has needing a winter home. On Sunday, Jim, Aidan and I drove out to this llama farm to acquaint ourselves a bit.

We were overwhelmed, to say the least. This person has over eighty (80!) llamas on her farm. These were among the first faces to greet us when we got there:

Not having been around llamas much, Aidan was uncertain how to respond to this greeting:

Llamas, by nature, can be more than a little stand-offish. Since Aidan wasn't pursuing or trying to touch them, this made them feel comfortable approaching him on their terms:

Here are the three, sweet rescue girls:

Aidan amazes me. He's pretty much a natural at everything he does:

How can this face not make you smile?:

I learned so many things about llamas on Sunday. One of them is that they are incredible *watchers*:

They also really enjoy posing on hills:

This is funny, isn't it? This little wool fluff is actually intentional, but I didn't get the whole story. Something about the judges requiring this in the ring or something:

This was a frequent occurrence. The face sniff, though very sweet, is initially quite unnerving:

Then it was time to go home. We ate gummi bears almost the whole way:

I think this was pretty close to the perfect weekend.