Monday, April 19, 2010

My friend from Illinois drove to my house this weekend


I have a friend named Marcee. She writes a blog called Fancyin' the Farm Life. Two years ago, we became friends through our blogs and, after a whirlwind courtship, we became friends who fly back and forth to see each other. Well, mostly she flies back and forth. I flew to her once. In my defense, though, I live on property and have a lot of animals - it's just not that easy to leave for extended periods of time. Anyway, anyway...I'm getting off track.

So, when I say "my friend from Illinois drove to my house this weekend", this is a really monumental thing. At the beginning of this month, she and her family left Illinois and moved to Washington state. Where we were once over two thousand miles apart, we are now a little more than two hundred miles apart. This is the kind of move that suddenly makes travelling to each other's houses in cars rather than airplanes completely possible. And this is what happened this weekend.

Roxy, my farm pup, was the first to greet her as she got out of her car. It was, shall we say, an extremely warm greeting:

And don't think for a moment that all of us on Critter Farm didn't go out of our way to show Marcee a really good time.

Kai was kind enough to eat treats out of Marcee's hand:

Pete and Reggie, my goat boys, wasted no time in muddying up Marcee's pants:

Pete thought Marcee smelled a little bit like carrots, his favorite treat, and stuck particularly close:

The weather even smiled while she was here, allowing the two of us to sit in the sun and brush the shedding winter hair out of the goats' coats:

We pondered briefly whether we could use this to knit a sweater or stuff a pillow:

We went to my nephew's birthday party and enjoyed "The Reptile Man":

This was a really big snake:

We shared our rhubarb wine made with rhubarb from our garden:

Don't let her face fool you - she LOVED it:

We went to our local track and watched really noisy cars drive in circles:

It was funny, but she didn't seem to mind standing in the pasture with the llamas one bit. Here she is letting Dolly llama eat the special hay seed from the bottom of the bucket:

The chickens were so thrilled to see her, they raced out of their run:

Or maybe they were just thrilled to get out into the pasture:

It was the perfect weekend to take everything out of the chicken coop and give it a good scrubbing:

The coop needed a thorough spring cleaning:

As Marcee rolled load after load of chicken shavings down the hill, she received extensive moral support from the Critter Farm crew:

She's a natural at this farm stuff, don't you think?

The weekend went by really fast and, suddenly, it was time for her to head back home. At this point, Roxy totally thought she was going home with her:

Now I get to refer to my friend from Illinois as my friend from Washington. And we can drive to each other's houses.

31 comments:

  1. I just love this post! I'm so happy for both of you.

    Beau want to know why Marc won't push him on tire swing. (pics 18 and 19).

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  2. Well, that's nice. It's so nice to make new friends, especially if you have things in common.

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  3. How can she not want to set up a farm when she is overwhelmed by such a wonderful crew.

    Of course if one is headed for WA it must be nice to know someone, and it is really nice that the blogasphere put you two together.

    Did Pete melt her heart?

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  4. I think Marcee was just winking at you in her appreciation of a good brew!

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  5. Great story! Great post! Great photos! And I totally spied that Trader Joe's grocery bag Marcee's carrying to her car in the last photo.

    So happy for you two BFF's. Now you can share farm life more often. Thanks for letting us be a part of the adventure.

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  6. Wow ...only two hours away. I can see this will be a common way to spend a whole lot more time together. How cool is that! And it's especially fun that Marcee loves your farm life too.

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  7. It was the best feeling ever to get to pull into your driveway in my very own car. And to look out the window and see it sitting there. Cuz of course that meant that I had driven there. Which of course meant that I had to be close enough to do that. Which, amazingly, I AM! It still seems kinda surreal to me.

    It was a great weekend. We could not have asked for better weather...so much sunshine. This allowed us so much time to be outside...which both of us love to do. I mean, cmon...brushing goats, petting donkeys, handing out carrot coins to the llama ladies....all with my BFF....couldnt have asked for a better weekend. :-)

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  8. I'm going to have to try some of that rhubarb wine!

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  9. what a nice visit! and a helping hand to boot! all of the animals seem to really be happy to see visitors!

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  10. Lucky you guys!!! What fun you'll have. That Marcee sure is a helpful pal too. Good times ahead for sure.

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  11. YAY for friends from Washington! I'm so happy for you both. Love your pics Danni. Looks like a wonderful weekend shared between friends.

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  12. So happy for you and your friend! She does look like a farm natural-and a good thing, since she will now be able to visit you and your crew more often.

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  13. That is so exciting for both of you!

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  14. Sounds like a terrific weekend! Doing farm chores is always more fun with a friend, right? And that Marcee sure does look like she will make an excellent farm girl.

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  15. Washington? Well, I'll be. Now you two will have to do a road trip to come and meet goatgirl and ME! :)

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  16. Oh, and by the way ... that 'hair' is cashmere. Of course you can knit it - if you can figure out how to spin. Of course I do hear that it works better if mixed with wool.

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  17. Now that was a perfect weekend! :)

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  18. I think its funny that you put her to work!

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  19. So exciting! Sounds like a perfect story made in blog heaven. On a side note your little seeds are finally starting to sprout in Cincinnati. I decided to start my own blog and I'll be sure to post pictures about it soon. Thanks again!

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  20. It looks like you had a wonderful weekend! That's great that you can now drive to each other's houses. If only Maryland or Virginia or Oregon were within reasonable driving distance of New Mexico...

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  21. What a fun weekend and you even got some needed farm work done!

    Inger

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  22. It looks like you & Marcee had a great weekend, knocking out the chores, brushing & weighing the goat's hair, passing out carrot coins. And now that she's so close this all can happen more often!

    My hister is moving to 3 hours away from me this summer - I am really looking forward to visiting her!

    ~Lynn

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  23. It looks like it was a wonderful time. What a great story and photos. The animals in your life are true characters!!
    -Staci

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  24. Good for you guys...as expensive as gas is it is still much cheaper than flying! Its nice to have friends close by...now when are you two coming up to visit Gizmo? Kim

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  25. the world...will...never...be...the...same

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  26. Sounds like a great weekend was had by all. Isn't that what it's all about, good times, good friends and loving animals.

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  27. Did you check her bag to make sure she wasn't taking a llama or goat home?
    That pile of hair on the scale cracked me up!

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  28. Sorry, that last one was me. Darn computers!

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  29. I do not think you are very far from me if that's the race track I'm thinking of... (In a town with a bunch of outlet stores along the freeway?)

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  30. Hi oregonsunshine - Nope, not that track. Where you are south of the big city, we are west of it.

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