Just Layin' Around

The sunshine brought out the best in all of us yesterday.  For a change, there were no fights in the goat pen.  As each girl finished her stint on the stand, she went out to find her place in the sun, lay down, and peacefully started chewing cud.  Barn chores done, Bessie Anne and I sat at the end of the deck for a couple of chapters, soaking up the rays.  Even in the house later, Frank and Pearl went straight for the sunny front bedroom and Bess stretched out in a bright patch on the floor.  We all took a nap, and then went out to do some yard work.  There is an added bonus to trimming the lavender bed; your hands get scented with that wonderful, clean-smelling perfume.  The guys had thrown loads of firewood down in a higgledy-piggledy pile that I condensed and straightened under the oak.  This stuff, while not huge rounds, had not been split into wood stove size yet.  Tree Guy is still waiting for a replacement part for the splitter, and I don't like to leave spread-out spaces for snakes to hide when they start coming out.  The few lizards I uncovered were almost comatose with the cold, and I tucked them into new safe hidey-holes.  The ground was still too wet for the chickens to take dust baths, but they lay out in rows like they were getting a tan at the beach.  I had to laugh at sundown.  One of the girls wouldn't leave the sunshine even to go lay an egg, and there it was out in the pen.  Much as I appreciated the rain, I sure enjoyed the sun.