Rocky Start

Preface:  sat down this morning to compose my thoughts and write.  Frank, who was in, wanted to sit on my lap and stand on the keyboard.  Pearl, who was out, wanted in.  Put Frank down and got up to let Pearl in the laundry room door.  She changed her mind.  Sat down.  Bessie, who was out, wanted in through the living room door.  Got up to let her in.  Sat down.  Pearl, now that everyone else was in, changed her mind again and wanted in.  Opened the laundry room door for her.  Sat down.  And so the day begins.

Yesterday also had an inauspicious beginning.  Having hurried through last-minute house prep for the guys' early arrival, knowing they'd be here before I finished barn chores, I put on clean bibbies (no sense putting on makeup that would run in the heat) and called it good.  Sure enough, Dave and Jason drove in just as I had Tessie, last to be milked, up on the stand.  I lost my concentration and, with maybe twenty more squirts to go, Tess put her foot in the bucket and left me sitting in a pool of milk soaking into my britches.  Oh goody.  Can't leave milk in the udder, so I finished her up, then switched her out for Cindy (nonmilker) and set up the feed for the next day, wet pants flapping against my leg.  Clay rode up (another Harley guy) just as I got back to the house, still dripping.  What could I do but laugh?  Said hi to all, took a shower and put on more clean clothes.

I wish I could say what it was like to see three big biker dudes together in the little Silkie pen as they fixed the broken door to the Taj.  The pen is covered with (what else?) chicken wire, high enough for me but not for anyone over six feet tall (all three of them), so they were crouched over and banging heads on the support poles.  The Silkies were panicked and crammed into a corner of the Taj while screw guns whined.  That done, the guys reinstalled the storm door that wind had torn off the first shed.  I am well on the way to recovery from the broken-door epidemic that struck recently.

I had lunch laid out and ready when the workers got back to the house.  My kitchen shrinks when filled with men.  Eyes lit up when I handed out ice cream bars for dessert.  Even grown men turn into little kids when they've got a popsickle stick in their hand.

Dave and Jason had to leave.  Clay and I watched the finish of the race and then "Taking Chance," a must-see movie, before he rumbled back down the road.

After a rocky start, it was such a good day.