Spring Ahead

It's not just the clocks that jump ahead in spring.  The To-Do List takes a giant leap forward, too, and weeding and watering are at the top.  After idling away most of the day, my conscience became an itch that had to be scratched so Bess and the cats and I went out and finished weeding the last half of the herb garden in the afternoon.  Unless I'm on the tractor ("Run away!"), any work outside is a community affair.  We all go out to the garden, where the peas, cilantro, and eggplant have now popped up.  We all go feed the chickens.  We all troop down to the goat pen in the evening.  We might be a rag-tag bunch, but I love my little furry family.

Goats, like cattle, generally travel single file from one place to another and wear a narrow trail through the grass.  I couldn't get the camera out fast enough to catch this little guy running on the path just ahead of Inga as she came down the hill to the barn for milking.  It was like traffic on the freeway, and if Inga had a horn (she's hornless), she'd have honked.  Once she was up on the stand, this little Nosy Parker sat outside.  "Wotcha doo-ing?"  "Why're ya doo-ing that?"  "Ain't ya done yet?"  He sat just outside the barn, pestering me with questions like a three-year-old kid, totally unafraid while I switched out goats on the stand and walked within a couple of feet while I prepared the nighttime feed bowls.  Another member of the furry family.

As if I didn't have enough of my own ground squirrels to contend with, one of Joel and Judy's stood on their side of the fence like a kid outside the playground.  "Hey, guys!  I want to play...can I come over?  Huh...can I, please?"  Now really!