Summer Days

As has become something of a summertime routine, I awoke this morning before the sunrise, made coffee, and headed out the door. Some mornings I head down one road or another, doing a run or walk or combination of both. Some mornings, I gather two dogs and a cat and head out for the pasture to see the sunrise.

That was this morning's destination. I had a small thermos of coffee and a china cup, a Bouvier, a Bloodhound, and an awesome long-haired black cat as my company. We went out as the pink orb surfaced in the east-northeast sky. I sat on an upturned horse tank and enjoyed my brew. The dogs frolicked, and the cat explored in the cool of the day.

An hour later saw me feeding ponies and hand-feeding my little ducklings. Well - they are not so little anymore, and some of their voices have begun changing. No longer a unison chant of peep! peep!, now it's a harmony of peeps and baby-quacks.

I try my best, these summer days, to beat the heat. So next, I moved on to transplanting lavender and putting in lantana, watering a few garden areas, and as the sweat began to emerge, I headed in to the air conditioning. I am a wimp.

But a happy wimp, in the AC. Cool inside; 70% humidity outside.

I hated to go into town, but errands are errands, so I thought up a couple of fun things to do in between errands: check out sales at the greenhouses, stop by the library, grab a sandwich down by the university...my late morning could be fun!

At my first errand (grocery store!), my cell rang: Farrier: coming in 1.5 hours. Our farrier is more than capable of calling the horses up to the barn and helping himself into the tack room for halters and lead ropes. But our two dogs are not so welcoming of strangers that it would be a smooth morning for the farrier, and we do appreciate our good farrier! So instead of enjoying my sales at the greenhouses and the cool AC in the library, and a fun sandwich down by the university, I did my errands and headed back home to situate the situation.

Later, as he and I were chatting in the drive (farriers have all the news of all the area!), an acquaintance drove past. I waved, and she backed up (only in Wabaunsee can one back up on a highway), and called out, "Do you want some goat's milk?"

Well, of COURSE I wanted goat's milk. I want to make cheese. chèvre. How fun to have it ready to serve at our mini-potluck tomorrow?

The mini potluck means we, at the last minute (48 hrs' notice), invited several households out to our house for a gathering of food, and a mere few have rsvp's that they will be coming. Silly wheat harvest and families from Germany arriving and the ilk are interfering with our hospitality. That's ok; we have enough people for bocce and golf or whatever.

Just another summer day.