Goats in the Garden! (or, One Year Down, Infinity to Go)

Good morning! So far, so good. Other than a couple of canine girls thinking they want to go out (which is funny since they already did once—just not for their walk), all is well. I’ve decided though, that taking Scooter and Trista for a walk as soon as I get back from taking Joanna to Gardner is getting a bit ridiculous as it isn’t even light enough to really see where we’re going. Milking is somewhat similar. So, if I wait until 6:15 for the walk with milking right after that, we’ll be good. At least for a while.

Yesterday was a pretty good day in these parts. I made a list of things to be done and they almost all were accomplished. The boys helped move stakes and cables out to the garden so the goats can eat down some of the vegetation in it. Before that, I got all the melons and squash out. There were three lemon cucumbers and one tomato and some baby zucchini and four eggplants as well. Only one cantaloupe; it looks like something got to them before I did. Quite a few watermelon. One I missed the first time through but caught when I went to check on the goats. It was growing stem up and did not want to be dislodged from the rocks amongst which it was growing. Needless to say, the ‘bottom’ half is rather misshapen. There were only five pumpkins which is actually quite good considering we didn’t actually plant any. There is still one out there but it was so green that I left it. If it turns, that’s great; if not, no great loss. There is also a long squash that looks like a pumpkin color wise but is shaped like a gigantic zucchini. There were only two butternut squash which is kind of disappointing and the buttercups didn’t make it at all—something got the plants long ago. There were lots of delicata though, so that is nice.

Snowflake was enjoying the cabbage and cauliflower plants.

Meanwhile, Princess was making short work of pepper plants.

Goldilocks wasn't actually staked in the garden but could get in.

I went to Gardner yesterday to see if I could find a card for Paul and maybe something to give him that would be acceptable for an anniversary gift. I went to Ocean State Job Lot first because their cards are a good price and I did find some cute cards for Imani for his birthday and Halloween. I found a couple of cute ones for Paul as well but they weren’t really anniversary cards. I don’t like the disgusting ones and I don’t like the really mushy ones and it’s hard to find anything else. If you are familiar with Toblerone, it is a Swiss chocolate candy. OSJL sometimes has it and Paul likes it so I thought if they did, I would get some (do you know how hard it is to get something for someone who has everything you can imagine that isn’t out of your very meager budget?). Well, they didn’t. So I left, wondering where I would find anything because Walmart has cards but does not have anything unique in the candy department. Then I thought, “Pricilla’s!” They make candy. They have some really cool stuff. I should have taken my mom and Grandma there while they were here. I browsed and finally decided upon an 8 ounce box of milk chocolates. Then I decided to get some penuche and see how it compares to what Paul likes (it’s his favorite kind of fudge). I decided to get some chocolate fudge with walnuts as well. Then I headed for Walmart because Laura needed a couple of things. I also found cards for her and Joanna (I hadn’t gotten Joanna a card yet—shame on me!) I can’t tell you about Laura’s because she might read this.

It was a good day for Scooter to be cute outside.

And for Trista to get her belly rubbed.

When I got home from shopping, Seth and I got the front tire of his bike filled and Cedric and Seth rode while Trista and I walked to the end of Pitcherville Road. It’s a nice walk. I didn’t want to take Scooter because last time she was getting obviously tired not long after we hit the half-way mark to the end of the road. She is getting old, after all. Something like fifteen. So we only took Trista. She loves going for a walk with a leash. She got tired but not until we were on our way home. I think that in the future, if one or both of the dogs go, we should plan on a shorter ride/walk. If the boys want to go to the end of the road, we should leave the canines home.

The Dusty Miller still looks good.

So do these, I just don't remember what they're called.

When we got back from our ride/walk I divided up the penuche. Paul and Joanna got a whole piece, Laura and I shared one, Amena, Cedric, Seth and Joseph each got a quarter of a piece. Then I divided up the fudge the same way. Paul got home not long after I did so I’m glad I’d taken the cards and candy upstairs. I know he was hoping to get off early but wasn’t expecting to. The day, for him at work, was pretty wasted. He said Blair wanted to have a meeting with him and the two guys out back and it was basically a huge waste of three hours. Especially since a potential client called that Paul has been trying to get on the phone for, literally, months and Blair answered, said they were in a meeting, and Paul would call them back. Yeah, right. Paul thinks he enlightened the other three enough that it might make a difference but the person who called didn’t answer the phone when he called back. The only reason Blair wanted Paul to go to work yesterday was to bring in money. Well, he did. A whopping $550. Considering that a normal  month is eight to ten thousand, $550 is almost nothing.

Anyway, he got to leave early and showed up as I was dividing fudge and asked where I would like to go to eat. Was I in the mood for Mexican? Chinese? Middle Eastern? It isn’t often that I really crave any one particular food so it generally just really doesn’t matter as long as the food is good. Really, the best part from my point of view, is spending time alone, the food is really almost secondary. He did say we might run into some places not being open due to it being Monday and a holiday. So I opened up my laptop and let him take a look while I changed. He came up and asked if he should change but I thought he looked fine so we took off. We went to a place in Spencer called Mexicali Grill and the food was excellent. The service was good. The atmosphere was nice. The prices were very good. It is now on our list of places to go.

Paul had given me a card when he got home. It was one of the cute ones. When we got in the car to go home, he produced another from the visor. It was one of the more mushy ones. When we got home, I gave him one of the cards I got with the box of candy. I left the other card on his pillow.

On the agenda for today is school work. Phlebotomy tonight. Making hot chocolate soon and eating fudge. Maybe folding clothes. Taking a shower. Just the usual stuff, nothing out of the ordinary. However, I hope you have an extraordinarily wonderful day!