I Left the Farm

I shared that I was actually taking a short vacation for the first time in something like ten years.  It was really a great break for me.  I left the beautiful rolling hills of Iowa and headed east.

The miles across Illinois flew past.

My first stop was in Indiana.  I have no idea who threw their shoe out the car window.  It wasn’t me.

I got to visit the beautiful campus of Ball State University at Muncie, Indiana.

My nephew Chris was kind enough to give me the walking tour of campus.  Too bad it was 102* F for the tour.

Still it was a beautiful campus, and I enjoyed seeing Chris.  The next morning, I continued east enjoying the changing scenery.

Finally I arrived in New York.

It was always beautiful outside my car window.

After 1050 miles, I finally reached my destination in the amazing Finger Lakes region of western New York.  I was attending Beaverfest!  Don’t ask because I don’t think I can explain how my trip was given this name, but it was fun.

Beavie the Beaver

I got to meet the very beautiful Isobelle Golightly and her lady.

I also got to meet The Goat Borrower, Mimi Foxmorton.

Isobelle and all of her friends seemed happy to meet us as well.

Truly this was a wonderful weekend enjoying the company of my goat sisters!

Isobelle’s Lady, Mimi Foxmorton, and Me

I’m sure I’ll have many more pictures from the trip posted on my photography blog through the next few weeks.  I actually might have enough barns for Barn Charm to last into next year.  You can also see more of Beaverfest on the Sisterhood of the Goat Facebook page (link in my sidebar).  Now that I’m back home, I’ll be making my way around the blogosphere to see what all I’ve been missing out on.

Linking to Wordless Wednesday with Project Alicia, Live and Love Out Loud, Create With Joy, Sarah Halstead, and Tina’s Wordless Wednesday.

Linking to You Capture where this week’s theme is summer!

Sunday Housekeeping and Giveaway

It seems that there are times we need to do those necessary items that just help a house run smoothly~the cleaning and putting away and straightening up.  Well, today is my blog version of that necessary housekeeping.

Marigold and her Goatmother

When I first started looking at blogs and thinking of starting my own, I went in search of goat blogs. It amazed me to find that there was actually a goat who blogged!  I believe the first goat blog I found was Marigold, the peanut loving philosopher goat.  I just love her fairy tales that have been reworked from a goat’s point of view.  Recently, Marigold shared that her Goatmother has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  It’s amazing how positively she and the entire family have entered into this unwanted challenge.

Marigold, Goat Philosopher

To show how much support she has, some of us goat-loving bloggers have created a button featuring Marigold and her vow to help the Goatmother “Butt the Hay Out of Cancer.”  Feel free to grab the code and help spread the word.

The Sisterhood of the Goat

As I’ve been blogging more and more, I’ve found some wonderful friends through blogging and Facebook.  I’m always excited to find another blogger on Facebook.  Sometimes when I post here, I almost forget that not everyone gets my up-to-the-minute updates on Facebook. One such wonderful blog/Facebook friend has become the herd queen to this goat-loving herd of bloggers~Mimi Foxmorton and her borrowed goat, Darla.  If you haven’t checked out her blog, The Goat Borrower, you really should.

Her story was recently featured by Purina in their newsletter, and she’s suddenly gotten requests from people wanting to join the Sisterhood.  Now you can!  The Sisterhood of the Goat can be found on Facebook as a public page to share pictures and stories and love and tears with other goat loving people.  There’s also a link in my sidebar for this page.

Giveaway for Shameless Self-Promotion

Finally, my very creative mother (she drew Marigold for the button) has started using my birds’ feathers to make earrings. I have chickens, ducks, geese, and peacocks.  She’s even been using some of my sister’s guinea and turkey feathers.

We have a few for sale in my on-line market, and she’s busy making more.  To celebrate a new item for sale from Eden Hills, she graciously said I could do a giveaway.  I chose the earrings with the peacock’s tail feather.  It will be like the ones pictured below.

Just leave a comment on this post and let me know you’d like to win, and you will be entered.  You can comment without an e-mail address, but you’ll have to give me some way to contact you.  The winner will be drawn next Sunday at 9:00 pm, and the winner will be announced the next day.

Well, now that my housekeeping is done, I think it’s time to sit back and enjoy life.

Linking to Magical Monday and Homestead Barn Hop.