Thank you Presidents!

The Man gave us a day off for President's day!!!! I'm thrilled beyond words with it, so this post will be mostly pictures. I had a wonderful dream last night where I sat on the bluffs over the ocean with good friends, drinking some good beer and having a steak and salmon bbq. We all watched and laughed as a huge group of sea lions splashed around in the waves below, snatching fish that were jumping from the waves. I woke up to sunny skies and fresh air - it felt like spring! So I went outside to say hello to our critters I've hardly seen since November. Here they are:

This is Steven, our

French Alpine goat. We've had him

since he was just a few months old.

Behind him you can see Mindy. She's shy, but

she's the brains behind our goat operation. Before she came along, Steven had no idea he could climb up on top of his house. She's a tiny pigmy, and on day one she just leapt up there.

We call her Mindy the Flying Goat

Here she is:

Mindy The Flying Goat lives for Ritz crackers. This morning we didn't have any. I offered whole wheat Saltines. This is the look she gave me. Steven ate the crackers.

Rowdy let the chickens free range yesterday and this morning. Where we live out here in the desert, that doesn't mean much in the way of

nutrition. It's a pretty barren landscape

But it means covering some new ground I guess. Anyway, the chickens always make me feel quite popular, following me around like I'm the messiah, bringer of all kitchen scraps. I try not to disappoint. Boy, do these ladies know how to dress.

Look at that spectacular

plumage!

And then there's Fat Baxter. I threw out a beet for the chickens

and Baxter dragged it off. If he eats it, I'll post

a picture of his red face later. He tries to be tough and scare

the chickens, but it doesn't really work:

Poor Fat Baxter. He's a softie and about 13# over weight. There's no hope.

Now we are going for a family walk in the desert. Rowdy is laughing at Willie because it's taken him so long to get dressed this morning that he's had to go potty three times since he started. Willie is hollering that he doesn't like people

laughing at him. Which made me laugh at him.

Boonie is watching the world around him happily, saying

"ah" "aah".

This is the face that greeted me when I woke up this morning:

Now you just really can't go wrong waking up to a face like that, can you?