Naughty Sugar

 

          Before he passed away, our neighbor purchased two small goats as he was unable to mow his yard.  The goats are named Cocoa and Sugar.  Cocoa is the smallest of the two and happily chows down and makes no attempt to leave the yard.  Sugar on the other hand . . . she is a naughty goat who has shown more interest in escaping the yard than eating any of it.  Why chew on grass when there might be plastic on the other side of the fence.

          Our neighbor has left the gate open so that the goats can start mowing our lawn – though I don’t imagine we would want our yard to look as desolate of hers.  But there is plenty of grass to go around.  However, I think we have spent just as much time searching for and corralling Sugar back into our yard.  I have actually lost sleep over it.  That isn’t right.

          Our neighbor looks drained.  I thought death could claim her before it took her husband as she’s not in the best of shape either.  Though she did seem somewhat better.  At least yesterday.  She looked haggard this morning.

          Sugar’s eyes are not the same color as my son’s dog – but there is something about her eyes that remind me of his.  They both have these wide round eyes that seem to present themselves as innocent when I know darn well that they’re not.

          She is back in our yard.  As Cocoa continues on the lush green grass, Sugar has decided to attack our blueberry bushes.  She seems to desire human company.  Cocoa could care less.

 

         

I Like My Clothes Baked, Not Tossed or Smoked

                When we first moved to our house in Tri City, Roland set up a clothesline between two trees.  Initially, he tried the pulley thing so that I could hang the clothes from one position.  It didn't work to our expectations and I spent that first summer walking up and down the line hanging and removing laundry.

          I like having the sun dry the clothes and I especially like how it can brighten the whites.  A light breeze will make it dry faster, but a strong wind will make the fabric stiff.  The towels feel like sandpaper either way, so generally, I just toss those in the dryer and add will add clothes that have been on the line but don't seem wearable.  Also, I don't enjoy ironing and would rather have the dryer remove the wrinkles for me.

          Roland did put in a new line so I don't even have to leave the porch.  Might appear tacky, but it really is nice to hang clothes that way.  And the lines are quite long and I have not filled them both.  That's quite wonderful also.

          I believed the temperature was starting to cool off as we were told high today would be 78 and low at 54.  But then it started going over 80 again, almost 90.  What???  Don't like that.  Especially when it appears to be overcast and doesn't rain at all.  Yesterday I realized that it wasn't even clouds that gave the gray appearance to the sky, but rather smoke from surrounding fires - though not as bad as California - or the fires that existed last year.  Not powerful enough to my nose that I can smell it. Still - enough smoke to give me a headache. 

          I don't guess I'll be hanging my clothes up for a while.  I mean, what's the point of washing them if I'm just going to dry them in the smoky air.  Gosh, darn fires.  I'm so grateful to all the firefighters.  May God bless and protect each one of them and their families.