Another school interruption.

We were peacefully doing school - biology.

Sailing along quite nicely.

It was a gorgeous day.  The schoolroom sliding door was open.

Then a bird flew into the schoolroom, and biology came to a halt.

The bird flew into the game room, onto a shelf.  Then into Tim's office, behind the copy machine.

After ten minutes of careful chasing, Conni showed up with this.

A darling little wren.  Conni stuck her outside on the deck rail.  She perched there for a while, got her breath and her wits back, then flew away.

Mission accomplished.

Bird saved.

An unplanned 15 minute break.

Back to school.

I'll admit the thought did actually cross my mind to keep the little booger.  We could use her for an upcoming biology lab project....

New chores, new fun.

Conni finally got something she's been wanting for a long time...goats.

Two of them.

They are dairy goats - French Alpines.  Mother and daughter, Sibyl and Saxony.

We fenced them into our overgrown garden, hoping they would do some serious damage to all the weeds.

It's pretty amazing what they won't eat.  They really aren't grass eaters - they like to forage in the woods more.
We took a lovely little trip up to Madison county to get some hay.  We fit 21 bales on the truck - should last a couple of months.

My farm girl animal lover.

 Putting in some hard work.

A few days later, during school, we saw a goat and a dog go flying past the schoolroom window.

Of course, school came to a screeching halt.

We ran outside to see what was going on.  The goats had knocked down our temporary gate in the garden and gotten out.  Obviously, Bear had to give chase.  Fifteen minutes later, goats were in their pen, we had our dewy, goat poop crocs in the laundry sink, and we were back to school.

Ah, the joys (pains) of owning animals.  I'm glad we can do it though.  Glad this girl can do what she loves.

Here's hoping we can keep the school interruptions to a minimum!

In memory of Rue.

Remember this little fellow?  This is Rue.

He was Conni's rescue pet found the day before we left on our trip back in April.

He was such a cute little guy.  Loved to scamper around on us and the RV.

Rue had to be fed from a teeny weeny bottle.  He would hold onto it with both "hands" and slurp it down.  He really was a cute little fellow.

And then, one day, he took a tumble from the kitchen counter down to the floor.  Spread eagle.  Splat.

Two days later, he was dead.

Since then, he has been in our freezer.

For almost 2 months, and 7,000 miles.

Today, Conni found the perfect place to put Rue to rest.

First of all, she built a raft.  Then she tested it and found it seaworthy.

Next, a little run back to the RV to retrieve Rue out of the freezer.

She placed Rue in the raft and added a flag.

Making sure the "Good-bye Rue" flag is up.

There he is... a little fur ball on the raft.

And he's off.  Happy sailing, Rue!

 Kind of like being buried at sea.  One day, barring complications, floods, waterfalls, fishermen, and predators, he'll end up in the Gulf of Mexico!

Abe giving a respectful send-off salute.

A near collision!  This dog was out playing fetch with a frisbee.  Rue and his raft almost bumped into him.  You can see the raft between the rock and the dog.

We're all glad Rue has been properly disposed of.  What a way to go, too.  Floating peacefully down a gorgeous river in WY!

Paper sacks and turtles.

The other day I was working in the kitchen, and since it was so gorgeous outside, I had the kitchen door wide open. As I worked, I kept hearing a papery, rattly sound. I finally went in search of it and found this sack sitting right outside the door. It hadn't been there 20 minutes earlier and since I don't shop at Giant, I just figured someone had come by the house and dropped something off for me.

I peaked inside and found (not to my surprise) a turtle. I immediately thought of Conni. She had just gotten home from babysitting and must've brought this.
It rattled around in there for an hour or so, then when I peaked out again, the bag looked like this:

...and there was no turtle.
It had gotten out all by itself. I found it on the deck under my fern.

I thought Conni had let it go, but no... the next morning, I found the thing crawling around the schoolroom! She assures me it's not a distraction from school. So, as we do school, Brer Terrapin plods around the schoolroom, making little scratchy noises.
And so goes a day in our house.