Happy Saturday friends!

Sep 30, 2023

We've been having a week of cloudy, cool days here in North Carolina and it is just lovely after a long, hot summer. All the animals are happier, Rayn isn't sweating completely through her fur coat, and the Polar Bear is all about this:

The bugs aren't bad for some reason so I've taken to leaving the front door open when I can. She just lays there like a big polar bear rug, watching me, watching the farm. I love her ❤️

Last weekend we had a 3 inches of rain when a tropical storm blew through. Crazy that we can get that 2 hours inland. It was a steady rain all day on Saturday and other than farm chores, we stayed cozy inside for the day:

Rainy days is one of the things I missed about North Carolina. We didn't get a lot of those in the high desert of Colorado.

As always, the rain brought out some funny little mushrooms:

And a praying mantis took shelter in my coaching barn:

And I needed this reminder:

This might be a good place to meditate, out at the pond with these little pretty pink flowers:

As usual, Rayn looks like a pony next to huge Wynter:

Wynter is really coming into his own in coaching sessions lately. He's been embodying gentle, male energy and it's wonderful to see him offering that to clients who need it.

As opposed to these two (much too stinky to be in coaching sessions lol) who are in the beginning of the head banging wild rut and it shows in their crazy eyes. Well Poppy's eyes anyway. Baby Oliver is just getting his first taste of the crazy:

Poppy's beard is no longer tan and white but is looking and smelling like it's covered in his own pee—which it is. :-/ Baby Oliver is getting some height and putting on weight finally so there is still hope he'll be big enough for breeding in a couple of months. He's also growing an itty bitty man beard:

And this is Poppy when he was about 7 months old, as he was growing into the spectacular beard he has today:

He was wooing Alaska in this picture. I wondered if he'd be tall enough to accomplish the task at hand but he had no issues lol. And after the deed was done and before he could get all 4 feet on the ground again, he literally fell over backwards with a stunned look on his face! I'm never going to get that image out of my head 😂😂😂 That pairing produced Flame and Ring, two really sweet babies. Alaska went on to have Dancer (whose dad was Heart) last year, proving that she just has really nice kids, no matter who she's paired with :-))

The donkeys are doing better together this week, still not friends, and still having tiny, ear-pinning tiffs with each other but not trying to kill each other either, so yay. Sweetness on the left, Boy George on the right:

I keep hoping they will become friends like Sweetness and Light were:

•••

Went to the State Farmer's Market with my aunt last weekend and just took in the abundance. Look at all these beautiful hot peppers!:

Thought I would introduce you to one of my favorite artist/author/teachers. Her name is Leonie Dawson and she lives in Australia which is probably good because if she lived in the States, I'd probably stalk her and make her be friends with me lol:

And then there's Bunmi Laditan who makes me laugh about being a mom. And even more so about this baking one because I've been experimenting with "good for you cookies" with a spectacular lack of success: