A Beautiful Sunday

It's been a little warm the last couple of days, making everybody a bit lazier than usual, including me. I have to go check on both the goat herds every day, though, so even if I am feeling lazy I have to do at least that. I moved the little trailer a couple of days ago, because the goats had run out of stuff to eat and kept jumping the fence or something, because I would show up to visit them and they would be wandering around loose. They're pretty well set now.

They actually have some blackberries to work on right now, instead of just grass and weeds, and they're pretty excited about it. There's a fallen tree under this wad of canes, and I meant to clip it down last year but never got around to it. I wanted to free it so the homeowner could haul the tree out and get rid of it.

The larger group of goats is running short on groceries, so I spent an hour clipping blackberry canes and pulling them down so they could reach the good stuff. They are parked in a farm graveyard right now, and the berries climb on all the dead farm equipment. It's like a rusty treasure hunt, because until the berries come off, it's impossible to tell what's even there. I have found some truly interesting artifacts under blackberries over the years!

The animals at home are feeling a little lazy too. This mother hen was letting her chicks have a nap until I walked out the door and the dogs got all worked up. Check out the little ghost chick on the right side.

My home goats had a quiet afternoon. They do a lot of napping in between bouts of eating everything they can reach. George takes more breaks than the rest of them because he's only got three legs and getting around is much harder for him, especially on hills.

Sweet Pea and Bambi were having an uncharacteristically chummy moment. They get along, but don't usually hang out like this. It was pretty cute.

Since the smaller brush herd was doing fine in the snacks department, I let them graze while I took pictures of bitter cucumber. This is a perennial vine that grows prolifically all over around here, but since it dies back to the ground in the fall, it doesn't seem to do much damage. It puts out these little tendrils that look like telephone cords (for those of you old enough to remember telephone cords).

I think they're really beautiful, and they look almost sentient, the way they grab onto things.

Every slinky I ever had as a kid ended up looking like this, and that was if I was lucky.

Something about the precision of the coils is what attracts me to these. Somehow they look more perfect than it seems like they should.

This last one is especially cool because there is a tiny spider web in the center. I didn't see a spider, but it must be a very small one!

I'll end this kind of rambling post with a photo of the sky as seen through the river. The clouds have really been putting on a show the last few days.

I guess I'll throw in a clematis, since they're going crazy right now and are so very beautiful.

Happy Sunday to all!