A week ago Sunday I asked Peter if he wanted to go to the ReStore with me. You just gotta love that place. It's like GoodWill for construction materials. The best of both worlds. After a few minutes of thinking things through, I changed my mind and said, "Never mind - I'll just find doors or stuff I'd like for the studio, but we don't have time to use and then we'll just have to store them and I'll just torture myself and it's not worth it." I did not mean it snarkily - but really, what was the point of going? Peter drug us there anyway and just like I thought, we found the perfect doors for my studio. Despite my dread of just getting things we have to store and not use, we got them anyway and with a little help from my freighbor Shelly we even got them home. By Monday night we had one set of doors mostly installed:
Peter had to say something about my pessimism and didn't he prove me wrong! Yes, he did. But also, maybe I just learned that a little bit of pessimism get's things done around here. Hmm... I better be careful not to let him in on my new knowledge AND I better be careful not to abuse such power.
I've spent my days off this week cleaning and organizing the stuff in the studio. Removing lumber and pipes and shade cloth. Not to mention possum poo, rats nests, birds nests and other heebie jeebie kinds of things. Ewww. We're almost ready for insulation. I'm very excited! If I squint real hard I can see the light at the end of this fiber studio tunnel!
Friday we went to the new feed store down the road. It's not as close as the local one but this one has an assortment of friendly barnyard animals, as well as a very friendly blue and gold macaw and a whole room of chicks called ChickenLand (the room not the chicks). You know how I like chicks!
When we got there, our first stop was the barnyard. They had chickens, turkeys, pheasants, ducks, quail, some goats, a miniature donkey and two alpaca. The donkey was being very nasty to the two alpaca and the alpaca were fighting back with some pretty sloppy spitting. I've never seen such a hullabaloo.
After we admired all the chicks and made some decisions about the breeds we'll get when we are ready, we happened to bump into the owner of the place. A very nice man named Matt, who also happens to be an old friend. We were talking about the donkey and the alpaca relationship issues and Matt asked if we wanted the two alpaca. Umm... YEAH!! The donkey was a family pet and these are recent additions to their barnyard. They had purchased them at the local farm auction for $5.00 a piece and were willing to just give them to us because he knew they'd would be well taken care of at our house.
Free alpaca? That's even better than the ReStore! They were named Darcy and Darla. Not names I love and since these were new names, the girls didn't really answer to them anyway - not saying that alpaca ever really respond to their names. The one with the white patches on her face is now named Cheeks or Chica and the other one (the one with the impossibly long eyelashes) hasn't told us what her name is yet. I think she'll let us know soon. Please feel free to make suggestions - naming things has always been hard for me.
Cadbury and Chupa seem to be mostly fine with their new herd members. There is a little posturing, some serious smelling and all that "hey! you're new!" stuff. Alpaca are herd animals - they prefer living life in a group. I'm certain that our little herd of 4 will be a peaceful and harmonious place in no time at all.
Twiggy had really long eyelashes ;-)
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