Happiness is . . . .

a dip in the creek on a hot day!

Happiness is . . .

Fresh carrot tops!

And it keeps getting better!

What could be more exciting to the One Old Goat farmer than tomatoes!!!!

Yes, we have tomatoes - I have visions of fried green tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, fresh tomato/basil sammies. I noticed the little green gems last night - 4 little green tomatoes on oneo of my plants. How happy it makes me that news like that is high excitement for the One Old Goat farm! My kids dropped everything and came running when I hollered that our first tomatoes had arrived. They still are very interested whenever something new shows up in the garden - still thrilled by the miracles of nature!

So we lit a campfire of celebration and roasted marshmallows for s'mores in celebration of last night's shortest night of the year!

And all the animals were not as impressed. Not in the least.

Dolly simply turned her back and walked away.

Snowball set off in search of his own celebratory food.

But I stand corrected. Lunchbox was extremely interested in our little celebration. And we sat and roasted marshmallows and ate s'mores and enjoyed the view of our world!

A great start to the week. . .

was spent in the car of all places! This morning I drove my youngest son to visit his great-grammy to help her work in the garden. My young son is very talkative and it was a pleasure spending this time with him this morning. Just listening to his excitement in spending the day away from his sisters and with his grammy made me feel good!

And the day ended just as good: with my daughters and son and fresh peas from our garden for dinner! Live is good!

Happy Summer Solstice from One Old Goat and her little farm (and her lovely family)

Welcome summer......

We are the stars who sing,we sing with our light;

We are the birds of fire, we fly over the sky.

Our light is a voice. . . .

from Passamaquoddy Song

Here's to diving off the high dive. Cool walks in the woods. Hanging out with family.

Playing your favorite sport until you are ready to jump in the creek.And then taking a rest so that you can do it all over again!

I'm going to miss them.....

I seem to focus on endings. And in doing so, I open myself to unnecessary pain. Pain that stabs my heart. That makes me want to run. That makes me want cry and hide and not develop ties ever again to another being.

My daughter and her son are moving. Only 150 or so miles away. Near my parents. But I've been in a funk lately and I'm pretty sure that the changes are why.

I've always been this way - not letting anyone get close. Everyone leaves. But all that I could think of as I pulled away from my daughter's apartment for the last time today was, I'm going to miss them and it hurts like hell.

After my grandson was born, my daughter never, ever dated or went out or anything. Our relationship was extremely close. When we did things over the weekend, it was with her and her son. I remember silly things like sitting on her back porch watching fireflies. Walking to Dunkin' Donuts in the morning. Hearing her stories about the mice that managed their way into her impeccably kept apartment. I will miss those times. Going trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. Going to the farmer's market. Geocaching in the cemeteries.
I never thought she would start dating someone. I never thought they would leave me.

I left my mom and now that I've experienced the joy of having an adult daughter and a grandson, I understand my mom's pain. But why must I focus on the pain? There are so many happy times. I'm happy right now in this moment for Pete's sake. The fan is blowing on me, I hear birds, my youngest daughter is sitting behind me looking for a good brownie recipe.

But perhaps experiencing the pain of life's changes is a way of seeing the good in a new perspective. I don't know. I'm turning off yesterday's mind now. I'm focusing on the good times ahead. For a bit. But mainly, I'm going to enjoy right now.

Nothing

Sometimes, someone says something to you--that means nothing to them but EVERYTHING to you. The other day a co-worker said one thing to me that was exactly what I needed to hear.

Thank you -

Redneck kinda farm......

I came home from work yesterday to this.

My husband and I travel on different planes. He is cheap and extravagant. I value simplicity but am not necessarily cheap. He is a great peruser of Craigslist and when he saw that someone was giving away—for free—a hot tub, he just couldn’t resist. So he hooked the trailer to the Trailblazer and off he went to Milesburg.

And he brought home the hot tub. It was a surprise! I asked him why in the world anyone would give away a hot tub and he explained that when the previous owners plugged in (turned on) the heat blower, it caught on fire. You’d think that after the past few weeks, he would run away from anything that had the possibility of burning.

In typical Ike-eze, he said that he didn’t care—if he couldn’t get the heater to work, he would just use the jets for the bubbles and the whirlpool action. After all, he said, we’re rednecks!

So now the hottub sits on top of the trailer in back of the house, amidst the weeds, behind the Bowflex that he found for free that also sits in our backyard.

But yep, we are rednecks.

Hmmmmm

Seems like a good enough title. I have a hard time with titles. These are my hollyhocks. For years, I tried planting hollyhocks. No success. Or so I thought. Little did I realize that the five fingered plant that I had chalked up as a weed and pulled up every year, was my hollyhock.

My fondest memory of these flowers is as a child. My dad loved what he called 'toilet flowers' - I'm not sure but I think my mom called them these because since they were so tall, they were often planted in front of outhouses. I know I've seen them in front of manure pits. And my dad would have experience with that growing up in the country and having outhouses and such. I don't think my mom liked them so much.

These days when my time with my dad grows small, I like to take special notice of the things that are special to him. Well, to my mom, too! I love that song by Jessica Andrews,

I am Rosemary's granddaughter,

a spitting-image of my father,

and when the day is done

my momma's still my biggest fan

It is amazing to me what sparks a memory. I written about it before - the light of the day, the scent of the woods, the way a dirt path winds its way through the woods, brings back in living color a previously lived moment.

And everytime I look at my toilet flowers, I will think of my dad.

A special kind of Olympics

I had the privilege of working with the Special Olympics Summer games at Penn State this past Friday. I've served as a committee member for the Special Olympics but never as a volunteer.

What an experience!

This was sport for the sake of sport! I helped with scorekeeping the basketball games. I never cared much for watching basketball but after Friday, I'm a fan. I honestly think that these games should be televised so that big name companies can pay millions of dollars for advertising - all going to the Special Olympics.

These athletes.......they cared about the game. Not about money. Not about fame. Just about the love of the sport. Athletes from all ages.....from a boy who looked not much older than my son to several women who looked to be around my age! All playing together, trying to win, but smiling and hugging each other when they lost. And shaking our hands and telling us thank you for volunteering.

But that is all wrong, athletes. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of this wonderful competition and demonstration of pure love.

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