Progress & A Trip... Hey Wait... Can I Use the Same Title Twice?

Hi there! How is everybody?

I'm still getting caught up here at home (& at work) from being gone for 4 days... lots to chat about, but first, progress on Mr. Abbott:

I got a few hours of stitching in each way on the drive... pretty slow going with all the bumps in the road, but I was just happy to not deal with nausea!! Yay!! I haven't stitched at all since we got home, but I should be able to finish getting caught up in the house over the weekend and get back to my regular routine.

Our trip was great! Traffic was pretty heavy getting out of town, but not nearly as bad as in years past. The detours around Detroit really threw me for a loop... I exited in the wrong spot at one point, and executed the fastest three point turn on the planet to get the heck out of where I ended up - believe me... the inner city of Detroit is NOT where you want to be at 1:30 in the morning. At least it got the adrenaline pumping and I had no worries about falling asleep for the rest of the trip!

Terri, you were so sweet to offer to let us take a quick side trip to your place on our way... somehow, I doubt we'd have gotten much visiting done in the middle of the night, though. :) But, I'll take a rain check!

Deb, to answer your question, my mom lives in a teeny tiny little town pretty much 1/2 way between Oxford and Romeo (as the crow flies). On a dirt road.

We had lots of fun at the farm (pics and anecdotes to follow - sorry folks, this is a long one), and went out Sunday afternoon for a trip to the Bordines (reeeaallly nice nursery) in Clarkston. Since Holly is just a couple exits away from there, I asked if we could make a stop in Holly, so we did! Terri and Deb's various "hauls" from Dawn's shop made this a must do item on the itinerary! I got to meet Dawn, who was such a sweetheart, and so kind to chat with my little Leah. It was really nice to meet a blogger "in real life". So, all you ladies that have never been there before, if you ever make it up to Holly, MI - Holly Hills Primitives is a definite must for your visit. Dawn has a lovely shop, and I really enjoyed walking through (amazingly enough, I didn't buy anything... a small miracle, really, one my dh is eternally grateful for) and chatting with Dawn.

Now, on to the farm happenings...

As I said, there are a lot of new babies right now. Here is a cutie p'tootie (I'm never really sure how that is actually supposed to be spelled... that's okay, though, since I don't think it's even a word!) little lamb. He is about a week old, and curious as the day is long:

And, here is mom's baby bull calf, Rocket (so named because he never walks anywhere, just dashes from one spot to the next) - check out those eyelashes!

Now, unlike the little lamb, Rocket is not eyeing me with welcome and curiosity. No no no. Right after I snapped this pic, his head lowered even further. He was standing between me and the rest of the herd (about 50 yds behind him, out of the shot) DARING me to get any closer to them. Very protective already. You could see the wheels turning every time I shifted to get another shot of him. He'd shift with me almost as if to say "Come on. Give me a reason. Just one. I'll knock you down so fast, you won't know what happened." And, considering that he's probably already about twice my size, he could probably have accomplished it, lol! Let me tell you - a bull's head in your chest (that's what they do, knock you (or other predators) down, and pin you with their rather large head) is not a position you want to be in. Even if it is a baby bull!

But wait! There's more! More cuteness, that is...

Here is a pic of Leah with "her" horse Raz. They have an absolutely amazing bond that started when she was a baby, and grows stronger with each visit. Leah can stand on the other side of the pasture from where Raz is, call his name, and danged if that boy doesn't come pretty much instantly to her. Over and over... and over... again. She doesn't even have to offer him treats. Meanwhile Ken & I try the same thing (even holding grass in our hands) and he'll look over, but with no intention of leaving whatever spot he's currently in. It's the cutest thing. Here they are enjoying their mutual admiration society:

Blogger just didn't want to cooperate with the posting order of the pics, so I guess I'll just go with it...

We were out in the hay field playing and Leah and Coli (the collie) were having a grand old time. Well, I wanted to get another pic of Leah and Coli running together (like the one below), so we told Leah to run about 50 yards away and I held on to Coli (he was stuck to Leah like GLUE all weekend - would barely let the poor kid out of his sight long enough to go potty, lol!). Then I made the mistake of telling Coli to "Go get Leah". Yeah. I learned my lesson. So, Coli's a herding dog with absolutely incredible herding instincts (watching him herd the sheep even as a 6 month old puppy last year was quite simply breathtaking). Well, when you tell a herding dog (this one, at least) to "Go get him", if they perceive that the animal (think along the lines of a lost sheep) you're trying to get them to "get" is in danger (and to Coli, Leah was in danger if she was more than 5 feet away from him), the dog will knock into the sheep to get it to a) immediately change course, or b) stun it into stopping. Back to the story. So we tell him to go get Leah. And he does. Sigh... He runs to her side and whips around and gives her a body check in the side, which, of course, knocks her down in the hay, then he stands there looking at my mom and I (who are standing there mouths hanging open frozen in shock) as if to say "I did a good job, didn't I??" He did look pretty abashed (and confused) when she started crying, though. Don't worry, she wasn't hurt, just stunned, and a little scared. In fact, after my mom told her why Coli did that Leah lavished the praise on him. He, of course, lapped it up, and they were best buds again. Here's the pic of my mom explaining what happened (this is still in the stage where Leah was a bit horrified by it all):

About 30 seconds after this shot was taken they were best buds again, running around like they had been when I took this shot:

Well, that's all for me tonight!

Thanks so much for all your comments, and I should be able to get caught up with reading your blogs (and commenting on said posts) in the next couple days.

Til then, happy stitching!!!

~Robin