Not Broken, Just Bent.

Attended cow auction, up at the ass-end of nowhere in ME. Got there right on time, only to find out that the schedule that I'd seen on the intar-web was wrong, and that the beef calf sale was Saturday.
Bummer.
Watched the pure-bred auction for fun, talked to a very nice man about Belted Galloways, sounded uneducated, got reading materials, pet the goats, sat in the shiny new tractors, quacked at the ducks, and generally had fun. Citgo had come along for the ride, and I hope HorseChaser and I entertained him.

On the way back, we stopped off in the Wells/Ogunquit area - I'd been there a few years ago on a freak file delivery mission to Portland, but HorseChaser hadn't been up since the last time we'd gone as a family, 12 to 15 years ago... There was a lot of wandering around and "wow, that's changed" and "that's different" -ing going on. We'd gone up there every year for about a week as kids in the summer with my grandmother, and my aunt and her family. I'm not sure why, but it had stopped around when I was around 12 or so (I'd imagine it got expensive) - so HorseChaser's memories of the place are very early indeed.
Now we do not talk of the place, especially around my grandmother - that is a place where she specifically remembers my Aunt, and one mention of it throws her into hysterics for weeks. It's sad that she literally can't seperate the good memories from the bad, and that any mention of my aunt causes her pain.

It was bitterly windy and cold on the coast - I wouldn't have been surprised to see snow. We all bundled up and toddled along the beach for a while, Citgo tossing rocks into the waves, HorseChaser poking through the rocks for shells, me watching both of them and blessing my lucky stars that I was so lucky to have both in my life, and at this place, where now I have new, good, solid memories, not just the grey-tinted water-color memories of youth.

We got back to the car, puttered down to Ogunquit, raided the bath store and the candy store, (good GODS, the candy,) and poked our noses into what shops were open. Hit the bakery for some hot cocoa and carrot cake, and toodled home to sunshine at about 7pm.

Watched a few episode of Eureka! (the sci-fi show, it's really fun) and went to bed.
It's good to be back to work.


Next step: Short-term and Long-term business plans for the farm.
(Because everything is easier when you have a list.)

- K.