Which state is it? and Goldie's nine lives

Still doing lots of spinning!  Thankfully, we have gotten some steady rain lately.  It rained all day yesterday, for the first time in a long time.  Puddles actually formed on the ground!  That is such a relief with winter coming up...trees and shrubs need the moisture to survive the cold to come.  Listening to the rain fall while spinning is a true joy!

'Black' Shetland yarn, ready for plying

So which state, according to the American Sheep Industry Association, has the most sheep?  Vermont?  Colorado?  That was my guess.  There are a lot of sheep in Colorado.  Nope.  It's Texas!  California comes in at second, with Colorado in third.  Where is Wisconsin on the list?  Don't know!  Way down at the bottom somewhere I suppose.

Goldie the Farm Clown

Doesn't he look like a kitten attentively attending sheepy school here?  He's actually eight years old now and I believe on his...fourth life.  Let's see...he had urinary calculi and needed surgery for that, which we tearfully funded.  So glad we did!  We love this cat and he is such a gentle soul, and an outstanding mouser.  Then, he was shot by a passerby (which we didn't figure out until later).  After disappearing for nearly two days, he was found sitting in the doorway of the barn with a nasty wound where the bullet or something went in above his eye, and out below his jaw.  Very, very happy day to find him sitting there, alive!  After healing from that, quite some time passed before his next life came up when our neighbor called us.  She had been looking at the view out their lovely windows one afternoon only to see some commotion going on in the field just out her window...straight across from our house.  Seems Goldie had been over there hunting, only to be spotted by an eagle.  The bird of prey swooped down and tried to fly off with him, dropping him before getting too high in the air!!!!!!  When he landed on the ground, he took off running and got away.  Boy, did he ever get a ton of hugs that day!!!!!

I'm so thankful cats have nine lives!  He is so useful around here and so loved, responsible for some of our most treasured farm memories and hilarious crackups.  Tonight, he's safely inside, dozing in the warmth, full with the love his family gives him everyday.  Tomorrow, he'll be back outside, swinging by his paws from the Cupcake Tree next to the coop, acting like a statue in the garden while I clean up vegetables, running and stopping along with me on my walks on the land, and riding on the stall door each and every time I open it.  Oh Goldie, we love you!  

(Goldie is the kitty from Gram's garden.)