quiet fall day

Today was our first quiet day this week, and it was wonderful to just have a low-key, stay-at-home kind of day. None of us did very much all day... I was going to make bread, but got lazy and bought some when we were at the store instead. M watched TV, drew, and set up a “game table” for us to play games at when Dad gets home. R played outside and worked on training Betty the goat. (R has decided since we don't have a horse and I won't let her take jumping lessons, that she's going to teach Betty to jump over the horse jumps she makes out of scrap lumber and anything else she can find!) Betty loves to jump and does it for fun all the time, but she's been a little slow at understanding that R expects her to jump on command. (LOL, I'm guessing that why you don't see too many goat jumping events at livestock shows!)

 This afternoon we headed outside to collect pine cones for a friend who lives in Florida. There is a group of big pine trees on the hill at the edge of the goat pasture, so we decided to start our search by looking up there (there are other pine trees on our land, but not as big). I love these old trees... they are home to at least one or two red tail hawks, who we often see lazily circling in the air over the goat pasture. (The hawks are so cool... they are absolutely silent as they glide above the pasture. Sometimes the only way I know they are there is seeing the shadow of their huge wings moving across the pasture.) These trees also make the most wonderful sound when the wind blows through them...they almost seem to talk.

 Here are M and R heading up the hill...

 

We found TONS of pine cones! There were so many it was hard to walk without stepping on them.

Here is M hard at work filling his bag...

I'm not exactly sure was going on in this picture. It looks like we were close to having a pine cone war, but luckily they were distracted by the camera and peace was restored.

Once our bags were full we headed to the front porch to sort the pine cones and get rid of the ones that were too badly nibbled by the deer.



 Here's what we ended up with! They are packed in a box and will be heading to Florida next week.



Kimberly, make sure to post some pictures of your holiday pine cones crafts! It will be fun to see what you decided to do with your authentic, gen-u-ine Colorado pine cones!