You know that moment when you realize people think you are weird? Before that moment you think everyone is like you. You think everyone likes to lay in fields to let bugs crawl on them and watch old black and white movies with their moms and hand sew Barbie clothes out of quilt squares.
Home Sweet Home
We moved into this house when I was five. Isn’t it cute? But, I was the girl who lived in the log cabin who didn’t go to church. I come back and I’m still that girl. I still don’t like leaving the compound while I’m here, despite being a grown woman.
Home Sweet... kinda
But why would I want to leave? This is my tent.
Oliver
Batley
These are my puppies.
They Couldn't Fly If They Wanted To
The ducks, making a run for it around the barn.
Pete The Llama
Is a Happy Llama
This is Pete the Llama! I kept telling him to get the hay out of his teeth for the picture but he said he liked it and was going to eat it later. What can I say? He lives in a barn.
Marshall the Goat
Marshall the Goat wears a dog collar attached to a long rope tied to the clothes line because he is a very bad goat that likes to escape and eat the neighbor’s garden. This is quite a feat since the neighbor’s garden is quite a walk.
Marshall: GAH! DUCKS! PLAY! DUCKS!
The ducks, who wander free, like to torture Marshall the Goat by playing very close to him, but just out of reach, so Marshall runs up to them, only to have the rope snap him back. This is what you get when you are a very bad goat.
Cherry Tomatoes
Cucumbers!
My mom has scoped out areas around the house that get the most sun and planted there. The house is mostly covered by trees so there isn’t a lot of room. But the tomatoes and cucumbers are thriving! I spent yesterday morning watering in my bare feet with the animals.
Arnold, The Big Man
Arnold came out to see what I was up to. He is a hunter and spends a lot of time wandering through the woods, eating bunnies, squirrels, and birds.
VERY Cute Killer
But he is so cute you don’t mind he is a ruthless killer.
Garden Memorial
My uncle died last summer and his ashes are in this corner, with Uncle Dave’s, who has been there for a while. It’s a really nice spot to have your ashes, I think, and they get visits by ducks and cats and dogs and people.
2/3 of me thinks: I’d be really happy here if I were dead, too. 1/3 of me thinks: I’d be really happy here. My little brother is looking at buying cute brick houses on some land for like $60,000. If I could figure out a way to make money living in a cute brick house around here with land so I could garden and have chickens and not need to interact with anyone, 33% of me would jump at the chance. That is, like, a leg.
I would really need a way to make money that didn’t involve anyone else, though, considering I’m still a total freak to everyone who lives here. So I like killing babies, taxes, gays, and socialized health care! Does that make me a bad person?
… yeah, I can’t live here.
