Frankly speaking...................is autumn in the air?

Autumn always signals change.  Back to school for the kids, a fresh start.  Two of our kids got a change this fall, too.  Neptune and Hera lost their momma, Hope.  Hope was at least 14 years old, which is like 115 for a person, and she was having trouble getting around lately.  The summer wasn't easy on her.  Saturday night, she needed help getting into the barn.  By Sunday morning she was down and unable to get up.  Wench did everything she could, but by Wednesday it was evident there was no help for her.  After consulting with the folks at Twin Oaks Veterinary Hospital, the decision was made and Hope crossed over that rainbow bridge.  Now she is no longer in pain.

this is one of my favorite photos of Hope.  She came to us back in the day when we lived in New York, and we later found out she was born here, in North Carolina, so she returned to her homeland.  She gave us Pinky and Gary and a few other wonderful kids, and Neptune and Hera will of course stay on here.  Neptune will be wethered (like me!) to maintain his wonderfully sweet personality, just like his momma.  They are still on the small side, side effects of being born to an elderly mom.

In other news, the first floor of the barn has a new resident.  Stevens' Rockstar, the American Chinchilla buck, has been liberated from his cage and now has the run of the barn.  He has been hanging out with Smidge and with us, and having a really good time.  There is a photo, but of course my techno-phobe wench is unable to access it (I don't know what I'm going to do with her, really)

Builder, doing what he does best, is installing a hot water tank (albeit a small one) in the barn.  That'll be nice for winter... and a bigger hotter water tank in the garage, so wench can wash our fleeces before sending them off for making into yarn.  My fleece was first (of course) and it came out really nice.

This is just a snipet of what's been going on around here.  I'll post more later, but want to keep the "Hope Post" short for today.  I promise - maybe wench will figure out that camera after all.  Thanks for reading, Frankly speaking!