Happy Pioneer Day

I wrote about Pioneer Day last year, so I won't repeat all that - check out my archives for a year ago if you want to know what it is. We did go to the breakfast this year, and the parade. I didn't take my camera because I still haven't uploaded the Norway photos (I have almost 3 memory cards full, including a big one I had never come close to filling before, and an extra that Bjørn Oddvar gave me - still a little room left on the small memory card that came with the camera, but I have enough to process as it is without taking more pictures). Anyway, there were some goats in the parade with saddles on them and children riding. I heard some parade watchers nearby exclaim, "look at the ponies!" They were Saanens, which can get quite big. Saanens are the white dairy goats with erect ears, noted as the breed with the highest volume of milk production. Once I saw a Saanen buck at a show that was easily twice as big as any other goat I have ever seen, and I have heard of a Saanen buck weighing in at 600 pounds or more. These in the parade were not that big, but picture three good sized white goats with saddles and children riding. It was cool, and I wish I had taken my camera.

There is so much I want to tell you guys, and it is all going so fast that I keep not having enough time to do it! As you know, I came home from Norway and then had to be gone for a week to go house shopping. There was a family reunion in between, on the one day I was home too. Now getting ready to move is upon us. We did find a house, and the buying process is underway. I don't know how long it will take. The new house has one more bedroom, one more bathroom, and a much larger living room and kitchen than the old one. It also has a garage with a room off to the side with light, heat, and electricity, just right to be my new wool room. There is space for the animals - about two and a half times the acreage that we have here, with some shelters there for the animals to use, and needing just some work on the fences. There are even hollyhocks in front of the house (though not black ones like the ones I have here - I'll take some seeds with me), and yarrow and sunflowers. My dye garden is already started. There are roses and fruit trees and mint too. It ought to work out for us. And we have accepted an offer on our old house, so that is also cooperating.

I want to tell you about Norway and share my pictures. I also would like to change my template again, as it feels like time for a new look, and there are a few essays that have been writing themselves in my head, and if I actually get something written I'll post that here too. I'm getting quite a bit of knitting done considering everything else. Catching up with all of my internet friends is another thing I very much want to do, and have been working at bit by bit. Cleaning the house and packing to get ready for the move has to get done though, even though I would much rather be doing any of the above. I am not good at cleaning or packing. I guess I just need to do some part of it every day.

Well, I promised you something (was hoping it would be pictures) when I got back from house hunting, so I thought I could at least update you a little on all that is going on. I hope I can get to those pictures tomorrow.