Pupkie is Coming

Pupkie, AKA Mia, is coming tomorrow morning for a short visit. She can only stay one night as she has to be on duty at the hospital in NJ on Friday and it's a four hour drive. I often wish I had found a farm down near Bainbridge, as it would be an hour closer to Mia and NJ. As it is Matt commutes an hour plus to Syracuse from here so this is a good location. I'm a half hour from Hamilton, a half hour from Cooperstown, a half hour from Utica, a half hour from work in Norwich, etc., but I'm just too far away from my daughter. I have our whole visit planned already. We'll shear a couple of goats - something I won't even try to do with Matt anymore, he's so mean, nasty and horrible about it I don't even ask him anymore (clever on his part). We'll sit in front of the fire and pick fleece together while she tells me hospital stories and gives me the news on all the high school friends she's heard about. Mia is so happy and chatty, and is just so pleasant to hang with. We'll go to Hamilton and have lunch at Whole Foods (where I can check in with Candace and find out how she's doing with her new little flock), then walk two doors down to Jane Porter's and page through fiber arts books and maybe knit a little. But before she comes I have a lot to do to get ready, which includes things like:

Suit up and get out to the barn to do bottles with Larry and Lester, after taking the dogs out for pee and poo for the second time. Somehow get Blind Jack outside.
Tote water to the tank and two pens
Come back inside and clean the bathroom (Mia is a RNBSN and can't help but imagine images of various bacterias whenever she sees dirty places). She's such a neatnick.
Make piles of a mountain of fabric on the kitchen table
Strip her bed and wash the sheets
Tidy up her room, which is piled high with fabric, fiber and overflow items
Sweep the apt. and mop the kitchen floor, after washing a big pile of dishes

After all this, I need to go to town and get the mail, go to the bank, and drive over to Mary's to pick up the wool she is saving for me. God Bless Her, she promised me the wool from the sheep I gave her. Depending on where she's at with the shearer, I'll show her how to cast off. Mary is learning how to knit and I'm so pleased to help her. It makes sense for a shepherd to knit things from her own wool. She's outside all the time and can use sweaters, hats, scarves, etc.

After all this it will be feeding time. Somehow I got several rabbits clipped over the weekend and dyed their angora - oh, the joy of that fiber. It soaks up the dye like nothing else, not even mohair, and adds such an interesting touch to my roving. I have more fiber dyed now than I have room to dry in the apt., another reason to get this table cleared. Better get started.