After the christening party we drove down to my brother's home. That felt like going from San Francisco to Los Angeles, meaning we were sitting in the car for the rest of the day.

After we left Blacksburg we drove straight through North Carolina, not stopping until we got to the visitor welcome center in South Carolina.

  

I picked up this bottle opener there. It strengthens my impression that South Carolina is a fishy state.

  

Part of the welcome center art was a Neon peach. It looked good, but there wasn't enough light eminating from it to drown out the florescent bulbs in the pictures of it I got. See that bright spot to the left of the Georgia on the blue sign? That's where it was.

By this time we'd been driving for many hours. My sister's home was still a few hours away, almost all the way to Alabama from there. After a brief stop we sardined back into the car and pressed on.

  

The next picture I took was of the finished January unicorn. I'd given Katie a calendar for Christmas that featured a unicorn of the month theme. It was fun to help her assemble it. She's good with crafts but such questions as "How do I hold it while the glue dries?" she hasn't thought through yet. I suggested paper clips. She tried them and they worked. It was neat to watch those little fingers work so purposefully.

The next morning I wandered around the farm to see what things are like right now.

Later I asked my sister why there were so few chickens and she said "during that heat wave last summer they were dropping like flies." Maybe the end of February they plan to get some Buff Orpingtons and rebuild their flock. Part of the problem is that black chickens don't do so well in extreme heat.

  

They still have the same horses. Coda (the splotchy one) seems to get out of his pen a lot. Apparently last summer at some point he feasted on the whole vegetable garden before they caught him. Every time I got almost near enough to take a better picture he'd run off. I'm not getting the charm of owning that horse. Daisy on the other hand seems a lot more like a valuable citizen.

  

The goat operation seems to have grown a lot.

  

Not only do they have five juvenile goats that need to be bottle fed at least twice a day, but another kid was born while I was there. I only heard about it after the delivery, but there was lots of evidence that it was very recent when I went out to take pictures. We were wondering if another one was still in there for a while, but all that came out was the afterbirth.

  

That tree to the left of my sister is one of the fruit trees I gave her for Christmas last year. Hopefully in a few years they will be giving her enough fruit that her family can eat some and she can can the rest. I know she likes canning, but it takes a few years for trees to get from potential to actual fruit producers.

  

Wow! I saw a rainbow in Georgia while we were driving. How's that for a legal experience?

     

  

I got a cup of the Critical Mass blend. I liked it so much I got a pound of the stuff to carry home to California.

     

While we were at Campesino Coffee Co. this lady took us on an informative tour of the place. Click her picture to find out more about them.

Then Pat took us on a tour of Habitat for Huminity's global village. Click his picture to find out more about that.

 

The rest of the stay was a quiet evening at home. My sister made up a pot of venison and bean stew that was delicious. I think she told me what neighbor shot the deer, but I forgot. After that Katie made herself a tie/scarf thing while Grace nursed the baby goat.

  

  

Whatever was left in our bowls Ginger (the dog) was more than happy to prewash off. I spent the next day helping out around the farm and then left for California not long after that. My bus left Columbus just before midnight, just an hour or so behind schedule.