Treasure Map - Goats, mice and dinosaurs

Andy and I went to Green Brothers Apple Hills yesterday afternoon to wander around. We were greeted by the two portly yellow lab dogs, Mac and Crispin, and a little yellow tiger cat. The lady from the gift shop showed us how Mac loves being gently rolled over with a foot and then having his belly scratched with a foot. It's true!

Andy picked some cool little things from the gift shop, including a small dinosaur excavation kit, and then we went straight out to see the animals. We fed three goats, a sheep, and two small donkeys. We met another mom and her young son Andrew, and chatted, and Andy (who insisted his name was Ben) shared some of his candy from the longest candy necklace in the world with Andrew (who didn't mind his given name). The other mom and I gave green leafy stuff to both boys for the animals. "Here you go, Ben," she said.

The goat who usually jumps right over the wire fence did it again, to follow us like a dog and find choice munchings. "I'm calling him Shredder!" Andy announced. Shredder then went off with an older couple to pick raspberries, and was still there when we finished wandering. We talked about how we'd love to have all this land, and maybe a barn, but not farm animals since they'd require so much attention and work. "Except goats," Andy said. "I would like some goats."

He followed a big black & yellow butterfly in the field for a while, and finally bent down in the grass and caught her gently in his hands. Under a brilliant blue sky, he lifted his hands and let her go. "Oh, so beautiful," I said. "That butterfly has been touched by you forever." As it turns out, he didn't mean to let her go so soon. But she had other plans.

We got in the car and ended up circuiting the whole area, looking for two new mice to join our family. We only have girl mice, and choosing them from a pet store (not my favorite option) can be tricky- they must be very very young, or you run the risk of having lots of mice very very soon. All the pet stores here keep their mice in mixed tanks, and most of them sell as feeders for snakes.

We went to three places and ended up back at the first one. While I watched the mousies to determine gender and judge age, Andy commented that he loved the way guinea pig ears look like hearts. Then he went to find Susan, a sales associate we like a lot. And we brought home two new mouse girls.

Still thinking about her name.


Andy named her Barbie.


At home, while I got the new girls settled in their tank, Andy excavated his tiny dinosaur, part by part, from the block. The kit comes with a little scraper and a brush. He had a great time. When he was done, Dave helped him put the dinosaur together. It's a cool little glow-in-the-dark T-rex.