Thankful for Help

"The Help", a fantastic book, has a title that puzzled me at first. Of course, when I began to read the book, I did get the gist, but before that I wasn't clear on what "Help" might be. Was it "self-help"? Emergency services; Cat Stuck in a Tree? Dr. Phil? No, "The Help" are the help that work in the homes of southern women mid 20th. As I read it, although the situation "The Help" were in was pure trial, I did find myself thinking longingly of someone doing ironing- any ironing as I do not. What if I had some one to vacuum the house? Do the laundry, the shopping, the cooking the bathrooms???? And then, I hit upon a real doozie of a wisheroo. What if I had help in the barn? Whoa. Now there's a great idea. So, I started hoping and planning. The ticket was to get D.J.
D.J. is Dave Junior. He's in our 4-H club, and a terrific kid. Plus, he's a worker. Self starter, whiz-bang doer. So today's Thankful is for D.J. who showed up, put in 5 hours of work, and accomplished many tasks that have been on my "to do"list for ages. He rearranged fence to start another manure composting area, he built concrete ramps to the horse stalls, he moved all the horse stall mats (heavy, floppy, uncooperative huge mats), evened out the floors and replaced the mats. He repaired the door to the third stall, and built a gate. He moved the winter water trough, put the picnic table benches away and got rid of our destroyed Dorothy'd gutter. And.... he cleaned up after himself. Put the tools away, put the wood scraps on the burn pile.
What a luxury to have hired some Help. He said it wasn't too bad, so maybe I'll get another chance to be Thankful... (Please D.J. come back!)
The other great accomplishment of the day was a family photo session with friend and professional Photog- Eileen Nixon. I can't wait to see the pictures! For those of you who have received Christmas cards from Cowfeathers, you know our annual Christmas picture is usually the family with a collection of our critters. The horses nose at the sheep who jump and startle the chickens who flap uncontrollably in someone's arms. The cat digs claws deep into the shoulders of the poor cat holder, the dog stares adoringly up at the family, his tail framed in the shot. The gander lunges at anyone within reach, leaving nipped horse noses, bruises on the back of kid heads and the holder always looks a bit chuffed. We've taken the picture on warm November days, and on sleeting November days (the kids all had their eyes squinted, noses squished up and the animals all turned away from the sleet coming straight at them- that was a great picture) and many of these photos have been taken by Kendra. Our willing Kendra. I would set up the shot and then tell her to just keep shooting until animals left.
So, on the down side for poor Eileen, we wanted another family shot with menagerie. On the up side, we've had practice. She bravely shot photos of the family, even hazarding the wrath of the ram to get a shot of the kids on the bridge. (Tod and I ran ram interference so no one was crippled).

Such a treat to have such a beautiful family, and now I'll have the pictures to share. So, also Thankful today for Eileen!