It was early when we got on the road Saturday morning, winding our way north under a clear September sky. Grace planned this small trip weeks ago, and several family members decided to go along and enjoy the drive. It wasn’t a long trip — just a couple hours to Harrisonville and back. By midmorning, we were heading home with a new passenger.
Grace found her new Mini-Aussie on Facebook a couple months ago. She found the breeder the day he was born, and she reserved him when he was just days old. Since then, Grace has enjoyed watching her puppy grow in pictures his breeder sent. She decided to name him Curly after a lead character in the musical Oklahoma. Her other Mini-Aussie, Milly, is named for a character in the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Since our brother Jeremiah gave Grace her first puppy, Milly, last fall, Grace has fallen more and more in love with the Mini-Aussie breed. Milly goes with Grace everywhere on the homestead, whether it’s gardening, building, cooking, or cleaning.
After watching Bonnie-Jean raise her litter of German Shepherd puppies earlier this year, Grace decided maybe she wanted to raise Mini-Aussies. She started looking for a male, hoping to find a merle patterned pup. After a few weeks of searching, she found Curly.
The new puppy stole all of our hearts immediately. He has been very good, responding easily to training. From the first day, he recognized Grace as his owner — he already wants to follow her around with Milly.
Curly especially loves Milly, and she loves him back already! She is still very much a puppy herself, and the two have been zooming around the house, chasing each other and wrestling.
The rest of our week was pretty uneventful. We have mainly been working on clearing out our storage unit. Some items we are moving into the bunkhouse. Others we are sorting into totes that we will unpack as soon as we complete our finish work. We plan to have our storage unit empty by the end of the month.
The week went by more quickly than usual. The heat kept us inside a lot, working in the air conditioning. We are so ready for the cooler weather that will inevitably arrive in autumn, though it always comes much later than we wish it would. For now, we are enjoying getting so much done inside. Despite still being unfinished, our bunkhouse is feeling more and more like home.
