I was standing in the backyard talking to Greg and Suzy, when I heard rustling in the woods. I had no idea what was making the noise, and had no plan to investigate. Greg was talking about The China Study, which we had loaned to them, and how he and Suzy were joining the plant-eater team. Everybody who reads that book seems to have the same reaction! Anyway, I guess this turkey knew we were friendly folk, because he came out of the brush and walked right up to us. He stood around gobbling while I took a few photos, then headed back to the woods. Made my day.

We're a quarter of the way through our 40 workout/hike program. Today's hike was especially enjoyable because Cara joined us; her conversational skills go a long way toward taking the mind off the pain. (Well, it's really not pain, just a bit of discomfort here and there). I went old-school for the workout part of the program: 110 pull-ups, 220 push-ups, 330 sit-ups. That had me breathing like a creeper, let me tell you. Tomorrow I'll do the lumberjack workout; that is, I'll chop wood, then hike. Yeah, a little of this, a little of that. It's a happy life.

Llama love you too!

This is the 500th post here at Wisdom in the Birches. Wow! There ought to be door prizes, like this original Austin Mini for instance. We happened past it in St. Andrews and Jake and Cara thought it would be the perfect addition to Mike R's Used Cars. It is cute, I'll give it that, kind of like that baby llama that some of you failed to notice on April 1. Funny that, and I'll tell you why. When we walked up to the pen housing the llamas we heard the bleating of what sounded like a goat. But then Cara said, "no, it's a sheep." So we went back and forth, it's a sheep; no it's a goat, etc., etc. Until Cara, redeeming herself and shaming us, says, "it's a baby llama!" Duh. A baby llama with the mama and papa llamas. Go figure...

No comment for the baby llama? Really? Come on, people, you can't get any cuter than that!

That could be Machias, if the town had any sense; but instead of cute little shops and nice places to walk along the water, we have a couple of gas stations and a bottle redemption. Oh, don't be so negative-- at least there is the hardware store. Anyways, St Andrews is pictured above, all pristine and perfect in its sweet little corner of Canada. Well, they do have socialized medicine over there so they're probably just a bunch of commies. Ha!

Looks like we're in for a glorious Sunday!