Neighborhood folks

Here are Robinson's Paddling Pigs at the Pasco County Fair. (The black one is Sarah Padlin). These pigs run around a course and then dive into a pool and swim twenty feet before exiting into a chute where they are rewarded with oreo cookies.
This is where we live! Our friends in the big city, where we still have half a foot, don't get it at all. It's not that we spend every available moment gazing at trick piglets, or that we are not interested in big city culture. Indeed, we live with classical music, go to concerts, visit museums in major cities of the world, and read the local and national press.
We love working hard to keep this small ranch going. It's intriguing to us to know these folks who are our neighbors, the ones who know all about cows, hunting for the meat they eat all year, who trade vegetables with us, had McCain/ Palin signs in their yards and speak in the mellow southern cracker cadences they were born to. I love these folks and we would do anything for each other.
But it's true, we do need more. And it's coming to pass that we are making friends in this community among educated people who "get it" about living the rural life. This evening we had a wonderful supper of collards and salad from our garden, local strawberries and other bounty grown around here, home made bread, some fish too. Our guests were the usual science geeks. Before dinner we sat out on the front porch as the light faded, watching the cardinals and listening for the cranes and owls. For once, none of us talked much politics, though there were references to columns in the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.We spoke of the gardens we all have. I'm loving these last minute gatherings where someone brings oranges from their grove, another one brings the shortcakes to underpin those wonderful strawberries. Everyone pitches in to help set the table or clean up afterward.
The stars are brilliant and splendid, but I know it may cloud up and perhaps rain tomorrow (we hope!) I never imagined that I could be so happy.