The cat’s jungle gym…

They’ve made a play and lounging area of our pile of memory boxes from Julie’s parent’s stuff… It looks like we’ve acquired a mysterious THIRD black cat in this pic…

I always wanted to stop here too!

Fin Feather & Fur was right next to the cheese barn.  It’s not even the main store but was stocked with SO MUCH shooting and outdoor sports stuff.  I have never seen so many choices for so many things.  They even had a cow painted gun in one of the models I was considering.  I told Emily it should be hers❣️

Of course we had to stop here!

We’d seen Grandpa’s Cheesebarn on the way to the animals and decided we better stop on the way home.  We each found a couple different cheeses to try.  Steakhouse Onion has been our favorite by far!

2026-07-22 Majestic Meadows Otters etc

You can also see coatimundi, skunks, armadillo and porcupines in this video.  

We also enjoyed kangaroo, wallaby, baby capybara, baby goats, a newborn alpaca, jumping spiders, turkeys, and baby donkeys.

Porcupines are cool and weird little animals

We got to get up close with, feed and pet the porcupines! Their noses were so soft! It was cool to see all the various sizes of their quills.  From the large ones on their backs down to the tiniest ones around their eyes like where we would have eye lashes.  

Petting skunks!

And enjoying having them eat out of our hands and laps!

The armadillos were surprisingly interactive and cute

This one even posed for me.  They liked to get belly scratches too, but can also accidentally pinch your finger in their armor.

More babies, and quality mondays!

This alpaca (upper left) was only three hours old.  He was adorable stumbling around and talking to us.  Mom was very tolerant until it was time for him to eat.  Her body language changed to a “ok, you’re done now, please leave so he can eat” stance.  The baby capybara was sooooo cute too (middle pic).  He was just chillin’ next to his massive mamma.  The quality mondays were a highlight of the visit.  The left for joy on the end of their leash when we walked into their enclosure.  They’re actually called coatimundi but I can’t spell or even say that so I just called them qualitymonday which is what it sounds like.  We got to feed them, and watch them forage for grubs while we lead them around on their leashes.  So fun!

It was baby season.

We even enjoyed the baby goats and donkeys.  Even if one of them grabbed a mouth full of Julie’s pant leg, hahahaha.

The otters were non-stop fun and adorable❣️

They enjoyed furiously searching for EVERYTHING in your pockets (upper left).  They had simulated shells and gems they loved to play with.  The upper right pic shows him playing with his favorite one.  He would always fish around in the bucket until he found that specific orange shell.  Eventually, he would put it in your pocket or pant leg…

In the bottom right, they are starting to wind down after 20 mins of crazy and it evolved into them rolling around on their backs asking for tummy rubs and belly scratches. Lower left Julie has all four of them asleep in her lap!!

You had me at otters!

We enjoyed Majestic Meadows in the middle of last week.  We got to pet lots of animals on the self guided tour and also bought a few “experiences”. We started with the otters.  We would have been happy if we’d had to go home after 30 mins with these four cuties!  We got to feed them, play with them, pet the, and snuggle them! Amazing!

My mom sent these great memories

We can celebrate 50 years of Lakeside.  1976 was our first year there.  We enjoyed the cottage, baby pool, islands, fishing at the dock, swimming lessons, and apparently an elephant ride?! Great memories❣️

Julie and I headed to pet the animals.

It was a long day.  We caught the sunrise AND the sunset.  Interestingly, they were pretty much the same.  This was from us heading east in the morning.  The rays were awesome.  

Does Deaton really want THIS again?!

Day one back on the job at Deaton.  He’s working out of Waynesville which is awesome.  Even better, they call the old firehouse their new home.  Lower left is back when Andy first started there.  Upper right is day one the second time around. It’s fun having him in the neighborhood every day again too.

Wow, if they started doing this…

It would spin out of control.  They’d have to do all the dog species, then cats, then lizards, hahaha.  But I guess if they can do names, why not start something like this.  It was just an AI thing on socials, but Julie and I thought it looked pretty fun.