Happy Anniversary, Poppy!

I had started a blog post about all that has been keeping me busy, when it occurred to me this morning that it must be (or close to) Poppy's homecoming anniversary. So I looked back at posts from three years ago (one of the biggest benefits of blogging), and found that I'd missed it by a day – I brought our adorable Decker pup home on February 2, 2020. (To see an absolute avalanche of adorableness, click here.) Today she is the mature and generous 'big sister,' budding agility star, and ever the avid hunter (as I type this she's running from door to window to door, bark-screaming at squirrels):

The end of January through yesterday I was wading through the weeds of corporate taxes. I thought I had them done and dusted last Sunday; then on Monday morning our CPA notified me of needed changes. Sigh; it's all so out of my wheelhouse. Yesterday when I met with her, I asked the CPA to give us an estimate on doing the quarterly and year-end tax reports as well as our annual corporate and personal filing. Rick may squawk, but if she ends up with "clean-up in Aisle 3" anyway, she might as well do it once and done. Now to gather up the materials for our personal taxes....

In more pleasant pursuits, I have been spinning, plying, and prepping yarn for knitting projects, thanks to the inspiration of the Jenkins spindle group on Ravelry. I also did the join on a headband I knit from leftover luxury yarn spun by a blogpal and used to make two gift hats. I thought the headband might be a lambing contest prize (yes, one is still going to be announced), but I wear headbands much more often than hats so just might just keep it for myself.

The hens continue to bump up production, giving me seven eggs a day twice so far, with five/day being common:

I just found out that the coworker who has been buying all my extra eggs is going to start traveling at the end of this month – basically for the rest of this year! I bought the four hens from the moving neighbors specifically to keep up with her desires; guess I'd better spread the word in the neighborhood to see if I can find some new customers.

That's it for now from . . .

Greener pastures

I got an email this morning from the person who bought Boomer, Berlin, and Sarai last fall. I braced myself; the subject line said "Sad news." Sure enough; "Sarai passed in her sleep last night. She was resting comfortably under her heat lamp with her eyes closed when I found her this morning."

It was a quick decline that just started yesterday, perhaps precipitated by the two younger sheep knocking Sarai down. She was seen by a vet and given anti-inflammatories, but by yesterday evening she could no longer stand. "So we gave her lots of hugs and kisses and some treats and grain and helped her get comfortable under the heat lamp." I have to admit I shed some tears, but they were bittersweet. Sarai had a good, long life, and was surrounded with love and care at the end. All of God's creatures should be so fortunate.

Sarai, yesterday

To cheer myself up, I turned my girls out. It was their first pasture time since the foxtail hardened off last summer, so the yearlings were FULL of energy; the expectant ladies just wanted GRASS. (Dear little Bling; once a bottle baby, always a bit of a bottle baby! And that deep voice you hear in the background is Spot.)

Since some interest has been expressed in a lambing contest, watch for a post announcing that. In the meantime, you can ponder the ladies in waiting:

Bernadette

Bette

Blaise

Bree

Bridget

To close, here is this morning's sunrise at approximately 15-minute intervals. I thought the progress interesting:

That's it for now from . . .

A busy week's report

Last week started with an agility fun match on Sunday. I only found out about it at class the Thursday night before (the fun match was at the same venue); fortunately I didn't have any conflicts so Poppy and I could go. She did really well, although she struggled with the weave poles in our first run and the teeter on our second run; interesting, since both those elements have not been problematic in class. But it's good to learn where our weak points are under adrenaline, so we can work on them. We have a new instructor for the new year; the instructor we've had up until now retired in December. I really like the new instructor, though. I wish I could afford to start Leo in a beginners' class, because he is smart, biddable, and energetic – I think he'd have fun! Of course, he has plenty of FREE fun here at home. A recent sunny morning provided better than usual lighting for photos:

After starting my new spinning project, I switched to a bigger, slower spindle (that doesn't fit in my lunchbox) so as to not over-twist my singles. Wensleydale is a much coarser fiber than I'm used to spinning, and I didn't want to end up with twine. I'm thinking I'll ply this fine single with a loose white alpaca single and knit a big, cozy wrap . . . someday.

In other spinning news, I made a cross-valley trip (over the river and through the woods!) to the Jenkins' last week. Ed is making nostepinnes now, so I got one in Hawaiian Ironwood for myself and proxy-shopped for two other spinners. I also got a new spindle, a Black Limba Dragonfly. No, I don't need more spindles; I destashed my Holly Dragonfly to make room.

After lots of rain followed by a couple days of heavy fog, we're supposed to get a week of at least partially-sunny days. If I can get the corporate tax stuff behind me today, I can look forward to riding time and outside clean-up. I did go looking for our snowdrops, but the big clumps on the bank under our flowering cherry seem to have gotten choked out by ivy and other weeds. We do have one small clump in the island bed, but the flowers haven't unfurled yet. Likewise, the daffodils in the front of the island bed have been mostly choked out by grass, but the ones by the front porch are shooting up. On the north side of our house, the sarcococca bushes are starting to bloom and perfume the air.

For the first time in I can't remember how long, we got six eggs in one day last week; the new hens are really making their presence felt. But they are also increasing our feed and bedding costs (which have gone up in price, like everything else), so I finally increased the price of our eggs to get closer to covering expenses.

All the ewes that were in with Spot seem to be working on covering their expenses; bellies are showing telltale fullness that is encouraging. Hey, it's been a number of years since I've had a lambing contest. Anyone interested in guessing dates? Numbers? Colors? Let me know in the comments, or if for some reason you can't comment, there's an email link in the column on the right. The prize would be a small handspun, handknit something.

That's it for now from . . .

A quieter week...

...except in regards to all things tax-related, personal and business. But let's not dwell on those extremely-necessary-but-unpleasant tasks here, okay?

Caught this brief glimpse of blue on my way to work Monday

It's been a wetter week, so no pretty sunrises, far less saddle time, and wet, muddy dogs. This morning after chores I decided that typical toweling was not going to be enough for Leo (oh, how he loves to dash about the farmyard!), and plopped him in the kitchen sink. Good thing I left his collar on him, or I never would have been able to keep him (kinda/sorta) in the sink. Good thing I was already planning to do a load of laundry, because I had to completely change my clothes afterwards!

Poppy and I started another session of agility classes last night after a break for the holidays. If I'd known she was going to do so well, I would have solicited someone to video our runs! Instead, I'll share a video of 'what she did (learned) over her Christmas break,' and some perky poses from this morning:

I finished the POF cotton I was spinning and chose something more colorful for my next project. A Jenkins Gooney and more than 6 oz of roving fit in my Christmas party prize lunchbox!

That's it for now from . . .