Wheel woes

The friend whose vehicle we took to BSG after mine died

So nice to play with color after all the black I've been spinning!

Since I just went to a fiber festival, you might be thinking spinning wheel. While I do have one, it's been years since my Louet S10 has seen any action; my Jenkins Turkish spindles are the yarn producers around here. (And yes, I got another one at Black Sheep Gathering, the one that completed my collection.😉) No, our wheel woes are much more troublesome, and expensive....

Rick's current vet truck has been a lemon – trying, it seems, to live up the Ford acronym taunt "Fix Or Repair Daily." He has been pondering a replacement, but late model pickups big enough to handle his vet box, extra equipment, and mileage are obscenely expensive, so he keeps patching his 2002 Ford F350 back together. Early last week another major problem presented itself, putting it up on blocks, so to speak. Fortunately our old '94 Ford keeps on truckin', so he makes do with that when his vet truck is sidelined once again. At least the shop is finally to a useful/useable stage:

Last Wednesday evening on our way to agility my car dramatically lost power. In order to prevent further damage, I had it towed to the nearest VW dealership, in Salem. The diagnosis was grim; the repair would cost more than the car is worth. So we hauled it home where it sits, awaiting its still undecided fate. I was grounded for a few days, and then my boss generously loaned me her mini-van to get to and from work until Rick's vet truck is fixed or replaced. 

Between the fleeces delivered to buyers at BSG and the two shipping out tomorrow, almost half my clip has been sold. Now to skirt and advertise the last eight.

Yesterday Rick was given four tickets for tonight to the St. Paul Rodeo. We haven't been to it in years, and I can't say I'm looking forward to it, except for the fireworks at the end. The risk to man and beast is real, and I sit in dread of something bad happening, especially to the animals (I figure the human participants go in willingly with eyes wide open; animals don't get a choice.)  This is not a hypothetical fear; Rick and I saw a bucking bronc break its leg in the middle of the run, then get shuffled off to the stock pens to wait until Rick went and demanded humane measures be taken. My parents witnessed Lane Frost get gored to death at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo. Praying there are no accidents of any kind tonight....

To end on a more hopeful note, our garden is still going great guns (but for the beets and carrots). The snowpeas and bush beans have started to bloom. I've harvested three cucumbers so far; soon we will be enjoying tomatoes, sweet peppers and eggplant, too.

Inside, my littlest orchid is budding out (again!) as my African violet blooms fade:

And last night's sunset was a lovely one!

That's it for now from . . .

For the first day of summer we got SPRING!

Last weekend we enjoyed a lovely throwback to spring weather, which for us ended abruptly and much too early. It was cool and cloudy Friday-Sunday, and on Saturday, gloriously wet. A half-inch of rain was enough to rinse off the dust, refresh the earth, and save me watering duty for a few days. It also added enough weight to an already loaded branch of our bigger prune tree to bring it down. 😞

This coming Sunday I'm looking forward to going to Black Sheep Gathering with a friend. As usual I will be proxy-shopping for several people, although I do have a short shopping list for myself. I'm also delivering three fleeces to a buyer; glad I thought post that option to the Jenkins Spindles group on Ravelry.

I thought I'd also be celebrating Mom's arrival in Lincoln, NE by the end of Sunday, but for the second time my BIL has had to cancel his flight to TX to drive her north. Mom has decided – again – that she just can't get everything done in time to leave then. My sister and I don't know how long this situation is going to dribble out, but figure she can't back out of the move now that the bulk of her possessions are already sitting in U-Boxes in Lincoln. Mom's freshly carpeted and painted two-bedroom apartment is waiting for her as well; below are a few of the photos my sister sent me. As you can see it is a lovely space inside and out (all her windows face that green space which cannot be developed). Now if we can just get her there....

Below are a couple recent sunsets, the first enjoyed on horseback, the second during an evening walk. I'm trying to walk more often to build back my endurance post-surgery.

Our nine hens are still keeping us and the neighbors in plenty of fresh eggs. Occasionally I manage some decent photos of a few:

Amber Stars Snowcone and Toffee Bits, and Cream Legbar Honeybun  – GREAT layers!

Puff and Ashes, 'farmyard mixes'

Spangle, a Whiting True Blue

Poppy and I did indeed return to agility class last week. She was a rock star, and I managed to keep up, so we're back!

I'm not quite this bad, but am certainly not up to full speed yet.

That's it for now from . . .

A day for ourselves

Quite different than the same day 41 years before, which was as much (more?) for family and friends as it was for us. As a child of divorce (and subsequent remarriages) it was impossible to please everyone, although I tried. I especially mourned that I didn't/couldn't have my step-dad walk me down the aisle, as he was more of a dad to me than my father. Mom said he understood, but it still tore up my heart. Anyway, that's water long gone under the bridge, along with FIL, birth-dad, and step-dad, in that order. The male halves of the six parental units of that day gone, all men. I'd better enjoy my man while I can!

And enjoy him I did. Rick managed to take a weekday off work completely, though it was a struggle to keep it open. We headed towards the coast and spent a carefree day eating and seeing, both the coast in the wild and the coast contained, by visiting Boiler Bay (we watched whales!) and the Oregon Coast Aquarium, which we hadn't visited in years. Infrequent fantasies of exotic vacations aside (we've never taken one, exotic or not), it was a lovely way to celebrate our years together.

sculptures made of retrieved plastic waste were sobering

That's it for our anniversary date from . . .

My blog is nagging

June bugs, June blogs; it would appear both are rare around here. Time to do something about the latter; you can keep the former, if you have them. I don't miss those big, buzzy beetles from my California childhood!

I'll start with a garden update. Everything is growing well and looking promising, with the exception of the beets and carrots. (I'm pretty sure the beets sprouted decently but got eaten by something. The carrots didn't germinate well, but there are some.) The other plants from seeds (bush beans, snow peas, and Long White Palermo zucchini) are burgeoning but not yet blooming. The starts we planted are blooming and setting fruit; I think our first harvest will be burpless cucumbers. 😍 

Next, an assorted animal update. Because it's been so dry, the seed Rick sowed in the middle pasture and the grass he mowed in the upper pasture have done nothing, so all the sheep and horses are feeding exclusively on the hay we picked up at the end of May. We need to source and store a lot more hay to get us through until next spring, but Rick has been busy with too many other things to do that yet. Bryan the solo lamb enjoys annoying his dam and the other two ewes in his group. The bigger group of ewes knocked over the hay feeder in the wooded lot (no doubt trying to get every blade of hay) necessitating a rebuild; they were not sure the new-old structure was trustworthy. Deer keep frequenting our property, but I haven't seen any more fawns – until this morning while driving down our hill to an appointment. Same twins? Last Sabbath, Rick and I took the dogs for a walk for the first time since my surgery. Poppy, as always, was an Energizer Bunny; Leo got overheated even though it was a lovely day with a cooling breeze. The next day they were enjoying the morning sun together; I was tickled to catch the shot of Poppy using Leo as a pillow. Tomorrow evening I'm going to take Poppy to agility and see how that goes; I know she'll enjoy going back!

Can you see the 'ornery'?

It's not a done deal yet, but crossing fingers that my mom will indeed be moved – at least out of her house and up to Lincoln, if not into her apartment – by the end of the month. There have been numerous postponements, but the U-Haul U-Boxes are supposed to be picked up tomorrow, and the new departure date (my BIL is flying down and driving Mom up in her car) is Sunday, the 29th.

Rick and I celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary earlier this month with a day trip to the coast. We had a lovely time; I'll share my photos of our day in a separate post. I'll close with this photo of a recent sunrise:

That's enough for this post from . . .