More of a show than the 4th of July!

Yesterday was wild, weatherwise. Thunderstorms are rare here; we've never had literally hours of lightning and thunder before in the 37 years we've lived here. One of Rick's clients lost a horse to a lightning strike, which made me worry about our horses at home in a small pasture with tall trees on either side. Fortunately everyone was fine when I got home from work; even our dogs didn't mind the weather. There were some beautiful clouds around, even while thunder and lightning continued in the distance:

We got 1/4" of rain, too, so I took advantage of the softened ground this morning and pulled weeds, then planted more bush beans and beets in the gaps where the first planting failed to germinate. I picked a tomato, and admired the other ripening produce. It's been a 'cucumber year' so far; if I'd known, I would have planted enough to make dill pickles but usually they don't grow well for me.

already harvested and eaten

Maybe the pastures will get a boost from the rain, too. The sheep have eaten down all their paddocks on the neighbors' property so are home eating hay again; the horses are still picking at their half of the neighbors' pasture . . . most of the time. The first three days of this week they had to stay home where they have access to water, since I had to cover Rick's vet office and couldn't let them in for their afternoon drink.

I've been seeing quite a few mice recently. Natural ebb and flow of populations, I guess; we had a terrible infestation in barn, tack room, and henhouse before a few years of near-absence. I'm going to have to resort to deadly measures in the tack room, as they are destroying soft things like saddle pads and blankets.

In TdF spinning, I finished the first 4oz colorway, and am now working on the second. These are both part of the Inglenook Fibers Mushroom Blends:

second turtle of 'Rosy Bonnet'

first turtle of 'Truffle'

That's it for now from . . .

Lions and tigers and bears; oh my!

And now I feel a compelling urge to watch The Wizard of Oz! Somehow, I think it might even make me feel better, especially the music. Maybe that's because I'm listening to I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine by Daniel Levitin, a neurologist. I recently finished his audiobook Successful Aging; I'm learning a lot and enjoying the education.

All the scary predators seem to be coming for Rick. He found out this week, now that he has a PCP again and had a fasting blood draw, that he has type 2 diabetes – on top of cardiovascular disease. He blames genetics for one, and the statins he takes for the other, even though he's on a low dose of statin and the Mayo Clinic says the risk is small. He does not want to acknowledge lifestyle at all, even though both diseases are known as lifestyle diseases, and he is not happy about making further changes – or with my efforts to cook in a way that would help him. Sigh.

At least Brian has healed up from his self-inflicted injury and got his cast and pins removed this week. He asked if I would take him, and afterwards offered to treat me at a place of my choice. So I finally got to try Local Flow, which advertises smoothies, crepes, and bowls. Kind of hippy-dippy and our crepes were great; it was a nice mother/son outing!

While much of the continent bakes, floods, or suffocates with wildfire smoke, we have been enjoying 'normal' weather and clean air in our little corner of the country. I remember smoke like that here; it was awful and oppressive and I feel so bad for all the humans and animals currently suffering through it. I feel bad for/about a lot of things right now; I have to fight to stay positive and focus on beauty.

Most of the sky shots in this post were taken from horseback.

The mama who poses a threat to Poppy

We picked berries at Neck Road Produce last Sunday.

The barn swallows appear to be starting another clutch.

My Tour de Fleece project is coming along.

That's all the photos I could transfer for now for . . .

Scrambling to catch up

In the continuing struggle to access photos for a post, today's images are brought to you through a new work-around. I uploaded them to Ravelry (thanks to the $5/year I pay for the privilege) from my phone, opened Ravelry on my laptop and took screenshots of all the photos, then opened each screenshot to date, label and file them. Will the whims of technology shut this avenue down, too? Only time will tell!

Anyway, now I can share a couple photo-heavy outings that happened in June. The first one was a hike to Valley of the Giants on June 13. The last time we went was at least 15 years ago and it can be tricky to find/access; fortunately Rick's field assistant has gone recently and knew the route – and its limitations. (The last bridge had washed out, adding an extra five miles to the hike.) The foxglove was blooming like crazy along the drive in!

On June 28 I went on a trail ride at Willamette Mission State Park. It was a gorgeous day for it, but there was some unwelcome excitement as well. One horse in our group parted company with his rider twice (the first time part of our group tracked him down and returned him; the second time a nearby farmer found and reported him). In between those two events, a horse from another group dumped his rider and thundered past us; that horse wasn't recovered until the next day. All's well that ends well; neither riders nor horses were hurt, and Stella kept her head when riderless horses galloped by.

the horse on the right is the two-time runaway

Stella is always in the lead because she walks so fast

In keeping with the 'wild West' theme the previous story might have invoked, I have to share some of the beautiful longhorns I drive by every time I go to town. One day they were hanging out near a driveway so I had a safe place to pull in to get some shots.

Next, Independence Day! Since it was a Saturday, we went to church as usual. Someone brought a festive (and delicious!) cake for potluck. That evening we built a little fire to roast veggie weenies and marshmallows, ate watermelon, watched fireworks from our deck, and set off a few of our own on the driveway.

this is the same fire pit we have

amazed that my iPhone can capture this much at distance and in the dark!

The 4th of July was also the beginning of the Tour de France/Tour de Fleece, and I've been spinning along on this interesting blend:

As always, I've collected a bunch of scenic shots taken around the place or while walking Poppy down the lane in the evening or riding Stella at the end of the day.

One last thing I keep intending to mention. For quite some time my Blogger Reading List has been flooded with posts from a foreign-sounding blog I don't follow. I've never clicked on any of them for fear they are some sort of computer Trojan horse; it sure is annoying to have to scroll and scroll to find posts from legitimate bloggers. Have any of you on Blogger experienced this?

That's it for now from . . .