Summertime, and the living is hectic

'Tis the season for gardening and hay hauling and firewood acquisition and spinning along with the Tour de Fleece. It is hot and very dry and sometimes smoky. The days are growing noticeably shorter and fall is on its way, but there is much to do before then. So I'll throw a bunch of photos at you and get back to work!

our bright dining room light fixture after replacing all the bulbs

our entry light fixture with old bulbs; yes, there is THAT much difference!

getting the last of our hay

that should do us; the bit at the far right is all that remains of last year's

the morning of August 3

the evening of August 3

the morning of August 4

approximately half our fig harvest, my breakfast one morning

the morning of August 5

the evening of August 5, showing the first bit of improvement

my finished TdF yarn

enough contrast for Murano squares?

the morning of August 7

second planting of beets and beans coming up

oak to cut and split, but not dry enough for this winter

back to normal air quality and "the long view"

zooming in  so you can see the hot air balloons with Mt. Adams between

8g of silk singles on my wee Bee Hummingbird spindle 

two paintings given to us by the artist, a friend of ours

doggy yin and yang

That's it for now from . . .

Sunday, fun day, and a ton-of-work day

When I learned that last weekend was the last weekend of the Canterbury Renaissance Festival, I decided that if at all possible for both of us, I wanted to take a friend on Sunday as an early birthday gift to her. So I picked her up at 9:00 a.m. and off we went. We (mostly window-) shopped, took in parts of several shows, watched the herding dog demonstration and all of the jousting. We didn't eat a single thing there, but did both buy olivewood kitchen tools. And Debbie got to meet Caesar the No-Drama Llama for the first time and thought she might want a couple llamas if they are all like this. (Ha! They are NOT. Caesar is seriously the chillest creature, of any species, I have ever met. He works the State Fair for four days straight every year and never looses his cool!)

Debbie loves dragons

Notice the stare-down between Caesar and the cat!

Because of honoring the Sabbath and Rick's unpredictable work schedule, Sundays are our main opportunity to 'get things done.' So while I was off playing, Rick and Brian (the latter under duress) picked 89 lbs. of peaches (17 lbs. for my MIL). Then Rick picked up a load of hay and made a start of freezing peaches. When I got home we unloaded that hay and a second load, too, then worked on prepping and freezing the ripest peaches that would not wait before falling into bed shortly before midnight.

Needless to say, I didn't have time to finish the last of my fiber on the final day of TdF. I did take it to the festival and spun some, but my spindle was getting too heavy for safe casual spinning. I spun the last of it Monday morning; then I have to decide how and with what to ply my two IF Mushroom Blend colorways.

In 'maybe' news, I have an opportunity to acquire a ram with new genetics and a pattern I don't have in my flock (he's a dark katmoget). Unfortunately I don't have a good place to keep him unless I can sell one of my two rams, so I am going to take new photos and post them on the Facebook Shetland forums to see if I can do that. Now is the perfect time, while people are planning for the fall breeding season.

That's it for now from . . .