Why my camera case smells funky

Today was a perfect fall day to work around the place, so it was "all hands on deck." Brian would rather have run off to play with friends, but we're mean, old-fashioned parents who think that teaching a kid how to work is one of the more important jobs God gave us. ;-)

We already had a brush pile started in the upper pasture, so we lit that and added to it. The flowering plum in the island was in need of thinning, so I did what I could with the little chainsaw from the ground, then Rick climbed up in it to do some more. Brian used the little tractor to haul branches to the fire.

Then we moved to the sheep lot, which has been accumulating deadwood faster than I can clean it out. Rick cut out some of the clumps and I hauled branches into piles, then Rick used the tractor to transport them to the burn pile while I manned the gate and Brian pushed branches into the fire as needed. It looks SO much better in there now, and is safer for the sheep as well. Unfortunately, it also took out some of the screen between us and the neighbors on our south property line, making their house more visible. I planted two giant sequoias a few years ago (protected from the sheep by pallet enclosures, third photo below), but it's going to be awhile before they are big enough to provide some privacy. (You can click to biggify photos.)

Bramble and the wethers were pretty freaked out by the tractor's coming and going. When Rick was up the burn pile they would come up to me for reassurance. I took note that Bramble's backside needed trimming, Bart's coat had a busted leg strap, and Bing and Bittersweet were in desperate need of bigger coats.

Four scaredy-cat Shetlands at the back of the lot!

So when Rick was done hauling branches, I haltered and moved Blake and Browning out of the fold and ran the  four above into the fold for maintenance.

You know what changing coats means . . . fleece fantasizing! All three of these wethers are related, and while each of their fleeces shows a different style of crimp, all three are crimpy, as well as soft, fine, dense, consistent and of GREAT length. I just love 'em!

Bramble is going to need treatment for urine scald (an issue she's had off and on, perhaps from being a freemartin), so I gave Blake and Browning long-overdue pedicures and turned them out in the wooded lot. I left them happily rubbing heads on trees,

and headed to the house to take a shower. I was decorated with bits of sawdust, hay, twigs, wool and leaves, and smelled of forest duff, diesel exhaust, smoke, and eau de lanolin/ram/sheep pee. Did I mention I carry my camera in a case slung over my shoulder pretty much everywhere I go?

Yeah, that would it explain it . . .