Finishing February in fine fashion

A friend of Brian's is going to play family volleyball with us tonight, then come home with us for a sleep-over in the woods. Brian has been prepping his campsite, and this afternoon he wanted me to come down and spend some time with him there. We took turns reading each other Bible passages (I knit when he read), standing by the fire (the temperature was far cooler than Brian's attire would lead you to believe), and being entertained by Jackson (in the photo below the slanted stick points to him off in the background).

Jackson entertained himself with sticks for awhile,

then got busy digging holes.

In the pasture beside us, my handsome Lance grazed happily. He's breathing hard and coughing occasionally, so I've been giving him special treatment. He doesn't act sick, so we're not sure WHAT is going on with him.

On my way back to the house, I picked up the last two eggs of February. One was oddly wrinkled. Ouch!

That's it for another month at . . .

Yesterday's bright spots

These,

and the fact that when I went down to the barn to ride last night, Annabelle was standing! She was still standing an hour later when I headed back to the house, too. She has been laying down every single time I've gone to or by the sheep fold for over two weeks, so the fact that she had risen without help was SO encouraging.

Today was my one day off work, so I let the ewes out in the morning before homeschool co-op and then again in the evening when we got home. I wished I'd gotten video of Vienna trying to run; let's just say it wasn't very graceful! She and Sarai are heavy with lambs, but not with milk, so the due date I wrote down for Vienna is most likely correct, and I imagine Sarai will lamb close to that as well.

Eager for bouncing babies at . . .

This week....

Kiss the pasture good-bye, Vienna; you won't be getting much grass this week. Not because the weather isn't nice (although they say rain is coming),

but because it is one of THOSE weeks.

"Might as well take another nap. Looks like we're going to have a long, boring week."

Today I had to work, then get Brian through violin practice before taking him to his violin lesson. Tomorrow I work again, then go in for my annual doctor's exams before picking up Brian for violin practice, etc. Wednesday morning I'll be Brian's teacher (and violin practice assistant) before teaching at the homeschool co-op, taking Brian to his piano lesson, then to fencing class in another city. Thursday is another work day, followed by violin practice and fencing class again. Friday – you guessed it – I also have to work, then do payroll at Rick's clinic, pick up Brian after his science class and get him home to practice. Figure in the fact that work and each Brian's activities are in different towns and we live an hour's round trip from each of them, and you quickly run out of daylight time. I hope Annabelle doesn't have a set-back; she's doing better, even getting up on her own, and I credit lots of hours in the sunshine moving around and grazing last week. My horse isn't likely to get ridden much, either. Such is life!

That's it for now from . . .

They're everywhere; they're everywhere!

Protective Mr. Goose

Proudly leading his lady

Yesterday after church, Brian's youth group took a hike around a nearby wildlife reserve. It was a beautiful day, so Rick and I decided to tag along. I've never gotten to see this wetlands area truly wet; the waterfowl were definitely enjoying it. It wasn't quite as warm as it looked, though, thanks to a chilly breeze.

There is a resident pair of bald eagles that nest in this reserve; see the nest at the top of the distant tree on the far left? One of the eagles was resting on a snag at the far side of the reserve; I got a good look at it through the observatory's spotting scope, but it was too far for little Mr. Lumix.

The wind must have blown in a large flock of robins; they were everywhere I looked this morning!

Their colors are very similar to my finished California Poppies Hat:

This fun, fast project was just the scratch my knitting itched needed. Unfortunately it turned out small, more of a child's size. I can get it on my small head, but it's tight. Not that I wear hats....

That's it for now from . . .

Boys just wanna have fun, part 2

I think at heart my son is an empire-builder. I don't know what he'll do in the future, but for now he is staking his claim all over our little acreage. His current projects are in the Shetland boys' wooded lot. There is a "fort" (which looks more like a brush pile) and a look-out. Today he begged me to eat lunch with him in the fort.

I took these before shinnying in on my hands and knees; the things we do for love!

From the fort you can see the look-out (or as Brian likes to say, from the look-out you can keep an eye on the fort).

Before that boy leaves home for good, he's going to have a lot of clean-up to do. In the meantime, it's more wholesome activity than many boys his age engage in!

Meanwhile, down on the ground, some of the sheep are looking rather raggedy.

Annabelle's fleece is the loosest, but I'm thinking I will be able to roo more of my sheep than ever before this year. That will make for a less expensive bill come shearing day April 14. I'm glad everyone is in sheep suits; it prevents them from rubbing off their valuable wool. I need to get busy and collect mid-side samples for micron testing. BTW, I still have fleeces available to reserve!

That's it for now from . . .

A change of pace

I know, I know, this blog has been monotonous lately. Sheep and flowers, flowers and sheep. Yawn. How about something exciting – like KNITTING!?!

Last night I finally got a big volunteer job ready for proofing, and felt I could indulge myself and cast on something. This hat called my name, in part because I have always been intrigued with how to get vertical stripes in knitted projects without knitting sideways. So I grabbed the bit of orange yarn I had left over from Christmas gifts, plus some brown yarn from stash, and started my California Poppies Hat:

Just for good measure, here is this morning's sunrise:

That's it for today from . . .