Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Stardust

It's a crisp, cold, starry night out there. Mars and Venus are keeping a big ol' sliver of moon company in the western sky, but they were hiding behind trees from where I took this photo:
Five more eggs today; the hens are on a roll! Speaking of baked goods, I'm thinking the sheepy girls must all have buns in their ovens based on the amount of hay and water they're consuming. Sarai and Vienna, who were in the earlier breeding group, are still a month away from their earliest possible lambing date, though. Wait; a month isn't that long, especially the way my life seems to careen along! Guess I'd better start thinking about preparing the nursery!

That's it from a very tired shepherdess at . . .

Monday, January 30, 2017

Three cheers!

This afternoon between work and Brian's basketball game,
Brian's team won!
I stopped at home to let the dogs out, stoke the fire, give the horses lunch, and pick up eggs. There were four brown gifts, a good haul for a winter's day.

Tonight when I locked the girls up, I found two more eggs on the coop floor, both green (the left one is minus the shell):

That means all six of our younger hens, the three black olive-eggers (one of which lays brown eggs) and the three Australorps, laid eggs today; hurray!

I just have to show you what Sunday morning looked like, after the beautiful Sabbath morning sunrise I shared in the last post:
How's that for pea soup?

That's it for today from . . .

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Glory in the morning

This morning's sunrise was a much needed "shot in the arm." I took photos with my camera to share here, and photos with my iPhone to share on Instagram. I hope you find them inspiring!

The first one is the "full screen" view from the end of our deck. Most of my sunrise photos are taken to the right of our clump of firs in the center of this shot; Mt. Hood is visible to the left. All are straight of the camera (SOOC).



That's it for now from . . .

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Brighten the corner where you are

Be a blessing; be a light. But don't be surprised if you get push-back; evil favors darkness. John 3:19-21

That's it for now from . . .

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Trumpery

(The title is a very old word that couldn't be more relevant.)

I just deleted what some might call a rant, and others might call a sermon; maybe it was a little of both. But since now more than ever before, everyone has their mind made up and nothing, not even facts and photos, can dissuade them of their opinion, there is no point in sharing mine. So I will just post some pretty photos of our view from the past several mornings, and take comfort that “He Who is the Faithful Witness to all these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon!’’ Then repeat with John, “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!” Revelation 22:20






That's it for now from . . .

Friday, January 20, 2017

Music video #3

I played "Windy and Warm" on my iPhone for Brian's violin teacher today because he'd never heard it. Then he accompanied Brian on a little Martin Hayes tune they've been working on; I thought it showed a definite influence!



A blog reader emailed me a sweet note after I posted the Windy and Warm video; turns out she knows the guitarist, Tommy Emmanuel, personally! Sometimes it really is a small world.

That's it for today from . . .

Another music video ;-)

Blogpal Theresa posted this last night; it is too perfect not to share again!

Springtime For Hitler - The Producers 2005 by HolleyGoss

I didn't see her post until this morning, though. When Brian and I got home around 4:00 yesterday after work/school, we had no electricity. I called the PGE hotline; only 35 people had called it in at that point, so I figured it was either a very small outage or a very recent one. Turned out it was the latter. We got some necessary things done in the remaining daylight, then lit candles and found our headlamps. I finished the hat I was working on,
then my friend showed up to carpool with me to a meeting. Still no power when I got home after 9:00, so I got to bed at a decent time for a change!

Everything (here) was back to normal this morning; the jury will be out awhile on the state of the union.

Thankful for wood heat, warmer temperatures, and Bible promises at . . .

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Windy and Warm



Well, that was fast! We went from temps in the teens and twenties to almost 50° with a stiff south wind and driving rain, and there went all that beautiful snow.
Yesterday morning

This morning (it's completely gone tonight)
A blessing, really, to have this quick transition from frozen to thawed; the Columbia River Gorge is still dealing with a major ice storm.


In comparison, we've just had to collect scattered buckets, pick up tree debris, and slosh through mud and water.


Tonight Rick helped me give the four bred girls their second oxytetracycline shots and trimmed all their feet. All of them ended up with some degree of foot rot after being in the Ram-ada Inn lot for breeding, my first experience with this in my decade of owning Shetland sheep. I don't know if Nightcap brought it in; he was lame when he arrived although that has since cleared up. Oh well; it's here now, so we have to deal with it.

That's it for today from . . .

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Yesterday's sunrise

That's it for this soggy, sloppy day from . . .

Monday, January 16, 2017

Waiting for change

Will it be an easy transition, or a nasty one? Will things go better than predicted by some, or worse than predicted by others?

You do know I'm talking about the weather, right? ;-)

This lovely snow has lasted a week; that's notable in our neck of the woods. Today was the first day it's gotten above freezing here during the same period, although not enough to effect much melting. That's supposed to come with the rain that moving in overnight – maybe. Along the Columbia River Gorge and into Portland they are expecting another major ice storm; we may or may not get that. We'll see what daybreak brings!

In the meantime, Brian and I took advantage of this beautiful day to walk up the hill and deliver some baked goods to a neighbor who had surgery last week. With the medical issues, her dogs haven't gotten much attention, so we loved on Milo and Sugar, too. When we admired Milo's flooffy tail, he grabbed it in his own mouth and spun around in circles – more than once!
As you can see, we did find a plastic toboggan for Brian. After white-washing my face, he took a short cut across the field with it to avoid revenge. ;-)

Today's treasure is this – tattered maple samaras, holding a heart in their embrace. Ponder that.

That's it for now from . . .

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Feeding the FitBit, feeding the soul


Taken with numb fingers on a late-afternoon walk up the hill with a happy snow-dog companion.

That's it for today from . . .

Friday, January 13, 2017

Cake, Carnegie, and cuddling

The day started out cold and beautiful.


Inside there was baking and cooking for potluck after church tomorrow.

Then I picked up Brian from his half-day of school and took him to his violin lesson. Sadly, on the way I got an answer to a question I asked yesterday. You know; "Don't people READ? Like, BOOKS?" Apparently not. It was reported on OPB today that all libraries in Douglas Co. are closing, including the one in Roseburg, its largest city of ~22,000, because residents have repeatedly declined to fund them. Andrew Carnegie (Brian did a homeschool report on him) must be rolling over in his grave....

Then there was this, to end the day on a sweet note. This capture is today's treasure.  ;-)

That's it for now from . . .

Thursday, January 12, 2017

This is not a typical "farm post"

If that's what you're looking for, then it's probably better to move along and come back another day. ;-)

First, a state-of-the-resolution address, in a manner of speaking. My non-acquisition decision is holding firm, without much difficulty so far. Every once in awhile I have to remind myself that I'm not buying any "stuff" this year and Self goes, "Oh, that's right; no point in looking then." I've listed a couple things on eBay, and I'm working on utilizing and using up what I already have in foodstuffs. Between the weather and less need for me at the office, I haven't had much opportunity to go grocery shopping this year anyway.  Recently I took stock of what I had, consulted a favorite cookbook, and made Russian Carrot Pie for supper. It was tasty; even the pie crust turned out well with relatively little fuss. (That was obviously a confidence-builder, because I made a pumpkin  sweetmeat squash pie for dinner tonight!)

Yesterday we went to town in Rick's 4WD vet truck (Brian had another snow day), so I was able to pick up some staples like potatoes, dry beans, and brown rice. We also stopped at a few stores to find a couple items recommended for Brian's upcoming Wilderness Class snow-camping trip. Most of the time I stayed in the truck and knit (not looking, remember) but I picked up a prescription at Walmart and asked a clerk if they had any toboggans. The response? "What's a toboggan?" =:-O  Brian looked for snowshoes there and at Big 5 Sporting Goods, and the clerks directed him to snow boots – you know, footwear for cold weather. Ay-yi-yi! I mean, I understand that we do not live in an area that usually sees this much winter weather, but don't people READ? Like, BOOKS??? What happened to basic vocabulary?

Speaking of vocabulary, I listened to the First Lady's farewell speech (and stayed up to watch her on late-night TV – which I rarely do – last night), President Obama's farewell speech, and read (I could only handle listening for so long) the transcript of Trump's first press conference since July. (I also read every word of the transcripts from the last two presidential debates.) Ai-yi-yi! The differences are stark, and very unflattering to the president-elect. Regardless of party or policy, I want the leader of the free world to be well spoken; i.e., to sound like s/he has the experience, temperament, intelligence – and yes, vocabulary – to interact calmly with those around them, including other world leaders. Would any elementary or high school teacher want their students to emulate Trump in words or actions? I certainly expect and require better from my son.

Moving on to less depressing foci, I cast my eye around the place this afternoon. As always, there is beauty to be found, beauty that reminds me of the Creator who is ultimately in charge. That doesn't mean bad things won't happen in this world; that's the price of free will. But someday all the ugliness will be destroyed. Beauty wins.










That's it for now from . . .