Baa baa black sheep; have you any ewes?

"Yes sir, yes sir; a whole fold full!" (Spot was actually watching Stella playing in the arena, but I assume he can smell the ewes as well as Blaise can smell him.) Now the only question is, which ones will he get to meet?

Poppy, what are you doing in the pasture!!!

When the ewes were out on pasture yesterday, I saw that one of the leg straps on Bernadette's coat had broken. So I put the girls back in the fold before it could get out of place and hobble her, and swapped it out for a bigger one. Of course that called for fleece-swooning and a photo, and I also noticed she needed her toes trimmed. I've been wanting to get my hands on Sarai to assess whether she's in good enough condition to put her in the breeding group, so I did that next. Her toes were really long (she and her line always grow 'fairy slippers'), so she and her daughter Bridget got pedicures and photos taken of their fleeces, too. That took care of nearly half of the girls, so I figured I might as well do all of them – right?

Bernadette

Sarai

Bridget

Blaise

Bette

Vienna

Bree

I must admit that getting up close and personal with every ewe didn't help me any with my breeding group decisions. In fact, in a dream I had last night they all got put with Spot! Yeah; that's not going to happen.... But it is oh, so tempting to see what he would throw with each of my fine-fleeced girls, not just Blaise and my oldest two ewes, Sarai and Vienna.

Today was the lovely lull between two wet fronts. I turned the girls out,

swept the garage and outside steps, cleaned out the daylily and white flag beds, then donned the backpack blower and blew leaves off the driveway and arena again. Then I rewarded myself with a ride down the lane and back on Lance, reveling in the beauty all around, and then schooled Stella without concern about mashing leaves into the sand and reducing drainage.

It's been a good day at . . .