First taste of Fair

Last night I went with Rick on his evening State Fair check-in. Walking through all the animal areas, a few things caught my fancy. There were some COVID-cautious small ruminants; a very sleepy sheep; a couple cute camelids; and a pile o' piglets:

After Rick had completed his rounds, we both got raspberry milkshakes at the Dairy Barn and wandered around the rest of the fairgrounds to see what we could see. It was late, so the Creative Living building (my favorite) was already closed, but I'll get to see that tomorrow when I'm demonstrating in the spinning circle. Some fire dancers gathered quite a crowd; watching fire flicker seems universally mesmerizing:

Today there were a couple more 'first tastes.' Our hay guy called, so we picked up the 50 bales he had for us. Gorgeous green second cutting for the sheep (first photo); no more mature seedheads in their neck wool! Obviously this is only a start on what we need for the coming year, but we are glad to have it – and so are the sheep. As soon as we feed up the rest of last year's first cutting (second photo) to the horses, we'll be moving in at least eight tons of this year's crop for them, and looking for more sheep hay.

And I got my first taste out of my new sheep mug. It was on sale because the glaze was heavy and obscured the design, but I still love it:

Finally, a huge thank-you to all who commented or emailed after my last post! It is so nice to know there are real people behind all those visits Blogger records; I hope you'll keep saying "Hi" – at least once in awhile!

That's it for now from . . .

Will you do me a favor?

"I see you; come talk to me!"

"Wait; what about me?"

Blogger tells me that my last blog post has had 71 views, but no one has left a comment. Is it just me that thinks it odd that 71 people have stopped by but haven't said so much as "Hi"? Maybe you can't; maybe something in the settings is 'broken.' If that's the case, you should be able to contact me using the hot link at right that says "Email me!"; it's the first item under the word "LINKS." Let me know if the 'comments' function is broken or difficult, so I can improve it if possible.

From my own experience, particularly this past spring, I know that sometimes I'm too overwhelmed in my  own life to do more than read others' blogs. If this is you right now, I understand and I'm sorry. Here's some beauty for your troubled soul:

Wanting to connect at . . .

Fun, sun, spun

Before this weekend rolls around, I want to share photos from our little beach excursion last weekend. We attended a going-away get-together for a gal Brian went to high school with; she and another schoolmate are going as nursing student missionaries for a school year. Poppy came along, of course.

It was cooler on the coast than inland, but by no means chilly. It was a truly beautiful, still evening, and a lot of people were out enjoying it.

Sunday evening's sunset colors at home (looking north and east) were very pretty, too:

Monday morning I looked ENE and saw hot air balloons rising with Mt. Adams visible beyond:

Even though it's been hot, some sourdough starter had to be harvested so I made another batch of bread. It drooped over the side of my pizza stone but that's okay; I had a cucumber to fit the curve!

Rick is the veterinarian for the State Fair again this year, so he's been getting up early to do a walk-through of the animals arriving before taking care of his regular calls. (The State Fair opens to the public tomorrow but Rick started Tuesday.) Before he leaves he lets Poppy in the bedroom to snuggle with me for a bit before we go out to do chores.

Poppy hunts; Chuckie supervises

I finished spinning the colorful batts I bought at Black Sheep Gathering, and have started spinning this black alpaca/Merino/Tussah that I got in a TdF prize drawing to ply with them. It's making fun yarn!

That's it for now from . . .

A flock of photos

Including, of course, more photos of the flock! (This blog was started primarily to promote my sheep, after all!)

Last week I was admiring and loving on Mr. Boomy, and decided to take more photos. He's growing so fast, and I want to be able to send current photos to interested parties. Since his last photo shoot, he's actually grown enough to wear a halter without jury-rigging (barely).

After admiring him (and thinking of how Boop trashed her fleece), I decided to coat him. Thanks to someone who got out of sheep and gave me their coats, I actually have a selection of the smallest sizes; at just six weeks old, Boomer needed the smallest.

Of course, whenever someone in the flock gets a 'new look,' everyone stares:

That's big Broadway, the last nekkid sheep. Gotta get a coat on that girl....

After the novelty wears off, there's always the shepherd's fingers to draw them in:

In other farm news, we now have a source for horse hay, sitting safe in a barn until we've fed up last year's – and it's reasonable, if a bit of a drive. We also have a lead in central Oregon for sheep hay, if our local guy can't supply us. In the meantime, I've started supplementing Spot with some alfalfa and rice bran pellets so he's in good condition for the upcoming breeding season. I'm looking forward to more stunning Spot babies!

We're still sweating through summer, but the days are getting noticeably shorter and colder weather's coming. So last Sunday and this we worked on moving the huge pile of split firewood into the woodshed. We're not done yet, but it's filling up.

While we've been moving wood under shelter, the mice seem to be moving into the barn. They're chewing up stuff in the tackroom and leaving their pellets everywhere. Poppy is frantic to catch them, but there are too many hidey-holes. I won't use poison because of Poppy and Chuckie and homemade non-toxic solutions (the water bucket trap, and using a mixture of cornbread mix and baking soda) are slow and cruel ways to die. Not even invasive mice deserve that. So I went shopping for regular ol' mousetraps, and found something 'better.' Since they are guaranteed, I splurged, and am pleased to report that they work well and are easy to empty. So far, five tackroom mice have met their demise.

I'll close with miscellaneous scenes of the season.

That's it for now from . . .