So festive!

Blogging time has sprinted away from me while I've been distracted by Covid, my knee diagnosis,  playing ring-around-the-rammies, the weather, an agility trial, and my first ever Advent spin! I'm determined to get a post up today, then it's off to the races again.

Except for some residual drainage, we've all recovered from the bug. And for whatever reason, I had a full week of comfort in which my knees rarely bothered me, making my diagnosis seem an abstraction. Then yesterday they started complaining again, and I had a very uncomfortable night. Makes no sense to me; I hope to get some answers on January 20 at my appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. I asked for a surgeon who is open to bilateral surgery, and have started compiling a list of questions for him.

Last week was full of "he-jinx." The ewes have been taking turns coming into heat, standing at and walking the fence closest to the rams. All the boys were/are interested, but mild-mannered Bench turned into a jerk with the two other big boys, constantly bickering and butting. Bijou started laying down more than usual, a sign of a suffering sheep, so I texted the person who had reserved him to see if they could pick him up early, before he could get seriously hurt. Then on Saturday morning I did a double-take at chore time:

What is wrong with this picture? There's only supposed to be three.

Relieved to see that Bud, left, could still stand!

Bud, the ram lamb, has been kept in protective custody on one side of the Ram-ada Inn since he broke his shoulder. Somehow someone 'broke him out,' and there he was in the wooded lot with three mature rams in hormonal temper! Amazingly, he seemed none the worse for the experience, but I immediately set to work separating everyone for optimum safety (good thing we had to stay home from church anyway due to Covid). On Tuesday afternoon, Bijou's new owner picked him up so he's now out of the fray.

December started all aglitter, as befitting this holiday month. We awoke on Sunday (early, due to an agility trial) to our first hard frost, and it has been frosty every morning since. Frost art!

Sunday was a cold day to run agility, never getting out of the 30s. Poppy and I got two first place Qs – and got to put two tickets in the "Blew the Q" raffle (but she was still a rock star 😁).

I also started my first Advent spin on Sunday. A couple members of the Jenkins community on Ravelry volunteered to do all the work if people wanted to contribute fiber and pay postage. They did an amazing job of dividing and packaging everything into 10g fiber snacks for 58 people to open every day of December through Christmas. So far I've managed to spin each daily snack into singles, but sometimes just barely. I'm giving myself through this weekend to keep up; after that I may cut myself some slack and enjoy the fiber snacks (and the holidays!) a bit more at my leisure.

Opened and started at the agility trial!

Time to close and get back to work, but first, my daily IG/FB posts made since my last blog post:

Butternut lasagne (a family favorite) – it's what's for Thanksgiving dinner!

Happy unofficial first day of the Christmas season!

Dogs are good medicine.

My first Advent spin, thanks to a holiday fiber swap with fellow Jenkins spindle lovers on Ravelry.. Started while hanging out in the car between classes at an agility trial.

Waiting to go out on pasture in the morning.

A lovely little sunset  from horseback.

Dogs are good entertainment.

Good morning.

That's it for now from . . .

Gnarly, man!

I do hope you are all having a good day/Thanksgiving. Here, it's been a week of gnarly. I felt a cold trying to get a toe-hold on Monday, but thought I might beat it with lots of water, Vitamin C, zinc, and rest, and went to bed early. Tuesday my car had a long appointment to get its suspension systems replaced, so a friend* picked me up and we had coffee and ran errands together. By the time my car was ready I was so tired, and SO COLD! I turned my seat and cabin heaters on high and was comfortable by the time I got home, but the house was cold (the fire had gone out the night before). I turned my electric blanket on high and pre-heat and crawled in to warm up again, and fell deeply asleep. Good thing I had set an alarm or I probably would have slept right through my MRI appointment. By then I wondered if I had a fever and was hoping to avoid any questions or temp-taking at the hospital which would have postponed my appointment, because I have another appointment on December 5 that hinges on the MRI results. Fortunately for me (and hopefully not unfortunately for anyone else) I skated through and got the MRIs. Again, I had to run the car heaters on full blast, and crawled back in bed when I got home. Besides being insufferably cold, my head was throbbing, my brain was muddled, and my skin was hypersensitive. I crawled out of bed after 10 pm to eat a grapefruit, couldn't taste it, and took a COVID test:

Wednesday morning Rick, who along with his secretary has been fighting a 'cold,' decided to test as well. Also positive. Of course. So much for our Thanksgiving plans.

My gnarly MRI results arrived on Wednesday. Extensive, complex tears in the menisci, full thickness articular cartilage loss, severe patellofemoral arthritis – in BOTH. I'm looking at total knee replacements . . . eventually. Symptoms are the reason to do TKRs, not test results, and right now I'm mostly functional with daily naproxen sodium. But that light at the end of the tunnel? It's a train. 🙄

I continue to look for those pretty/peaceful/positive images to share daily on IG/FB; I need that focus now more than ever. Here are the photos and captions posted since my last blogpost:

Shetlands are sometimes called "hill sheep, I have a subset – 'tree sheep.'

One of the many things I like about 'our' town is its public art. This sculpture by Steve Tyree (who lives on the same hill as us) is in front of our hospital.

It's Beautyberry season!

Oh, and I've finished the first sleeve of my sweater! One sleeve left to go....

*Said friend was vaccinated, so isn't worried. Thankful!

That's the gnarly news from . . .

An even dozen

Today I broke up my one and only breeding group pair by removing Bridget from Bijou in the Ram-ada lot and putting her in with the other girls, who were already out on pasture. Bridget had to be investigated, of course; several thought she smelled verrrrry interesting.

Yep, I have, count 'em, twelve girls now. 😳

My other adult ewes have been taking turns standing at the fence plaintively calling to Bench and Sanson across the driveway, which drives them (and me) to distraction. The ewes are so clearly showing their 2-3 day heat cycles that I'm considering halter-breeding pairs in the future. If successful, I'd have firm lambing dates and could plan around things like our church's spring women's retreat. Don't know when that future might be, though – certainly not unless/until I sell some!

It's been over six weeks since Bud got his leg caught in his feeder; it's time to x-ray his shoulder again and see if it's healed/healing. (Not sure when that will happen; Rick has been spending every spare minute working on the shop.) Bud doesn't try to use his right leg at all; just packs it around like this:

If the broken bone has healed, I think his leg is going to need some physiotherapy to function again.

Here are the most recent daily IG/FB photos with captions (if they had one).

This evening there were three Red-tailed Hawks soaring and screeching above our place. I love watching and hearing them!

A lovely way  to end the Sabbath Day.

Fragrant, hot loaves.

That camellia bud is on a tall shrub at the home of a friend. Camellias around town (we've never had one) often seem soggy and messy because they bloom during our wet season, but this one is delightful. Here the other photos I took of it:

Busy week ahead. Both my car and my knees have appointments on Tuesday, and of course Thursday is Thanksgiving. We're joining a big group at my MIL's house for that; I have my assigned menu items to prep and make Wednesday and Thursday.

That's it for now from . . .