'Black Friday' effects linger

That's what I've begun to call last Friday. Bud's accident was the crowning crisis but a couple other things happened that night, all of which may have been avoided if we hadn't been trying to do the right thing by a church member about whom a mutual friend was concerned. To consider the friend's concerns we attended supper at the church member's home, where Rick lost his emergency pager and I bit down on something hard, causing immediate piercing pain in a tooth. Rick has not been able to find his pager, my offended tooth is increasingly sensitive to cold and heat and its side of the jaw is aching, and of course the jury is still out on Bud, who I discovered much later than I usually would have because of the dinner. At least Bud has made a bit of improvement; he's now eating, drinking, and looking brighter, even trying to get away from his nightly shots. And even though the whole limb still droops uselessly from Bud's withers, yesterday morning I thought I saw a bit of forward movement in his right knee as he hobbled around.

Speaking of knees, my left knee is much improved after it betrayed me two weeks ago. I was able to go to agility class last Wednesday, although I wasn't speedy and used my knee brace for added support; I expect to be pretty much back to 'normal' tonight. My right knee has been crankier for the compensating it's had to do, but the sports physician and exercise therapist are addressing its problems as well. If I continue with the exercises on my own, I will hopefully avoid another painful episode that interferes with my activities.

Speaking of activities, I got the photos of Poppy taken at our last agility trial. I shared some of these on Instagram/Facebook already, but a few more are included below. I just love seeing her like this!

With the occasional showers we've gotten, the grass is greening up and I've stopped serving the ewes and lambs hay in the pasture. This, they feel, is a grave disservice, so they holler at me whenever I'm outside. The three ewe lambs slip under the fence (see photos below) and go off to find better pickings; if I don't shut the barn door, they go in and help themselves, making a mess of any open bales. Bridget still hollers at me for putting her in with Bijou, and Blaise and Bitsy complain about being in the barn. The only quiet sheep on the place are the rams; go figure. In our house, the males are the more talkative. 😉

The guys worked hard on the shop last Sunday to get it ready for trusses, to be delivered Friday. The truss company's boom truck doesn't have enough room to lift them, so Rick is renting equipment for that next Tuesday. We've been discussing siding and roofing colors; I think dark green siding would help it blend in instead of looming large, and Rick wants a white or beige roof (which won't be visible from the house) to reduce solar gain in the summer.

Next up: Fall eye candy! Until then, that's it for now from . . .