A "State of Nearly Everything" address

Once again updating this bloggy has gotten away from me! And the more time passes, the harder it is to wrestle the updates into a post; I've been working at this for over a week weeks.

Sheepy things first; after all, that's why this blog was begun. 😉

Drumroll: skirting has started! I neglected to collect mid-side samples from two of my sheep during shearing, so I finally pulled and skirted those two fleeces (on two different days) in order to collect samples and get them all sent off to Texas A&M for micron testing. Skirting involves more standing than my knees can comfortably handle, just like too much sitting, but I need to tackle one a day whenever possible to 'git er done' so I can ship off reserved fleeces and advertise the rest. Here are Sanson's and Bonnie's fleeces on the rack:

Young Bryan continues to please and impress. He is getting a taste of 'flock life;' I've started turning the 'barn sheep' (Bernice and Bryan, Bridget and Bitsy) out into the middle pasture. Rick tilled and seeded it but nothing germinated; still, there are a few patches of grass here and there and around the edges for them to eat, and get some exercise and sunshine while doing it.

this one was taken on 5/26; the photos above on 5/21

The larger group of ewes are currently 'forest sheep.' The small wooded lot had a lot of grass, mostly decimated now, but there is a hay feeder there and lots of shade from our early summer heat.

Another drumroll: the day of my last post I did get the garden seeds in the ground: green beans, snowpeas, beets, carrots, and zucchini. Sprouts of all are up, and the starts we planted are looking good. The strawberries are producing big fruit which we are enjoying fresh for now, while the apples, prunes, and cherries work on their crops. Hoping for LOTS of apples, as we're getting close to using up all of the sauce in our pantry.

Last Thursday I had my six-week post-op appointment with my surgeon. If I had expected cheers or high-fives, I would have been disappointed. He thinks I'm doing well, but said I'll need to continue to work hard at PT since my goals are much higher than those of his typical patient. I asked about agility; he thought I should wait on that until the end of June. I asked about riding, and to my surprise he said, "Go ahead and ride; I'm not concerned about that." Woot! Of course I went home, saddled up Stella and rode (proof provided by Brian), and have ridden nearly every day since. Very short rides they are, just walking at first but now we are trotting just a little, too. To my relief riding is mostly comfortable, if I keep my feet in the stirrups (instead of letting my legs hang like I usually do during warm-up) and don't trot too long. Stella has been a good girl, although she would still prefer to go faster-faster-faster.

On Sunday evening when I led Stella to the arena to ride, a young buck was already there. He didn't seem to notice me and wasn't worried about Stella, so I managed to get fairly close using Stella as my blind. A week before that when I was doing groundwork with Stella, she noticed something in the bottom pasture. As I watched, I saw a doe, then a fawn, then a second fawn. I put Stella in the barn, called my neighbor, and together we relocated the two babies to my neighbor's side of the fence (their mom had already jumped over), where there is plenty of tall grass to hide in and no horses or terriers to worry about. Seems to be a banner year for deer; I may call them 'meadow rats,' but still enjoy seeing them.

Speaking of using up all our stock. As of Memorial Day, we were down to three bales of last year's hay, so picking up the small crop of first cutting our favorite local grower had in his barn for us was imperative. That necessitated a bunch of other labor first, though. Through various combinations of equipment and muscle, we had already moved the miscellaneous cabinets and bookshelves from Rick's old clinic out of the barn aisle and up to the new shop, but there was still old clinic stuff on our big trailer. This time, through combinations of borrowed equipment and muscle (and removing a header board to make room), Rick and I got the huge stocks off the trailer and into the shop (along with the old washer and dryer); then it was off to pick up two loads of hay and stack it in the barn. I helped as much as I could (probably too much); Rick did yeoman's work. Chuckie, of course, was chief inspector.

Crossing fingers that the coming month sees my mom relocated from TX to an apartment near my sister in Lincoln, NE. A date has been set; my BIL is flying down on June 21 to drive Mom and her car north. But lots of things have to happen before that, so my sister purchased a refundable ticket. She and I have both observed a steady decline in her cognition and memory, even long-term memory. I look forward to flying east to see her and my sister and family once Mom gets settled. It's been a long three years since Dad died....

That's all the news for now from . . .

Nose to the grindstone

Well, I'm back to full responsibility, if not full function or fun. That's okay; my guys 'held down the fort' for a little over four weeks, and I really do like caring for my animals. My knees actually feel better after I potter around at half speed doing chores, so following chores up with a PT session works well. Monday, the day the shop floor got poured, I got over 12,000 steps, my daily minimum pre-surgery. Even though my steps are shorter and slower now, I am hoping that more movement gets my resting heart rate back to its usual range in the mid-50s instead of the post-surgical low-70s. It would also be nice to sleep better, but I have wished for that for years so there's probably not much hope there. 😏

Getting back to full fun would mean agility with Poppy and riding Stella; I'm not there yet. As my SIL pointed out, our cementless artificial joint(s) need time for bone to grow into them for full strength and stability. I have an appointment with my surgeon May 22 and I plan to ask him about time frames. In the meantime, I put Poppy through some of her tricks/paces in the house, and as of Tuesday, I am doing regular groundwork with Stella to refresh our partnership before I get back in the saddle.

On Tuesday I decided to get Bernice and her Bryan outside to get decent photos. Bryan appears to have won the lottery in the genetic gamble of (unintentional!) in-breeding, concentrating the good qualities instead of the bad. His structure, ear set, tail, and especially fleece all look good, and in my experience those early indicators can be counted on into maturity. If he keeps developing well, he'll be kept intact as another available breeding ram. Like Bench, he is too closely related to almost all of my ewes to be used here but may be too nice to wether. Here he is, less than 40 hours old:

I had big plans to finish up garden prep on Wednesday with the starts and seeds I purchased the day before, but that and everything else got shelved when I had to take Brian to see a doctor and then to the ED. We left at 10:00 a.m. and didn't arrive back home until almost 8:30, me with very unhappy knees. No certain answers yet, but lifestyle issues are strongly suspected (plus ZERO tolerance for pain). At least Rick was kind enough to do evening chores for me. Thursday morning I did get the starts in the ground (burpless cucumbers; oops, I didn't realize Rick already planted some!) and stock tank planter (basil and lettuce). Maybe I'll get the seeds in the ground today, but I have lots of other things on today's to-do list as well. I do still take a little time to 'smell the roses'.... (We only have the one out by the entry gate; it was there when we bought this place 30 years ago!)

Brian is holing up in his room focusing on his misery, so we're down to two of us (one and a half?) at the worst possible time. I can't do much to help Rick stack hay (our local hay producer has 107 bales waiting for us, and we're down to seven bales in our barn), or move all the cabinets and shelves from the old clinic that are stored in the barn aisle up to the shop so we can stack hay. I don't know any local lads we could hire for muscle, either. We'll figure something out; we have to. C'est la vie, again (that seems to be my theme).

That's it for now from . . .

Happy Mothers Day, Bernice!

My 'pregnant teenager' Bernice lambed last night! She looked a little suspicious at chore time, so I went back down a couple hours later and found her talking to a vigorous moorit ram lamb who was already up and soon at her udder. She was being a great little mother; I watched for quite awhile to see if a twin or the afterbirth would be delivered and finally decided she was done. When I got to the house I woke Brian up (he had fallen asleep on the couch)  and asked if he'd mind if I named my Mothers Day lamb after him, since he's the one who made me a mother. He grinned and said that was fine; now I have to decide if the lamb will be Brian, Bryan, or Bry. If he's wethered it won't matter as I won't register him, but time will tell. Yes, he's the result of 'line-breeding' of which I'm not a fan, but sometimes the results can be awesome and first impressions are extremely positive.

No matter the late night, this morning started bright and early at 5:00 to finish prepping for the concrete coming at 7:00. My contributions were doing all the chores (as I did Sabbath morning; at half-speed but still, yay me!) and returning the laser level to the equipment rental store. Brian took the morning off to help, along with several other volunteers (bless them!) but ended up getting sick (possibly/probably with Norovirus😷). I spent hours on hold then talking to a nurse on his behalf; he was begging to go to the ER or urgent care but that isn't warranted at this point. He is not an easy patient – and I am not a natural nursemaid like my MIL, but Rick thought I should stay home today and do my best.

ANYway, here are progress photos of our beautiful new shop floor. Thanks to Rick's FIL and BIL (who took over his father's concrete business and drove up from CA with tools to head up the project), we have a nicer finish in our shop than we do our garage or daylight basement floor!

We've gotten a little rain over the weekend and today, not the soaking we need but better than nothing. I've been taking photos of our iris and other flowers as they bloom, and raindrops add a sparkly touch.

Oh, we did have a very nice family Mothers Day breakfast (Rick's mom and FIL along with the three of us), and my son gave me delicious chocolates and a card that made me cry. Wish we could have had my mom here; I called her and we had an hour-long chat. My sister and I also went together and sent her flowers.

That's it for now from . . .