Fall at full speed

Me? I've been hobbling to keep up. 😞 At six months post bilateral TKRs, it seems I should be doing better than I have been. Part of this is my fault; I stopped consistently doing my PT exercises, relying instead on what I call "functional fitness" – the many activities of my daily life – to progress. I finally acknowledged that I was losing ground in some critical areas and have resumed daily PT. But the other part is continuing sciatica, possibly combined with sacroiliac joint pain. Yesterday evening after another uncomfortable day at the office covering for Rick's secretary (it's happening more frequently than we like), I decided to take two Aleve. Ahhhhh; noticeable relief. Since I've met my out-of-pocket expenses for the year, I need to see if a physical therapist or chiropractor can help with the sciatica/SI; I don't want to rely on NSAIDs. But with fall progressing at full speed, it's hard to find time to schedule additional things.

Here are some of the happenings since my last blogpost.

Poppy and I had a successful agility match; good weather and three qualifying scores from four classes. The next 'local' match is  on November 2, but I have entered a different competition on that day – the National Indoor Mountain Trail Greenies show with Stella! The National Indoor Mountain Trail Championships are the following weekend and it would be fun to enter both, but it's two hours away and Rick may have to haul us down with his new vet truck; I'll be fortunate (and excited!) to make it to one.

After I got home from the agility match, Bryan's new owners arrived to pick him up. Since Bryan's sale came from a post on the FB Shetland Sheep group, I just posted there about three more available sheep; reducing my flock would be beneficial for many reasons. I neglected to get "good bye" photos of Bryan, but did take pictures of his dam Bernice's lovely fleece that day:

she still has some color along her spine

midside

In the food harvest and preservation arena, one of our neighbors offered me some of their last-of-season tomatoes; together with the few from our garden I was able to put up seven pints and seven quarts. That (and the discomfort of standing for any length of time) put off applesauce a bit longer. I'm  still working on that; there's room for two more cannersful of quarts on my pantry shelves. When my mom's youngest cousin and his wife spent a day with us in the midst of their Wisconsin to West Coast RV trip, I made Butternut Lasagne from the first of our garden's winter squash harvest and zucchini muffins from some of our last summer squash. I still have some basil, eggplant, peppers, carrots, and beets to pick; the latter two will go into one last salad with some of our Braeburn apples. It has been a good season for homegrown fruit and veggies; going back to purchased produce will be an adjustment. The hens have slowed down; a five-egg day now is noteworthy. But we're still getting plenty for us with some extra to sell.

The never-ending shop project finally has overhead doors, and the wood storage is 3/4 full; woot! No, the guys haven't moved stuff from the garage yet so Rick can park in there; they are going to use lumber milled from one of the dead firs in our lower pasture to make a storage loft first. Still, more visible progress.

We'll be using some of that firewood soon, I think. The weather has definitely changed with the seasons; rainy periods have greened up the landscape and fall colors are appearing – more in town than here so far. We're using the heat pump to take the chill off in the house, and the cloudscapes are often spectacular.

No clouds obscured the recent full moon, which almost looked larger than Mt. Hood on the horizon!

Birthday/holiday season is upon us, ready or not. I need to start making plans for Rick's birthday which is next week, as my MIL will want to be included.

That's it for now from . . .