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 . . .

On my mark, getting set....

This was the forecast this morning. Just LOOK at that long stretch of dry, even sunny weather! That means no excuses to collect fleece samples and start shearing. I want to start with the three younger preggie girls (Blaise doesn't have much wool and needs the insulation) but I already have two black hogget fleeces reserved – which is good, because I'll have five of them. It should also help the grass grow, and perk up the primroses I planted in a pot out front:

In the meantime, there's been some excitement in the bonus room. Yes, I took 'before' photos, but I'm going to wait to share them until there's more visible progress. In other words, the room is still a disaster . . . except for one little bit of organizational heaven. Remember my dream of an antique spool cabinet? After doing a little searching locally (nothing), I turned to the internet, specifically Facebook Marketplace. There I found one a little plainer than I had imagined, but I could afford it and it was within easy driving distance of my agility class, so I picked it up last Thursday night.

From its landing on the cluttered antique table that belonged to my maternal grandmother, to its gainful employment as wire-wrapping supplies and spindle storage:

It's perfect and I love it!

That's it for now from . . .

Enjoying this change

March 2

March 3

March 4

March 5

The first four days of March started with snow; now we're ALL enjoying a few days of sunny, dry weather before the clouds and rain return. This morning, the mud was even frozen firm for awhile – another nice, if very temporary, change!

A less welcome change is in the works. The property on which Rick's veterinary clinic sits recently sold to a developer who plans to bulldoze most of the buildings on the large multi-use commercial lot and open a huge U-Haul dealership. DH hates change so this is stressful times for him; we've been in the same building since he bought the practice in 1995. We need to work on the what/when/where/how now, as we'll only get a three-month eviction notice. On top of that we have to keep in mind that his office manager plans to retire within two years, while we will try to hang on for eight years (our retirement options maximize when Rick turns 70).

In two days, we'll witness change in Rick's immediate family. Rick's mother is getting married again, and his sister and her three adult children (as well as one's spouse and kids) will be here for the event. I'm scurrying about getting ready to feed the extended family as they are all flying in. They won't come here, though; Rick's nephew is terribly allergic to horses – including the hair and dander that inevitably make their way into our house. We'll make my MIL's house home base, since she will be on her honeymoon.

Meanwhile, my creative juices are still flowing. The wire wrapping/wire weaving class of last Sunday was just the inspiration I needed; I got an excellent review of wrapping and learned the beginnings of weaving. While the five other students worked on provided polished stones/gems, I chose shells from my beach-combing collection to complete two projects:

I've since ordered a couple more tools and some 28-gauge wire for weaving, and am thinking of ways to better organize my stash of objects, tools, and supplies. If I can see at a glance what I have to work with, it will jump-start the creative process. My dream is to acquire an antique spool cabinet like that in the internet photo below to contain both my spindles and my wire-wrapping stash, but for now I'm thinking about what I can do with the space and storage I already have in the upstairs bonus room. It's become a messy accumulation of fleeces in bags, fiber and yarn in bags and bins, horse and dog show ribbons, books (our overflowing library shelves are up there), old computer and other office equipment and the desks they are on, cages and supplies from pet birds long gone, an antique table, my loom, etc. Clearly, lots of stuff needs to go, which will leave room for other stuff to be put away; the possibilities are actually rather exciting. Want to help hold me accountable? I hereby make transforming the bonus room my One Big Thing of 2024 (Lord willing and the creek don't rise). Although I'm not sure I'm up to sharing its current condition, as soon as I post this I'm going to take photos so I can mark and celebrate my progress. Hmm; maybe I should commit to sharing a new photo each week showing proof of progress. What do you think?

That's it for now from . . .

Babe Watch

Now that 'keeping an eye on the sheep' has become a rather obsessive pastime, I decided I'd better figure out the parameters of lambing season. Blog to the rescue. I recorded putting the breeding groups together on September 20, and Bijou attempted breeding Bridget right away. Gulp; that means lambing could begin any day now! I also recorded that Boop was bred several times on my birthday, which means lambing could continue into mid-April.

Broadway

Boop

Bridget

For the record, I'm not seeing any imminent signs of lambing; no udders are forming yet (in other words, none of them would make the cut for that infamous lifeguard crew on TV). Bridget (third photo), as always, is very woolly which obscures the view. At the least I need to trim her nether regions – or I could just shear her. The boys are all losing their throat wool, so I should check them for roo-ability. And before harvesting any fleece I need to collect fleece samples from everyone to send off for micron testing. Ah, Spring; the Shetland shepherd's busiest season!

Speaking of 'spring,' Brian has a cold (the cookies and brownies I baked for Valentine's Day probably didn't help), the horses are shedding, and my MIL's wedding is coming up in less than three weeks. The first of the daffodils (in the upper pasture) will unfurl this week, and the eggs keep coming. This morning I caught the hens during 'rush hour':

I left them to it while I took care of the horses and sheep, and when I came back, I collected two eggs and paused to video Spangle making cute noises:

I cut my latest weaving project off the loom today and knotted the fringe. I have lots more natural wool yarn for warp, but don't love what I have left of the natural dyed wool yarn for weft. I need to lay it all out and ponder my options; I might overdye some.

I've also started – gasp! – a second spinning project. Blame Ravelry; the Jenkins group is spinning variations of the 2024 Color of the Year, "Peach Fuzz," and I found this Inglenook "Pink Grapefruit" Polwarth in my stash. Starting this means I won't get my 'denim' project spun and plied by the end of the month, but I'm hoping to finish the singles.

In other crafting news, a nearby shop is advertising a wire-wrapping class on March 3. I really want to get back to wire-wrapping my beach-combing finds but desperately need a refresher, so I signed up in hopes the teacher is open to helping me with my technique rather than just the planned pendant.

My creative juices haven't run this strong in a long time; it's rather exciting. What's next – pulling out my oil paints, or getting back to stained glass???

Wonders never cease at . . .

Falling fast

"Fall" is the perfect description of this season in the PNW. Rain, leaves, and daylight are all falling fast. I knew what was coming even as I patted myself on the back for keeping up with the first leaves to fall in the arena; this is the progress regress from Friday (shown in my last post) to this morning:

As you can see, the Bigleaf Maples have rapidly changed color, too (and there are STILL a lot of leaves to fall; nevertheless, I will blow out the arena again today).

The colors; oh, the COLORS right now! I've taken a bunch of photos – Sabbath afternoon driving to and from church (first two photos below), then on a walk with Poppy around the hill late Sabbath afternoon (next four photos), more around our house on Monday morning, and finally at one of Rick's client's yesterday late afternoon (last four photos). Yes, these are the client's creations; they are stunning, and BIG (all over 7' tall). I have shared at least a couple photos of her work before; one was at the State Fair. I think her talent is amazing.

Sunday Poppy and I went to another agility trial at a facility the closest yet to us – the beautiful home court of Willamette Agility Group (love their logo!). If I didn't like my current instructor so much and get to meet up with my cousin at nearby Costco after nearly every class, I'd be looking to change venues for agility classes. Poppy had the zoomies and didn't pay much attention to her 'teammate,' so we only qualified in one of our three classes.

When we got home, there were FIVE eggs waiting for us; obviously most of my hens worked harder Sunday than my dog did! 🤪

But Poppy doesn't have to bring home ribbons to give me great joy; Leo, either.

That's it from the dog-lover at . . .