Sunday, fun day, and a ton-of-work day

When I learned that last weekend was the last weekend of the Canterbury Renaissance Festival, I decided that if at all possible for both of us, I wanted to take a friend on Sunday as an early birthday gift to her. So I picked her up at 9:00 a.m. and off we went. We (mostly window-) shopped, took in parts of several shows, watched the herding dog demonstration and all of the jousting. We didn't eat a single thing there, but did both buy olivewood kitchen tools. And Debbie got to meet Caesar the No-Drama Llama for the first time and thought she might want a couple llamas if they are all like this. (Ha! They are NOT. Caesar is seriously the chillest creature, of any species, I have ever met. He works the State Fair for four days straight every year and never looses his cool!)

Debbie loves dragons

Notice the stare-down between Caesar and the cat!

Because of honoring the Sabbath and Rick's unpredictable work schedule, Sundays are our main opportunity to 'get things done.' So while I was off playing, Rick and Brian (the latter under duress) picked 89 lbs. of peaches (17 lbs. for my MIL). Then Rick picked up a load of hay and made a start of freezing peaches. When I got home we unloaded that hay and a second load, too, then worked on prepping and freezing the ripest peaches that would not wait before falling into bed shortly before midnight.

Needless to say, I didn't have time to finish the last of my fiber on the final day of TdF. I did take it to the festival and spun some, but my spindle was getting too heavy for safe casual spinning. I spun the last of it Monday morning; then I have to decide how and with what to ply my two IF Mushroom Blend colorways.

In 'maybe' news, I have an opportunity to acquire a ram with new genetics and a pattern I don't have in my flock (he's a dark katmoget). Unfortunately I don't have a good place to keep him unless I can sell one of my two rams, so I am going to take new photos and post them on the Facebook Shetland forums to see if I can do that. Now is the perfect time, while people are planning for the fall breeding season.

That's it for now from . . .

Ups and downs

I was going to try and post one last time in September, but "the best laid plans" and all that. This week has been a rollercoaster ride that has challenged me to just hang on. So what has been going on around here?

The week started off early Sunday with another agility trial. Poppy and I "blew the Q" in our first class, but qualified and won each of our next three. It helped that Poppy got to play with her friend Lily (a Golden Retriever we've met at previous trials) before classes started, but Poppy is also settling down and listening better. It was a looong day, so I took photos while waiting for the results of our last class (which was also the last class of the day 😵). We had what I thought was a major fault and didn't know if we qualified or not, so I took photos with and without a third qualifying ribbon. Never anticipated that we could win that class, so our photos are missing a blue; I'm so proud of my girl!

There was a professional photographer on site, too, and she got some good action shots. I am getting several, and will show those off when I get them.

On Monday I was contacted by someone looking for a small Shetland ram to use on her Shetland/Ouessant ewes. I thought Bench might fit her wishes and so did she; a flurry of communications with photos followed and Rick even drew blood for the tests she required. But in the end Bench proved (with Rick's more accurate estimate) to be bigger than was suitable, so that fell through. I was bummed, because as I've said, I have too many sheep.

Even though my knees held up for the trial (with a preemptive dose of Aleve beforehand), I decided to seek help before the left one got any worse. On Tuesday I went to the Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician that has helped me before, and he thought my left knee problem was either sciatic or referred pain from my hip, worked on it accordingly, and gave me exercises to do. There wasn't another convenient appointment for later this week, but I scheduled two/week for the next two weeks. It felt okay on Wednesday, and that night I went to agility class. In the middle of running a course, with no provocation or warning, my left knee spasmed with white-hot pain and I went down. I managed to finish the class by standing in one place or hobbling around just a little (good practice, since Poppy needs more distance work) and barely managed to make it home since using the clutch hurt. I called and left a message at the clinic and they got me in on Thursday. Now the diagnosis includes a spasming muscle on the back of my knee, which may still be precipitated by sciatica and/or seized hip muscles. It is getting better with ice and Aleve, but I walk like Frankenstein's monster and still worry about making a wrong move and going down again.

after this morning's activities; see below

Bridget is NOT impressed with the new arrangement!

So of course I decide on a whim to do a major sheep shuffle this morning. 🙄 Earlier this week I got one side of the Ram-ada Inn securable, so I put Bud in there away from the ladies, and Bijou and Bridget got the small Ram-ada lot with access to the other side. That took some doing because the other two rams wanted in on whatever Bijou was getting, and Bud and Bridget weren't thrilled about leaving the other ewes and lambs.  Time will tell if I got Bud away from the ladies in time; if Bridget settles (she is the only one intentionally getting bred this year), I hope her lambing date makes it clear that Bijou is the sire. I'm going to talk to Rick about getting Bud "tutored" (Gary Larson fans will get it 😉); he'll make a better fiber pet than flock sire.

In spite of the 0.6 inches of rain we got on the day I last posted, Rick and Brian have made more progress on the shop:

It doesn't take much rain at this time of year to make the grass start growing again; we got another good shower this morning. Now that the sun is out again, I'm going to ride Stella (one activity – so far – that doesn't hurt), clean house, check the garden, and make food for potluck tomorrow. When it's time to ice the knee and hip again, there's spinning and knitting to keep my hands busy.

That's what has been going on around . . .