Fiber and fishing

I've been pretty good about posting 4-5 times a month, about once a week, but as I said in my last post, summertime is hectic. Still, last Sunday we took family time to smell the roses river. I took my tiniest spindle to spin up the last of the blue silk while my guys tried and failed to catch but one fish; still, we all enjoyed the peaceful setting and perfect weather. A scolding kingfisher followed us along the way, and I managed to capture one decent photo of it (along with all the other shots).

In other fiber news, I have skeined, washed and measured more handspun – the two blue-silk-plied yarns I spun up earlier this year. I think I'll use them in a two-color Buggiflooer Beanie, after considering the FFSSA Sheep and Spindle Fair Isle Hat.

Yesterday was apparently Tiny Snake Tuesday. The first of the two I saw, up by the garage, was shockingly aggressive for being the size of an earthworm – it coiled up and repeatedly struck at the toe of my boot!

I have been considering the qualities of my ewes as I ponder the possibility of breeding a few this fall. In recent years I have selected for typier tails; only Bridget, whose only offspring has an excellent tail, and Bitsy, who I don't intend to ever breed, aren't quite up to snuff. Bernadette has the best earset; the rest are closer to horizontal. The fleece quality in my flock is good-to-excellent but I will always strive for better if/when I breed. As for the "if," that depends on the results of the mid-term elections....

Bernie and her "uppy ears"

I'll close with recent sky shows, always good for perspective.

First August fog?

Sara says August fogs predict summer snows!

this morning's cloudscape

That's it for now from . . .

More of a show than the 4th of July!

Yesterday was wild, weatherwise. Thunderstorms are rare here; we've never had literally hours of lightning and thunder before in the 37 years we've lived here. One of Rick's clients lost a horse to a lightning strike, which made me worry about our horses at home in a small pasture with tall trees on either side. Fortunately everyone was fine when I got home from work; even our dogs didn't mind the weather. There were some beautiful clouds around, even while thunder and lightning continued in the distance:

We got 1/4" of rain, too, so I took advantage of the softened ground this morning and pulled weeds, then planted more bush beans and beets in the gaps where the first planting failed to germinate. I picked a tomato, and admired the other ripening produce. It's been a 'cucumber year' so far; if I'd known, I would have planted enough to make dill pickles but usually they don't grow well for me.

already harvested and eaten

Maybe the pastures will get a boost from the rain, too. The sheep have eaten down all their paddocks on the neighbors' property so are home eating hay again; the horses are still picking at their half of the neighbors' pasture . . . most of the time. The first three days of this week they had to stay home where they have access to water, since I had to cover Rick's vet office and couldn't let them in for their afternoon drink.

I've been seeing quite a few mice recently. Natural ebb and flow of populations, I guess; we had a terrible infestation in barn, tack room, and henhouse before a few years of near-absence. I'm going to have to resort to deadly measures in the tack room, as they are destroying soft things like saddle pads and blankets.

In TdF spinning, I finished the first 4oz colorway, and am now working on the second. These are both part of the Inglenook Fibers Mushroom Blends:

second turtle of 'Rosy Bonnet'

first turtle of 'Truffle'

That's it for now from . . .

Lions and tigers and bears; oh my!

And now I feel a compelling urge to watch The Wizard of Oz! Somehow, I think it might even make me feel better, especially the music. Maybe that's because I'm listening to I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine by Daniel Levitin, a neurologist. I recently finished his audiobook Successful Aging; I'm learning a lot and enjoying the education.

All the scary predators seem to be coming for Rick. He found out this week, now that he has a PCP again and had a fasting blood draw, that he has type 2 diabetes – on top of cardiovascular disease. He blames genetics for one, and the statins he takes for the other, even though he's on a low dose of statin and the Mayo Clinic says the risk is small. He does not want to acknowledge lifestyle at all, even though both diseases are known as lifestyle diseases, and he is not happy about making further changes – or with my efforts to cook in a way that would help him. Sigh.

At least Brian has healed up from his self-inflicted injury and got his cast and pins removed this week. He asked if I would take him, and afterwards offered to treat me at a place of my choice. So I finally got to try Local Flow, which advertises smoothies, crepes, and bowls. Kind of hippy-dippy and our crepes were great; it was a nice mother/son outing!

While much of the continent bakes, floods, or suffocates with wildfire smoke, we have been enjoying 'normal' weather and clean air in our little corner of the country. I remember smoke like that here; it was awful and oppressive and I feel so bad for all the humans and animals currently suffering through it. I feel bad for/about a lot of things right now; I have to fight to stay positive and focus on beauty.

Most of the sky shots in this post were taken from horseback.

The mama who poses a threat to Poppy

We picked berries at Neck Road Produce last Sunday.

The barn swallows appear to be starting another clutch.

My Tour de Fleece project is coming along.

That's all the photos I could transfer for now for . . .