May the road rise up to meet you

I finally took some time today to transfer and edit photos from my phone to my laptop, an essential step for building a blogpost. I discovered that the majority of them were taken March 17 – St. Patrick's Day, and the day we drove to Walla Walla, WA and back to fetch our son from college.

It was bittersweet, knowing it could be the last time we drove there. I like familiar road trips; seeing the scenery change with the seasons, stopping at favorite rest areas or eateries along the way, exploring new points of interest at and around the destination. I thought we'd have three-plus more years at least to travel this route. Instead, I found myself mourning a little, like when I realized I would probably never drive to Spokane again after my dad died. On top of that, our hearts were heavy with the knowledge that our son had thrown away a $40K+ merit-based scholarship and had rather nebulous plans for his future. Oh well; might as well make the best of it. So I got up and enjoyed the beautiful sunrise, even stepping off the deck to get a picture of Mt. Hood, before heading to the barn to do chores.

Then it was time to hit the road for the first half of our 560-mile round trip. We made a pit stop at Starvation Creek, a place we've only stopped at once before just to use the facilities. This time, in the process of walking Poppy, we realized there was a waterfall nearby and decided to check it out. It was a beautiful interlude – with a fascinating backstory (don't worry, no one actually starved there; if you click to biggity I think you can read the sign).

I kept my fingers busy most of the drive; spindles are handy that way. And this fiber is lovely!

Once at Walla Walla, Poppy and I kept our feet busy walking the neighborhood around campus while waiting for Brian to get his stuff packed up and hauled down to the truck. That took three hours. 🙄 Then it was back on the road for the trip home. The sun was setting as we left the Walla Walla valley and headed toward the Columbia River Gorge:

So that was last week. We are all adjusting. Brian started full-time work this week; good thing, as he has rent due next week. 😉 When I googled the words of the traditional Irish blessing to help me in titling this St. Paddy's Day post, a song by Dan Fogelberg came up. I do love his music, so had to take a listen. It ended up being most appropriate:

That's all for tonight from . . .

High and low tides

Sunday was a great day, but I've had a hard time forming a post about it. Concern about our son ebbs and flows, but a king tide is coming in, as we are picking him up from college in three weeks, the end of this quarter – for good. He's dropping out, and God only knows what his future holds. Anyway.

My FitBit recorded an extended low tide of daily step counts while I was on 'stall rest.' This screen shot shows before, during, and after, with Sunday being a king tide of activity!

First thing that morning, Rick went to a friend's to get some help with metal fabrication, giving me time to appreciate my sheep, clean the henhouse, and actually do something with both horses beyond just turning Stella out to stretch her legs.

Spot was vigorously rubbing himself on trees. You can see how tufty his neck looks; I need to see if he can be rooed. It won't be hard to catch him and check; he comes over whenever he sees me to get loved on. 😍

The girls got to go out on pasture for the first time since I started stall rest. You would never be able to guess which three are (hopefully) pregnant; the unbred ones seem to have the biggest bellies! Sarai is another one who comes whenever she sees me now, begging for alfalfa pellets. (She is one of the hopefully bred ones.)

I am not showing you a 'before' photo of the henhouse; it was gross. Now it is nicely bedded with fresh straw.

I rewarded myself for the mucky job by riding Lance. It was good to be astride again! Then I did some groundwork with Stella.

By the time I was done with Stella, Rick was home and putting together our 'new' chipper. A client of his gave it to him; it runs fine but one of the chutes had rusted out, so Rick rebuilt it with the help of a friend. We worked until dark on the mess around the henhouse and arena access, cutting up limbs and chipping all the smaller stuff; I had to take 'after' photos the next morning. The chips provide mud abatement in front of the manure pile and henhouse door; the branches provide more firewood (which still needs to be hauled up to the woodshed area).

Rick rebuilt the left chute

Tonight we worked on the branches that had fallen up by the house, and made more visible progress. We'll keep chipping away it – ha!

That's it for now from . . .

Desert and deluge

It is January 13 and I'm putting the hens on notice. Not one of our nine hens has laid an egg since Christmas Day, and that was after getting only one egg a day (25 total) until that point. One of the neighbors who wanted all the eggs I could spare would be happy to take any of the hens off my hands for stewing. I hate the thought of doing that, but they are all five and half years old and feeding them costs money.

Yesterday was a wash-out, as in inches of rain. I bought myself another rain gauge but it isn't properly mounted yet, so I can't tell you how much fell here. But it was definitely a "splish-splash, I was takin' a bath" every time I went outside kind of day. Except for one period, remarkably, when someone came for a riding lesson in the afternoon. It was still windy, but neither humans nor horse got wet. What a blessing!

Things are quiet again on the home front; we took Brian back to college last Sunday. Well, they were quiet when he was here, too, just not a a relaxing way. It is stressful when an able-bodied young man stays in bed until after 3:00 p.m. when he has things he has been asked to do at home and paying work has been offered by a neighbor. Arghhhh. Anyway, while he was checking back in, Poppy and I waited in the truck and I amused myself by playing with the Portrait mode on my new iPhone's camera:

We left at o'dark thirty; the humans were tired.

I should have spent the waiting time walking her; Sunday I didn't meet my step goal. Granted, we had ten hours' driving time, but I could have walked more. I did get a lot of spinning done on the drive, though, finishing the fiber I had with me:

I also got some fun pix of Brian clowning around with his dad before we left, and Brian saying good-bye to Poppy, as well as a photo of a becalmed Columbia River on the way home:

I will admit to spending far too much time the last week monitoring numerous news sources to keep up-to-date on what is happening. As more and more comes to light (the number of "stupid criminals" who filmed, live-streamed and otherwise documented their criminal activities is both horrifying and wonderful – in terms of evidence), our nation looks more and more broken. Evil is in our midst, top to bottom. "For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirit in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12. But "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9 That's what I choose to focus on, even while staying informed of the awfulness.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go out into the beautiful SUNSHINE and work my two horses!

That's it for now from . . .

Hydro and horses make for a happy new year

The well was refitted with new pump, pipe and wiring yesterday, so we are back in the land of those blessed with sweet well water at the touch of a tap. It took awhile to rinse out the rust from the well casing and oil from the old, failed pump; the well guy asked for a clean white container to monitor it at the well head. Then I had to run the water down at the barn for awhile to flush out more of the same before using it anywhere. But once I could, I ran the dishwasher, took a shower, washed two loads of clothes, and scrubbed the toilets. Today we put away all the Christmas stuff and hauled out the tree, then I vacuumed the house thoroughly. It feels GOOD to start the year with a clean house!

It also feels good to start the year with the one tradition I hold dear – being on the back of a horse on New Year's Day. The forecast was for a dry window in the morning before DAYS of rain moved in, so I didn't dawdle. First I rode Lance down the lane (after warming him up in the arena); then I worked with Stella and sat on her back for awhile. (Asking for her to actually move with me on her back today would not have been a good idea.)

As long as I don't get sucked into the teen's sullenness over his university's requested quarantine period prior to heading back to campus, I'd say this year is starting out just FINE, thankyouverymuch. I pray it is for all of you, too.

A bright Spot in 2020 – and 2021!

Happy New Year from . . .