The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse...

...or mooskit in the Shetland dialect, as in the color of a mouse.

Today my ridiculously friendly musket girl Brigitte got to be a town mouse for awhile. I had been asked some time ago if I could bring a sheep to VBS and do something with wool for craft time, and today was the day. Lacking something more suitable (i.e. smaller and less costly/cumbersome), I hitched my pick-up, camper still loaded, to my three-horse trailer, and hauled Brigitte to church. We waited for the groups of kids in the courtyard, which Brigitte found interesting but not frightening.

I think my beautiful 'blond' girl looks rather like her namesake,

although more like the famous sex symbol in her younger days.

What do you think?

Well, the kids all thought she was fabulous! The youngest group swarmed around her, all hands on deck, which didn't bother Brigitte in the least. The older kids spent part of their time making friendship bracelets from yarn they thigh-rolled from some commercially prepared roving I provided; I should have taken some photos but was too busy helping. They all seemed pleased with the results, though.

During one of the breaks I availed myself of the snacks being served – popcorn and apple quarters. On a whim I offered Brigitte some popcorn – and created a greedy monster! When I ran out of popcorn I offered her a bite of apple, and that was consumed just as eagerly. No photos; I was too busy fending off her mouth and feet!

I am so proud of my friendly little Shetland; she was absolutely perfect in every way. And truth be told, I think she enjoyed herself!

Speaking of mooskit, I got Braveheart's TdF singles plied. They were overspun, but the two-ply seems well-balanced; I'll know for sure once I skein it off and wash it. Then it will be time to ply Browning's rich chocolate singles – if I can get all 8+ ounces on my ball-winder! (Sara, I need your mad ball-winding skilz!)

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It's still hot and dry, dry, dry here. Fall can't come too soon, and the summer is zooming by. Tomorrow I'm taking Brian to the doctor (sports physical), dentist (cleaning, fixing a molar he chipped at camp), and optometrist (he wants contacts this time) in preparation for school starting three weeks from today. Before that, my parents are coming for a visit; hurray!

That's it for today from . . .

Would you like mustard, too?

Because this is a ketchup post. 😉

Seems like there's nothing to post about and then a machine-gun of 'postables' goes off with no time to sit down and compose my thoughts. When I do sit down, like right now, I feel guilty because of all the other stuff I should be doing. Actually, right now I'm buried under a mountain of melancholy (more about that later) so composing a post might help distract me, so here goes. Lots of catch-up . . . and you may need some Kleenex, too.

First, here's the final shot from the Tour de Fleece showing all that I spun on my horn spindle and miniSpinner for the event:

I am continuing to spin alpaca on my horn spindle, and plan to start plying the Shetland on the miniSpinner soon. I want to get it done so I can spin THIS:

That's an unexpected treat from a friend that arrived just when I was feeling the need for some pink accessories in my wardrobe. In fact, I'd just ordered this:

Obviously my friend is a long-distance mindreader!

On Tuesday, thanks to my friend Kate, I delivered Butler to his new home in Auburn, WA. Here he is after I took his coat off before loading him in the truck:

On our way back, we stopped at the Black Sheep Creamery to buy some sheep milk cheese, and then visited the farm itself:

Kate has been investigating getting a few dairy sheep, and after meeting some of the ladies at Black Sheep, she's sold! She's become quite the knitter in the last year; I foresee spinning in her future, too.

Fortunately for Butler, the weather moderated in time for our trip. It was hot and smoky right up until the day before, making for a weird sunset during my evening ride around the vineyard, and an odd sunrise that morning:

Then we had a couple of pleasantly moderate days followed by two days of cool clouds; it was cool enough this morning to have a big, hairy lapdog,

and it even sprinkled a bit! Not enough to really settle the dust, but enough to make the dust stick better to a certain chunky mustang who likes to roll. 😏

Harvesting in the garden is now a regular, if not overwhelming, occurrence. The other day I picked our first zucchini and more tomatoes,

and this morning I went out to pick the first green beans but ended up burying them under cucumbers and snow peas, plus a few cherry tomatoes and peppers. Not more than I can carry, like this bee,

but enough to make a wilted cucumber salad and a smashed green bean salad (a new recipe a friend let me sample; yum!), along with deviled eggs and a chocolate orange zucchini cake as soon as I post this.

As long as I don't start watching videos again, I should be fine.

Last night Rick showed me a video on Facebook – and suddenly I GOT what my co-worker asked me yesterday! She asked if I was following "Kelley's kids" on America's Got Talent, and I said no, because I rarely have time to turn the TV on in the summer. I didn't realize she was talking about the Humlie kids, whose mother Kelley was a homeschool co-op board member, co-worker and friend until she died way too young from cancer a couple years ago. Her talented trio attended homeschool co-op with my son (I designed Manny's senior yearbook page!), performed locally, and now they are on the national – yea, international stage with songs they've written. These videos break my heart every time I watch them – and I've been watching them a lot since last night . . . because Kelley can't.

Looking ahead to "Oh no; August!"

I'm winding up July with a lot of highway miles. This afternoon I drove Brian to Big Lake Youth Camp, a six-hour round trip; he got a scholarship from his school that paid for nearly half the cost of a week-long teen basketball camp. Tuesday a friend and I are delivering Butler, my yearling ram, to his new home in Auburn, WA, an eight-hour round trip.

Then we turn the calendar to the jam-packed month of August. On top of the usual responsibilities, the garden will continue picking up steam; prunes, apples (ours), and peaches will need to be preserved; my parents will visit; Brian will return to school and drive draft horses at the State Fair; and we may go horse-camping in there somewhere. Time to tuck in my napkin and prepare to eat that elephant, one bite at a time!

I will leave you photos from my road trip today. Did a little spinning at Big Lake for a final location shot, since it's also the last day of the Tour de Fleece.

After wading in the lake to cool off

Three-Fingered Jack

Mt. Jefferson

Detroit Lake

Finished the dark brown roving this morning

That's it for now from . . .

Local updates

All's quiet on the sheep front. After the trio left, I pulled Bette out of the ewe group to keep her twin Butler company in the Ram-ada Inn (separated by a divider; no incest!), but she made it clear NO one would get any sleep with that arrangement. So I swapped her out for Vienna, and now everyone is settled. Butler is scheduled to go to his new home next Tuesday.

Is anyone else absolutely fed up with Blogger's process to prove you're not a robot?!? I have given up on leaving a comment several times lately because it takes SO. LONG. to click on all the corresponding images. I had to go through this to leave comments on my own blogs (so that your comments get emailed to me, another unnecessary hassle) – even though I have comment verification TURNED OFF. Grrr. So if I'm not commenting on your blog like I usually do, now you know why. There are only so many hours a day I can spend on my laptop....

The other day I went out to the garden and found this:

I was dumb-founded; I just saw the first blooms a couple days ago! There were only enough for my breakfast, but they will need to be picked regularly from here on out. I've finally got BIG tomatoes turning red (we've eaten two small ones),

cucumbers getting big enough to pick, green beans setting, bell peppers swelling, and basil burgeoning. The parsley is paltry and the eggplants take forever; the squash plants look fabulous, dahling – if you're not looking for something to pick. Fortunately a neighbor brought a couple boxes of summer squash to the neighborhood picnic Sunday so I have some to tide me over for awhile.

Yesterday it started heating up again. While the guys sweated it out continuing work on the new permanent fence around our upper pasture, I mostly looked for jobs to do inside where it was cool(er). One of those was dragging out my Featherweight Singer and mending at least six sheep suits.

I'm still spinning along on the Tour de Fleece, too. I'm striving to spin up all the dark brown Shetland on my miniSpinner, and use my Jenkins horn spindle in as many different locations as possible. This evening I'll be spinning at the coast; ahhhh. Rick and Brian are stopping by to pick me up any minute and then we are headed to a vet call there together. I don't often get to take advantage of it, but it is SO nice to have a coast to flee to when the valley is sweltering. It's almost 40 degrees cooler over there right now!

After the TdF ends on Sunday, July 29, I'm going to try out these babies:

Wicked-looking, huh? Those are double-pitch wool combs and I'm going to use them to prep the messy neck fleeces I've been loath to toss. But first I'll have to do some washing. Fleece will dry quickly in this heat!

Bye for now from . . .