Party of one?

 Right this way!

Yes, it was quite late on Hug a Sheep Day, but the girls welcomed me into the fold nonetheless. Well, three of them did. Grand dam(e) Sarai always hopes for cookies (wee bits of horse treats that I save for her), and her twin daughters Bridget and Bardot are reliably friendly. Bardot's version of 'friendly' is a little, um, insistent. She pushes with her head, and if I sit down in the fold like I did tonight, she will strike paw me with a front hoof. It was nice to spend that time with her, because tomorrow some people are coming to look at her and hopefully take her home.

The sheep have been drawing my eye a lot lately, so picturesque in the green grass and autumn light. There are the grand dames, Vienna (head up) and Sarai,

and Blaise (on the left, below), the only one of the other ewes not descended from Vienna and Sarai (with one of the musket girls looking like she's wearing a string bikini).

All three of the musket girls were busting out of their coats, so last night I fitted them with larger ones. They look much more comfortable now:

Other scenes of autumn:

Red Kuri squash harvest, prepped for cooking,

The Japanese maples in front are just starting to turn,

while the ones on the deck are just finishing up

A subtle sunset seen while hand-walking Lance down the lane and back,

and a much more colorful sunrise the last morning of October.

(Itty-bitty) snake alert ahead, for those who get the heebie-jeebies from seeing one (can you tell I've been scolded before???).

This little garter snake surprised me in the driveway down near the barn on a coolish morning. It's late in the year to be seeing snakes; I hope it found a place to overwinter!

Halloween is not an 'event' here, but I have saved a photo just for the occasion. Remember those shaggy mane mushrooms that came up right after Blake died? When they pass their peak picking condition, Shaggy Manes quickly deliquesce, a fancy term for turning downright ghoulish. So Happy Halloween to those of you who 'celebrate'!

Stay tuned for a November surprise from . . .

Plowing through the to-do lists

My current favorite hot drink dispenser just happens to be...

...uncannily appropriate for this post!

Like every property owner, we have long mental lists of "things that need to be done." Let me clarify that: Rick and I have separate lists; we each think that our list is the most critical; and we each want the other's help on our projects. Cue the conflict. (Just kidding! Mostly....)

When you add in the rapidly approaching rainy season, Rick's secretary scheduling a week's vacation on short notice (guess who's the presumptive substitute), and an out-of-town trip (on which Rick insisted I join him), Getting Things Done becomes paramount. I'll spare you the timeline and most of the logistical challenges and just share some progress.

Rick was determined to get our manure pile dispersed before the wet season set in. Seemed counterproductive to me since most of it wasn't well composted, and our ancient mature spreader and our little Kubota both seemed to agree. But Rick managed to repair the spreader and rented a tractor to git 'er done. In the bit of time left over on the tractor rental, we removed enough of the embarrassingly deep hay pack (which he also insisted in spreading on the pasture) from the Sheep Sheraton so I can actually open and close the gate, while the ewes enjoyed their first pasture outing in months. (We went from relatively clear to very foggy pretty quickly that morning.)

a manure pile no more

trying not to covet

the neighbors' new house looms

Of course when you have livestock, the manure starts piling up again immediately:

You may recall that last winter our roof started to leak over the garage. We got three estimates in short order, and then . . . nothing. Rick wouldn't make a decision all spring, summer, and into fall, and I couldn't very well make one without him. He finally decided to have one more contractor, a client, out to look at it recently, and was told it didn't really need to be replaced, just repaired and maintained better. Mind you, all four of the contractors who looked at it gave us different causes for the problem, so I'm not at all confident that this last one knows better than the first three, but he did prompt Rick to get up there and do some long-neglected work. Let's just pray we're not being penny-wise but pound-foolish!

Our garden hasn't been a big contributor to our larder this year, unfortunately. My tomato plants are just starting to recover from what appeared to be herbicide carryover; I doubt all the blossoms and small green fruit now appearing will have time to mature. I need to check under the black plastic to see if my experimental sweet potato patch produced anything; looks like I'll have a total of three small Red Kuri winter squash. My most recent vegetable harvest included three different varieties of eggplant, two varieties of peppers, and two varieties of summer squash; I roasted all of them along with a big Walla Walla Sweet onion and a tired store-bought sweet potato.

The apple trees have produced well this year, with less pest damage than usual. These two buckets were emptied, filled, and emptied again,

resulting in 14 quarts of apple pie filling and 14 quarts of applesauce.

first batch of homemade apple pie filling (mostly used for apple crisp)

NO broken jars and NO unsealed jars this year – a first!

Since I'm almost out of regular mouth jars and wide mouth lids and have plenty of pints of apple butter, I might be done canning for the year. The dehydrator might see some use yet, though....

Last winter the south side of our wood shed failed, sending firewood tumbling out into the rain (we still had plenty under cover). This summer, the north side of the shed started to give way. Rick has wanted to replace the whole thing for years, but the main supports and roof are still good and there are higher priorities for any available funds, so he's been working on rebuilding it. Once that's done, we have a trailer load of oak to split and stack.

The henhouse was getting rank, so the girls got 'clean sheets' recently – along with a whole watermelon. They usually just get the rinds, but for the first time I picked a bad one, and I mean a BAD one. I hope they repay us in eggs; their production has really dropped off the last couple months.

one of our blue Wyandottes is out of frame

Who is going to wash windows???

Don't worry; it's not all work and no play around here. Poppy and I go to agility class once a week (over soon, sadly) and Stella and I get weekly lessons (plus near daily work on our own). I still twiddle my spindles when I can and even have a project on the needles plus another one to start ASAP.

But don't call me "busy as a bee;" this is spider season and their webs are everywhere, it seems. I think they are beautiful – I just don't like to find them with my face. 🙄

That's it for now from . . .

What a scrubbing!

And it was "rinse and repeat" today; hurray!

Last night we got the most spectacular thunderstorm I've seen here in 31 years; it went on for hours, accompanied by heavy rain. What a godsend! After initially barking to let the 'intruder' know she was ready for it, Poppy wasn't bothered by the noise and flashing lights so that's good. Jackson wasn't crazy about thunder, but I don't think he heard it more than three brief times in his life; that's how rare such a storm is here.

The rain last night and today has restored clean air and color to our surroundings; it is a feast for the eyes and lungs and I am relishing it. I had opportunities to enjoy it, too, because I had to drive Poppy to the vet this morning and pick her up after her spay and microchipping this afternoon. She's resting quietly now on a big, soft bed covered with a light fleece blanket after some restlessness and whining. Two days ago she got stung by at least two yellowjackets, so she's had a rough week! I did chores tonight without her, so of course I saw a mouse in the tack room for the first time in weeks....

A brief and short-lived semblance of her usual self

More pleasant visitors (than a mouse) were a family of bluebirds hunting bugs in our yard yesterday afternoon, and this newt in our garage tonight (I moved him to a better location):

Yesterday just before the first few raindrops warned of weather to come, I worked with Stella, then noticed the boys hoovering up 'crispy chips.' Now the leaves are soggy and  the arena is dust-free. If we get any more warm weather, I predict that our garden is going to go into last-minute overdrive. There's nothing like rain to bring out the best in plants – including weeds, of course, but I'm just so thankful for the soaking that I don't care!

That's it from a refreshed . . .