Proximities

The proximity of these three hens fluffing in a sunny spot is not random. They are the pullets I got from a friend, who raised them from chicks. Toffee Bits, Honeybun, and Snowcone  (L-R) are my friendliest girls and still hang together.

Proximity has been on my mind. Two of my good friends have had close calls recently, one with a near-heart attack (she had lifesaving quadruple bypass surgery) and one with heavy police activity (culminating in SWAT team and K9 involvement) right next door. Having these things happen to those you care about is unsettling (more so for them, of course), a good reminder to take the time and effort to connect with them while you can.

I mentioned the proximity of this year's Christmas tree in my last post. On a related note, several landscaping plants in close proximity to our house look like they are decorating for the upcoming holiday:

Given the proximity of our first frost, time in the garden was on today's to-do list. I knew I had a couple young zucchini in there and probably some small green peppers, but found a lot more of both than I expected, plus a couple of tomatoes to ripen on the counter. So delighted to have this late bounty of fresh produce to cook with! I also pulled and stored all the tomato cages and water lines, and pulled some of the plants. There's a lot more left to clean up and clean out, but I'm hoping to recruit some help for that.

I joined my first-ever knitting club, a birthday present I gave to myself. Knitting Wester Ross by KDD (Kate Davies Designs) features a pattern release every Friday, and an essay about this mesmerizing area of the Scottish Highlands, complete with exquisite photos and video, every Sunday. I will likely never get to visit Wester Ross in person, but these offerings and the associated  Ravelry group have me feeling a proximity to it. Right now I'm too busy knitting my Dala sweater, spinning my Inglenook fiber, and anticipating the arrival of my holiday fiber snacks to think about knitting any of the patterns, but the two released so far are beautiful and will be tackled in the future.

first half done

second half well underway

That's it for now from . . .

Fall at full speed

Me? I've been hobbling to keep up. 😞 At six months post bilateral TKRs, it seems I should be doing better than I have been. Part of this is my fault; I stopped consistently doing my PT exercises, relying instead on what I call "functional fitness" – the many activities of my daily life – to progress. I finally acknowledged that I was losing ground in some critical areas and have resumed daily PT. But the other part is continuing sciatica, possibly combined with sacroiliac joint pain. Yesterday evening after another uncomfortable day at the office covering for Rick's secretary (it's happening more frequently than we like), I decided to take two Aleve. Ahhhhh; noticeable relief. Since I've met my out-of-pocket expenses for the year, I need to see if a physical therapist or chiropractor can help with the sciatica/SI; I don't want to rely on NSAIDs. But with fall progressing at full speed, it's hard to find time to schedule additional things.

Here are some of the happenings since my last blogpost.

Poppy and I had a successful agility match; good weather and three qualifying scores from four classes. The next 'local' match is  on November 2, but I have entered a different competition on that day – the National Indoor Mountain Trail Greenies show with Stella! The National Indoor Mountain Trail Championships are the following weekend and it would be fun to enter both, but it's two hours away and Rick may have to haul us down with his new vet truck; I'll be fortunate (and excited!) to make it to one.

After I got home from the agility match, Bryan's new owners arrived to pick him up. Since Bryan's sale came from a post on the FB Shetland Sheep group, I just posted there about three more available sheep; reducing my flock would be beneficial for many reasons. I neglected to get "good bye" photos of Bryan, but did take pictures of his dam Bernice's lovely fleece that day:

she still has some color along her spine

midside

In the food harvest and preservation arena, one of our neighbors offered me some of their last-of-season tomatoes; together with the few from our garden I was able to put up seven pints and seven quarts. That (and the discomfort of standing for any length of time) put off applesauce a bit longer. I'm  still working on that; there's room for two more cannersful of quarts on my pantry shelves. When my mom's youngest cousin and his wife spent a day with us in the midst of their Wisconsin to West Coast RV trip, I made Butternut Lasagne from the first of our garden's winter squash harvest and zucchini muffins from some of our last summer squash. I still have some basil, eggplant, peppers, carrots, and beets to pick; the latter two will go into one last salad with some of our Braeburn apples. It has been a good season for homegrown fruit and veggies; going back to purchased produce will be an adjustment. The hens have slowed down; a five-egg day now is noteworthy. But we're still getting plenty for us with some extra to sell.

The never-ending shop project finally has overhead doors, and the wood storage is 3/4 full; woot! No, the guys haven't moved stuff from the garage yet so Rick can park in there; they are going to use lumber milled from one of the dead firs in our lower pasture to make a storage loft first. Still, more visible progress.

We'll be using some of that firewood soon, I think. The weather has definitely changed with the seasons; rainy periods have greened up the landscape and fall colors are appearing – more in town than here so far. We're using the heat pump to take the chill off in the house, and the cloudscapes are often spectacular.

No clouds obscured the recent full moon, which almost looked larger than Mt. Hood on the horizon!

Birthday/holiday season is upon us, ready or not. I need to start making plans for Rick's birthday which is next week, as my MIL will want to be included.

That's it for now from . . .

Ye old stomping grounds

I've gone to visit my mother et al in Lincoln, NE and returned home again. I meant to do a quick post before I left, took my laptop along and thought I might be able to do a post while there, and now . . . well. I don't know how quickly I will be able to edit photos and finish this, but "a journey of a thousand miles . . ." and all that. When you see this, it's obviously done.

The high points of my trip were seeing old friends and visiting my old stomping grounds. I'm terrible at selfies so there are no photos of me or my three friends😢, but I did take photos of my alma mater and the associated church where I got married. All have changed in 41 years of course; the church has been added onto and college (now university) buildings have disappeared (notably the old science building where my FIL taught and the art building; I had classes in both), expanded, and appeared in the intervening years. Much of this I have seen, at least from the outside, in previous visits, but this time I got to see the improvements and additions from the inside as one of my friends is now a professor at the university and gave me a guided tour.

the old science building and my FIL's office were to the left of this arch

the old gym, where I played volleyball (for fun)

one of the expanded buildings, and two of the programs the school is now known for

the girls' dorm, where I lived for four years

inside the new gym, above and below

the iconic clocktower

MUCH newer art, carved from a dead(?) tree

the expanded college/university church (only the part to the right of the cross was there in the 80s)

the outside of the stained glass panels (next three photos) in the original church building

we were married here the last weekend before the pipe organ installation began

Seeing my mom was both good and hard. Except for the Sabbath hours, meeting up with friends (one each Saturday, Sunday, and Monday), having one quick coffee break with my sister, and going out for an early birthday dinner with Mom, my sister, and her family, I stayed busy helping Mom from morning to bedtime. We threw out empty boxes and useless things and put stuff out on the freebie table in her apartment complex*, shredded old documents, rearranged furniture, set up her TV, made a rhubarb crisp (instead of birthday cake, with rhubarb from the complex's garden), coordinated needs with the complex's handyman, hung pictures and photos, and tried to get her NE driver's license and car registration (when that failed, I started applying online for missing documents**). We made visible progress, but I felt frustrated that I couldn't do more for her and save my sister and BIL additional effort and time off work.

my lovely mother

The entrance to her apartment complex.

The units on the front side face the treed driveway and can see nothing else.

The units on the back side see only green fields and the back of the Holmes Lake dam.

Mom's apartment is second to last on the left, ground floor.

Holmes Lake. The top of the dam is a wonderful walking path.

*There is NO rhyme or reason in what she brought to Lincoln and what she left behind in TX.

** Mom either doesn't have or has no idea where copies of her birth certificate, marriage licenses, Dad's death certificate, or her car title are. Any of these could have been inadvertently tossed, are still in unlabeled boxes and file folders in her apartment, or were left in her TX house and tossed out with all that she left behind. Getting replacement copies takes time, money, and in some cases, information that she can no longer remember accurately.  😳🙄😩😢

I kept up with my daily step goal throughout the trip, and spun a lot of silk while traveling. This was the first time I've been to PDX since its major renovation, which made my favorite airport even better. I acted like a tourist and took photos!

the Denver airport does have a view of the Rockies, though

on my way to Nebraska

in Nebraska, against Mom's coordinating blouse

on the way home

Now home again, home again, which feels so good but is always so busy. In spite of washing my hands of the rest of the prunes when I left, I couldn't resist picking enough to fill the dehydrator one more time when I got back. In the meantime, Rick and Brian got the rest of the dead fir from our lower pasture moved into the woodshed. The garden needs attention; I harvested most of what I need for a big pasta salad and a big batch of pesto but haven't touched the tomatoes yet. Next week is supposed to be wet; I foresee baking and applesauce-making in my near future.

Poppy and I have an agility match this Sunday and when we get home a buyer is arriving to pick up young Bryan as a flock sire; hurray! Maybe he'll look around and want to take a ewe or two....

That's it for now from . . .