My blog is nagging

June bugs, June blogs; it would appear both are rare around here. Time to do something about the latter; you can keep the former, if you have them. I don't miss those big, buzzy beetles from my California childhood!

I'll start with a garden update. Everything is growing well and looking promising, with the exception of the beets and carrots. (I'm pretty sure the beets sprouted decently but got eaten by something. The carrots didn't germinate well, but there are some.) The other plants from seeds (bush beans, snow peas, and Long White Palermo zucchini) are burgeoning but not yet blooming. The starts we planted are blooming and setting fruit; I think our first harvest will be burpless cucumbers. 😍 

Next, an assorted animal update. Because it's been so dry, the seed Rick sowed in the middle pasture and the grass he mowed in the upper pasture have done nothing, so all the sheep and horses are feeding exclusively on the hay we picked up at the end of May. We need to source and store a lot more hay to get us through until next spring, but Rick has been busy with too many other things to do that yet. Bryan the solo lamb enjoys annoying his dam and the other two ewes in his group. The bigger group of ewes knocked over the hay feeder in the wooded lot (no doubt trying to get every blade of hay) necessitating a rebuild; they were not sure the new-old structure was trustworthy. Deer keep frequenting our property, but I haven't seen any more fawns – until this morning while driving down our hill to an appointment. Same twins? Last Sabbath, Rick and I took the dogs for a walk for the first time since my surgery. Poppy, as always, was an Energizer Bunny; Leo got overheated even though it was a lovely day with a cooling breeze. The next day they were enjoying the morning sun together; I was tickled to catch the shot of Poppy using Leo as a pillow. Tomorrow evening I'm going to take Poppy to agility and see how that goes; I know she'll enjoy going back!

Can you see the 'ornery'?

It's not a done deal yet, but crossing fingers that my mom will indeed be moved – at least out of her house and up to Lincoln, if not into her apartment – by the end of the month. There have been numerous postponements, but the U-Haul U-Boxes are supposed to be picked up tomorrow, and the new departure date (my BIL is flying down and driving Mom up in her car) is Sunday, the 29th.

Rick and I celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary earlier this month with a day trip to the coast. We had a lovely time; I'll share my photos of our day in a separate post. I'll close with this photo of a recent sunrise:

That's enough for this post from . . .

A "State of Nearly Everything" address

Once again updating this bloggy has gotten away from me! And the more time passes, the harder it is to wrestle the updates into a post; I've been working at this for over a week weeks.

Sheepy things first; after all, that's why this blog was begun. 😉

Drumroll: skirting has started! I neglected to collect mid-side samples from two of my sheep during shearing, so I finally pulled and skirted those two fleeces (on two different days) in order to collect samples and get them all sent off to Texas A&M for micron testing. Skirting involves more standing than my knees can comfortably handle, just like too much sitting, but I need to tackle one a day whenever possible to 'git er done' so I can ship off reserved fleeces and advertise the rest. Here are Sanson's and Bonnie's fleeces on the rack:

Young Bryan continues to please and impress. He is getting a taste of 'flock life;' I've started turning the 'barn sheep' (Bernice and Bryan, Bridget and Bitsy) out into the middle pasture. Rick tilled and seeded it but nothing germinated; still, there are a few patches of grass here and there and around the edges for them to eat, and get some exercise and sunshine while doing it.

this one was taken on 5/26; the photos above on 5/21

The larger group of ewes are currently 'forest sheep.' The small wooded lot had a lot of grass, mostly decimated now, but there is a hay feeder there and lots of shade from our early summer heat.

Another drumroll: the day of my last post I did get the garden seeds in the ground: green beans, snowpeas, beets, carrots, and zucchini. Sprouts of all are up, and the starts we planted are looking good. The strawberries are producing big fruit which we are enjoying fresh for now, while the apples, prunes, and cherries work on their crops. Hoping for LOTS of apples, as we're getting close to using up all of the sauce in our pantry.

Last Thursday I had my six-week post-op appointment with my surgeon. If I had expected cheers or high-fives, I would have been disappointed. He thinks I'm doing well, but said I'll need to continue to work hard at PT since my goals are much higher than those of his typical patient. I asked about agility; he thought I should wait on that until the end of June. I asked about riding, and to my surprise he said, "Go ahead and ride; I'm not concerned about that." Woot! Of course I went home, saddled up Stella and rode (proof provided by Brian), and have ridden nearly every day since. Very short rides they are, just walking at first but now we are trotting just a little, too. To my relief riding is mostly comfortable, if I keep my feet in the stirrups (instead of letting my legs hang like I usually do during warm-up) and don't trot too long. Stella has been a good girl, although she would still prefer to go faster-faster-faster.

On Sunday evening when I led Stella to the arena to ride, a young buck was already there. He didn't seem to notice me and wasn't worried about Stella, so I managed to get fairly close using Stella as my blind. A week before that when I was doing groundwork with Stella, she noticed something in the bottom pasture. As I watched, I saw a doe, then a fawn, then a second fawn. I put Stella in the barn, called my neighbor, and together we relocated the two babies to my neighbor's side of the fence (their mom had already jumped over), where there is plenty of tall grass to hide in and no horses or terriers to worry about. Seems to be a banner year for deer; I may call them 'meadow rats,' but still enjoy seeing them.

Speaking of using up all our stock. As of Memorial Day, we were down to three bales of last year's hay, so picking up the small crop of first cutting our favorite local grower had in his barn for us was imperative. That necessitated a bunch of other labor first, though. Through various combinations of equipment and muscle, we had already moved the miscellaneous cabinets and bookshelves from Rick's old clinic out of the barn aisle and up to the new shop, but there was still old clinic stuff on our big trailer. This time, through combinations of borrowed equipment and muscle (and removing a header board to make room), Rick and I got the huge stocks off the trailer and into the shop (along with the old washer and dryer); then it was off to pick up two loads of hay and stack it in the barn. I helped as much as I could (probably too much); Rick did yeoman's work. Chuckie, of course, was chief inspector.

Crossing fingers that the coming month sees my mom relocated from TX to an apartment near my sister in Lincoln, NE. A date has been set; my BIL is flying down on June 21 to drive Mom and her car north. But lots of things have to happen before that, so my sister purchased a refundable ticket. She and I have both observed a steady decline in her cognition and memory, even long-term memory. I look forward to flying east to see her and my sister and family once Mom gets settled. It's been a long three years since Dad died....

That's all the news for now from . . .

Nose to the grindstone

Well, I'm back to full responsibility, if not full function or fun. That's okay; my guys 'held down the fort' for a little over four weeks, and I really do like caring for my animals. My knees actually feel better after I potter around at half speed doing chores, so following chores up with a PT session works well. Monday, the day the shop floor got poured, I got over 12,000 steps, my daily minimum pre-surgery. Even though my steps are shorter and slower now, I am hoping that more movement gets my resting heart rate back to its usual range in the mid-50s instead of the post-surgical low-70s. It would also be nice to sleep better, but I have wished for that for years so there's probably not much hope there. 😏

Getting back to full fun would mean agility with Poppy and riding Stella; I'm not there yet. As my SIL pointed out, our cementless artificial joint(s) need time for bone to grow into them for full strength and stability. I have an appointment with my surgeon May 22 and I plan to ask him about time frames. In the meantime, I put Poppy through some of her tricks/paces in the house, and as of Tuesday, I am doing regular groundwork with Stella to refresh our partnership before I get back in the saddle.

On Tuesday I decided to get Bernice and her Bryan outside to get decent photos. Bryan appears to have won the lottery in the genetic gamble of (unintentional!) in-breeding, concentrating the good qualities instead of the bad. His structure, ear set, tail, and especially fleece all look good, and in my experience those early indicators can be counted on into maturity. If he keeps developing well, he'll be kept intact as another available breeding ram. Like Bench, he is too closely related to almost all of my ewes to be used here but may be too nice to wether. Here he is, less than 40 hours old:

I had big plans to finish up garden prep on Wednesday with the starts and seeds I purchased the day before, but that and everything else got shelved when I had to take Brian to see a doctor and then to the ED. We left at 10:00 a.m. and didn't arrive back home until almost 8:30, me with very unhappy knees. No certain answers yet, but lifestyle issues are strongly suspected (plus ZERO tolerance for pain). At least Rick was kind enough to do evening chores for me. Thursday morning I did get the starts in the ground (burpless cucumbers; oops, I didn't realize Rick already planted some!) and stock tank planter (basil and lettuce). Maybe I'll get the seeds in the ground today, but I have lots of other things on today's to-do list as well. I do still take a little time to 'smell the roses'.... (We only have the one out by the entry gate; it was there when we bought this place 30 years ago!)

Brian is holing up in his room focusing on his misery, so we're down to two of us (one and a half?) at the worst possible time. I can't do much to help Rick stack hay (our local hay producer has 107 bales waiting for us, and we're down to seven bales in our barn), or move all the cabinets and shelves from the old clinic that are stored in the barn aisle up to the shop so we can stack hay. I don't know any local lads we could hire for muscle, either. We'll figure something out; we have to. C'est la vie, again (that seems to be my theme).

That's it for now from . . .