Our state fair concluded Monday for another year. We were there until nearly the closing bell, attending the last concert (Weird Al) and then walking through for a final look. I do so enjoy experiencing it (five different times this year!), and several of you have commented over the years that you, too, enjoy it vicariously through my photos. Unfortunately, my devices are refusing to communicate again, so sharing photos will have to wait until they get over their current snit. (The on again off again nature of their spats reinforces a favorite line of mine from Madeline L'Engle: "The animosity of inanimate objects.")
We had a lovely stretch of cool, wet weather that shouted "FALL!" It has warmed up again, but the quality of light has changed, the air feels different, my mare is shedding her summer hair, and the woolly bear caterpillars have appeared; my favorite season is here. 😃 I'm done with prunes and now need to focus on apples, while continuing to harvest and cook what little our garden is still producing.
...bring May grass, hopefully! Flowers we've already got....
Once again Rick tilled up the middle pasture and seeded it, hoping to replace the weeds with quality forage. He did this last year at a time when we should have gotten more rain but didn't, and nothing germinated. Today we're getting some much-needed moisture, so hopefully we'll have better success this year.
The rain will be good for the garden, too. Not that we've tilled or planted anything yet, but we do have perennial strawberries and rhubarb. Monday I decided to take a look at the walking onions I planted last year. They are surrounded by weeds (mostly the Red Dead-nettle that took over the middle pasture last year) but look good – MUCH better than they looked all last summer. Then to my surprise I noticed that there were sugar pod peas flourishing and flowering on the trellis I never took down! That should tell you just how mild our winter was.
All the members of my flock are still wearing their fleeces, but some of them are trailing bits; the shaggy ones will be first on the shearing stand. We've had some warm days when I could have comfortably started, but then it got cooler again. Wouldn't you know it; the next warming spell is over the coming weekend when I'll be at the coast for our church's annual women's retreat! Ah well, the sheep will get sheared, eventually.
While obsessing over the need to start shearing, I've noticed the pairs in my ewe flock. As shown above, I have a pair of black ewes, a pair of moorit ewes, a pair of grey ewes, and a pair of musket ewes (which means half of my ewes have the Agouti/fading gene). A pair of them are spotted . . . all of them are related. My mind likes to play these little mathematical games. 😉
Now that I've caught up on my blog, I think I'll make like the dogs and take a wee nap. In case it's catching, like seeing someone yawn, I'll prime the pump with some of Poppy's assorted places and positions.
With the gradually lengthening daylight (and mostly sunny days this month), the hens are slowly increasing production. Not fast enough for the people wanting to buy eggs, though....
Speaking of buyers, the people who came to buy three ewes last Friday left with four! Good thing I had spent time pouring over last year's micron test data, because when they hinted at being open to taking a fourth ewe, I knew who I should let go. So Bauble joined Boop, Bonnie Lass, and Blossom for the trip south to their new home. I admit to some pangs, because I thought Bauble was my most beautiful Shetland, and since her dam Blaise is gone I can't try to replicate her. Just the night before, Rick stayed in the Sheep Sheraton awhile after carrying a bucket for me and I caught him loving on Bauble.
After the four left, I put the three 'barn sheep' out in the wooded lot with the remaining girls so they could figure out the new social order and live together. Since some of the 'mean girls' had left, I was hopeful that no one would get hurt in the kerfuffle and by this morning, all seemed copacetic, thankfully.
I continue to be delighted with my new iPhone's camera capabilities. On my way home from work Thursday, snow-covered Mt. Hood was shining in the sun so I pulled over at the bottom of our hill to see what I could capture. Finally, a true representation of what I get to enjoy with my naked eye!
Evening photo of dark yarn? No problem!
Besides spinning navy singles, I'm plying two very different singles I spun last year into what for me is an experimental 2-ply:
Not sure I'd wear these colors, though, so this yarn might be knit into a gift.
'Tis the season. I hope all of you, no matter where you are or who you're with, take some quiet moments to count your blessings. All the problems, craziness, and sorrow will still be there when you're done counting, but it does help to think about more positive things for awhile . . . every day. 😉
Our Thanksgiving plans were late in the making (such are the complications of blended families), but in the end we gathered at my MIL's house for dinner yesterday. My contributions were homemade crescent rolls (a perennial request), one of Costco's giant pumpkin pies, and a rather impressive, if I do say so myself, salad of homegrown butternut, radicchio and escarole from a neighbor's garden, toasted walnuts, dried cranberries, and feta. I took my knitting along for any down-time, but didn't work on it until we returned home. My short-term goal to get through the colorwork yoke before the calendar turns to December, and I think I'll make it. The horses have been revealed; I'm pretty tickled with it!
before the fancy salad bowl
Last Saturday night we were blessed by our son's thoughtful and generous joint birthday gift, tickets for all three of us to a Straight No Chaser concert at the Elsinore Theatre in Salem. I've been singing scraps of songs and grinning on and off ever since; it was fabulous, great fun as always. And I love that they encourage taking and posting photos and videos, so here you go:
I am thankful for getting some more medical stuff taken care of this year, since after my knee replacements my out-of-pocket obligations have been met. After five weeks of PT for my sciatica without resolving my symptoms, I was referred for a lumbar MRI and was able to get in for that right away. Now I'm trying to get into a pain management practice for a consultation (at least) and possible treatment (likely an injection) before the end of the year.
I am thankful for beauty. The sensory feast of fall is abating, but it is still lovely to me in its more muted phase.
entrance color, before the 'fall'
HUGE, beautiful mushrooms just up the hill, seen on a walk with Poppy
Mt. Hood, across the Willamette Valley, taken from horseback
all of these are from just one changing sunrise
I'm not counting blessings that haven't happened yet, but I'm encouraged by an email exchange with someone interested in buying three ewes. That would be a boon in several ways, including being able to merge the 'barn ewes' with the bigger group, and easing the demand on our too-meager hay supply.
Speaking of sheep, I've been swapping out tight coats for bigger ones as I can. The other night Bitta got a fresh coat, and even though it was after dark I snapped photos of her and Bauble mid-side. Considering that Bitta is black and Bauble is a black gulmoget, the photos turned out surprising well!
I'm a homeschooling, horse training, animal loving, garden growing, part-time business running, spinning and knitting shepherd who loves the Great Shepherd.
