My working title for this second post of the week was “More Autumn Appreciation,” but yesterday a stereotypical Pacific NW front blew in and we're still getting buffeted by wind, rain, and blowing tree debris. The trees that have yet to turn (like the Japanese maples at the front of our house) might still bless us with fall color, but a lot of others are 'moulting' – like half my hens right now. 😉 I took the photos above this morning.
But before those dreary views dawned, I had taken many others here and around town to share with you:
sunrise and valley fog from our deck
color on my deck
color along our driveway
color in the vineyards stretching off to the east along our lane
color planted in front of a vineyard
early camellias in town
starlings in the sky on my way home (I'm watching for murmurations!)
from the parking lot at work
deep valley fog one morning (no tree 'islands')
"Make zzzzz's while the sun shines"
a small harvest before the rain came; the volunteer kale is SO good
In this case, FO stand for both Finished Object and Frozen Objects. We survived the Arctic Blast that brought snow, cold, wind, and freezing rain with nary a broken pipe, tree damage, or a sustained power outage, and for that we are thankful. In fact, the only weather-related mishap was my slipping on ice-disguised-as-snow outside the post office Tuesday. My right hip was the point of impact and is still very tender, but that's it. Good thing, too, as someone had to make frequent trips to the henhouse and barn to swap out frozen founts and buckets, bust ice in the horses' tank, fuel everyone's internal combustion engines with food, carry wood from the woodshed to keep the fire stoked, and eventually shovel all the heavy slush off the concrete walkways. (Even thought both males were home most of the week due to holiday and weather, Brian mostly holed up in his room and Rick is doing little because of a very painful shoulder.)
initial snow
keeping the overwintering hummers alive
I also fed the seed-eaters (while freezing rain accumulated)
had to borrow Rick's Snowtrax to stay upright on this!
minimizing skin exposure during the bitter cold
The horses enjoyed their snowy turnout in different ways:
eating it
rolling in it
playing on it
The dogs, on the other hand, did their outdoor business quickly and came back in to warm up, play, watch "Birdfeeder TV," and nap:
In the Finished Object category, I present my third weaving project:
I sat down Friday night and wove this in one sitting. It took me several days more to brave the cold bonus room to hemstitch and cut it off the loom, and it still needs to be fulled. But I've forged ahead with winding another full-width warp using some coarse, natural wool yarn I've had for years to weave another rug, and this time I might even venture beyond plain tabby!
Dear little Blaise, who had a stillborn single ram lamb at the end of her first pregnancy and was nearly dead last year when she delivered Bling and a stillborn twin ewe lamb, surprised me at chore time this morning with lively twins, a spotted black gulmoget ram and a black gulmoget ewe (also technically spotted because of the wee white tip of her tail). I hustled the little family from the Sheep Sheraton into the readied stall in the barn, and rubbed the still-wet lambs down to dry them off more. Both figured out where the milk was, even though Blaise's udder is small (part of why she surprised me). I decided to pick up some milk replacer and a replacement heat bulb after church, figuring I'd know by the time I got home if the lambs were getting enough nourishment.
dramatic clouds on my way home, but thankfully no drama at home
Thankfully, both were still perky and active, not cold or lethargic, so I hung the heat lamb and enjoyed watching the happy little family. Blaise is being a wonderful mom:
(Stills in black and white to eliminate the red from the heat lamp.)
They would probably be fine without the heat lamp, but it makes ME feel better with our current cold weather. Yesterday was crazy; photographic proof!
Decided a wool hat was warranted!
And this by the end of the day.
This morning there was a fresh skiff of snow, followed by periods of rain and small hail throughout the rest of the day. A female Anna's hummingbird looked pretty cold at the feeder this morning; earlier this week I found a male in the grass. I'm not sure what happened to him; I gently moved him to a protected spot in case he just needed time to recover from a window strike, but he didn't make it.
After the rest of the girls got some pasture time this afternoon, I looked carefully at each of the four expectant ewes. I think Bridget and Bette could lamb within a week, followed by Bernadette and eventually Bree. After loving on everyone for awhile, I took a little video so you could see them all:
Did you notice that I got wee Bling sheared earlier this week?
So along with the daffodils, lambs are popping out at . . .
I'm a homeschooling, horse training, animal loving, garden growing, part-time business running, spinning and knitting shepherd who loves the Great Shepherd.
