The elephant in my room

In the midst of life going on pretty much as usual here, Thursday night I called to tell my mom what has been decided about Brian's high school graduation. (Outside, students and limited staff appropriately distanced, limited family confined to their vehicles.) She mentioned being worried about Daddy, which is not an uncommon comment. She also mentioned that Texas is now offering free COVID-19 testing; okay, interesting. Then she said that Daddy has been feeling punky for a couple weeks now, aching all over 😟; oh, he had a couple days of fever 😳; oh, and this week he lost his sense of taste and smell 😱. Yeah; at that point flashing red lights and sirens started going off in my head, and my heart dropped to the basement. She got him in to be tested Friday morning (and no, they wouldn't test her, even though she lives with him and is an 80-year-old asthmatic, because she had no symptoms; I guess they don't believe in asymptomic carriers in TX) and now we wait three to five days. I've recovered from my initial panic and had a nice, long chat with my dad Friday. There has also been a flurry of texts between my sister and me. Her family is taking this very seriously; we (with the exception of the teen) are taking this very seriously. It is beyond frustrating to know and love people who believe certain 'talking heads' and DON'T take this (as) seriously. Praying that the lesson isn't learned in the most heartbreaking manner.

Misty May and Mothers Day

We have survived the first heat wave of 2020. It was in the 80s Friday, Saturday and Sunday; that's summer weather for us. On Friday Poppy got to play with the 'neighbor boy' for the first time since the splint came off; they had a blast! I had to wait until they got kinda-sorta tuckered out to get anything but a blur:

On Saturday evening we took a three-mile family walk at sunset, which was lovely:

But I think all that exercise might have been a bit much; Poppy has been pretty gimpy on her bad leg ever since. 😕

Mothers Day was a disorganized jumble, but hey, that can be a good thing – like tossed salad. 😆

The neighbors to our east had work for Brian in the morning, which he jumped on since he hasn't saved up enough for his part of the car insurance yet and it's due this month. And Rick took off without notice to his mother's to help her with some stuff, leaving me to my own devices (it's a good thing I don't have a lot of expectations!). So I called my mom for a nice, long chat. Gardening came up, and I mentioned that our plot is ready but for the rototilling, which is a bit of a roadblock. Brian and I were ready to rent a walk-behind; Rick's been stalling because he much prefers to borrow a client's tiller attachment so he can sit on a tractor seat, but we have overwintered kale, parsley, and beets that I don't want to sacrifice. After talking to Mom, I decided to call and ask Rick (as a Mothers Day favor 😉) if he would rent a tiller if he was going to be done at his mom's in time to use it. Glory be, he conceded! He also brought his mother back with him, which momentarily threw me for a loop. But rather than feeling obligated to "entertain" without notice, I went ahead with my plan to shear a sheep. I pulled out Bette, who was surprisingly easy to do (I was able to roo her undercarriage, hence the woolly line at the lower edge of her belly.

It was nice to have a relatively quick and easy shearing job, especially on a hot day. Last Wednesday I sheared Bardot, who I thought would be easy but ended up taking longer than anyone else so far. 😳 But that's seven done; only four more to go.

Bardot's BIG fleece

Bardot, sans fleece

I carried up my fleece harvest about the time Rick finished the garden. He needed to return the tiller and I needed a shower, after which I was looking forward to the mother/son horseback ride Brian had promised me for Mothers Day. But before we got to that, Rick returned from town – with his mother still in tow! Unwilling to give up the one thing Brian planned for me for Mothers Day, I initiated a conversation about how the remainder of the day would be spent (Rick's side of the family is not big on communication😏). Rick (or his mom?) wanted to drive by the iris fields; Brian and I needed a certain amount of daylight for our ride; I suggested getting take-out food to eat so we'd have time to do both. Win-win-win!

But wait; there's more! After our short ride I asked Brian if he'd be willing to help me with Stella. I thought it would be special to get to sit on her back for the first time for Mothers Day, but realized that might be too much to try for. But with Brian holding her I was able to lay on her back, then put a leg over the saddle while holding onto the arena fence. At that point Brian decided he didn't want me to risk getting hurt so I held Stella and he eased into the saddle from the arena fence – from both sides. Stella was tense and nervous, but stood like a rock and made me proud. So did my boy. 😊

I didn't get store-bought flowers for Mothers Day, but that's just fine because we have so many beauties just outside:

Yesterday after work, I picked up some vegetable seeds and starts. There wasn't enough time to plant everything by the time I got home from Poppy's PT, but I did get the starts in the ground to take advantage of the predicted showers. I got one each of the three eggplant varieties, and two each of the pepper and three tomato varieties. I didn't realize until later that I was charged for 14 starts instead of 11; hopefully the store will take my word for it and give me three more starts when I go to town on Thursday.

That's it for now from . . .

Off with their heads!

In my last post I promised you a couple photo series of Poppy. I may have taken a few more.... 😏

In addition to Poppy's penchant for posies,

she also savors the seedheads of pasture grasses!

She is a dog who is interested in everything, and is especially keen on the other creatures on our place. You've seen her with Chuckie;

she'd like to play like that with the chickens and sheep, too. That, of course, would likely end badly; good thing I still keep her on lead (mostly because our front gate is still not working). But the other day when Poppy was zooming the boys in the wooded lot, Bing slowly approached and joy of joys, she got to meet one of the objects of her desire. She was entirely appropriate, too, sniffing noses politely and quietly.

This afternoon Poppy asked to go outside. The ewes were close to the fence and Poppy wanted to go see them; most of them were pretty interested in her, too. Unlike Bing, most of my girls would flatten Poppy if given the chance; only Bernadette seemed curious. Vienna and Sarai both bashed Jackson; interesting that the three adult daughters of those two ewes are equally dog-aggressive. I took some short videos, too, but haven't gotten those uploaded yet.

And yes, Poppy could totally squeeze under that fence. 😳

That's it for now from . . .