Another year older (but not deeper in debt)

I may be getting old, but not nearly as old as the song that came to mind as title inspiration (can't beat Tennessee Ernie Ford's rendition). Yes, I've had another birthday but they are never really a big deal, not the new 'number' or the 'celebration.' This year I told my guys all I wanted were "acts of service," (one of the Five Love Languages, and a top one for me), and they obliged. After Rick blew leaves,  we all worked on stripping the Sheep Sheraton, then Brian cleaned the henhouse. The Ram-ada Inn still needs to be cleaned, but we ran out of time and energy; maybe next Sunday. I got some cute photos of my grown boy loving on Bridget, and then joined him for some birthday selfies.

The wind really blew Friday night; can you see the sheep?

Brian also got me this book, which I thought was an incredibly thoughtful gift:

And my sister sent me a box of little goodies, including this gorgeous LovePop card because she knows how much I love my Japanese maples:

like this one right outside the front door

Sanson bred Boop several times on my birthday, which could be a gift – except that two days earlier, the other two ram lambs managed to break out and join Sanson and his girls for several hours. If she settles in this short time frame, I'll likely have to do DNA testing to determine the sire, unless the lamb or lambs are Ag (Sanson is the only one with that pattern).

The following photos are from last week;

Bette and her black twins

I took this photo of the island today. The Japanese maple has lost some of its fire, but I love the contrasts and colors:

That's it for now from . . .

Falling fast

"Fall" is the perfect description of this season in the PNW. Rain, leaves, and daylight are all falling fast. I knew what was coming even as I patted myself on the back for keeping up with the first leaves to fall in the arena; this is the progress regress from Friday (shown in my last post) to this morning:

As you can see, the Bigleaf Maples have rapidly changed color, too (and there are STILL a lot of leaves to fall; nevertheless, I will blow out the arena again today).

The colors; oh, the COLORS right now! I've taken a bunch of photos – Sabbath afternoon driving to and from church (first two photos below), then on a walk with Poppy around the hill late Sabbath afternoon (next four photos), more around our house on Monday morning, and finally at one of Rick's client's yesterday late afternoon (last four photos). Yes, these are the client's creations; they are stunning, and BIG (all over 7' tall). I have shared at least a couple photos of her work before; one was at the State Fair. I think her talent is amazing.

Sunday Poppy and I went to another agility trial at a facility the closest yet to us – the beautiful home court of Willamette Agility Group (love their logo!). If I didn't like my current instructor so much and get to meet up with my cousin at nearby Costco after nearly every class, I'd be looking to change venues for agility classes. Poppy had the zoomies and didn't pay much attention to her 'teammate,' so we only qualified in one of our three classes.

When we got home, there were FIVE eggs waiting for us; obviously most of my hens worked harder Sunday than my dog did! 🤪

But Poppy doesn't have to bring home ribbons to give me great joy; Leo, either.

That's it from the dog-lover at . . .