It's Hotgust

One third of summer down, two-thirds to go. Temperatures are climbing – or rather rocketing – again, after a July that was the hottest on record here. We will get through this. I think my choice of audiobooks helps; my life is so very easy and blessed in comparison to what so many others have survived. The latest was The Light in Hidden Places, a true story about a Polish girl who her risked her life hiding 13 Jews in her apartment during WWII. On the other hand, such stories also remind me how evil humans can be, especially in the service of power and politics. Too few remember the past so we can do better now. History repeats itself. Oh Lord, come quickly.

Garden production is picking up. Zucchini, green beans, cucumbers, and eggplant, along with greens from the herb barrel, are regularly on the table. Last night I made a recipe shared by my sister to rave reviews, along with Wilted Cucumber Salad (recipe from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest). Next I want to try this recipe from The Splendid Table. I'm thinking of harvesting the first beets to counter-ferment into pickled beets for myself, since my guys aren't fans. I also want to make the grated raw beet and apple salad recipe I got from a lady at church after she brought it to potluck last year; it's delicious and beautiful.  Eat your colors!

a few volunteer sunflowers in the garden are welcome

Bijou and Benchie needed bigger coats; all the yearlings look like adults now. I need to take the time to monkey-pick the lambs and coat them so their hogget fleeces can fetch the prices they will deserve. Three of them will have the once-in-a-lifetime gradient wool that comes from having the fading (Ag) gene; after that first fleece, they will be basically white.

Bench; I really like this ram

gulmoget Bijou is headed to a new home this fall in exchange for a katmoget

Toffee Bits, one of the Amber Star pullets, started laying this week. Surprisingly, her first egg was BIG, while her second egg was more of a pullet bullet. The Amber Stars' rich brown shells will add yet another color to the cartons; I love that!

two pullet bullets and a Whiting True Blue egg

How about some random scenic shots? Some of these escaped inclusion in the last couple posts, and others have been taken since my last post. Shared here from oldest to newest:

evening color reflected in the eastern sky

little gopher snake on defense (Chuckie batted at it)

Poppy got a new collar, but no class tonight due to heat

haven't seen many deer in recent years, but these walked right by the garden

I  wonder if this is the fawn Poppy found in our woods

Finally, fiber. Two of the people I proxy-shopped for at Black Sheep (sisters) sent me this beautiful, bountiful thank you package. Gobsmacked!

Sweater yarn with a spindle cushion/bowl I ordered; so helpful for fat spindles!

This fiber sample was included with the spindle cushion

I call this yarn "Texas hold 'em;" it was the fiber with the spindle that was lost and found in Texas

Four skeins of my sweater yarn washed and ready to cake for knitting

Plying what will be the fifth skein; I'll have seven skeins total

My name was drawn for a Tour de Fleece participation prize, and I ordered these two gorgeous braids from DivineDyeWork with my Etsy gift card. They'll be sweet treats to spin later!

That's it for now from . . .

Nuts, bolts, and wrenches

In the nuts and bolts section, I've fixed a growing problem with website access on my laptop. My native Mac browser,  Safari, has been increasingly dysfunctional because of my old OS, which I can't update or I'll lose access to my design software. I used my iPhone for some websites, but not everything can be done on a tiny screen. Things came to a head when Shutterfly wouldn't let me create my MIL's wedding photo album. I called Shutterfly's help desk, and after her first suggestions fixed nothing, she told me to download Chrome. Now I use Safari when I can, and Chrome allows me to access everything else, including some blog comments sections that have blocked me for years. Hurray!

More nuts and bolts. In my July 5 post, I mentioned a building project my guys have embarked on. Said project is farther along now and has 'grown,' as such projects do. The excavator Rick hired to finish the prep had to do a LOT more sitework than estimated, leaving a mountain of dirt to deal with. Then Rick decided to expand the use of the new structure, if not its footprint. His clinic's lease is very uncertain now as the larger commercial property on which it sits has been sold to new owners who want it ALL for a U-Haul super-rental eventually, so the new shop may very well do double (triple?) duty as a large animal clinic on top of firewood storage and shop. The vast majority of Rick's work is ambulatory, but he needs an exam bay for the occasional haul-in, and a place to store some drugs and supplies. Might as well be here, since commercial property is shockingly expensive to rent or buy (compared to the rent for his current clinic which has barely changed since 1995). Rick is building forms for the footings now.

some of the dirt has been spread out in the orchard and upper pasture

From nuts and bolts to 'bullets' and 'pellets.' Honeybun has been giving us regular 'pullet bullets' but yesterday I found a tiny egg in a nestbox – more like a 'pullet pellet.' Maybe from a second of the three pullets? The second photo shows two regular eggs, three pullet bullets and the pellet. I'll have plenty of eggs to feed the company we'll have next week; Rick's cousin's son is interested in veterinary medicine so is flying out from MO to ride with him. His mom and aunt are coming, too, but plan to do a lot of sightseeing so we may not see them much.

 I love that the pullets form a gradient in colors 😁

As for wrenches – or is that wrenching? – our son ended up in the ER for a few hours this week for doing something stupid. I often wonder if he'll get his act together before he destructs – or Rick's and my marriage does. As always, I distract myself from the drama and trauma with horse and dog training, fiber crafts, exercise, a few close friends, and of course lots of talking to God. The day after Brian's crisis I went with one of those friends to her weekly training session with her reactive dog. It was fascinating and informative. I prefer to train with only positive reinforcement and research bears out that this is best, but for highly reactive dogs like my friend's German Shepherd/Malinois, operant conditioning may be the only solution to changing behavior that could otherwise result in euthanasia. The trainer did some talking first and then gave my friend a timed assignment without instructions – to get her dog to stand on four empty 28oz tin cans and hold that position for at least 10 seconds. Amazingly, she accomplished the assignment in less than two minutes; the trainer said the average time it takes for someone to do this for the first time is more than 20 minutes! I was watching in fascination and didn't take any photos, but after she finished the instructor talked about the nine  principles behind training this and other behaviors, referencing the same principles used in training military recruits, and I took a photo of  those, and then the instructor's own dog demonstrating the ability to do the exercise for much longer than 10 seconds. All I could think about is how much my son needs this training!

But to reference Al-Anon's three Cs, I can't control or cure him.... (But yes, I did have to try it with Poppy.)

That's it for now from . . .

Variations on summer themes

The weather, chickens, garden, orchid, and spinning along with the TdF – all are ongoing for better or worse. To wit....

Our weather moderated from 'infernal' to hot, and then on Tuesday neared triple digits again. Thankfully, though, a stiff coastal breeze dramatically dropped the temperature outside and in through the evening and we had lovely sleeping weather. Such cooling breezes used to be near nightly occurrences, but they have become less common with climate change – maybe that's why our tomatoes are doing better this year! Silver linings....

The following is not a silver lining. My husband has taken up the battle with ivy and blackberries. Unfortunately, strong herbicide is his tool of choice, and the other evening, he sallied forth to attack the new recruits making an incursion around the northwest corner of the garden. I expressed concern but he assured me he would take precautions and all would be well that should be well. Well, it's not. When I went up in the garden a day or two later, I noticed my Armenian cucumber, some strawberries, and at least one of my hills of summer squash all exhibiting the stricken curled stems of herbicide poisoning. I've watered everything to eliminate other stressors and can only hope the effects aren't fatal – and any resulting produce doesn't poison US. Environmental glyphosate persistence is real, in spite of what the label – and my husband – says. I'm not too worried about the produce coming from seemingly unaffected plants, but what if the affected ones recover and produce?

Long White Zucchini of Palermo, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Calima Beans, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

My glorious little orchid now:

I've continued spinning up the little fiber snacks from BSG for the Tour de Fleece. As always, spinning is a great way to fill the time, which I've had more of than usual. I have made three trips this month to the Casey Eye Institute at OHSU in Portland, transporting a lady from our church to and from her appointments/surgery; we go again next Tuesday. When I get too cold spinning in the air conditioning, I stroll around outside, taking in the beautiful views from "Pill Hill:"

a much less scenic view in the opposite direction

And Wednesday, Honeybun gave us our first 'pullet bullet'!

At the end of this month, we are getting unexpected company. Rick's cousin's son just graduated from college and is considering vet school, so Rick's cousin called and asked if his son, his wife, and his sister could fly out for a week. Rick, of course, is delighted; I have two guest rooms to clear and clean and a lot of extra cooking to plan for. C'est la vie.

That's it for now from . . .