So much for the Sunday Honey-Do list

Rick was (is) still sick, and Brian is an adolescent in every sense of the word. That's a shame, because I had important projects for them to work on! Oh well, that left it to me to

So yesterday I got up before the yellowjackets and picked another huge bowl of prunes. Got seven quarts more of spiced prunes canned, then took my horse out for his daily constitutional and worked on a Christmas present before we had to attend a birthday party and run errands in town.

That took the rest of the afternoon and evening, so there wasn't time at the end of the day for much besides chores and a little more work on that Christmas present. Today I'm barely able to put one foot in front of the other. Part of it is sleep deprivation, part of it is the extra load Rick's lack of activity puts on me. I really hope it's not because my immune system is being overcome by what Rick has! Still, I managed to fill the dehydrator with prunes, get Brian through his schoolwork and practice, then take him to one town for his violin lesson and another city for his first fencing class. (More on that later!) My horse didn't get his daily constitutional, but I did catch Bittersweet to change his coat and fondle his fleece.

I was surprised to see how much lighter it's gotten since this spring's shearing! Still beautiful, dense and soft, though.

That's it from the weary shepherd at . . .

Hot and cold

After almost reaching 100 degrees today it's still in the 80s in the house and my husband is on the couch underneath a double-thickness polarfleece blanket. Ya'think he's sick? :-/

Hoping to avoid the plague at . . .

For the record

If any lambs pop out five months from now, Barbados will be their daddy.

Oops, at . . .

Prune primer

Our two prune* trees are loaded this year. The dogs help themselves to the ground falls, and the chickens enjoy what I deliver. If the horses had access to the upper pasture right now, they would be eating their share of prunes (and apples), too. There's plenty to go around – if you can get past the yellow jackets.

Rick braved the feisty insects for the first batch, from which I've dehydrated a load and made a batch of spiced plum butter (just getting started above).

This morning my guys left at o'dark thirty to go salmon fishing with one of Rick's clients. I couldn't go back to sleep (not that I'd slept much prior), so I figured I might as well be productive. I did some computer work; then, when it got light enough but before the sun and yellow jackets were out, I picked another passel of prunes. Now the dehydrator is humming, my canner is heating, and I'm on to other tasks.

*Prunes are a distinct type of plum, not just the dried version of what most people refer to as plums. I had never seen fresh prunes before we moved to NW Oregon; now I prefer them! Prunes are sweeter, denser, and free-stone, with a much different nutritional profile than plums:

That's it for now from . . .