Bits and bobs

I intended to do this post earlier in the day, but the internet has been down for hours. Oh well, that means you get less words, which is probably better anyway!

Our stretch of gorgeous sunrises ended with this pretty sunset a week ago. I saw color through the window, grabbed my iPhone, pulled on some shoes, and planned to take a short walk to a good vantage point. Surprisingly, I got a good show from right outside my door!

The next day while working Stella, the sunlight caught the rich brown of her eye.

Speaking of Stella, look at this image created by the guy who took the photo at Perrydale Trails:

I would love to have an actual Christmas ornament just like this!

In fiber news, I'm spinning some cloud/roving from one of my first two Shetlands, plying some CVM/Romeldale singles, and finally did the finishing on two recent knits. Below is a cowl now in the mail for my sister (look at me using my son to model it just like Romi Hill does!).

And this is my Empower Lace Cowl designed by the aforementioned Romi Hill:

Speaking of gifts, a friend gave me this small painting of a bulldog made into a birthday card.. I found the perfect frame for it at Goodwill; now it sits front and center on top of the baking rack which holds my cookbooks. The wooden platter was my paternal grandmother's; it says “Give us this day our daily bread" in Danish.

This week our weather has mostly looked like this:

The girls were out for awhile between showers today. Beyond them you can see that the neighbors’ house is getting siding; in between, if you look closely, you can see their chickens happily free-ranging.

That's it for today from . . .

Baking, birthdays, baubles, and bouncing

It's so nice to be toasty-warm inside when it's damp and chilly outside.

Mind you, Poppy LOVES to roam around outside, smelling smells, digging digs, and running runs. But once she comes INside, she is a big fan of the wood-burning insert, and has taken to jumping up on the hearth to 'bake' herself. 😊

On Sunday we celebrated Brian's birthday. Just in case you don't know which number:

I found those huge fresh organic raspberries at Costco after agility class last Thursday, and couldn't resist. We added a lot more of them to our individual slices of cheesecake. 😋 Rick and Brian picked up my MIL to celebrate with us, and help decorate the Christmas tree afterwards. I didn't get Russian teacakes done, but the Rosemary Slices I made were very well-received.

And here is our tree in all its glory from outside last night and inside:

On Friday I put up some year-round decorations:

These cute signs were a birthday gift from a friend of mine.

Spot has had three weeks to romance his girls, and I think he was getting a little bored. The other day when I turned the non-breeding flock out they all lined up at the gate. Strange; why aren't they grazing? I heard some rustling in the woods, and turned around to 'See Spot Run.' Worried that he was harassing unreceptive ewes, I walked over to investigate, and realized I read the wrong title. It should have been 'See Spot BOUNCE!'

It was such a hoot to watch a three-year-old RAM sproing around like a lamb!

Hopefully there will be some little Spots bouncing around here come late next spring.

In the meantime, the boys will hang with the boys and the girls will hang with the girls. Last night I shuffled sheeple around to that effect, and Spot got his second CDT shot. His breeder doesn't vaccinate, but tetanus is a bigger threat around here because of the horses. Now Spot is protected from that potentially deadly infection . . . but the wethers aren't protected from an amorous ram.

"Why? Why do we have to live with HIM???"

There have been some pretty skies and sunrises recently. The first two photos below were taken during a late afternoon ride down the road on Lance; the second two are two recent sunrises.

That's it for now from . . .

It's beginning to look a lot like . . .

Motel 6???

That's the light outside our daylight basement door (with solar lights along the steps and valley lights in the distance), by which our neighbors will be coming and going as of tonight. They had hoped to be in their new house long ere this, but construction projects being what they are.... The wife had mentioned to me a couple weeks ago that everything was getting damp in their temporary living quarters in the shop and their little RV trailer is not really big enough for the two of them – plus their two little dogs – to sleep comfortably. At the time she was housesitting for some people and looking for a short-term rental that would accept the dogs without success. Rick and I talked it over, and decided to offer them our rudimentary basement guest quarters. It has a separate entrance so we won't have inside contact during these COVID-conscious times, and they can have a warm, dry space to sleep, shower, relax, watch TV if desired, and dry things out at night.

But it is beginning to look a lot little like Christmas, too. Last week when I rode Lance down the lane, I saw that a Christmas tree lot on the other end where we have purchased a u-cut tree before is closed for the season already(!?!). I wasn't sure what we would do; u-cut options are very limited this year and tree prices are up thanks to high demand in these unsettled times. I mentioned to the Lord that it sure would be nice to have a BIG tree again if He saw fit to provide one; it wasn't a formal 'request,' I was just sharing the desire of my heart.

Last Sabbath at church, a member gifted us a poinsettia, our first bit of seasonal cheer. Then I happened to see an announcement on a friend's Facebook page. They were planning to clear out some untended Christmas trees to create more horse pasture, and were inviting people to come out and cut them for free the next day. Hallelujah! Rick and I headed over on Sunday afternoon (Brian was busy – again – with friends), and found the perfect tree for us, this tall, lovely and fragrant Grand fir:

Yes, us two 'old folks' managed to get that in and up ourselves. Rick secured it with strings to the deck door hinges, although as you can see there are as yet no ornaments on it to break should it tip over. I'm not sure when (if?) the decorating is going to happen but hey; we have a Christmas tree!

Sunday morning before the tree excursion, Rick and Brian cleaned out the sheep fold. It was DEEP and hard-packed, so a big, heavy job; I'm so grateful! The walls are much taller now; heh.

While they did that I dipped fresh cranberries in chocolate, the anticipation of a Christmas tree putting me in the mood to make holiday treats. Yesterday I made chocolate peanut clusters. Next on the list? Probably Russian teacakes, but before I can get to that, we have a 19th birthday to celebrate. The boy has requested green & white lasagne and cheesecake.

This month is starting out unusually dry and clear. Fortunately we had near-average rainfall in November and there's a lot of December left in which to catch up.

A rainbow over our temporarily merged households

While the weather allows, I'm trying to work both horses daily; here are some scenes from my ride down the lane on Lance this afternoon:

Working with my animals helps keep me sane; this holiday leave is not going wonderfully well. 😒 Poppy and I get to go to agility class again this week after a two-week partial lock-down due to skyrocketing COVID cases in Oregon.

"Did you say 'class'???"

Poppy has been BORED the last few weeks without class or playdates. She has lots of toys and I play with her, take her to the barn, turn her loose to hunt when I can, and take her for walks. But it's just not the same. Fortunately, she got to play with the neighbor dogs today. She has figured out they are downstairs tonight and that's really hard, but she's finally settled down to nap on my lap.

Trying to hold it together at . . .