Big and little sorrows

Last weekend was Dad's memorial service. It was a brief but intense trip with warm memories and hot weather, short on sleep and high in stress, something to get through and yet treasure forever. In the middle of it, I lost my travel spindle. I've never lost a spindle before, so that was bad enough, but to lose one made from Bubinga that my birth dad gave me while traveling for my step-dad's memorial makes this loss sting:

on the flight to TX; sadly missing by the time we flew home

But life goes on – and I'm doing my best to catch up. Our atypically cool, wet spring is both blessing and curse. I love this weather, as does all the burgeoning flora. Weeds, grass, weeds, flowers, weeds, trees; you get the picture. Our 'hay guy' called this week to say there will be no first cutting because he hasn't had a dry stretch to put it up and now it's all seed heads and stems, and his second cutting is pretty much all spoken for (so much for thinking we were at the top of his buyers list!). Out on vet calls Rick has heard that the cost of hay – IF you can find it – has skyrocketed. Thankfully, we still have hay left over from last year, and I'm trying to make it stretch as long as possible. The horses are mostly on pasture now, and I plan to invest some of this year's fleece income in some ElectroNet fencing so the sheep can continue to graze the lush verges of our driveway without accessing the yard's toxic plants.

last four bales of third cutting in foreground, with first cutting beyond 

Bling is still my shadow

the two other lambs and their dams

yearling Berlin

this plastic netting did NOT contain them, hence the need for ElectroNet

and no,  Bridget hasn't lambed yet

I did meet my self-imposed deadline of having all the fleeces harvested by the end of May, and am now skirting and invoicing the reserved fleeces. Usually all my fleeces are reserved before shearing, but with this year's events I dropped that ball (along with a lot of others, like gardening and weeding).

Rick has been mowing regularly, but beyond the lawn everything is looking shaggy and neglected. I offered to pay Brian what the neighbors' sometime-gardener charges and he said he's interested, but so far the interest hasn't translated to action; no surprise there. I'm resigned to not having a garden this year, but am not totally giving in to the weeds. I've pulled quite a bit of tansy in the pastures, but need to do another sweep for more, plus thistles. This week I have spent a good number of hours pulling and poking out bushels of weeds around the front of the house, and it's looking better. 

tidied entry

The weeds were hiding the mess here; maybe I should have left them!

one of many loads

progress is seeing dirt and gravel

got the calibrachoa gifted by our church family potted, too

Memorial

A week ago I posted the above photos on Instagram and Facebook, for Dad. That morning – ten days after I left – he died peacefully at home. Thankfully a favorite aide and the wonderful hospice nurse were there with Mom, and then the next-door neighbor came. She took Mom over to her house while the body and hospital bed were removed and then went back to the empty house with her to sit and talk. My sister was already planning to drive down; she and her son arrived on Monday. A week from today we will fly down for the second memorial service in two months.

We all miss Dad, but would not wish him to linger longer, trapped as he was in a hospital bed by the effects of an inoperable brain tumor. We have no regrets, and  know he is at rest until God's trumpet sounds on Resurrection Day – reunion day! Gotta smile at that.

***********************

Life goes on here. The weeds got a galloping head start all over the property and we will never catch up, much less get ahead of them. That may very well mean no garden for us. I considered hiring help, but we have had significant extra expenses so I abandoned that idea. Might as well enjoy that which blooms in spite of neglect:

The animals get more attention, and will get their own posts. One sheep still needs shearing and another still needs to deliver; fleece harvest will be completed by the end of May but lambing will not. Yes, I could miss the last lambing just as I did the first; such is life. For the same reason Poppy and I have missed numerous agility classes but we are still making progress and have fun. Stella and I progress more slowly, but the joy is in the journey – and her beauty. She and Lance are enjoying the maturing pasture even while the sheep are frustrated by their lack of access, now that the foxtail awns are hard. They have to be satisfied with first-cutting hay (the 'horse hay') and occasional opportunities to graze the edges of the driveway.

Anyway, like I said, there are photos and posts for all of that. Until then, my blog friends.

Pretty perfect

I've been home a week as of last night and like the burgeoning biomass outside, my photo files/blog fodder are running rampant. Today is my best opportunity to wrangle those photos and thoughts into a blog post so bear with me; it'll likely be a big 'un.

On the flight home, my itinerary included a long stop in Austin, TX. I'd never been there, so I walked from one end of the smallish terminal to the other while I waited, seeing much to appreciate. Local eateries, lots of art installations, equal-opportunity parenting facilities, cupcake vending machines (plural), and live music.

A friend saw this on Instagram and asked if it was me and Poppy. 🧐

Landing in Portland always raises my spirits. Beauty can be found anywhere, but NW Oregon resonates with my soul like no other place.

Instead of bustling off to work the next day, I stayed home. I figured my boss had managed without me for two weeks; she could manage one more day and I would just go in on Thursday as usual. Nearly strained my arm patting myself on the back I did, it was so blissful to take a day to check in with all my animals and ease back into my home responsibilities. The lambies have grown, of course, and all three of them got 'snuggle time' before I let them out to graze along the driveway edges.

Bad photo but wonderful moment; heretofore Boop has been very skittish.

I realized after that first day, though, that the foxtail awns weren't mature yet, so the ewes and lambs have been getting lots of pasture time. That is a great blessing as our sheep hay supply is running very low and the cost of hay, if one can even find any, is running very high.

"The grass is as high as a Shetland ewe's eye"

When the sheep are out, Poppy doesn't get to run around the property. She thinks it's great fun to 'play' with sheep and horses, but that is likely to end in disaster for either other animals or her. I took her for a walk one day and Bling was close to the fence when we returned. Poppy was so excited to see her (not as) little friend; Bling was far less sure. Another time Brian had Bling out when Poppy and I headed to the barn; visually they are about the same size now, although Poppy weighs more.

I've gotten two more fleeces harvested since getting home. Berlin's first shearing is just stunning, even though she was a complete idiot on the blocking stand. (She's now back in with the other ewes and behaving herself.) Blaise's fleece lifted off with barely a tug; she had a complete break in her fleece, no doubt from nearly dying back in March. She is still thin, so she got wormed and is getting extra groceries. Next up is Bing, so he and Spot can go out into the wooded lot and graze on what's grown up there instead of eating precious hay....

Both yearling Berlin and petite Blaise are wearing size C coats after shearing

Chuckie was as happy as ever to have me home and paying attention to him:

I don't like the brownish cast of Chuckie's coat. Poppy's 'beauty treatment' (grabbing Chuckie by the head or neck and rolling him around on the wet driveway) isn't helping his appearance any!

Let's finish up with some beauty shots from around the place:

Japanese maples mingling

the last of the apple blossoms

That's one big update from . . .