A lazy Caturday

Just wandering around the gardens a couple of weeks ago - we had our first corn of the year last night for dinner - it was truly delish!

 We had a couple inches of very needed rain last week, and the temps dropped about 15 degrees for a couple of days - it was nice to have it cool off!

The front deck is always a nice place to sit on a summer's eve and the petunias are so fragrant - plus there are a couple little froggies living in there, so they serenade us.

We will be going up to Blaine for a fund raiser concert for our church this afternoon.  I have been busy making food for the reception for afterwards.  

It's always fun to tag along with George, Gracie and Bella out in the garden. 

Who knows what kind of mayhem will ensue...

Ooops, lasers activated. 

Calm down kitties!

One more frontal attack!  

"You can't see me"....................

"Oh, yes, I can"


Happy Caturday everyone! 









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Three Beautiful Things -

 I realized that I hadn't done a Three Beautiful Things post in quite a while -

So here are three beautiful things from our garden -

First is another picture of one of our Bellingham Lilies -

 The Shepherd's petunia garden is in full bloom right now.

This is one of my favorite views on the farm - sitting by the barn and looking towards the house.  This view changes weekly as the seasons move along.

Thanks for stopping by to see my Three Beautiful Things this week! 

Meet the "Flockers"

Halo Effurybody and Effury Kittie!

George here with the summer "state of the union" event - W&W   -  or Worming & Weaning! 

Our friend Nurse Nancy came over to help, since Mummy is not too steady on her feet out in the barn.  

The Shepherd tried a new approach this time - he gathered everysheep into a smaller pen inside the barn using panels from the lambing jugs! 

It worked like a dream. Everyone was calm and, most importantly, easy to catch - no running or jumping - what a concept. 

So, without further ado - Meet The Flockers! 

This is Frostiana - her wool is much like her daddy, Elliott's wool - lusterous and long.

This is Lori - she needs a new home. 









Her wool will eventually be white - but I think this first fleece will be fawn colored.

This is Ana - She needs a new home too. 

Ana's fleece is more mioget - golden - and I think this lamb fleece will be beautiful! 

Elsie is what we call a "snausage sheep"  - she is a little roly-poly -   but she is one of The Shepherd's favorite little girls.  She likes to lie down on his feet! 

Elsie is Ana's sister - and she'll be staying here on the farm.

Lettie is Lori's sister - she really does have a sweet face when she's not being strangulated to death by The Shepherd. 

And Whoo-ee - look at the color of her fleece!

Vikki is also a favorite of The Shepherd.  We thought she was going to be black and white from looking at her when she was born - but look at her now - soon she'll be white. 










She also has her daddy, Elliott's fleece characteristics.  Soft and lustrous.

Christopher will have a nice white fleece - he needs a new home - because we have limited space - the only wether that we can keep is the ram buddy - that will be Jackson (see below)

Christopher will have a beautiful white fleece! 

Here's our "ram buddy" Jackson - he is very close to Django in size and temperament.

I'm hoping that we will have some fleeces to take to Black Sheep next year.  What do you think? 

And here's our new little man himself.  Django! 


Pretty color, good nature, and nice fleece - we have 3 or 4 ewes who are not very closely related who will be put in with him in the fall. 

Talk about a golden fleece! 

Donna, Sandy & Vanessa look somewhat relieved that the lambs are out in a pasture by themselves - but oh, what a racket!  Great amounts of wailing and gnashing of teeth! 

"Gracie, do you think they'll ever shut up?"

"I don't know George - those lambs sure can do a good holler" 

Mummy here - The lambs pretty much cried for 24 hours, STRAIGHT!  Then they realized that they were on this wonderful lush pasture, and one by one, they quieted down.  Thank heavens! 




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The fires of creation -

 Here is The Shepherd out standing in his field - a field of Bellingham Lillies- a relatively rare plant, that seems to like our yard.

The weekend has just flown by - I worked until noon on Wednesday, the day of my surgery - we didn't have to be at the surgery center in Mt. Vernon until 2:30 - so we both worked 1/2 day.  Kept my mind off of things, I think.  The rest of the weekend was spent napping and spinning and napping and trying to ignore the piteous cries of 9 lambs who had been taken away from their mamas (that is enough to send you straight to the freezer for that pint of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream!!) and napping and  practicing my guitar.


 You see, after 47 years of playing guitar, I decided that I needed to learn how to play open tuning so I could learn a song by my friend Tracy Spring - in fact, I'm taking lessons from her.  It's been fun, but it is such a different technique from what I know.  Even though I've learned the song I wanted to learn, I'm not sure if it's for me.

I am, however, in awe of Tracy's songwriting ability.  I think I've told you before about MY song writing ability - sadly, it pretty much amounts to drivel.




I like to write (ie my blog), I just have no talent to put it to music. 


"Do I , Gracie? "

"Nope, not so much - here Mummy, why don't you just stop and smell the flowers?"

 Speaking of flowers - here is one of The Shepherd's favorite "mini" bonsai plants - a dwarf astilbe.  Pretty cute huh?

Anyhow, getting back to the music thing -

Luckily, I know lots of talented musical people - another person whose music I like is Unitarian Universalist musician, Jim Scott - he's going to be on the west coast next month - we're hoping to get down to the Seattle area to hear his concert.

"May the dance take me lightly in its arms
May the song lift me gently on its wings,
May the fires of creation burn brightly in my heart,
That I might so briefly touch the magic of all things."

From "The Fires of Creation" by our friend Jim Scott





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I'm doing a Happy Dance today

"Pretty fireworks from the garden" 

Hey - just a quick note to thank you all for your good wishes & prayers - (Dr. Saipco thanks you too) - my surgery went better than expected and I got a good bill of health this morning from him.  He's so confident that he released me to my regular Bellingham eye doc for the rest of my post op care. 

I guess I was pretty out of it last night - kind of scared The Shepherd - he woke me up from "a nap" to get me to go to bed, and I was not making much sense - but I think he realized that I was still "sleeping" and just pointed me in the right direction.

So, everything is still kind of blurry, but it's a different kind of blurry, if you know what I mean?  I'll have  a day or two of "careful convalescing" and then I'm pretty much good to go.

 

Happy 4th of July! 

HOW WE'LL BE WATCHING THE FIREWORKS :-) 

Ya got-ta have friends.....

Well, this post has been a while in the making - first, I watched a video on "Dear Prudence" where a woman's IRL (In Real Life) family berated her for having real relationships her on line friends (ie - "They are just "on-line" people, you don't even know them)  So, I was ready to write something about all the wonderful "on-line" friends that I have, when my modem stopped working.   - Well, let's say it stopped working consistently - If I saw the "on line" light working, if I hurried, I might be able to read an email or two, but that was about it...

Well, thinking that this might be a good time to do the computer upgrade I had in the works for a couple of months - I started that process, but then I realized that my Carbonite backup could not do it's job, BECAUSE MY MODEM KEPT STOPPING - and it didn't download any of my files INCLUDING ALL of my PICTURES!  OK, I'm freaking out now - 

(And then on top of all this computer stuff,  it was time to get ready for vacation & our trip to Eugene Oregon for the Black Sheep Gathering.  NEWSFLASH!! We didn't bring any 4 legged's home - however I did buy some nice BFL/Tussa Silk blend wool to spin :-) 

So, I froze my Carbonite so it wouldn't back-up over my empty files (although I found out that they keep your recent back-ups separate, or something like that, so you do have access to them - I love Carbonite - it is always there, working in the background - Best $70 a year I've ever spent - And after I got my NEW Comcast modem (that includes it's own WI-FI  router so my new printer will work (once I get THAT hooked up) with a little help from the "Oh-so-nice" tech guy from Carbonite - all my files are back where they are supposed to be- etc, etc.  This is the second time I've used my Carbonite restore program - and other than the modem problems, which were outside of it's realm, it is just "easy-peasy" as the old saying goes.  

Miss Gracie

So, here I am, over a month later since I posted the last time - And the other problem has been my inability to see clearly what I'm typing, etc. on the screen.  I finally got fed up with not being able to see out of my left eye and made the decision to raid my 401k and have the cataract surgery done.  This is happening tomorrow (July 2)  in Mt. Vernon, WA with a cataract specialist recommended by my regular eye doc.  It is not happening without an element of risk as there are issues with my cornea and with the shape of my eye in general.  But this young Dr.'s passion is doing mission trips all over the world to bring vision to the poor and he has literally done thousands of cataract surgeries.  He said my eye was "bad" but not the worst he'd ever seen - I will be his last patient of the day, so he doesn't feel rushed and can take his time - If you are reading this and it is before my surgery (supposed to happen sometime around 3-3:30 Pacific Daylight Time) send good thoughts out to Dr. Saipco - we want him to do the best job he's ever done, right? Wish me luck...


So, getting back to my original thoughts about friends -
Thanks to my loyal readers who I do consider my friends -

I've included a very nice poem/prayer that was in a recent "Angel" newsletter authoredby my friend Mary Ellen  "Angel Scribe"   If you are in need of comfort, I hope it brings you comfort, if you are in need of being buoyed up, I hope it brings you joy.  

Hopefully I'll be back on the computer in a day or two with a "report" on my surgery - Til then, have a safe & happy 4th of July! 

- Friends -

by Mary Ellen "Angel Scribe" and her Angels

Friends touch the heart
in such a special way!

It is as if they open a secret little door
and move into your heart.

Nestled inside of you,
they create warmth and love
and cause your heart to expand.

Your attitude melts and softens
as snow on a warm sunny day.

Friends enrich your life and give it
a greater meaning...
they give you support
they give you honesty
and they give you courage
when yours is lacking.

Friends to
walk with
talk with
laugh with
cry with.

Friends are your cheerleaders
through life.

Friends are the rays to your sun,
the treasure in your jewelry chest,
they are the sparkle on the ocean waves.

They ground you when you need it
and they guide you when you want to fly.

Friends are a rare and special find,
a gift from God.

Treasure your moments
together.
AMEN



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