Random Thoughts

Last of the Autumn Colors

It's hard to believe but the 'holiday season' is upon us. For the last couple of years the powers that be where I work have given us an extra day off at Thanksgiving. So now we get Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off. With the weekend that makes a nice long mini-vacation. I'm not into any suicidal shopping missions, so I normally take the time to finish things up for the winter and just stay at home. Saturday I will be taking Mr. Griffin and Mist home and picking up my three girls from Allena. So far Griff has been very mild mannered and not caused any problems, so hopefully he will behave the next several days. Some of the little weanling ewes are starting to cycle and I hope he doesn't figure out just how to escape and get in with them. He has been in with the ewes since October 9th so I'm ready to pull him out and get the girls all back together. Makes chores easier and they are more content when they are back with the flock.

It has been a very rough week here. My lovely young cousin David died in a car accident a year ago this past week, leaving behind a wife and two small children. My thoughts have been heavy thinking of him and his family. David loved the Lord, so I know he is safe and happy, but the sadness for those he left behind is still painful. It grieves my heart when I think of them.

Then the week ended with the death of beautiful little Ringo. For those of you who don't remember Ringo he was the lovely little wether that I decided to keep even against my 'not keeping another wether rule'. He was exceptionally friendly and sweet with personality plus. He went with me to the Celtic Festival. I will post about this some other time, as I can't really talk about it just yet. He died of pneumonia, despite aggressive treatment.

On a brighter note, I wanted to share with you, what I found at a local flea market. It has a bit of a story behind it, but recently Kathy ("Look What Followed Me Home") did a post about a wheel she found for $50.00. I must say I was a bit envious and maybe a tad bitter that she had found such a marvelous deal!Several months ago, my sister and my niece and I went on a little early morning jaunt. (As a side note, and totally unrelated to this story, I just want to say that I will never make the mistake again, of accidentally getting between my niece and a "Prada" box at a thrift store! Alas, it was only the box, but I did have a brief moment of fear when I saw her eyes zoom in on it.) We ate breakfast out, and then went to several thrift stores and a flea market. The flea market was the last stop of the morning, and the minute we walked in I spotted 'it'. I quickly walked over to check the Spinning Wheel out. Price tag first of course! It was marked at $155.00. I'm sure. I had both my sister and niece look at it (and the price) and my niece even took pictures with her cell phone for me. (although we could never figure out how to load them on the Internet) It seemed like a decent price, but it also had several parts that had been replaced, and what did I know about wheels anyway? I've been wanting one for awhile, but I did not want to pay allot of cash and then end up not using it. So I didn't buy it, but I thought I would email the pix to Allena and see what she thought. That didn't work, but Allena thought that was a good price for a wheel. We even talked about going down there sometime and looking at it, but never got around to it. Fast forward a couple months to a few weeks ago. I was in the vicinity again and decided to go thru the flea market, doing a little Christmas shopping (most of my family likes some sort of collectibles). When I walked in 'it' was still there. I walked over to it, and of course checked the price again. After all, maybe it had miraculously reduced itself. I looked. Looked again. Whoa Nelly! That can't be right! It had $55.00 marked on the price tag! FIFTY-FIVE not a ONE HUNDRED FIFTY FIVE. Huh. Because I'm not very spontaneous (thinking about it for two months at $155.00 doesn't count), I had to go thru the entire market deciding if I should buy it. I finally decided that I would be an idiot if I didn't, so I scooped it up and went to the checkout. I came home with my very first Spinning Wheel that day. My first thoughts were they had miss priced it--I mean coming down $100.00 seems pretty excessive. Using our best CSI skills my niece and I looked through the pictures (which were still on her phone) and discovered the old tag had been white and the new tag was orange. So who knows. I'm happy though. Saturday when I take the ram back I'm taking the wheel too, and Allena can tell me if it is going to be use-able. It seems to have the right parts, but beyond that I don't know. Hopefully she can show me how to 'load it up' (technical spinning term--not...). I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, there is something very soothing about just seeing it sitting there. Go figure.

Lastly I wanted to share a picture of my little buddy, Meshach. He is constantly about my business and when the day is done, he plants his furry little body as close to my head as possible. Another day done well, he seems to sigh.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Count your blessings, love your family and your friends (two and four legged). Take the moments to let them know you care about them. Don't put it off. Cherish those moments.

Getting Down to Business

It's 6:06 p.m. and its dark out. Now the evenings stuck in the house begin. For a brief few weeks it will actually be daylight when I do chores in the morning, but that won't last long. Soon I'll only see the critters in the daylight on weekends. Yes, I'm bummed. This is the most difficult season for me to adjust to, and I find myself with thoughts of hibernating roaming through my brain.

Winter is upon us, even if it is still mild and roses are blooming.

We've had some frosty mornings in the last week or so, but so far not an all over killing freeze. It still continues mild with lots of sunshine. However even if the season isn't in sync, I know what's coming and it's time to start battening down the hatches and preparing for winter.

Blogging has went by the wayside for the last week as I scramble to get things marked off the list and completed before the weather turns. At night, my body and brain seem to conspire to make me lethargic so that I can't muster up the energy to actually turn on the computer and form a coherent sentence.

The garage is now full of green aromatic bales of hay. It's a lovely sight to see and smell. This is the latest I've ever had to wait for hay, but the fall cutting came through and its a nice blend of brome, reed's canary and some fescue and millet. I like the lespedeza better and I think so do the sheep but this is very nice quality stuff and they eat it fine. Maybe next year the lespedeza will make it.

Outside my focus has shifted to cleaning up gardens, birdbaths, dog swimming pools, as well as finding a spot to store everything under cover for winter. Boone's large shed house has been cleaned and sprayed and fresh straw and blankets and pillows tucked in it. (The blankets and pillows will, unfortunately, be brought outside multiple times by a certain dog. At least he has been leaving his large bed inside.) Dog and cat covers and bedding as well as people bedding has been washed and aired. I even flipped the mattress! The wood stove has been cleaned and has been burning a slow fire for a couple of weeks now--just enough to keep the chill out. The dog's got an unappreciated bath over the weekend, taking advantage of the still warm air outside. Gourds(many) and pumpkins (2) have been picked and vines pulled. Wool has been moved out of its summer storage and wood put in its place. Keeping the woodbox filled and the hungry stove fed is added to the daily chores. When I'm out and about doing chores, I pick up bits of sticks here and there for kindling. There is allot of kindling out there from the ice storm. I try not to come back empty handed to the house. I know once it turns wet and cold it gets harder to find dry bits to get the fire started, so it's nice to fill the kindling tub up now.

The sheep are still in their breeding groups, which adds a little extra to the chore load. At least half are bred now, and tentative plans are to break up the groups over Thanksgiving weekend. It'll be nice to get everyone back in one flock and tucked in for the winter. Once they are all back in the main flock and the weather turns colder I will commence feeding round bales. This will reduce chore time considerably. When the ram is gone, then I will start leaving open the gate to the night paddock so the girls can come in and feed off the round bale during the day or take shelter in the barn if a sudden snow storm comes up.

Even without the cold to remind me, the urgency is there to 'get down to business'. As usual, there will still be things that won't get done, but I think that the important things are getting whittled down. With the warmer temps I've had to put off putting up plastic around the two chicken houses/pens. I'm sure I'll likely get to do that some cold and rainy day, when the weather dramatically changes, as it is wont to do.

Soon, it'll be time to turn my thoughts more to indoor activities. Some projects that will be fun for the winter, so the 'blahs' don't own me the whole season. I've got ideas, lots of ideas..... Maybe keeping up this blog better will head the list! ;-)

Hoping all is well in your little corner of the world--and that you are ready for winter!