Blessed Rain

..before the rain....even the trees and shrubs were wilting....

After weeks of hot dry weather, everything was becoming scorched and wilted. The pastures had stopped growing, even the tree leaves were drooping. Finally after getting rain all around us for several days, we were blessed with an inch of rain Wednesday evening. Thursday we received another 3/4 inch. Everything has perked up, but it's still hot and humid and pretty miserable. The animals pretty much lay low except for early morning and late evening.

Monday the last of the two lambs went off to their new homes. It's always hard to see them go, but am pleased they went to a good home. These two were the '2.50 cent wether and the 75.00 wether'.

The other three lambs will be staying and it will soon be time to round everyone up and check if they need worming. There is also some serious halter breaking that needs to happen--this years three lambs and last years three ewe lambs. There is some big snotty attitude radiating off those three yearlings and it's time they became civilized--again. (Excuse me, did you just stomp your foot at me--you little turkey??)

Day lily refreshed by the rain...

The flock now stands at 21 sheep total. There are 15 Shetland (three wethers), 4 Merino/Dorset crosses (1 wether), 1 Dorset and 1 Merino (ram). This is the smallest my total numbers have been for a few years.

The consistently hot,humid weather this summer takes it toll--just as the extreme cold of last winter did. Rocky my crippled wether started going downhill this week and died Friday morning. He had been losing ground a little since the winter--first he stopped going out on pasture, then he would hardly stir out of the barn etc. This week though, he became very restless and when he didn't eat his grain Wednesday night I knew things weren't good. He was still eating leaves I'd picked for him up until Friday morning. It was a blessing I believe that he died, as there was no hope for improvement. He will be missed.

Saturday I met up with Jama and Jim to check out the Fiber U event in Lebanon. It was interesting to see, and they had a good turnout in vendors. They also had classes scheduled for all day long. Since we had missed the deadline and the fees were a bit steep we opted not to sign up for any classes this year. We are considering signing up as vendors next year, and perhaps there will be a class or two that will appeal as well. This would be great if it worked out as another venue to sell my wool products. This would give me three events for the year, all within thirty miles. Anyway, it was an enjoyable outing. I bought a pair of 'irregular' Alpaca socks (shhhh...don't tell the sheepies!), which was my only purchase of the day. The event was primarily given over to the Alpaca industry (gotta admire those Alpaca people for their game plan!), but there was at least one sheep breeder there (Icelandics). Lots and lots of beautiful items for sale--from fine shawls to rugs, wonderful felted items and of course lots of yarn and spinning supplies.

Afterward we headed to a local Chinese restaurant and had pleasant meal. Then a few errands in town and it was off for home. Where I directly turned on the air and let the dogs in for a nice afternoon's break from the heat.

This week's goal is to get the areas around the house and the front pastures mowed. They need to be trimmed up after the sheep had thoroughly grazed them. I was afraid to touch them before with the extremely dry weather. Better a tattered unkempt look than grass killed because everything needed to be 'neatened' up. The container garden is growing like gangbusters, and there are quite a few green tomatoes and one large pepper already.

Hope you have a great week!