Mid-October and Fall May Finally Have Arrived!

And here he is, Rowdy, once again gracing the top of the post.  The new medications he is on, while not making him as spry as he once was, have at least made him able to enjoy his life once again to a certain extent.  This photo was a week ago when we were still experiencing high temperatures in the mid to upper 80s.  When Sam was working on the new bridge, he dug the dirt he needed out of what was then the dry creek and made a "swimming hole" right behind the house.  I know he had Rowdy in mind when he did that and Rowdy took advantage of the belly-deep water a couple of days last week.  It makes me happy to see him enjoying himself.

Here is how the new bridge looks at the moment.  Cement trucks leave really deep ruts in one's yard.  The cement was poured around 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon, and at 5pm the very next day, there was so much water going over this bridge that you almost couldn't tell it was there.  Some of the dirt was washed away and some repairs need to be made, but we were lucky the cement had 24 hours to cure before the deluge.  It ain't the prettiest bridge ever, but it suits the purpose.

As I mentioned, we had very unseasonably hot weather up until about a week ago.  The big change came last Thursday and we abruptly went from highs in the 80s to highs in the 50s.  And we have had mostly rainy overcast days since then.  But yesterday, it was at least sunny, as is today.  I hope to get in a good hike around the farm this afternoon.

Sam and five other guys returned home Sunday night from a ten day trip to Newfoundland on Canada's eastern coast, where they went on a moose hunt.  Each of them came home with a moose and Lee even came home with a black bear as well.  They drove out in two trucks, one pulling a trailer with chest freezers to bring back the meat.  It was a long drive and there was a ferry ride of several hours each way to Newfoundland, which is actually an island.  It sounds like a place I might like to visit someday.  Then Monday four of them got together and ground and wrapped several hundred pounds of moose meat.  Lee is on the left and Sam on the right in this photo.  I think they all had a really good time.

I held down the fort here while Sam was away, though I kept pretty busy. I volunteered at a Bingo fundraiser for the county K9 officers, which was a huge success.  I did my usual Tuesday agility class, had lunch with Sam's mom, made applesauce for the freezer and did some knitting and weaving.  On Thursday Mom arrived with some of the ladies from her book club for a two night stay at the newly remodeled guest house and Friday I went to Marietta with them.  They were a lot of fun to spend time with and I think they enjoyed their visit to the farm. 

Of course, Grover and I took our daily walks and here are some photos from those:

While we had temps in the 80s, it was still a bit hot during the day to spend much time in my unair-conditioned studio, but I did manage to get out there on many evenings.  Yesterday, I spent most of the day out there.  I did some mending of a pair of Sam's coveralls and a pair of my barn mittens as well as some weaving.  Here is what is on my looms:  Christmas towels on the 8 shaft loom,

 
and selvedge rugs on the 4 shaft loom.  

Sadly, I did not make a long enough warp for the rugs, so I think I have decided to not finish the second rug and just unweave it  and re-use the selvedges at another time,  when I do a better job of planning my warp.  I'm not sure what I did wrong.  It may be I just made rug #1 longer than I should have.  So it is a waste of warp, but that's cheaper than the selvedges and easier to get.

Upcoming events include a 3 day agility trial for Grover and me this coming weekend in Zanesville.  All the pressure seems to be off since we got our MACH last month, though we do need to accumulate some points in order to qualify for AKC Nationals, which we would like to do.  

Then I have a little over a week at home and I head off to Oregon with Sam's mom, Mary, to see Ian and his family.  The last time I saw my grandson, Wilder, he was only about 6 weeks old.  He will be 6 months old the day after we get there, so I expect him to be a lot different than last time I saw him.  Sam's mom hasn't had the opportunity to meet him yet and I know she is very much looking forward to doing so .

That's it for now.  Will I post again in October?  We'll see.  Meanwhile, here is pretty Apples the Welsh pony:

 

And Its October and I'm Wrapping Up September.

A month ago, when I last posted, Grover and I were about to attend a trial where we were anticipating earning our Master Agility Champion (MACH) title. 

Grover's wall in my studio

 So the exciting news is that we did it!  We needed only 18 points going in, which for us meant we had to have 2 clean runs.  We did not have a qualifying run in standard  on Friday, so the pressure was off to get the MACH that day, but we did Q in Jumpers that afternoon, earning 11 points, which meant we needed only 7 more.  So I called Sam that night so he was on alert to be there early Saturday morning and he arrived just before our walk through for standard around 10 am .  Grover and I had a great run in standard, with the last 4 obstacles being a tunnel then 3 jumps.  When we were still clean going into that tunnel, I just knew we could do it and we did!  It was SO exciting.  When you get a MACH you and your dog get to take a victory lap around the ring and someone brings you out a bar and ribbon and the judge congratulates you and it's pretty amazing!  Everyone tells me there is no feeling like that very first MACH and I believe it.  I am so proud of my goofy little rescue Aussie.  He has been such fun and we plan to go on and see how long it takes us to get MACH 2 and maybe even 3.  

But the week prior to our MACH weekend, we had our 21st Annual Labor Day party here on the farm.  It was a very hot weekend, but I think we had one of the best labor Day weekend parties ever.  Our friends Lee and Viktorija brought along 3 families,  all of whom were international but living currently in Dayton.  Viktorija herself is from Lithuania, so the Lithuanians were well represented, but there were also a man from Nepal and 2 other people from France and a whole lot of kids.  The kids had a great time.
 One of the women from Lithuania arrived and took over the grill and cooked some wonderful food and just as it got dark, the guy from Nepal produced a guitar and he and my brother Larry took turns entertaining us on the back deck.  It really was a great time.  That was Saturday.  On Sunday, we headed up to the pond with nieces and nephews and our whole group for swimming and zip-lining and maybe a bit more partying.  It wasn't long before more people started to arrive and I think the final count at the pond that afternoon was 31 people!  SO MUCH FUN!

 It was a great weekend in all and somewhat exhausting, but I know those kids will never forget it and we will remember it for years as a great time had with great people.  Thanks to Lee and Viktorija for bringing their friends and to the rest of our neighbors for joining the fun.





 



The garden is pretty much done for the year, though there are still some roma tomatoes and a lot of peppers out there.  My friend Tari gave me some heirloom tomato plants and some were these beautiful yellow cherry tomatoes which really thrived in my herb garden.  And the tomatoes were fabulous! I ate a lot just off the vine.  I will save seeds and replant these next spring.

I think the excessive rain we had all summer and spring really hurt the garden.  I got almost no butternut squash and no pumpkins at all.  My pumpkin plants just died after the second time the garden was under water.  Maybe next year will be better.

 
Speaking of underwater, Sam has worked diligently to try to get a new bridge finished before winter.  Usually September is rather dry, but since we needed dry weather, we got lots of rain. And more rain.  Two days ago, we were finally able to get cement delivered to top the bridge with.

 It stayed nice and dry for the rest of the day, thankfully, but at 5 pm yesterday, the whole thing was once again underwater.  At least the cement had over 24 hours to set before it poured rain, but it would have been nice to have a few dry days.

Sam left early this morning to go to Newfoundland, Canada, with 5 friends to hunt moose.  He will be away for at least 10 days, which is one reason he wanted to get the cement done on the bridge.  We will be into mid-October by the time he returns home.

In other farm news, we are down to only 4 hens now.  The month of September was rough on the chickens.   There were a couple of hawks that seemed to think our chickens were some sort of free dinner buffet, and we lost 4 in about 4 days.  Measures were taken to discourage the predators and for a few days we did not lose any more, but then it started again and once again, we had to intervene on behalf of our flock.  By then we were down to 5.  And just this past weekend, the last old hen we had died of natural causes.  She was about 4, which I think is pretty much a normal lifespan.  So we are out of the egg business for now.  I will decide in the spring whether to get more chickens or not.

My mom and I took a trip last weekend to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to visit my aunt and cousins there and also to attend Artprize, a yearly 3 week long art contest in the city of Grand Rapids.  We spent one day downtown looking at art and we did some shopping as well.  It was a very nice visit.  My cousin Matt and his wife have a new baby who is about a week older than my grandson, Wilder, so I got to meet him.  Sure hope we can get those 2 kids together when they get a little older.   

That's about it on what's going on around here.  I just want to post an update on Rowdy.  We decided a couple weeks ago to talk to the vet about putting him on medication to make him more comfortable, even if it shortens his time with us.  So far, he is doing really well and much more like his old self.  He is not pain-free, but I think it is now at a tolerable level.  It makes us happy to see the spark back in his eye and to have him greet us once again when we arrive home.  I hope it lasts a while longer, but I am at the point where if he were to just pass on in his sleep, I think I would be okay with that.  I wish he could be healthy and happy and live another 20 years, but I know that isn't possible, so I will deal with it.  He is 13 1/2  now.
 


I have not had a lot of time for Fiber-y pursuits, though I did weave some kitchen towels for my cousin for her new kitchen.  They came out great.  Her new kitchen is colors of grey and these matched quite well.

I also finished a couple of tencel scarves in black and white:

I have several ongoing knitting projects, but nothing finished.  Now that fall is here, I hope to get some work done on those.

Maybe I can also get another blog post done before November.  Time will tell.