It's Halloween

And it's Tag's birthday. Always ready for an adventure. I miss my guy. 💕

Clay Sheep

Clay Sheep Finishing touches to be made when it dries a bit then we'll see if it survives firing. The clay is CAC Desert Gold and the plan is to glaze with Coyote's Light Shino, a toasty cream color that breaks to orange/brown where thin. 

Sheep Walk

We had a sunny day to walk the sheep. They are a bit tubby and can use the exercise. Hattie gets a good workout weaving back and forth continuously to keep them in line and everyone is happy when we get home. I was trying to snap a few pictures with a new iPhone but somehow ended up with short snips of video instead so that gave me an excuse to play with the very limited video production capabilities in Photos. Here is the resulting extravaganza! *cough cough*

A Neigh...ber

This lovely horse has been staying in the old alpaca pens not far from us. She has come to expect a handful of grass as we walk by. Then came the day I took the sheep along. Poor thing became frantic, snorting fiercely and running around so wildly I was afraid she would hurt herself. Hattie, unfazed by all that fury, hurried the nervous sheep on by keeping them as far away in the trail corridor as possible. For a while the horse reacted the same just seeing the sheep in our driveway, but eventually she calmed down as the boys clearly weren't a serious threat. Last time we went by she hung her big head over the fence curiously. The boys walked up to her, just as curious. All was well. Mocha made nose contact with horse. They sniffed each other thoroughly. It was quite a moment. I think she even wanted to walk along with us. She broke out of the pen a few days ago and spent a glorious 18 hours wandering around the neighborhood dining on alfalfa and lush grasses
before her owners came to repair the fence.

Duck in a Bucket

The little duck pool has sprung a leak so I've been keeping water in this bucket, hoping it is small enough to discourage sitting. But no. Today it's warm enough that one of the girls insisted on getting her feet wet. It remains to be seen if she will be able to squeeze herself out.

The water hog. Not going to move for anything... except maybe tomatoes.

And one of the girls waiting for her chance to take over.

Emmy, complaining about the water hog not sharing the bucket. I will have to go shopping for another pool before all hell breaks loose. In the meantime, she would like her favorite comfort food: tomatoes.

For the Dogs

Time for a commercial break for a great product. We have no more worries when leaving the dogs in the car during warmer weather since we got these Breeze Guards for the Bolt. Windows can be rolled most of the way down. Tux used to bark ferociously at people simply walking by but that has stopped, too. It must have been a reaction to feeling vulnerable, fearing someone might remove her from the vehicle, baggage she carries from being abandoned in the desert when she was a young dog. With the guards in place she feels secure and enjoys the benefit of open windows. Never expected this to happen but we're very pleased. Love the Breeze Guards, too.  BreezeGuard.com

Floors

The tiling is done and all the flooring in the house has now been replaced. I think there is nothing else we will remodel. Feels so gooood to be done!

We chose the same tiles we used in the master bath but with a different grout color. Lighting is different in the guest bathroom so the bottom picture looks orangey. Top pic's colors look more true. Sort of a cool white. Brightens up the rooms. I like the large format tiles, too. In the laundry room (top) we used trim tiles around the base of the wall. Had enough left over from the master bath job last year (or two?) to do it. Each of these tiles cost $27 and were just stored in the garage so we were happy to make use of them.Very pleased with it all.

Another Day Like Any Other

Not much of interest to write about but here are a few pictures anyway.

Nice one of Tux. Usually she won't pose so I had to sneak around the side of the shed and get her before she figured it out. Her hearing is bad so sneaking up isn't difficult. Not sure her vision is all that good either. Poor old girl. She still loves her daily walks and riding in the car.

Seeing me, the boys lined up to assess the situation.

Then decided they should investigate more closely. Food could be involved.

Last year was the year of rats. This year the moles have returned. Notice the mounds on both sides of the gravel path and Bob's trap placement on the left. He caught a few when the activity first started, as well as the neighbors reporting multiple kills, but still there is at least one making the rounds in my gardens. Are moles better than rats??

This climbing rose delights with intense pink blooms. Maybe they appear brighter because of the gray days of fall, or maybe the cooler weather intensifies the color. 

That's all for now.

Never too busy to enjoy fall colors

I am freezing squash and making fennel tomato sauce today, as well as boning up on FSBO and owner financing for an offer we got on the Oatman house yesterday, so I'm feeling frazzled. These are some pictures from the past week. Sheep, flowers and Hattie mostly.

  Fall colors on the vine maple.

Rose hips.

Clear sky! Thought the smoke would never blow out but we can see the Olympics again.

This is the location next to the garage of a winter project we're planning. We'll move the pine tree and clear the ground for a gravel pad. 

The front landscaping is looking good except that deer walk along the edge looking for things to eat and crows have been pulling up the succulents. 

Everything is lined up to re-tile the laundry room and second bath. That should be done in a few weeks. Quite a bit of prep work involved with removing floor trim and shelving from the laundry room closet, taking out the floor vents to move them into the cabinet footings and painting where needed. 

Is it the season?

Was greeted by a bloody sight when I went out this morning. Thought at first it was coyote and we had a big problem on our hands. A closer look revealed a much different story. Boots and Timmi got into it again and Boots got the worst of it. Looks like both horn buds were ripped off and he bled all over Timmi as they battled.

 I hope these things do not grow back. Boots' bloody head...

Timmi, looking like a bloody punching bag.

Poor Boots clearly has a headache today. Hopefully, they have worked out their issues as they seem to be best friends again.

Hattie will be disappointed not to work the boys today.

A bunch of bucks have been hanging around the last few weeks. Bob counted nine one morning. Four were in the field resting this morning, in the process of shedding velvet. Is it a coincidence that the sheep are acting hormonal at the same time the deer are agitated and rubbing their antlers everywhere? 

Where there's smoke

Air quality was 216 yesterday, 236 in Port Angeles. Very bad. Headache, eyes burning, hard to breath bad. We're spending a lot of time indoors.

This is the view this morning. The Olympics are there, somewhere, in that smoke. And air quality is about 170. British Columbia and eastern Washington are burning up.

It's a good time to work on tomatoes. I'm not thrilled with the varieties we grew. The San Marzanos are good so I'm drying and freezing them. They're cut in half and ready to go in the oven here. Doing this every week or so. The little bagged ones are an experimental roma type being developed by a university in Florida, I think. Got the seeds from a neighbor and they grow nicely but the flavor is disappointing. I'm freezing them whole for use later. The three round ones in front are an experimental beefsteak type. Some really grow huge, but as with the others, the flavor disappoints. The Siletz plant is ramping down production. There a just a few fruits left that are ripening slowly. They are about on par with the experimentals in flavor. I did like growing in pots. Will do again next year, but won't grow any of the same varieties. In the meantime. I'm freezing enough tomatoes to last the year and letting the ducks into the greenhouse to pick the low hanging fruit. They are crazy for tomatoes and quite clever at finding them.

I cleared the disastrous asparagus bed of weeds and am going to put peony poppies here instead. I put tarps over it to keep weeds out until seed is ready. If we get around to building a new raised bed this winter we'll give asparagus another try, but it needs to be raised well above grass level this time. 

We visited the local nurseries to find a particular trailing ceanothus for the front bed without luck, but found this luscious heather, Red Fred, instead and brought home two.

This is my favorite heather. The pink, orange and light green colors during bloom are outstanding. Winter color is brick red. I think it's Firefly but there seem to be several similar so I'm not sure.