I’ve been away from this space for a few weeks months.  A whole lot of Life happened….farming, playing, gardening, relaxing.  I find that my evening time has dwindled as we stayed out late in the summery sunshine, then made dinner late and got to bed late.  By then, I was pooped.  Now, the light is dwindling and we are making more efforts to get to bed earlier, but I am still pooped…it is such a busy time of year that my energy is on so many other things, often outdoors or in the kitchen.

However, some highlights from the last few months, of those when I had a camera on hand, which wasn’t often.

Farming…we were briefly graced with a turtle friend at the pond.  We don’t think she stayed, though…but it was fun catching glimpses of her before she ducked down beneath the waters.

Skywalker got new digs recently…he is gearing up for date month with the girls this fall.

The later part of summer brought some heartache to our farm.  We lost two of our lambs within days of each other, despite our best efforts.  It was a very difficult time for our family as the reality of caring for so many animals also means that some will not make it.  Unexpected goodbyes are difficult, but so are the ones when you see an animal failing. We tried everything, desperately putting our lives on hold in every way to nurse the dying lambs ~ which is, of course, what we needed to do.  But no amount of phone calls and help from more experienced farmers could prevent the ram lambs from dying.  With sheep, it can happen very very quickly.  It even had me wondering if I was made out of the right stuff to continue with my small flock of fibre sheep.  Ah, but what a difference a few weeks make for morale…and with all the other sheep dosed with preventative meds, we saw our flock bouncing back from the brink.

Since our August trials, we have said goodbye to another lamb who was sold to a friend’s fibre farm down the road…we will visit Aspen and see his lambs that he will sire this fall.  Romeo, our first ram, was sold as our new ram, Skywalker, settles into his kingly role on the farm.  Finally, I made the hard decision of giving my Nubian goats away to someone who had more time for milking.  Honestly, with my husband away so much, running a farm and doing dairy chores was overwhelming.  Simplifying is a good thing.

Once we found a farm sitter, though, we did a little family camping.

Other days, we wandered down the road from our house to the river to play…

It was a different summer here, weatherwise.  Lots of sunshine sprinkled with little bursts of showers in the afternoons.  We were far more homebound than beachbound in recent years, but we also didn’t deal with the smoke from wild fires like most August and September days.

Puzzles, books, card games, marble runs and snuggles with the animals made for rainy indoor weather during those weeks.  It was a very full summer and now that the farm is winding down again for the winter, I feel I can step back and breathe deeply in all the good times that we had in August and September.  Moving forward into October now, I sense a slowing down beginning…and for that I am very grateful.

Happy Autumn, friends!  Do keep in touch as I will be hosting a give-away soon of my Wool Maiden yarn….hopefully October 20th…I just need to get busy and dye some more wool!

xo Jules