A Melange

Mélange a mixture; a medley.

"a melange of tender vegetables and herbs"

Can you see where this is going?

First things first. Today is our 13th wedding anniversary, and the second one I’ve had to face without you here baby. You are so very missed and loved by me. That will never change, no matter what the future brings. I have the 6 white feathers you have left for me, stored in a Wyoming Whiskey bottle, your favorite and next to your ashes’. Thank you for those gifts and letting me know you are still with me every day.

I love you my Robyn.

We have another storm coming in. It was forecast to start over night but as of yet, not one drop of wet stuff has come down. It is coming, all my arthritic joints are screaming at me, including the two newest busted fingers. That’s a long story for another day and one i’ll write about soon. It should be good for a laugh dear readers.

Spent the better part of yesterday getting ready for this. They are predicting wind chills down to 11, and 1-2” of snow. Not a major storm by any means, but it’s going to be tough on one of my horses.

My Nick baby. He came home to live with us 13 years ago. Rob and I brough him down off the Colorado mountains on our wedding day. He’s a gelded Arab, who is now 25 years old, with all the attitude that Arabian horses have. My sassy boy. (I have many sassy boys around here, girls too!) Anywho, he was diagnosed by our vet as having Cushing’s disease.

Cushing’s is a pituitary malfunction, which has caused him to lose a bunch of weight, amongst other things, and it’s tough to keep fat on him. Has been for years, but it’s gotten worse over the past 4-ish. Needless to say, he looks really scrawny despite getting alfalfa and beet pulp mash with added sweet COB twice a day, and free choice hay. He eats constantly and given all that should be as fat as a tick, like his buddy Brandy is. Brandy is Rob’s baby, and now mine to look after for him until the day they are reunited on the other side.

So, I set the barn up with temp stalls for both horses. One of our plans had been to build stalls in the barn but unfortunately did not get that done before Rob passed. If I don’t put both horses in, they will both be stressing. This way they are both calm. I won’t put that added stress on them.

If it was just going to be a cold-ish issue, they could both stay outside. Nick has a very nice warm canvas and wool coat he wears in the winter, and he is putting on some of his own winter hair. But this is a wet, windy, very cold storm, so they are better off with dry shelter. He can’t tolerate the wet part well anymore. They both went in last night and were quite good about it.

The sheep and LGD’s live for this kind of weather. The sheep are putting on wool like crazy now. This was one of the reasons we moved to a colder area. Cold weather means bigger fleeces!

The dogs have several shelters, should they decide to use them, filled with hay. They mostly just decide they need to stay outside in the cold and survey their domain. Trying to get them into a barn is a losing battle. They will literally dig a hole under the barn wall and let themselves out, then I have the joy of filling that escape tunnel back in.

I did drag out the winter farmer clothes two weeks ago and got them all washed up and spiffy. My wool hat got a wash to tighten up the fabric, so it does not decide to leave my head at an inopportune moment. The yarn came from Mountain Meadow two years ago. I made one for me and one for Rob. Here he is stylin in his French voyageur hat. (FYI I can make these to order with handspun wool if you like this style.) Doesn’t he look so sexy???

Actually, he was freezing his butt off that day. It was way below freezing, and he didn’t want to put his heavy coat on, silly man. His head was toasty warm though!

As for me today, as soon as I can screw up the courage to go outside and get chores done, I will be doing some housework. The inside dogs are leaving me some pretty serious dust bunnies of hair floating around. They are more like dust dragons and have attempted to attack my socks as I walk thru the place. Honestly, I don’t know how they manage to grow so big so fast. They act like gremlins, where if you feed them after midnight, they multiply exponentially and double in size.

One of my local fiber friends wants to come over tomorrow and hang out for a while, so I really do need to tame the dragons and not embarrass myself with them trying to attack her feet.

Might make some chocolate chip cookies today also, since I did get a request for the recipe after the croquette’s newsletter. Stay tuned for that!

Might just sit and binge 1883 as I found a copy of the first season disc in the discount bin at a local store. That and spin. I brought my wheel in from the studio since my studio does not have heat. The two room heaters I have out there are somewhat challenged to keep it a decent temp to make it comfortable to work out there for any length of time. I am spinning some of Peggy Doney’s beautiful, dyed fiber I found at Estes Park this year.

I’m trying not to let my head get to the dark place it sometimes goes with this grief crap. Yes, it does suck. Big suck. Big fucking suck.

I want to thank all my subscribers for your support on this journey. Welcome to all the new folks joining here, and a big thank you to my paid subscribers. Your financial support will help me to keep my farm running. Honestly, I am in fear of having to sell my sheep next year if I can’t find a way to buy hay for the next winter coming. The off-farm job just doesn’t go far enough in allowing me to save money for that major purchase. I know how tight money is for everyone right now, so your subscription is so very gratefully appreciated. Thank you from my whole heart and soul.

If you are looking for some other good read’s on Substack, Slowdown Farmstead has a newsletter that I totally resonated with, if you have a moment, give it a look, but I warn you, get out your hankies.

Slowdown Farmstead Woven

Cafe Ann also has a great look at NYC’s colorful people and trees!

Cafe Ann Paperboy Love Prince

I wish you all a wonder filled day!

Blessed Be