Home Is Usually The Best Place

I was supposed to go away on Saturday, a long day trip to visit another Corriedale breeder and I was really excited, really looking forward to a day of sheep and sheep talk!  But the need to care for family and farm right here at home prevented me from making the trip.  As it turned out, that was probably best as the weather was "iffy" all day alternating between a kind of freezing drizzle to downright rain.  I can make the trip another day, maybe in the spring. 

Staying home, I got a lot of work done around the house!  The back room really needed a scrub down and it got one - walls, door (all those little fingerprints and scuff marks) and most of all the floor.  This is where we come into the house from the barn and it gets all the traffic.  Rugs were washed, old boots and shoes sorted through (do I really need to keep three different pairs of old sneakers to wear to the barn and garden?  Especially when two of the three have holes in them?  Out they go!)  And then I did an on-my-hands-and-knees-with-a-brush scrub of the floor.  Probably no one else but me notices, but it's still a good feeling.  Then I wiped down the washer and dryer inside and out.  Hmmm, I think this room needs a fresh coat of paint before spring!

The picture at the opening of this post is of a homespun, handknit shawl I finished recently.  It's residing on the back of my favorite chair near the window and the fireplace.  Saturday would have been a good day for a fire in the fireplace, but we're having some work done on both our chimney and the fireplace itself so that isn't quite ready.  We hope it will be done before Christmas.  It was gloomy all weekend, and I was very content to be at home after all!  The light was so low all day, even with a lamp on, that the picture of the shawl turned out to be very dim and "gauzy" but I like how it looks anyway ;)

I continue to turn out mittens like a mad-woman and am having a blast doing it!

Today I'm going to have to give in and work in the mud and rain to move some sheep.  I sure hope the ground freezes up and it dries out a bit before we finally do get that snow.

Even washing machines need a scrub down every now and then - here is mine, sparkly clean!

At the end of the day, it was a good feeling to have some undercover but necessary work done and have some gasoline saved.  Bill and I really enjoyed the thick and creamy homemade Potato Soup I had on the stove (potato soup loaded with cheese and onions and carrots and spicy sausage, yummy!).  Still, I really would have liked to have seen those sheep ;)