"update" sounds like such a positive word...

I have been emotionally or physically beat, in some form or another, since SAFF. So I haven't blogged. Now I shall whine.

A neighbor who has three adult cows (one being a bull and another being in heat) and a calf needed help moving said cows to a lower field for their eventual transportation to an auction. She was recently widowed and can't take care of them alone. My brother arranged a trade in which we did this in return for fire wood from her 90+ acres for the winter. Also, he would make sure that her wood shed was filled with split wood before we took any for ourselves.

I participated (on foot) in herding said cattle across said 90+ (mountainous) acres. It was beautiful. It was strenuous.

Only to discover that since no one had been actively keeping up the farm...there were gaps in the fence around the lower field.

My experience with cattle farms goes no further than black and white Westerns.

I will discuss that episode no more.

I slipped and fell in the kitchen. It took two days before my muscles and joints began to ache.

Mom made a nifty niddy noddy from PVC pipe. I can now take yarn from cones and make them into skeins. Skeins are easier to dye. The niddy noddy is 18", so it gives me a loop of yarn that is two yards around total.

I had no idea that using a niddy noddy would take muscle or make them ache.

I also had no idea that soaking and dyeing and squeezing approximately 3000 yards of wet yarn would wear me out.

I am sadly out of shape, in case you hadn't already gathered as much.

Halloween brought a cheap thrill for winter. A total tease of snow. Since then, our mornings have been very cold, but days are in the 70s and higher in direct sun light.

Mom was sick and puked one day. Her sinuses were giving her problems.

My niece, who is only 3, was so sick that she spent almost 24 hours puking. Ugh. In between boughts of vomitting, her nose ran.

I am now sick. I am not a pukey kind of person. I simply generate enough yellow and green mucus to fill a small lake. And I breathe out of my mouth because my nose is clogged. Pleasant.

The dogs were spayed and neutered yesterday. Did you know that a 125 pound dog can slither out of the hands of 2 grown men, 2 grown women, even while one of those women (me) weighs 200 pounds and is actually sitting on the dog's back? We gave up attempting to put Samson in a crate. Instead of letting the local humane society take them to the clinic, we drove them ourselves.

Did you know that dogs can express anal glands when they are extremely afraid and stressed? It smells like poop. It is strong. Like a lot of poop. Samson "expressed" himself immediately upon realizing he was expected to go into someone else's kennel. He's not used to traveling or being around so many strangers. Um. We'll work on that.

I had to change clothes, wash hands three times, and open the Suburban windows for hours because of anal expression. The source may have been back there, but it sure smelled like it was oozing from every part of his skin.

I held onto Samson's leash and was dragged at least the length of my body once. Over gravel. Then we knocked over a volunteer. Oops.

In one more day, I expect to feel sore from that trip at the end of a leash.

I am so proud of Samson. He was scared, but was not aggressive at all. He even wagged his tail when he met new people. He just refused to follow instructions.

Samson weighed 125. Lucy weighed 109.

They are currently each sleeping on a sofa in the living room.

But, what makes me saddest is that my hands have been hurting when I knit. Especially my right index finger. Maybe I should try learning Continental?