I went to Reno last weekend for a Western Heritage Festival. In and of itself, it wasn't a big deal. There were some vendors and quite a bit of entertainment; a yodeler, a cowboy poet, a square dance caller, and a ...dang it! what is that instrument that you pull in and out and play keys? lol brain dead. Anyway, the highlight was the few spinners that turned out to demo. That pic comes later.
I was headed to
Amy's first, to go to the festival from her house. As I was driving down her street, I was not really looking down at the road, when I noticed something move right in front of my car! I slammed on my breaks, and after I backed up, this is what I saw.
The momma was in front, they were balled up in a little knot in front of me as if the parents stopped the kids in a moment of panic, figuring if they didn't move, no one would see them. As they realized their demise wasn't imminent, they hustled the kids toward the other side of the road, with dad following; 'move along now, move along.' it was the cutest think I've seen in a long time! There were thirteen chicks!
Here is the group that turned out to spin. I was very happy to have seen Kathleen again; she had moved to Philadelphia last year but was back for a visit. Then Amy, Janet (first time meeting her), Tony and Ilene. All wonderful women! Mine would be the empty chair in the middle.
After the festival, I headed out to
Mim's place. I was to help her band her ram lambs and had forgotten to bring my bander, so I stopped by a feed store on the way out and bought one for her. We later traded it for wool (will show you my spoils in a later post).
This is a field not too far from Mim's house, there is always something interesting going on here when I pass... not sure what kind of flowers these are, but I believe they are wild irises.
Another one I'm not sure of, growing in profusion up and down the road and up the sides of the mountains (except on Mim's place, her sheep apparently enjoy the blooms :)
We spent Saturday evening talking wool and sheep, until neither of us could hold our eyes open. I felt bad for her, we do this every time I go to visit and she gets up at the crack of dawn, regardless of when she goes to sleep. She always lets me sleep in :)
Mim recently got her entire property fenced, it was deemed necessary when a neighbor decided to get ugly about her LGD; they ended up going to court over it and Jake got a reprieve, but they didn't want to take any more chances of the neighbor exaggerating any more chance encounters with the guard dog doing what his nature tells him to do.
On Sunday we went to the barn and banded 6 or 7 ram lambs and let me tell you, Mim had told me they were hard to band and she was right! Their little testes don't hang as far into the scrotum as larger sheep do and it was a fight to get them into the bander.
Afterwards, Mim needed to go open a couple gates to the back 40, so we took a walk up behind her house. Her property sits on the side of a mountain, pretty much all ups and downs, and it is beautiful! You can see in the next picture her view. What I wouldn't give for that!
As we walked, a storm was brewing over our heads, and now and then we heard the rumbling of its growth. As we came back down, we went to feed the emus (darn it! no picture!). About that time very large rain drops started to fall, the thunder got louder and the lighting got closer, we headed for the porch. Just as we got under it the storm let loose, like it was waiting just long enough for us to get out of it, lucky for us. Within minutes it was raining very hard, then the hail started up. I was very thankful to be under the protective shelter and couldn't help but think had we been caught on the hill we would have been hurting. I was standing safely on the porch when I took this and zoomed in.
Here, after the storm, Jake and Jo-Beth survey the land, making sure no one approaches sounding off now and then at imagined (or not) sounds in the valley.
Here are a couple of Mim's lambs, not a really good picture, but they are all so cute!
All in all it was a great visit, as it usually is and I never really want to leave. But, reality calls and I always have to go, and besides, if I just decided to move in, I'm pretty sure Mim would kick me out anyway ;-)
Love ya! And thanks for the great day!
I am in awe of knitters, although I have heard knitters often enough say they cant crochet, too many stitches to learn or some such. I suppose I should just get off the stick and teach myself how to knit something besides a swatch!
Gifting after ceremony...
