Oregon, Part 3

A day in Florence...
We love bridges...

What is this? This log was about 4 feet in diameter (see the size in the next pic), had several of these 'nails' in it which had all oxidized into the wool... old mast? Have no clue...

Sinking sand...?
Someone took the time to stack a huge amount of drift wood out on the jetty and it fashion into.... something. This is as close as I got but it really looked interesting. Wishing I would have taken a walk out there in hind sight.




Me.
The only squid I've ever seen... interesting huh? lol Half a squid is better than no squid! It was about a foot and a half long.
We left the beach, reluctantly, to see what else we might see, and found a PUTT-PUTT!!! I haven't played Putt-Putt in YEARS! I could tell by the way that Kevin kicked my butt all over those little green fields.
After the sound whipping I received, we found another beach. We came across a piece of seaweed someone had stood up in the sand, looked like a little palm tree from a distance lol
Goofing around...
See the log? I wanted to take that log home but Kevin wouldn't put it in the car for me.

Beautiful breaking waves....

Ok, so I underestimated the amount of pictures and information I meant to share :)
Part 4 tomorrow!

Oregon, Part 2

I bet most of you have been (or live) in Oregon or Washington and have seen lots of trees and are maybe quite tired of them, or just used to them. Not us! To use all these trees are a novelty, something to be pictured and remembered because we just don't see them very often. We didn't take many pictures before we left Laura's house for the coast on Friday morning, so I will start there. Friday dawned foggy but nice and cool and Kevin found lots of things to take pictures of...


I took this one; you may be able to see it if you click-for-big, the whole thing is covered in moss.
We were traveling on Old Highway 126 from about half way from Eugene to Florance, a small sea side town. There was some construction going on, but we weren't in any big hurry, we had the whole day to play!

Kevin's first sight of this wetland behind the jetty was the first he has been able to really appreciate, we have been to the coast before, but he was 13 and interested more in creepy crawlies than the scenery.
This is a jetty that was built by the CCC, way back when (I can't remember the year but it was during or shortly after the depression)... We went on a long walk on the beach... more pictures tomorrow! :)

Oregon, Part 1

As I said in my last post, Kevin went with me on my trip to Oregon to see Laura and to go to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival on my birthday. I had a ball! I think I had more fun playing with Kevin and visiting with Laura than I did at the festival. Thats not to say I didn't enjoy OFFF, I enjoyed it immensely (I cant wait to see my bank statement... not!), just had more fun otherwise, and that's saying something! This trip will be posted in three parts. No pics for this one, I'm too tired, going to take a nap.

Oregon

In about 2 hours I will be on my way to Laura's house, towing Kevin with me. I was planning on going alone but decided having Kevin along will be great. 5 years ago, I took Tad to Yellowstone; last year I took Jari to Ohio. Its Kevin's turn. I have to admit its pretty selfish of me, I want company and someone to share the experience with :)
Everyone have a wonderful weekend, be safe, and have fun!
See you all on Tuesday!

Afternoon Out

I love to FISH!
We were all sitting around the house yesterday, early afternoon, when I decided I wanted to do something, so I suggested we head up to Willow Pond (actually a reservoir) to fish, and eat toasted marshmallows. It was a great idea! Jari stayed home because she was tired, so we took a friend of Kevin's. For some reason DH hasn't got his fishing license yet, so he brought a cigar and sat and listened to his American Right radio while I had the best run of luck fishing that I have ever had! I didn't catch the biggest rainbow trout I've ever landed, but I did catch 17, 4 of them good keepers, and this little guy, that I just had to have a picture of because he was so tiny. It demonstrates my prowess LOL I was having so much fun, I forgot to take other pictures, so this is all you get, the rest is up to your imagination.
I always fish trout with rooster tail trebles, and trim the barbs so they don't do as much damage coming out. The fish apparently really liked yellow yesterday. Every time I cast, I had two or three hits and/or caught something.
There are perch (you never throw those back as the NF&W wants them out; someone planted them and they are so aggressive they are killing the native fish), and bass in Willow, as well as rainbow and German brown trout.
When I woke up this morning, I felt like I had been hit by a train, everything hurt; my hands, elbows, shoulders, knees and feet. But it was a good hurt :)
I don't mind getting older, as long as I don't feel like I am. That really sucks! So it looks like I have chondroitin in my future.

Cock-a-doodle-do!

The chickens! Haven't posted about them in a while! I bought ten sexed pullets in May, lost one early on, and ended up with one that wasn't a pullet. Well, in the sense that he is young yes, but definitely not female! He is actually quite pretty, and although I didn't want any roosters to start, as long as he doesn't turn into the typical a-hole rooster, I will keep him. First time he turns those spurs on me though.... chicken salad!
I am getting a door made for the coop, it will have a window in the upper half that can be open or shut for air circulation and a small chicken door in the bottom that can be closed and latched in bad weather. Also on order is a screened window for the back of the building, also capable of being left open or closed.
Here is the whole group. See the rooster there second from the left? The hen standing to the left of him is my favorite, Lucile. She is the only one that has cheek tufts, and her legs are green. She is very brazen, has no fear of me at all. Three have no tails, Araucanas aren't supposed to have tail plumage.
I was sitting here at the computer the other night and heard a chicken squawk. Now this might not have been a big deal but for the fact that it was after sunset and even if it wasn't after their bed time, the chicken coup is way at the end of our driveway. I jumped up, snatched the door open and there stood Cujo, looking proud of herself, standing over my favorite hen (of course), looking up at me, while she (the hen) squawked and scrambled to... well who knows what she was trying to do, chickens are a bit twitchy around dogs. Especially dogs that pick them up and carry them around!
We figured out that Jari had left the protective cover (it keeps the hawks out, and the chickens in!) slid back when she had went to water earlier and my pretty little Lucile had flown the coup! All through her verbal thrashing, Cujo managed to look meek and apologetic. Im still not sure what her intentions were. Obviously she had not needed to bring the chicken up to the porch to eat her, so was she trying to say "Hey! I found this out of its pen, thought I would bring it up here before some 'dog' got it! Here ya go Mom, safe and sound!"

sigh I'll never know.

Moving on to Sheep!
I went to my friend Jen's house to visit last week, ended up helping her coat her two sheep. She had two small coats and offered them to me to use, so I did. Its obvious George is going to need a bigger coat before long. The other, an as yet unnamed ewe lamb out of Honey will be fine for a bit. I had 5 or 6 coats a couple years ago but cant find them, really ticks me off! The prices have gone up, it will cost me about a hundred dollars to replace them. The only other one I want to coat this year is Babs.
I've been working on going to Oregon to visit Laura, go to OFFF over the weekend of my birthday, have got all the details worked out but higher forces may be working against me in this. I will know more later.
This is Honey on the left, the ewe lamb out of her I'm going to keep (coated), and her sister behind her. Honey is really good at turning away just as I snap a picture...
George has already ripped his coat (had it on two days!). Isn't there some kind of guarantee with these things??
These are the last of my lambs; Grace is closest to me, then Harry, the last tunis lamb (looking at the camera), and a tunis cross ewe lamb. Well, there are Honey's two but they are in with the ewes now and I dont think of them as 'loose ends' anymore. Grace and Harry are in with the other two because Harry doesn't do well in with the ewes.

For Sale
I've also been trying to sell my saddle. Pretty sure I wont be needing it again, I doubt I will ever own another horse.
Made by Saddlesmith Saddlery in the '70s, it is in very good shape. It is well made, structurally sound. Its only real blemishes are along the back of the skirt where the rawhide has cracked. I am asking $950 for it but will haggle. If I get full price, shipping is free.

I bought it used and I wanted to find out more about it; when it was made, what type of saddle it is, that kind of thing. I decided on my own that it is a roper (I was wrong), but couldn't find the number on the makers mark anywhere! I called a company that sells Saddlesmith brand and they in turn sent me to their wholesale suppliers.
I talked to three different people before finding someone who knew how to find the information I needed. She looked through her catalogs and told me that not only could she not find the number, but SS hadn't been numbering their saddles like that for years. She went to an older catalog, then an even older one, and finally found the number. She asked me if it had rawhide around the skirt and I excitedly told her, yes it did! She said the saddle was at least 30 to 35 years old, it is a cutting saddle, and that it had sold new for over $1200. Cool! :)

Nevada State Fair, WARNING: picture heavy!

Driving into Reno on Thursday evening, I caught this shot. It only lasted a few seconds and I was driving on the freeway coming into town, I was lucky to get it. Dont know whether it was smog over Reno (there usually isn't much) or the fires in California, but it made for a very pretty sunset.
I missed the set up on Wednesday, (there is a method to my madness, mwahhhahaha :) but I didn't miss the tear down... anyway this is Amy, she will have pics on her blog soon enough, she has a very nice camera and knows how to use it!
Some of the display and competition items...
and from here, I will just let you look at pictures :) ...well mostly.


This young man had a ball on the loom!
Mim's sheep.
Alpaca!!!
We didn't have a fleece competition, at least not like in previous years; there was only one wool fleece and 5 alpaca, not much in comparison. Hoping it will be better next year.

After the judging; my skein of three ply merino took reserve over all in the division, and the scarf took grand in the fine wool category, unfortunately, it was the only entry in that class.

The rug is crocheted and then fulled, but was placed the felted category where it beat out some really nice 'real' felting...

Amy with her Inkle loom.
I just love these two women, enough personality to sink a ship ;-)



It was a little dry....
These fleeces followed me home...
Black Targee cross...
Fawn Targhee cross...
White Targhee cross... (shhhhh! This one is Jo's!)
And this stuff!!! When I was at Mim's this stuff just jumped into my bag and wouldnt get out! So I had to bring it home. I am going to be bringing a lot of this to Elko to the next spinning get together, see if it will jump into someone elses bag and go home with them.
Not going to show it all to you now, its a surprise for my Elkonian friends :)