Road Trip to SD - Day 2 - Wyoming

We left Day 1 in the middle of the night in the middle of Utah.

Several years ago Dan built a sleeping shelf in the truck (that comes out when we're not using it). That way we can put gear underneath and leave sleeping bags, etc on the shelf. So it was easy enough to pull into the rest area near Aragonite and sleep. Just to be accurate the map book shows two spelling for this: Argonite and Aragonite, about a mile apart, and both with the symbol for abandoned settlement or railroad siding (and both on a railroad). Aragonite Incinerator is shown as a Point of Interest. It turns out that it is a hazardous waste facility. All of these points are a mile or more from the highway and the rest area.

This is a view, looking north to the rest area and all the trucks parked there. There is a trail from the rest area to a rocky hill and a sign that says something about wild horses--so of course I needed to climb the hill. It's not really as far as it looks--that's just the perspective of my phone camera.

Some of the rocks on that hill.

After my walk we got in the truck and started driving. There is one point where the highway crosses  the southernmost part of the Great Salt Lake. Notice the salt built up around those fence posts.

The highway goes over most of Salt Lake City and then heads northeast to Wyoming. We got there mid-morning.

Remember these are all drive-by photos, some with my camera and some with my phone. This is not sharp but a photo of range sheep along I-80 west of Lyman.

Where there were alfalfa fields there were often pronghorn.

I just looked up "pronghorn". I didn't know that they are not really an antelope and the closest living relative is the giraffe.

At about noon we stopped at a Visitor's Center in the city of Green River. This is a view of the Green River from that point.

There was an outdoor exhibit about Trona. If you're like me you'd say, "Huh?" From the brochure that calls Sweetwater County the Trona Capital of the World: "a naturally occurring mineral ...is a much-needed industrial material because it yields soda ash. Soda ash is used to make glass, paper, laundry detergents and many other products. It is also used in the manufacturing of other chemicals...baking soda and sodium phosphates." Trona occurs in other parts of the world, but not in deposits of mineable quantities.

There is a plaque with information about the equipment in the photo above. This is a Face Drill and the plaque tells about a Joseph Francis Joy, who at age 12 in the 1890s, went to work in the coal mines as had his father and brother. I assume that he went on to create this company or to inspire the more sophisticated equipment, but the sign doesn't explain that. However any machine with this many levers seems interesting.

I found the Visitor's Center to be informative and interesting--a good way to break up our drive. I was curious about a reference to the Intergalactic Spaceport and looked that up later. Wikipedia: "On July 5, 1994 Resolution R94-23 of the Green River city council designated this landing field [the airport at Green River] as the "Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport", for inhabitants of Jupiter who might wish to take sanctuary in Green River in the event their planet is threatened by collisions from comets or meteors, in apparent reference to the contemporary Comet-Shoemaker-Levy9 impact". Evidently there is a sense of humor in this town.

Back outside, there were two horses from the BLM's Wild Horse & Burro program.

This is the code used for the freeze branding.

Speaking of wild horses, I saw on the map the BLM Wild Horse Corrals just north of Rock Springs. That is where we were turning north to head up Hwy. 191 so we stopped to look. You can request tours, but we hadn't made any plans, so satisfied ourselves with looking from the overview. The facility can hold up to 800 horses and is the only off-range holding facility in Wyoming. It also is a rest stop for horses being transported from the West to points farther east.

Heading north. It looks like all the hay that is baled around here is put into round bales. I googled "weight of round bales". It can vary from 450 to 1700 pounds depending on size of bale, density of bale, moisture content, etc. So don't ask me how much a round bale weighs.

Between Rock Springs and Eden.

More Wide Open Spaces.

East of Eden, WY. Isn't that a book by John Steinbeck?

In case you are wondering about what we were doing meandering northeast through Wyoming, our first destination was to be Mountain Meadow Wool in Buffalo. We didn't decide the order of our trip until we were actually on the road and I talked to someone at Mountain Meadow to ask about the best time to visit. This was all pretty last minute although I had the time blocked out on my calendar for months.

As you know if you've followed our road trips in other years (search back in Wordpress) we tend to stop at the historical markers we find along the way. Most of the main roads through the West were originally traveled by the Pioneers.

A Wyoming History website says about the Parting of the Ways: "This may well be one of the most subtly dramatic sites remaining on the emigrant trails. Here, in the middle of an open, sagebrush plain, the trails diverge. Emigrants had to decide whether to stay on the main route and head southwest towards Fort Bridger or veer right and cross the Little Colorado Desert on the Greenwood or Sublette Cutoff. The cutoff, opened in 1844, saved about 46 miles but included some fifty waterless miles." This site, however, is the False Parting of the Ways, wrongly identified in 1956 and marked with the tall marker in the background. The correct site was identified about 30 years later and the flat plaque was installed here. The sentiment remains the same though--this is part of the Oregon Trail and the country looks pretty much the same.

It is so hard to imagine traveling this "road" and covering 10 to 20 miles per day.

Rabbitbrush near the trail.

About 7 or 8 miles away we came to the South Pass Overlook and Interpretive Site. "South Pass is the lowest point on the Continental Divide between the Central andSouthern Rocky Mountains. The passes furnish a natural crossing point of the Rockies. The historic pass became the route for emigrants on the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails to the West during the 19th century. It has been designated as a U.S. National Historic Monument." Remember, we are following the trails backwards. The pioneers would have crossed this and then come to the Parting of the Ways and the deserts beyond.

Our modern marker for South Pass.

After traveling north for another couple of hours it was hard to miss this sign on the mountain. We thought "sure, anyone can say they have the world's largest anything".

Then we saw it and thought they might be correct. This is in Thermopolis, population about 3000 in 2010. Back to Google and Wikipedia. "The springs are open to the public for free as part of an 1896 treaty signed with the Shoshone and Arapaho Indian tribes."

This is the landscape just north of Thermopolis. Beautiful green alfalfa contrasts with the red rock.

The landscape reminds me of southern Utah.

Look at what I saw on the map coming up! A town named Kirby, which happens to be the name of the cutest granddaughter ever. I should get a hat or a shirt or something there.

The Kirby Bar and Grill looks promising.

Kirby is not a big town.

This is pretty much it, except for a few gravel roads with houses. That's the Bar and Grill to the left. There were people there, but no "Kirby" items to buy. We wondered about the big building at the end of the road. It seemed odd to be in this tiny town. This is Wyoming Whiskey, a distillery started and owned by a Kirby cattle ranching family. They give tours but it was closed when we were there.

More landscape in the Bighorn Basin.

It was evening when we got to the Bighorn National Forest, part of the Bighorn Mountains. We hoped to find an open campsite. We had blocked out two weeks in which to take this trip and then chose the first week so that we would miss the hoards of people traveling to this area on Eclipse Weekend. What we didn't realize was that this was Sturgis Weekend, a motorcycle rally that draws 500,000 motorcycles, mostly (it seems) Harleys, to the small town of Sturgis, South Dakota, just over the border from Wyoming. The national parks and towns surrounding Sturgis gear up for the onslaught of people, but evidently, those people weren't interested in camping in the Bighorn National Forest.

It was getting close to dusk and we saw people parked on a pullout along the road. Our Yellowstone experience taught us that where there are people standing and pointing there might be something to see. Two Moose!

Check back for Day 3. At this point I am so jealous of my friends whose wildlife photography is outstanding in its clarity. Photographer or lens? Probably both.

Road Trip to SD - Day 1 - Driving

I frantically got ready for this trip that I had been thinking about for six months. This is why we were able to take a road trip in mid-August. It is finally sinking in for Dan that he isn't going back after a summer break.

We still weren't ready on Wednesday, the day of departure. I had told Dan that we WERE LEAVING IN THE MORNING. We did, but it was almost noon before we drove out of the driveway. The plan was to drive as far as we could, not stopping at all of the California and Oregon trail markers like we usually do because we wanted more time at the other end of the trip. For that reason and because I was not the driver-in-charge I have a lot of  "drive-by" photos. Many were deleted but some are OK and those are what I'll share.

We were driving I-80. I love the scenery of the west, even in the Nevada desert. This is the Hot Springs Mountains that rise above the Fernley Sink.

According to Wikipedia, an irrigation system was constructed in the early to mid-1900s and "a drainage system was also constructed to carry away excess water and mineral salts from the farmlands. This system consists of channels (5 to 15 feet deep) dug adjacent to fields; it eventually terminates in the sink northeast of Fernley."

We didn't stop at all the roadside points of interest but this was at a rest stop. Throughout this trip we thought about the pioneer trails. They are well marked in the road atlases that we have for each state and along the highways. I can't even imagine what it would have been like to pack up the family and head west in the way that the pioneers did. We drove through the 40-mile desert in a little over 1/2 hour.

The mountains east of Valmy, Nevada.

We remember Valmy for it's rest stop where we slept on one of our road trips a couple of years ago when there was a tremendous moth invasion. We didn't need to stop to sleep here this time. Still daylight.

Humboldt Range, southeast of Wells, Nevada.

These photos were looking back west as the sunset.

I had to lean over the seat and reach behind Dan while holding and pointing the phone and the camera in the general direction.

Even though it was getting dark we weren't ready to stop. If we had left earlier in the day we would made it to Salt Lake City. So Dan kept driving. There is a distinct difference in the town of West Wendover (NV) and Wendover (UT). Bright flashing (gaudy) lights and Last Chance To Gamble on one side of the border and dark and "normal" on the other side. Dan kept driving. We passed through the Great Salt Lake Desert in the dark and finally stopped at a rest stop at the east side of the salt flats.

Those of you who read my blog know that I have written a sort of travel journal with photos each year for the past several years when we have made our annual road trips. I have no idea how many people actually read these, but I write these blog posts because they substitute for the old scrapbooks and photo albums that I was never able to keep up with. I also like reviewing the photos and looking up some of the information that I may have forgotten. It helps me keep it all organized in my brain. If you are one of the regular readers, I'd love to know about it. Stay tuned for Day 2.

Getting Ready

It is always work to get ready to go somewhere. In my case I cram in all the things that I would probably put off if I were here, but now feel like they have to be done before I go. Part of it is to try and make things as foolproof as possible so that the people taking care of things don't face issues.

Now that the tractor finally works (sort of) I spent some time mowing. Then I wanted to try "spreading" manure. Spreading is in quotes because we don't have a manure spreader. I have a tractor with a bucket and me with a shovel. Not practical...

...even though I have made some darn fine compost.

To make good compost the manure pile needs turning now and then, but the dryness on the top is deceptive. It's wet underneath and it's easy to get the tractor stuck--which requires me with the shovel again. Move onto other things that need doing.

The ewes are on pasture and the white net fences are moved around to change the paddock to be grazed. I moved the ewes to the side of the pasture where there is less risk of them rubbing on a gate and inadvertently (or on purpose) pushing things out of wack while I'm gone.

It's hard to see in this photo but I set up the next three fences so that my kids don't have to do it. They will have to close one but then the sheep just go to the next. There are always tricky things (like where there is concrete so the stakes for the fence don't go in all the way and where you have to block off the irrigation ditch so they sheep can't go under the fence, etc)

I had the ram lambs grazing in the back but don't want fence-to-fence contact with them and the ewes so they had to be moved. These are the panels that were keeping them away from the ewes while grazing the back. There is no water in that back field so they needed access to the corral for water. I'm going to leave this in place so that the ewes won't be near the big ram fence (not a big fence, although it is double, but the big rams). I don't need any more reason for the rams to try and mangle their fence while we're gone.

They did this just yesterday.

Here is a temporary fix. They also beat up the other wall and pushed it away from the corner post. That green panel in the upper photo is keeping them away from that part of their shed. Not fixes, but hopefully stopping further destruction for now. I expect when I get back that wire panel over the hole will be mangled as well.

Rusty doing his job of keeping the rams away while we put up the wire panel.

I said that I need to move the ram lambs out of the pasture. Ginny helps with that.

You can see Ginny behind here. She doesn't work with finesse, but she can do the job.

Back up at the house, the birds are starting to get to my black sunflower seeds. These are for future dyeing projects.

I put net bags and bird netting over the flowers.

I water the garden and picked coreopsis. A friend will come and pick during the week to keep the flowers blooming and take squash from the plant that is taking over. The beans in the foreground look great but haven't produced anything yet.

This is the wether in with Peyton. He had his leg through the front of the coat the other day so I caught him to take it off. Don't want that happening while I'm gone and I didn't have a needle and thread handy to make it smaller.

I was watering my barrels that have been neglected. Ginny knew where my attention was and placed her ball appropriately.

When condense into a few photos this doesn't seem like much but I was going non-stop yesterday. I realized at about 9 p.m. that all I'd eaten was granola in the morning and watermelon through the day--it was too hot to want anything else. I am now  gathering up the last of the stuff to take. Where is that book about my camera?

Here is a hint about the road trip. Do you think I have enough reading material with me?

More from the State Fair

The State Fair seem so long ago now, but it was only last weekend. I wrote a post about our sheep exhibit and our wins. But I also wanted to share some of my other favorites before I move on to my next adventure (coming up this week!!).

I didn't venture far from the barn this year because it was so busy. However I always like to see The Farm. Here was one unique flower display.

This sign explains what many people who live in other parts of the country don't realize about most of California.

Here is a further illustration of why much of California would be considered a desert if it were not for irrigation water.

Back in the barn, the longhorns are always a favorite.

As my friends know I'm not a big fan of llamas or other camelids (at least not up close), but they do make good subjects for photography.

Our neighbors to the back were some lustrous, fluffy Karakuls.

Julie, (our favorite bunny lady from our spring Open House and sheep and goat breeder) had a display down the aisle from us. This is one aspect of her display that shows fleece from a variety of breeds. Julie won several well-deserved awards this year for her display.

We had new neighbors across the aisle. Being Angora goat (mohair) exhibitors they were new to the Marketing Award competition, but they did a superb marketing display and won first in that category this year. We enjoyed getting to know them and teaching one of their members to spin (see the last post about the fair).

I watched from my sheep pens while they took their goats to the show ring on Saturday morning. The method was to open the gates and hope they all followed the leaders, which mostly worked.

Bringing a stubborn kid to the ring.

I wish that we could show rams beyond yearlings. This aged buck was impressive.

These photos almost make me think...

...about having an Angora goat again...

...but then I'd have to deal with a GOAT.

CA State Fair - 2017

Someone commented on a social media post something to the effect "It takes a village--no, it takes a Farm Club." That's so true. Farm Club came through again with helping me at the State Fair. Some other of our fiber friends were there as well.

This is what the main part of the display looked like. When you set up a display at a fair, the first thing you have to figure out is how to make walls. There are no walls, just sheep pens. A few years ago I came up with the idea of using corrugated tin. Do you ever see those DIY or garden makeover shows? They buy tin and then spray it with acid to make it look old. We don't need to do that. We just go out back and find plenty of beat up, rusty tin.

The signs are mostly about Farm Club and include plenty of pretty pictures of sheep. I also had continuously running videos of the farm and sheep. That's Jackie, Mary, Dona, and Doris spinning and making themselves available to talk to the hundreds of people who came by.

People admired Alison's vest. The yarn is some that I spun during Tour de Fleece but plied at the fair.

This year I added a Touching Table.

Greenery is part of the scoring--or at least plant material is mentioned in some of the criteria. (20% Effective use of display materials. Paper, wood, metal, plastic, plants, etc.) I am always irritated that I have to go out and buy plants that I don't need. It's not that easy to find ones that look good for a display like this and then I can plant and keep alive here later. So this year I dug up shovel-fulls of the pasture and labeled them as such. Even though they weren't "pretty" it made much more sense to me.

Deborah, Alison, and Kathleen were there on Friday.

This year signs in English and Spanish and having the plants and white chain (see upper photo) in front of the ram pen helped keep people away. Does it seem like overkill? The white chain was the last thing to take away when we packed up. When we went back in the barn to halter the sheep there was someone in the alleyway yanking on Buster's horns. What can I say?

I don't mind the ewes having any attention they can handle. This is Vixen who learned that chin scratches are nice.

Jude and Dona spinning on Saturday.

Saturday was show day. I had cleaned the sheep up the day before, including scrubbing Buster's horns.

Here are the sheep at the ring ready to go.

Yearling rams showed first. Buster was the easiest ram that I've shown in the last few years. I don't see a blog post with a photo of him after I got him, but there is a photo here of him last October. He won his class and then was awarded Reserve Champion Ram of the Primitive Breeds Division.

Doris was a huge help. She had her sheep showing debut at Black Sheep Gathering and she looked like a pro here. These sheep are the ewe lambs, Jolene and Jennie.

The next to last class is "Flock". That's one ram and four ewes. Not the best pose by Vixen, crossing her legs.

The last class is "Best Pair". I pay attention to what the judge says and use the two that he likes best. That's the lamb, Jolene, and Buster.

Most of my ribbons were red or white because there were some top notch Karakuls also entered in the show. They swept most of the awards. I'm happy with this award though and am satisfied with the others. The big competition was still to be determined.

I reward myself each day with cold chocolate milk. Fair time and road trips are the only time I allow myself the luxury.

Speaking of showing sheep, aren't you glad you aren't showing Suffolk sheep? Not only do you have to do all the work of fitting, they are the size of ponies.

Back at the sheep pens, more spinning going on. This is Pat, Dona, and Susan's husband (and Susan) who learned to spin just before I took this photo.

And speaking of learning to spin, we added a couple of other new spinners to the ranks. I met Louis across the aisle from us. He is with Eureka Mohair and asked if he could try a wheel because he had started spinning on a spindle. I brought an extra wheel the next day and there was no looking back. He did well on the Ashford Traditional but decided that his favorite was the Ashford Joy.

And this is my view of helping an 8-year old to spin. I treadled while he drafted.

Eventually he was able to spin mostly by himself. (That full bobbin is mine however--I just let him add to it.) His family was showing sheep and he was glad to hang out with the rest of us who were spinning.

The first day I plied his yarn and he wore it as a bracelet. The next day's spinning made enough to be worn as a necklace. (He was also very excited about his henna tattoo.)

On Sunday afternoon the Supreme Champion Ram and Ewe are selected from the Champions of each breed. This is the ram class. Southdown, Montedale, Dorper, White Dorper, Wether Sire, Dorset, Suffolk, Karakul (Primitive Breeds), Merino (Wool & Fiber Heritage Breed)  , Hampshire, Shropshire, Columbia, Natural Colored (can't see that one), and All Other Breeds. In between the ram and the ewe class the other awards are announced.

We did OK. This is 1st in Herdsman, Best Educational Presentation (sheep), Best Educational Presentation (all the livestock), Most Creative (Marketing), 2nd in Marketing Program. Thanks Farm Club and friends!!!

Animals at the Artery

I worked at The Artery in Davis yesterday. The current gallery show by Susan Stoll (a member who does photography) and Nicholson Blown Glass (non-member) is fantastic.

I love how they matched the colors in the glass and the photos.

Susan has set the bar high for when I do my show in November.

As I walked through the rest of the store this sheep caught my eye. This is by a new member, gourd artist, Jenn Norpchen.

I decided to look for more sheep in the Artery. I found four artists' sheep. Tile wall art by Eileen Hendren, photo by Deborah Lamoreux, candle by Jan Schubert, detail of painting by Marie-Therese Brown.

Then I decided that I could do a blog post about Animals in the Artery.

Horses are my other favorite animal besides sheep. Tile by Shannon Moore, detail of a pottery vessel by Marianne deBoer.

But I like dogs and cows too...

... even  especially politically satirical dogs. Painting (dogs) by Linda Miller, cow photo card by Jock Hamilton, dog & cat sculpture by another artist new to the Artery, Marcia Smith, painting (cow) by Phil Gross, stuffed cow by Sara Yost, and trivets by Leslie Zephyr.

There are other animals represented too.

Birds. Detail of art-quilt by Marjan Kluepfel, etching by a third new member, Laura Morton, plate by Sharon Bloom.

How about creatures in the animal world beyond mammals and birds. Not all are my favorites but they can be subjects for lovely artwork as well.

Wood by Diana Kwan, glass dragonfly by Linda Marie Bird, ceramic fish by Jeff and Jimee Taylor, octopus by Heidi Bekebrede, fish print by Chris Dewees, dragonfly pin by Anita Winthrop, and sand-dollar earrings by Janine Echabarne.

I will be adding to the Artery's animal collection in November when I present a show at the Artery.

These are a preview of what will be in the show.

Random Farm Stuff

In no particular order, here's some of what I've been doing. Photos with my phone.

Spinning with the Tour de Fleece (while watching the Tour de France). This is kitty supervision (or challenge).

Dealing with bad ram behavior. Notice that the welded wire panel is bent and pushed directly into the electric fence which is now not charged because of the contact.

Picking blackberries.

Farm Club was here (another post about that) and I introduced Peyton, the BFL ram I brought back from Oregon.

Peyton's selfie.

While we were busy working in the barn, Maggie entertained herself.

This is what she did to both hoses that were hanging on the chicken house. Notice that all  accessible wood has been covered with chicken wire. That's because Maggie has already chewed what she could trying to get to the chickens. That freshly chewed board was the latest place she chewed before I put up the chicken wire. That is where the Little Chicken got out and then Maggie killed her. Maggie has more than three strikes.

Coreopsis growing near the house.

Coreopsis in the dye pot.

A blanket woven with last year's dyed yarns.

This is exciting--my 2017 yarn is here!!! The gray is a Timm Ranch/Jacob blend. The white is from the Anderson Ranch.

Cleaning G1 (that's the garage) and looking through boxes that haven't been opened in years. This is a box full of trophies and ribbons that belong to the kids.

And if you grow up in California you make a mission when you are in fourth grade. This is Katie's.

Lambs Grow Up

I caught the ewe lambs yesterday to figure out which were still for sale. I'm planning to keep several this year and it's always tempting to keep too many. I sold several adults this year and a couple have died so I can keep at least 6 or 8 as replacements. These lambs are all on my list to keep. There are a few close-ups below.

Meridian Jennie (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Jane). She won Reserve Champion Ewe at Black Sheep Gathering last month.

Here is what she looked like in April.

I just decided yesterday that I'd keep this one. She's not named yet (Starthist Dragon x Meridian Alice).

Here is a picture from May. Notice how the wool in front of her horns is shedding out. Adult Jacob sheep are not supposed to have woolly foreheads but the lambs are often born with wool that will shed.

This is Jasmine (Starthist Dragon x Meridian Jazz).

The wool on her forehead is also shedding.

Here is what she looked like in April.

Take a look at this nice looking ram lamb in late March. Look below to see why I don't want to make deals for rams at a young age.

This ram can not be registered.

Other lamb photos are on the website although I haven't updated the listings this month. There are several ram lambs to remove. Ram lambs. Ewe lambs.

Celebrating Red, White, & Blue

The 4th of July came while I was in Texas visiting grandkids. We went to the parade in Wimberly. Here are some small-town-parade scenes.

And here is who I was with while I was watching:

The give-aways from parade participants included flags,

beads,

popsicles,

and as much candy as at Halloween.

Visiting Grandkids

I just spent a week in Texas with my daughter's family. The kids are 6 months and almost three. Here are some photos.

Kasen is not crawling yet, but almost. Right now you can put him in one place and he doesn't  get far. I give it about two weeks and he'll be on the move.

Who needs a pool when a bowl will do? Kirby's horses are in that bowl too.

Wearing one of her Princess dresses and reading to her baby who is in the shopping cart.

After we built the tallest tower.

Concentrating on making letters using Mommy's special crayons.

Yummy carrots. Dinner aftermath.

Bath time.

At Jump Wild, an indoor "trampoline park and bounce house". It didn't take Kirby long to warm up to the idea of jumping and then, of course, she didn't want to leave.

The family at the 4th of July parade.

Black Sheep Gathering 2017- #2

I had too many photos for one post (as usual) so here is another of the weekend spent at Black Sheep Gathering. In the last post I mentioned Peyton, the new BFL ram. He just wrote a post on Rusty's blog that you might want to check out. In case you wondered what it was like to stay at BSG in a tent...here's a photo of my camping spot. This wouldn't have been fun if there was rain, but this time BSG was dry.

The whole reason for going on a Road Trip with Sheep is to show them (and maybe to sell a few). We showed on Saturday morning. The crew that showed up to help include Deborah and Brenda, Farm Club members, and Doris, who knitted that beautiful shawl in the last post, and Vicki, who has sheep and Border Collies back home. None had shown sheep before so we had a quick sheep showing lesson before the show started and then brought the sheep to the holding pen. There weren't enough Jacobs this year (one other breeder) and we were showing against some Shetlands in the NCWGA Primitive Breeds Division.

.

There were no yearling rams entered so first up was the Ram Lamb class.

The 4-horn lamb on the left here was awarded Reserve Champion Ram.

Next was the Yearling Ewe class.

It was followed by the Ewe Lamb class.

The judge liked Jennie (front) best.

The yearling ewe, Vixen (on the left), and Jennie (right) went into the Champion class...

...and Jennie got Reserve Champion Ewe.

As I say all the time, I couldn't do this without the help of my friends...including the people who took photos and sent them to me. Thanks! Everyone had a fun experience and they all went home with blue ribbons.

I don't know how many fleeces were entered in the Wool Show but these tables were full and there was a long line of buyers waiting outside.

I checked back an hour or so later and there weren't a lot of fleeces left.

Saturday night there is always a potluck followed by the Spinners Lead competition. You can find handspun items in the most unusual places. (made by Marilyn from CA). It was so unusually hot for Eugene that attendance was lower at both these events. But we found familiar faces.

Doris and I took the yearling ewes to the Spinners Lead, wearing our shawls. We had both won first place in the classes in the Fiber Arts Show. Mine was in the woven division and Doris' was in the knitted division where she also was awarded Best Use of Natural Colored Wool.

Other California friends were there.  Marilyn wore the shawl that she had woven the previous day in the Sheep-to-Shawl contest. Her Hangtown Guild won that competition and she borrowed a sheep to enter this show.

Beth knit this beautiful shawl and also borrowed a sheep.

This was Doris' first time at BSG, first time entering this event, and first finished handspun project!!

I took Cindy in the show and she wore a scarf woven of the leftovers from the shawl I wore. All the entries in this show are handspun or felted.

This is the smallest sheep I've ever seen at this show and she was quite a crowd pleaser.

The next day I was sitting in the barn and spinning and glad that I didn't have to take a sheep into the Black Sheep Cup (Supreme Champion) competition in the heat of the afternoon when I realized "uh oh, I do have to take sheep into the ring for the Young Flock competition". Thanks to Doug and Karen who quickly helped me get the sheep to their appropriate spot in the ring, although I wasn't exactly dressed for showing in my tank top, shorts, and Birkenstocks.

I loaded up and got on the road about 4:30. View heading south.

Black Sheep Gathering 2017

Black Sheep Gathering is my favorite West Coast Fiber Event. I just wish that it wasn't so far away. It's about an 8 hour drive if you just stop for gas and nothing more.

This year it was important to leave early enough to avoid the heat in the Sacramento Valley. That meant I loaded sheep at 4 a.m. and was on the road by 4:45. I was passing the Sutter Buttes before the sun was up.

First good view of Mt. Shasta, this year with plenty of snow.

Most of this post is just random shots in the barns and vendor hall.

Our across-the-aisle neighbor, Teeswater. I can't imagine dealing with that fleece.

Other neighbors, Navajo-churro yearling rams, ready to be shown.

Angora goat show.

Wool Show judging. That is my ewe, Cindy's, fleece. This is the first time in years I have entered a wool show. I had planned to keep this one, but I'm still spinning the other that I saved this year. This fleece sold within an hour of the sale opening.

Meet and Greet with Peyton, the BFL ram who was coming home with me. (See Rusty's Blog later for a post by Peyton.)

This is Moo Shoe Pork, a crowd favorite in last year's Fiber Arts show, created by Nancy (Peyton's owner) and in the Liongate Farm booth, near Peyton.

There were several spinning circles in the middle of the air conditioned vendor hall. These were very popular as the weekend wore on. People in Oregon get start to complain when the weather gets into the high 80s. And it did get hot, pushing the high 90s, but thankfully cooled off at night for us campers.

Dyed mohair locks.

M&M dispenser. I know, not fiber related, but maybe for keeping up strength while in a spinning competition?

Our Farm Club friend, Gynna, demonstrating at the Clemes & Clemes booth. I carry this fabulous drum carder and other C&C products at the shop.

Here is what she was doing. I haven't tried dizzing off the drum carder before but certainly will now.

I liked this display of fiber. The purpose was to show how the picker being sold in the booth prepared the fiber.

I met up with Tina, Farm Club Emeritus, who now lives in Portland.

She found a rug-hooking mini-workshop in the vendor hall.

Two of us entered the Fiber Arts Show. This is Doris' beautiful knitted shawl. She used Lori's fleece and blended colors to create this gradient. Her masterful work was recognized with the award for Best Use of Natural Colored Wool!

We had chosen Friday as the day that several of us could go out to dinner. Nine of us met in the sheep barn and it took awhile to figure out where to eat.

Decision made, but then we needed to figure out who was going where after (motel, back to the fairgrounds, etc), which cars had room for extra people, and synchronize map apps.

Seen on a car window and magnified about a million times from an iphone photo taken from a lane away.)

After a good dinner we got a passerby to take a photo of all of us in front of the Eugene public art.

Love the concept and the You Are Here part.

Family Time

My daughter was the surprise for Dan's retirement/Father's Day family get-together. She flew in from Texas with one grandbaby just in time for the Central Valley's big heat wave. We escaped the heat for awhile yesterday by driving  to El Dorado National Forest to hang out with Matt and Kaleena until they got off work at 6 p.m.

Matt and Kaleena both work for the Forest Service and are based at different parts of the same facility. Matt is in charge of the helicopter.

We walked out to the helipad for a tour.

Note the effect of the King Fire from a few years ago.

Kasen seems to be a fan.

Chris was studying the instrument panel to decide if he should move some of the switches around.

I think he restrained himself.

Kasen seemed ready to try.

My three kids and one grandkid. (Kirby stayed home with Dad in Texas.)

Kaleena works on the other side of the compound.

Matt goes to fires in the helicopter and Kaleena drives this truck.

Here is her view from up high.

The official fire danger may have been low but they have been on nearby fires already the day after we were there Kaleena and her crew left for the Angeles National Forest.

A Lot of Random Stuff This Week

Can you believe that it is going to be over 100 degrees by the weekend ... ...and  just four days ago it was in the 60's-70's with a thunderstorms...

...and hail?

The morning of the storm, when it was bright and sunny out I saw that a big branch of this weeping willow had broken during the night--not storm related. It's hard to tell from this photo, but where that big space is with sun shining through--that is where the branch was.

The sheep made quick work of the leaves up to the height they could reach.

Big event--my husband retired last week. I was worried that he would wear out his end of the couch, but after getting over a bad cold, he's been outside spending time doing Stuff That Needs Doing.

One of those things is cutting tree branches that block the view from the driveway.

In the sheep world, we're getting ready to go to Black Sheep Gathering next week, so that means halter breaking lambs. A few Farm Club members have come over to help. That sheep is not hurt or dead. She is just protesting.

This is a blurry photo of the back of a ram lamb's head. What it shows is two horns on the right that are growing close together. Ideally Jacob sheep have symmetrical, balanced horns. I'll wait and see how that 5th horn is going to grow out.

I put a 40-yard warp on the Schacht loom and cut off 12 baby blankets. There are more to go but I needed to get some of these done. That reminds me I need to contact someone who ordered pink blankets.

New items in the shop and on the website soon. These just came--Schacht flick carder, tapestry beater, and weaving cards.

I wanted to finish the warp on the AVL. The computer that is attached to it decided to update itself. This is a PC and everything else I do is on a Mac. I don't remember the PC world at all.

This message had me really frustrated. I can't weave on that loom if I can't get the computer and the loom to talk to each other. With trial and error I finally got it going again, but I have no faith that it will work when I turn it on the next time.

So I stayed out there at the loom until I finished that warp so that at least I have some time to work with it if there is another problem.

Jumping Sheep

I meant to share these photos 3 weeks ago. This was from the last time I irrigated.

The sheep were grazing as the ditch filled.

Athletic sheep.

Shadow Pictures

Right now I'm sitting at my desk with one Border Collie (Rusty) at my feet under the desk and the other behind the chair. Ginny has never been gun shy or afraid of things in the sky but this thunderstorm has her rattled too. Rusty is terrified. So I left the loom where I was weaving and I'll wait it out with them. We don't often have thunderstorms here. I had planned to write this blog post about our walk Across the Road in yesterday's sunshine.

Guess who with something in her mouth?

Ginny watches the Ball and Rusty watches Ginny.

Ginny constantly drops the ball in the water but this year she gets herself. Last year I was fishing it out for her.

I don't say much about Maggie because she usually wanders ahead and does her own thing out of range of the camera. I called her over to get a photo.

The late afternoon sun gives light to other subjects as well.

Ginny found a ball that we lost at some point in the tall grass. Now the grass is gone and she saw it in a dried tractor track. It's a good thing because the ball on the right isn't in very good shape at this point.

MJ Adventure Team Goes to MD - Day 7 Continued - The End

That last post was really long but I have so many photos that I wanted to include. The day wasn't over when we left Assateague Island. We had a mission ahead of us.

Dona took this photo before we left California. You pass this sign on Highway 50 entering Sacramento from the west. We figured that if there was a sign for Maryland at this end of Highway 50 then there would be a sign at the other end too, so we drove to Ocean City.

We parked and started walking to find our sign. The beach and the Atlantic Ocean are just past the Boardwalk, so we have to go the other direction.

We were on the right track. We hadn't seen any sign coming into town, but it didn't take us too long to realize that we'd been facing the wrong direction to notice a sign meant for west-bound travelers.

A sign of interest, but not the one we were looking for.

A gorgeous old building.

We found it!

Mission accomplished.

We still had time in the parking meter so walked back to the Boardwalk. Do you remember the photo in the last post of this area 10 miles to the north of the Assateague National Seashore? What a far cry from the beach and the dunes. The beach here is just to the right of those light poles.

We stopped at a memorial to fire fighters...

...and reflected on the world. Then it was time for ice cream.

We found Dumser's Dairyland. It was late in the day and we didn't need to eat another meal out. We had plenty of food to use up back at the house because we weren't going to be able to take it with us. But before heading to the house we drove a few miles south to the town of Snow Hill. Kathleen had heard that it was an interesting place to see. Snow Hill was founded in 1642 (you can't say that on the West Coast) on the Pocomoke River. Although there was a disastrous fire in 1893 there are still pre-Revolutionary War structures in the town. We did not search out the various buildings but did a random, meandering tour through the old part of town and I found references to some of the ones I photographed later.

The Governor John Walter Smith House, a Queen Anne Victorian, built about 1889.

United Presbyterian Church, build in 1889.

River House Inn, built in the 1860's.

That was it for adventure. Back to our house, clean up, pack up, and get ready to leave for home in the morning.

This is the house were we stayed the last couple of nights in Maryland.

We got on the road and I was navigating. Oops! Delaware? Right, I hadn't paid attention that we'd be entering another state. I don't think you get to count it as a visit unless you actually get out of the car though.

The rest of this is rather anti-climactic after this fabulous trip. Just photos taken while driving riding. Beautiful rural countryside.

Big round bales. You don't see those around here.

More big barns.

There's a Maryland sign that I don't think I got when entering the first time...at least not from the plane.

That's it. Back to California. We had an adventure to be remembered for a long time. We didn't do any one thing that was all that adventurous, but Actually Doing It was the important thing. And spending this time with each other was a treasure.

MJ Adventure Team Goes to MD - Day 7 - Ponies!

It's been almost a month since we started embarked on this trip so I guess I've had extended enjoyment while organizing photos and thinking about the blog posts.  I don't know how many people really read my posts, but there have been some who have asked "what about the ponies?" Day 6 was spent learning about Fort McHenry and exploring Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad. We spent a comfortable night at our AirB&B in Berlin and got on the road in time to get to the Assateague Island National Seashore...  

...when the Visitor Center opened. The area is managed jointly by the National Park Service and Maryland Park Service.

Assateague Island is a barrier island that is 37 miles long and separated from the mainland by Chincoteague Bay and Sinepuxent Bay. The northern two thirds is in Maryland and the southern one third is part of Virginia. If you were a horse-crazy girl once then what you know about these islands is that there are wild ponies living there, made famous by Marguerite Henry's book, Misty of Chincoteague.  We had come to find the ponies.

Only part of  the island is accessible on a paved road that connects campgrounds and trails. We hadn't gone far when we found them. Ponies!

Just pretend that you don't know that they were in a parking lot near the bathrooms. Signs everywhere warn people to leave the ponies alone and don't offer food. It's the same kind of warnings that you read in Yellowstone about not feeding bears and packing food away. People are kicked and bitten by ponies and the ponies are hit by cars when they get used to people offering food.

These ponies didn't seem to be going anywhere soon...

...so we walked to the beach.

We had made it to the Atlantic.

That is Ocean City, about 10 miles north. Can you see the ferris wheel and the amusement park in the middle of the photo? What a contrast when looking from the National Seashore.

The barrier islands are "among the most dynamic landforms on earth". There is constant change. Assateague Island is moving west, at an accelerated rate after jetties were constructed near Ocean City in the 1930s.  At one time Assateague Island was to be developed, and in the 1950s a 15-mile road was created on the Maryland side of the island. A hurricane in 1962 wiped out structures and covered the road, and legislation in 1965 created the National Seashore.

The ponies are most likely descendants of horses that were brought to the island 300 years ago by farmers who took advantage of the natural "corral" made of water. Farmers were required to pay taxes on their livestock and by turning them loose on the island, they could avoid the tax. I usually try to be scientifically accurate about what I write, but there is some artistic license here. The documentation from the Park Service says that genetically these are HORSES, not PONIES. The small stature is a result of years of adaptation to a diet of abundant, but nutrient-poor salt-marsh grasses.

Sorry. I will continue to call them ponies while I'm talking about our visit. They are used to paparazzi. We were lucky to be visiting in the off-season and on a weekday. There were very few people around. It would have been a very different scene if the parking lots and roads were full.

The ponies wandered off and we drove on to find more.

This looked like a very old pony at an empty campground. The Maryland ponies are managed as wildlife are. From the brochure, "While action may be taken to end the suffering of a gravely ill, seriously injured, or dying horse, no measure are taken to prolong the lives of Maryland's wild horses. As with other species of Assateague wildlife, horses that are sick or weak do not survive." The population is controlled using a non-hormonal, non-invasive vaccine, administered by a dart, to prevent pregnancy. With this method the birth rate has been lowered to fewer than ten foals each year which maintains the population at under 125 horses.

A fence that separates the Maryland and  Virginia herds. The Virginia herd is privately owned and produces 60-90 foals each year. The foals are sold at auction after the annual swim from Assateague Island to Chincoteague Island and the proceeds go to veterinary care, the fire department, and various charities. There are week-long festivities around this event and you can see videos at this link.

There are three nature walk trails through the marsh, the forest, and the dunes. We started with the marsh trail.

We spotted this osprey that had caught a fish.

We watched for quite awhile while it circled, still carrying it's fish.

Diamondback terrapins.

Two laughing gulls and an American oystercatcher...

...who was not welcome.

Short-billed dowitcher.

We drove down another road...

...where we saw a group of people gathered. From my Yellowstone experience (people stopping in the road when wildlife is spotted), I figured that that meant Ponies!

This group was a little more picturesque, being "in the wild" instead of "in the parking lot".

There was a Pony Patrol volunteer with that group of people answering questions and making sure that ponies aren't harassed.

We drove to the next trail--the forest nature trail.

Loblolly pines are the dominate forest species.

Poison ivy.

At the end of that trail we saw the same group of ponies, but from a different view. Notice the paddle-boarders in the marsh. What a great way to see the marsh and the ponies.

One more interesting pony fact: "The Assateague horses drink over twice the amount of water that domesticated horses will due to their salty food supply. All that drinking combined with a high salt diet contributes to their bloated appearance."

We drove to the Dune Nature Trail.

Chris needed some beach time so Kathleen and I walked the trail while Chris enjoyed the beach, albeit a bit cold and windy.

Remember the road that I said was built in the 1950s? Part of it is still visible.

As we left the park we were faced with that age-old question.

"Why does the pony cross the road?"

Because the grass is greener?

This was another full day (and a very full blog post) but there is more Maryland scenery. That will be another post.

MJ Adventure Team Goes to MD - Day 6 - Harriet Tubman NHP

On Day 6 of our adventure we spent the first part of the day at Ft. McHenry National Monument. Then we headed for Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad in Dorchester County, Maryland. I commented in the last post that there is a lot of water in Maryland!

At this time Chris was driving and we didn't know until we got here that driving across bridges is not one of her favorite things.

This is a 4-mile bridge across Chesapeake Bay.

Kathleen gave moral support from the back seat. Chris did just fine.

I rode shotgun trying to figure out where we were going and not wanting to miss any photo ops. It turns out that our Visitor Center was not on this map because it is brand new.

The Visitor Center is co-managed by the State of Maryland and the Park Service. To fully experience the Underground Railroad site you can follow a driving tour 223 miles through Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. There is written and digital documentation to explain the sites along the way. But we didn't know that when we made this plan. So we ended up seeing only a fraction of what is actually part of the Underground Railroad Byway.

The exhibits in the Visitor Center gave us a good understanding of Harriet Tubman's life and the heroism that she showed in escaping slavery and then returning many times to rescue over 70 family members and friends.

A chilling quote that describes some of the anguish inflicted by one person on another.

At the last stop in the Visitor Center there is a video with modern era commentary about human rights and the fact that we still struggle.

After leaving the Visitor Center we followed the Driving Tour map for a short way on our way to picking up Interstate 50. We drove through the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, largely unchanged from the time when Harriet Tubman lived in the area.

There are signs along the way.

This is the Bucktown Store, closed when we drove by. Harriet was in this store when the shopkeeper threw a 2-pound weight at a slave who was fleeing the store, but instead hit Harriet, nearly killing her.

The one-lane, wooden Bestpitch Ferry Bridge at the site of a former ferry landing. Agricultural and timber products were transported on rafts.

Harriet's knowledge of the waterways and survival in the marshes aided her in escape and rescuing others.

We inadvertently left the documented byway and followed country roads toward the Nanticoke River where we would turn north to pick up I-50.

I wish I knew what that very tall grass was on the side of the road.

Modern farming. We saw a lot of these huge long barns and decided that they were probably chicken houses. Agriculture is Maryland's largest commercial industry and livestock, particularly broilers (5-12 week old chickens), followed by dairy, are the leading products.

Drive-by photography.

This house is in the town of Vienna where we joined up with I-50.

This "beachy" comfortable house near the town of Berlin was to be our headquarters for the next two nights. Look familiar? Chris and Kathleen figuring out where to go for dinner. They found a seafood restaurant and I had salmon, grits, and sweet potato fries. Southern dining. I hadn't realized until this trip how close to "The South" Maryland is.

Our first day of site seeing took us to Harpers Ferry and  immersion in Civil War era politics and strife. We had a wonderful diversion at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival during the weekend. Then we saw Gettysburg and were immersed in Civil War history for a day. Fort McHenry took us back into history, focusing on another war and also learning about the Fort's role during the Civil War as well. Learning about the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman emphasized this sobering and grim part of U.S. history known as slavery. Maybe it's like reading the newspaper--most of what makes "news" is not happy. These episodes of history depict the desire for power  and the struggle of those being oppressed.

I was ready to see PONIES! That will be tomorrow.

MJ Adventure Team Goes to MD - Day 6 - Ft. McHenry

It is taking me a long time to tell the rest of the stories about this trip but I want to finish. One reason I do this is that it makes me sort through my photos and jot down some notes before I forget. I also do a little more research into the history part to solidify that in my brain, at least temporarily. That is also why I don't get too it right away,  because I need the time. I left off in the last post seeing Gettysburg National Military Park and staying in the town of Gettysburg. We planned on two stops on Tuesday before getting to our final destination.

The first was Fort McHenry National Monument. It's on that point in the northwest quadrant of the map. Living on the West Coast I haven't paid much attention to the geography of the East Coast. Until I started trying to figure out where we were going on a map I hadn't realized how big Chesapeake Bay is and how much water is within the state of Maryland in the form of rivers and marshes.

I was driving this morning so just got a few shots through the windshield. Seeing signs for Washington stood out for me.

This is in Baltimore not far from Fort McHenry. I was surprised at how little traffic we had getting through this industrial area to the fort. In fact, we had little traffic and a relatively small number of people at all the national sites we visited. The wonders of off-season and mid-week travel!

We got to the Visitor's Center just in time for the 10 minute film about the Battle of 1812 and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner, originally called "Defense of Fort M'Henry", in which Francis Scott Key described the his sighting of the American flag over the Fort after 25 hours of bombardment by British ships.

The Star Spangled Banner was sung at the end of the film and people stood as the movie screen lifted, revealing the flag flying over the fort. My telling of this doesn't invoke much emotion, but the film was so well done and the ending so dramatic that when Chris and I looked at each other we both had tears in our eyes.

After that one of the Park Volunteers invited everyone to come outside and participate in a flag ceremony.

Everyone lined up in two rows facing each other.

A flag was brought out of what looked like a large duffel bag and was carried down the line of people. When the entire length was being supported then we all stepped back.

This revealed a replica of the 32' x 40' garrison flag constructed by Baltimore seamstress, Mary Pickersgill for Fort McHenry.

Major George Armistead, who commissioned the flag, wanted it to be large enough "that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance."

We learned that the original flag, which is in the Smithsonian, was made of dyed English wool, except for the stars which were cotton (and are 2' across!). There were 15 stripes, each 24", because in 1794 Congress had approved two additional stripes for Vermont and Kentucky be added to the original 13. It wasn't until 1818 that the stripes were reduced back to 13 to represent the original colonies and a star was added for each new state.

As the Park volunteer tested our new-found knowledge of the flag we rolled it back up stripe-by-stripe. We were then encouraged to learn more at the Fort.

Mary Pickersgill made two flags, the large garrison flag and a smaller storm flag, 17' x 25'.

That was the one flying on this day. They use the larger flag on days with less wind.

As we walked to the fort we saw this couple, an interesting contrast with the buildings in the background.

Inside the Fort, many of the rooms on the lower floor have more information and interpretive displays.

I wonder what how you'd know!

I thought it was interesting to get this perspective. The glass case encloses part of the original oak cross-brace that was underground and anchored the original flagpole. The replica cross-brace above gives perspective of the size and the depth of the lower section.

The fort is star-shaped. These cannons point down the Patapsco River where the British bomb ships were stationed and toward Chesapeake Bay beyond.

We could easily have spent more time at the Fort, absorbing more of it's history, and driven around Baltimore to see the other relevant sites, but that will have to be on the list for a future visit.

Places to go. More things to see. Stay tuned.