Ironman 70.3 in Oceanside - Its a Family Thing

I would not have normally planned a 4-day trip during lambing season, but the date was set when my kids asked if they could give my husband a special Christmas gift. They wanted to enter a half-Ironman event as a relay team that included Dan. That was his Christmas surprise! The Oceanside Ironman 70.3 was April 1. Matt and Chris have both competed in Ironman events, full length as well as half. We have always gone to support them and now they wanted to include Dan in the event itself. Oceanside is about an 8-hour drive so we needed to leave on Thursday to be able to check in on Friday.

Katie flew in from Texas to be here for the family event. She went with us in the car while the others flew to San Diego.

The recent (and seemingly nonstop) rain in northern California made for brilliant landscapes which I photographed from the back seat.

The brilliant green, blue, yellow, and white have given me ideas for planning a woven piece using those colors.

Getting into southern California we saw remnants of the unusual extreme weather south of us. No more travel photos because I have lots of others to share.

We got to Oceanside in the evening and had time for a look at the ocean. We always think of southern California beaches as sunny and warm. Sunny, yes. Warm, no. Just as in northern California right now, it was unseasonably cool…

…although wouldn’t guess that looking at the kids. (Thanks to Kaleena for some of this photo and some in the next posts.)

TN-NC Adventure--Day 3

This was Friday, the last day we had for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We were to be in Marshall, North Carolina by the evening for the next part of this trip. There is a main road through the park from north to south and Newfound Gap is half way across.

I cropped this photo from a sign that explained that the development of Great Smoky Mountains National Park was “led more by economic boosters than conservationists”. Auto clubs pushed hard for the park and in the late 1920’s crews from North Carolina and Tennessee worked to meet up at Newfound Gap and the road was completed in 1932.

This is cropped from the same photo of that sign.

The current state line marker.

The Appalachian Trail follows the Tennessee/North Carolina State line almost all the way through the park from southwest to northeast borders. (At the western end the trail drops south off the state border before it reaches the Park boundary.)

I wanted to remember these details and photographing a sign is the easiest way for me to do that.

According to that earlier photo we could have hiked all the way to Maine but this stop was our only experience with the Appalachian Trail.

We stopped at the trail to the observation tower on Clingmans Dome, at 6643’, the highest peak in the National Park and in Tennessee. The elevation is higher than the other parts of the park and the vegetation is different. We saw more flowers blooming here and plenty of pollinating insects.

There is a half mile trail up to the peak and then this ramp to the observation tower.

From the tower there is a 360 degree view of the mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina .

Selfie time.

A panorama view of the ramp.

That’s Katie and Kirby heading down.

More flowers and insects along the trail.

Maybe there is such dense congregation of insects because it is too late in the season for flowers in the lower elevations.

Just an interesting leaf.

By early afternoon we were on our way to Marshall, North Carolina.

One last shot of the mountains near the park.

TN-NC Adventure--Day 2

Here is Day 1 of this adventure. At this rate I won’t finish for months. I’d better speed up—there is lots more going on here to share. We had all of Thursday to spend at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We chose to explore Cades Cove and hike a trail to a waterfall in that area. We tried to get an early start because we saw from the previous day how crowded the roads and parking areas could get as more visitors showed up.

We started the the Cades Cove loop drive. Our first stop was not a marked one, but we were on a one-way loop road with no traffic and there was a horse at the fence!

I like to follow a map as we explore and I learned new terminology. I was not familiar with points on the map called Bald or Gap or Cove. In the west I think Gregory Bald, Andrews Bald, Silers Bald would be called Mountain. Newfound Gap, Deals Gap, and Black Camp Gap would be called Pass. And a Cove might be called Valley. Maybe it all has to do with scale of the geographical features or it’s just something particular to this region.

We picked up the auto tour booklet for Cades Cove, and followed along while we drove, getting out of the car at the points of interest. According to the booklet the area was probably originally inhabited by Cherokee people, but “various conflicts, epidemics, and treaties made it difficult…to remain in Tennessee lands”. In the early 1800’s white families settled. They cleared land and built log homes. Corn was a major crop. The cove is encircled by an 11-mile one-way road. On Wednesdays this road is closed to vehicles and open only for bicycles and pedestrians—that’s a great idea! Fortunately we were there on Thursday.

John Oliver Place is one of 80 historic buildings in the park. We were interested in the construction of the various buildings. The materials range from round logs with notched corners to later frame buildings that use sawed wood. Katie, still trying to design a barn on her rocky Texas property, kept pointing out the “foundation”—piles of rocks that held up many of the structures.

I thought that I would remember everything I photographed, but of course I don’t, especially since it has now been a busy three weeks since this trip. I think I have everything identified correctly with the help of the tour booklet I kept. The booklet tells that a Methodist Church was built of logs in the 1820s and then replaced by this one in 1902. It pointed out the two front doors, indicated a custom of men and women sitting on different sides. However this church didn’t follow that custom, but used the building plans of a congregation that did.

Inside the Methodist Church.

We drove to the half way point on the loop road and parked at the beginning of the Abrams Falls Trail. The trail to the falls is about 2-1/2 miles through the woods.

The map indicates “moderate” difficulty. It is a well-maintained trail with a fair amount of uphill.

This bridge is over a creek that flows into Abrams Creek.

People were spread out on the trail and it didn’t seem too crowded, but there was a crowd at the falls.

It looks as though Kirby is about to dive, but she just enjoyed climbing on the rocks in the middle of the water. No diving.

Katie is photographing Kirby with a butterfly on her knee.

I often like to identify plants in my photos, but I it was a strange feeling here because I didn’t recognize anything…

…even the trees and shrubs. It is all so different than what I am used to. It would sure be interesting to see in the fall and spring.

After the hike we continued the Cades Cove loop drive. There are several buildings at the Cable Mill Historic area. This is a blacksmith shop.

I took photos of several interesting details of construction, but they aren’t all included here. I admire this horseshoe hinge.

Cantilever barn.

There is a long ditch and then earthen flume from a mill-pond to the wheel of the grist mill. It is still operating for demonstrations.

Inside the mill building is a grist mill where corn is ground.

Another large barn.

I think this is the Henry Whitehead Place. According to the tour brochure, the small building in the back was built with logs when a cabin was needed quickly. The larger house was built of square sawn logs and the two buildings are a contrast in construction types in the Smokies.

Another cantilever barn, a replica of an earlier one that was here. Hay could be stored above and fed to animals in the stalls below.

I think this is the Carter Shields cabin, build in the early 1900s.

We spent a full day exploring all the things to see on the Cades Cove loop and hiking to Abrams Falls. One of the most exciting things was on the drive at the end of the day when we spotted this black bear!

Idaho Trip - Day 3 - Part 2

At the end of Part 1 I asked a question about the Scottish bagpipers. Did you figure it out? See the next photo.

At first I thought it was just a few, but they all had sheep covers on their bagpipes.

The crowd was asked to be quiet while the sheep trailed through town. There are two sheep with halters at the front of the herd. The woman leading them was introduced as being part of this since being a little girl with her pet sheep. It helps sheep to have another sheep to follow so I assume that maybe at the staging area it was helpful to have these tame sheep be part of the plan. Maybe if we go again we’ll watch from that area—that would be interesting.

The sheep were followed by two more sheep camps, each a more modern version than the horse drawn camps.

I think this was an official part of the parade and he didn’t just sneak in to try and make a sale.

The last “entry” was the street sweeper.

After the parade we walked through a small outdoor vendor area. There were pushpins so that attendees could mark their locations on this map.

There were booths selling sheep and wool related items.

I stopped here because I thought I recognized the yarn. Not the actual yarn, but the style. Sure enough it was spun at Mountain Meadow Mill in Wyoming where my Timm Ranch yarn is spun. The wool comes from Nevada and one of the family members is working with this vendor to market the wool as yarn and as blankets.

They found a weaver in Boise. This made me anxious to get home and get my AVL loom up and running again. I’ve had glitches with the new compudobby (probably my fault and not the loom’s) and have been avoiding it. I have the yarn and I have the loom and I really want to get back to weaving blankets.

Seen on the way out of town.

Moving on from sheep, also seen on the way out of town.

This very cool set of bronze statues is at the south end of Hailey. I couldn’t get a decent photo of the whole thing. There is a herder with his horse, a dog, and several sheep. The artists’ portrayal of the animals’ body language and movement is just perfect. I can see my sheep turning like that to the dog, who crouches down to encourage the sheep to turn around (or in Ginny’s case, she’d bark and the sheep would turn around and stare).

In this view the dog and the herder are at the back.

On the long road to home. We hadn’t decided if we were going to stop along the way or just make it home.

A call from the Artery made that decision. I was supposed to work my shift Monday morning at 9:30. I think I hadn’t written in down because I knew that I should trade with someone for that day. Oops! We drove and made it home at 12:30 a.m.

Idaho Trip - Day 3 - Part 1

We ended the second day in Idaho by loading up Chris’ motorcycle and some other belongings that we would transport back to California. Then we hit the road and ended up in a motel sometime after dark. The next day we drove to Ketchum to catch the parade that is on the last day of the Trailing of the Sheep Festival.

We were rewarded for not driving this part of the route in the dark by seeing the fall colors along the way.

This is the town of Hailey and some of the Trailing of the Sheep Festival activities were here. Sheep played an important role in the economy and history of this part of Idaho. The amount of money represented by the sheep market from the mid 1800s to mid 1900s and beyond is in the billions in today’s dollars.

Now it’s not all about sheep, especially in this valley where winter sports and recreation have a large role. As you know if you follow my blog I keep myself amused by taking photos of things of interest along the way…things like a giant bicycle…

…and a colorful sheep.

Ketchum is just up the valley from Hailey. We parked outside of town and walked to the parade route. Like any other small town parade, people had staked out their spots with lawn chairs. We found a spot with a view and waited for about 45 minutes for the parade to begin. The sheep spend the summer grazing in the high mountains and are trailed down the valley to lower elevation for the winter. This festival was developed as a way to recognize this history and the people involved and promote the concept to the modern residents.

A mounted color guard. The horses were decorated with sparkly rumps, but I already have enough photos to share so I didn’t include that one.

The dignitaries of the town and the parade were transported in the first horse drawn wagon. This is the Lava Lake Lamb Camp wagon from Hailey.

Hook Lamb camp wagon pulled by miniature horses.

This is the Jones Sheep Camp. They call these wagons camps because they are the basis of the headquarters or camp for the shepherds who stay with the flocks in the mountains all summer.

The Ben Holland Sheep Camp, with a double wagon.

The parade included Basque and Peruvian dancers and musicians and the festival recognized the importance of those cultures to the sheep industry . Many of the original Basque herders settled in the valley and became sheep owners themselves. Today the industry relies on Peruvian herders.

This is Miss Lamb Chops and I don’t know the story about her.

It seems that where you find a wool celebration you often find a Scottish component. Scots settled in the valley and played an important role in the early days.

I saved way too many photos for this blog post so I’m going to make this Part 1 and finish it off with Part 2. While you’re waiting for that, take a look at these bagpipers. Do you notice anything odd?

To be continued…

Idaho Trip - Day 2

After driving to Weiser Idaho to drop off sheepskins (last post) we drove onto McCall and stayed at the Rustic Inn. We met Chris for breakfast at his favorite diner in McCall.

6 Three 4 is an old gas station that has been repurposed as a cafe. Notice the counter top added onto the old truck and the roll-up garage door.

Additional seating.

Some old Hardy Boys books leveled our table.

After breakfast we drove east out of town to go hiking in the Payette National Forest.

Chris had heard of an unmarked trail to a lake a couple of miles up this main trail.

The fall colors were gorgeous...

…accented by a beautiful blue sky.

Chris found the unmarked trail…

…and we followed him down the other side of the mountain we had just hiked up…

…to Crystal Lake.

A panoramic view of the lake.

I keep looking at this photo and find it hard to acknowledge that the lower half of the rock is a reflection—it is so vivid.

The sky was gorgeous.

The fall colors were stunning.

It was a lovely day in the Salmon River Mountains and great to spend it with Chris.

Idaho Trip - Day 1

We found three reasons to make a quick trip to Idaho last week. Two involved sheep. We left early of Friday morning with the plan to get to Weiser, Idaho by late afternoon to drop sheepskins off at a new tannery.

We caught a glimpse of welcome snow as we go into the Sierras. Snow is welcome because California is in such need of a snow pack this winter and any snow will help with the fires that are still burning.

We were driving the truck so that we could haul the sheepskins with us and return with other cargo. This truck is 2 wheel drive, but there wasn’t enough snow that we needed to worry about not having 4 WD or chains.

There was evidence of snow on some of the peaks in the middle of Nevada as well.

We made it to Living Sky Tannery in Weiser about 5:00. The tannery is housed in a building on the farm that includes plenty of space for this family’s other needs as well. This photo shows the first step in the process. The lambskins go into the washing machine to get the first cleaning and remove the salt used to dry the pelt.

I realize now that I didn’t find out enough details to fully explain this process. I do know that the method Living Sky uses is based on the natural and non-toxic method that the owners learned in England. Duane built most of the infrastructure modeled what they saw there. I don’t remember the exact order of the process and I did not get a photo of the next process of fleshing the pelts—that is to remove any remaining flesh or fat that is still clinging to the underneath. Anything left on the hide can prevent the tannin from being absorbed completely. Next the pelts go into a “pickling” tub but I don’t know what is in that solution.

There are four more tanks for soaking the pelts in a solution of mimosa bark. Duane built the motorized paddlewheels at the back of the tubs to slowly move the pelts through the solution.

This is a barrel of mimosa powder. When I googled I found this at leather-dictionary.com :

“Mimosa bark is a vegetable tannin, which is extracted from the tanner acacia cultivated in Australia, Southeast Asia and South Africa. The bark of the tree is used for tanning as it has a very high tannin content of up to 30 percent. Leather tanned with mimosa bark has a reddish color through the tannins.” I learned that there are trees grown specifically for this use in Africa.

After all the wet tanning processes are finished the hides are secured to boards that can be slid into a cupboard that will hold a couple dozen.

When the hides are dry they are brushed if necessary to remove burrs and other vegetable matter. That is a motorized roller behind the table that will help to remove debris and pull off matted parts.

I realize that I really need another visit to thoroughly understand the whole process. I’ll look forward to that next year. We were welcomed by and thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Kimberly and Duane, but felt rushed because we wanted to get to McCall before it got too late.

For now all of this year’s lambskins are at 4 different tanneries so that I can see which one does best with my Jacob pelts and to compare processing and shipping costs. We left 16 lambskins at Living Sky and have others at tanneries in Wisconsin, Oregon and one that I just heard about in central California.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Back to California 3

We woke up early in our crummy rundown motel in Blythe, California and got on the road. There wasn’t any point in hanging around. Most of this blog post is drive-by photography on the freeway.

Near Palm Springs.

Kirby was a real trooper. She never complained about the backseat or the long drive. I think it would have been different if she hadn’t had the electronic entertainment of her tablet. There is a time and a place for that stuff and this was it.

Freeway art.

More freeway art, a little harder to see.

Not art, but interesting to use a fancy style of lettering instead of just the standard freeway sign.

This is a very poor photo but I was lucky to catch a glimpse of the elusive pink brontosaurus and the clothed T-Rex. They aren’t often seen in California.

Its always encouraging to see a sign that says Sacramento even when you’re still several hours away.

Grandparents’ indulgence, a Happy Meal, was probably the most exciting thing for Kirby on this day.

Agriculture dominates the drive up the San Joaquin Valley once you get beyond SoCal.

This is possible due to the California Aqueduct system, part of which makes up the curved edge of the field in this photo.

There is the aqueduct but also a massive warehouse which I think is the Amazon Fulfillment Center.

This is the last shot I took in the valley south of Sacramento. We made it home before dark. Yay!

After showing Kirby her room (now, after 10 years, finally fixed up into a guest room), which used to be her mom’s bedroom, we headed for the barn.

One of the best parts of visiting California for Kirby is hanging out with Aunt Meryl and Uncle Chris.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Back to California 2

It’s sure taking me a long time to tell the story of this trip. (The first installment is here and the fifth is here.) This is the second day of the return trip. We left the motel in Alamogordo and headed to White Sands National Park, only 15 miles away.

The park borders the White Sands Missile Range and there is one road in and out with some parking areas and trails.

We stopped at the first trail.

The dunes are continually changing as the sand is blown into new shapes and this trail was marked by blue posts.

I kept thinking that this is the little girl who, 5 years ago in Hawaii wouldn’t get off the beach towel and let her feet touch the sand.

I have some great video clips of her rolling down these dunes like a kid rolls down a grassy slope but if I take the time to figure out how to post them here I’ll never finish this story.

It’s not all sand. This is a darkling beetle.

I looked this beetle up later and the “distinctive tracks” that we saw were described.

I have not identified these flowers—maybe primrose?

At the last place we stopped Kirby wasn’t too excited to get out of the truck. It was very hot by this time. I wanted to get a look over this dune so I walked up to get some photos while Dan and Kirby stayed in the truck. This view is looking back at our truck (with trailer) in the parking lot.

White Sands National Park protects about half of the largest gypsum dunefield in the world (275 square miles).

It was designated a National Monument in 1933 and became a Park more recently. We checked out the visitor center, let Kirby choose something from the gift store, and then got back on the road about noon.

The rest of this post is things seen along the road.

Remember, I try to entertain myself by photographing things of interest. I really don’t know the significance of this chili pepper. ..

…or this pink elephant.

I don’t remember what kind of inspection or border patrol station we passed through here, but that had a huge array of cameras and other devices as the truck drove through.

Crossing the Continental Divide was exciting for us…

…but a difficult concept to explain to a 6-year-old when there are no mountains in sight.

More freeway art. I’m not sure where this is—maybe still New Mexico.

We weren’t in New Mexico long though before reaching Arizona.

Freeway art cotton fields.

The goal was to make it to California before we stopped so that it would be only one more day of driving to get home. I hoped to redeem myself with a better hotel room choice on this night. We made it to Blythe and found a motel that seemed to have good reviews. It turned out that the motel had been sold and was in escrow and no one much cared about the business anymore. We all slept OK but it was not the kind of place where you could luxuriate in your surroundings. But it was getting late already and we all went right to sleep after a bedtime story with Kirby.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Back to California

We left home on a Friday (July 16) and got to my daughter’s house Saturday night. We spent four days there. If you have followed along this was the last blog post you saw.

We started the long drive back to California on Thursday.

This time the trailer was empty but we had a back-seat passenger. This is Kirby, age 6.

As usual I entertained myself with photographing things I found interesting or amusing. Kirby entertained herself mostly with her tablet. Normally I’d object to hours of electronic entertainment, but there are exceptions. I was truly impressed with how Kirby handled the drive. Our truck doesn’t have a full back seat and Kirby was in a carseat, so she didn’t have much room. She was more patient that I was.

I’ve lost track of where I took some of these photos.

On the road in Texas.

We stopped more frequently for gas than we would have on our own. Usually we stop only when absolutely necessary for gas or for an interesting diversion of a historical marker or scenic overlook. The frequent gas stops allowed for more bathroom breaks and food. McDonald’s at the first stop was a big hit.

I always follow along with the big map books. I found what looked like an interesting diversion that didn’t take us too far off of I-10. We had been driving about 3-1/2 hours and took Hwy 290 to Fort Lancaster State Historic Site. First there was a overlook with picnic tables and a wall to keep people (especially 6-year-olds) from falling down the steep drop-off onto the road below.

The remnants of the Fort were in the flat land that you can see in the left of the photo. I always think about what it would have been like to be on a horse or in a wagon in “the olden days” and to travel over this kind of terrain.

The State Historic Site “preserves the remnants of the only post established in 1855 to protect the Lower Road between San Antonio and El Paso”. There is a small museum and the remnants of some of the 25 buildings that had been constructed.

Signs inside the museum told of the camel experiment in the mid 1850’s when it was thought that camels would be more suited to the area than horses and mules. As government attention turned to the more pressing issue of Civil War and Texas seceded from the Union in 1861 the camels were sold to private parties.

We went outside to walk around the fort and saw this bug (dead) that was the size of…well, the size of a little girl’s hand.

The site is 82 acres and includes remnants of officers’ quarters, a hospital, commissary, barracks, bakery, and more.

This is what is left of Officers’ Quarters, each with two rooms separated by a double fireplace.

The brochure I picked up says that by 1858 “Fort Lancaster housed approximately 150 enlisted men and three officers…opportunities for soldiers’ recreation were rare and frequently revolved around drinking and gambling.” The day was getting hot so our timing was good that we had stopped here in the morning. After walking around awhile we got back into the AC of the truck.

This bug hung on to the windshield for quite awhile.

More of Texas.

We saw three of these trucks over the course of several miles. Each carried one of the huge blades of the windmills that are prevalent between Sheffield and Fort Stockton.

I have my big map books and I had bought a kids’ atlas for Kirby—it has maps of all the states and notes details (state bird, state animal, etc) for each.

I was impressed with this tile mural in the ladies’ restroom at one of the rest stops.

We planned to visit White Sands National Park the next morning and we wanted to spend the night nearby. Some of you know that on our typical road trips our night-time stops are usually impromptu and “rustic” . I had packed the tent and camping gear with the hope that we would enlighten Kirby about what it’s like to travel with Mama Robin and Papa Dan (as we are called). But better sense prevailed. It was hot, even at night, it was difficult to find a suitable place that was not privately owned, and we had a 6-year-old with us. We decided on a motel. We stayed at Alamogordo, New Mexico, but didn’t get there until well after dark. My frugality overtook better sense and I got a one bed room thinking that since all we were doing was sleeping, what would be the problem. To be continued.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Day 2

It was daylight in the last photo I posted about Day 1, but we still hadn’t left California. We kept driving and now I don’t remember where we ended up, but it was somewhere along I-10 in Arizona.

We had our camping stuff with us because usually on our road trips we find a spot to camp along the way. This was different. For one thing we just wanted to GET THERE. Another factor was that it was HOT. Sleeping bags and a tent weren’t appealing. I think we stopped here at about midnight. Dan decided to sleep in the cab with the seat back as far as it would go. I opted to get in the truck bed on top of the stall mats that we were taking to Katie for her new barn. I really needed to stretch out and not stay in the truck seat a moment longer than I had to. Neither were great options. I was comfortable enough lying on a sheepsking, but the trucks keep their generators on all night and other trucks go by on the freeway all night. We started up again about 4 a.m.

When I used the map app on my phone to plan this trip it showed Home to Blanco, TX to be 24 hours. So after driving for probably 14-15 hours yesterday why did we still have 14 hours to go? That’s easy. We didn’t stop much but you do need to get gas and stop at the occasional rest stop along the way. Also, while pulling the trailer we weren’t staying at the posted limit, especially when it was 80 mph (in Texas).

This was at 6:20 a.m. so it’s somewhere in Arizona between Phoenix and Tucson.

Freeway Art somewhere around Tucson.

I wouldn’t call this Freeway Art, but it was interesting. Does McDonald’s have a new item on it’s menu?

Rest stop about 8:30 Saturday morning.

I want to say “Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore”. You get what I mean, right?

9:30 a.m. Another state line to check off. One more to go.

View of the Organ Mountains/Desert Peaks outside Las Cruces.

About 1 p.m. That didn’t take long.

The phone showed about another 8 hours to our destination.

More Freeway Art. This is near El Paso. I think the Freeway Art deserves a blog post of it’s own.

This smoke plume, across the border in Mexico, was visible for miles. I tried to find out what was going on checking Google. No luck although I did find several links that brought up major fires over the last few years.

Border Patrol station. The dog who sniffed our truck didn’t think twice about the goats.

A Freeway Mural.

Before we got to Ft. Stockton (about 5:30 p.m.) the “low fuel” light came on. UhOh. Ft. Stockton was the next place where we could find gas and fortunately we weren’t too far out.

Both Dan and I are always very careful about not running too low on fuel, but around here it’s not that much of an issue. Town isn’t far away and even when traveling there is always a gas station nearby. That’s not the case when driving through the southwest. It turns out that we weren’t as close to empty as we thought when the warning light came on. I looked it up and our truck has a 25 gallon tank. However, we’d been driving with the trailer at elevation and into head winds and all of those things affected our gas mileage for the worse.

I called Katie from here and she had a Ft. Stockton story. That is where their truck broke down when she moved from California. They were stuck in town with a horse and a dog for a few days waiting for parts.

In Ft. Stockton there is no excuse for getting lost.

I love the expression on this roadrunner’s face.

Texas landscape from the truck. This is about a half hour past Ft. Stockton.

I took only a few more photos after this or maybe I just deleted most.

This isn’t Freeway Art but I think it is Inspiration for Weaving. Great colors and pattern!

We made it to our destination on this day but it was after 11:30 p.m.

Colusa Wildlife Refuge

On Monday we drove to Yuba City (an hour away) where I had been able to schedule a COVID vaccine appointment at the CVS pharmacy. We made the most of the day be combining the appointment with a visit to the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge. I have driven past the wildlife refuges along I-5 for years but have never stopped and now I want to make sure that we go visit all of them. These can be mini-road-trips in a year when we may not be able to take a real road trip.

I wish I’d had my camera nearby for the whole drive. I think we passed up a lot of interesting views, but I had my camera ready when we drove past this barn.

There are five refuges in the Sacramento National Wildife Refuge system (dark green on this map) and there is also a state refuge which is not shown here. Maybe we’ll make it to another when we go back to CVS for our second vaccination.

The first bird we saw was a Greater White-fronted Goose.

There is a 3-mile auto tour and a short walking trail. We started with the walk, some of which was blocked off.

You aren’t supposed to get out of the car on the auto tour route, but there is a parking lot and observation platform at the beginning of it. There seemed to be a greater density of birds at this location than later on.

I had to do most of my bird ID after I got home and could look at my photos with my bird books in hand. Feel free to correct my IDs if they are wrong.

Snow Goose or Ross’ Goose? We couldn’t decide if the brownish face on many of the white geese was the natural coloring or staining from poking around in the mud. But one of my bird books shows that tan face on the Snow Goose photo.

On the other hand the book described the Ross’ Goose with a smaller pink bill. Is that what I see here?

It’s a challenge to identify birds when this is the view.

Or this view.

I figured out that the last one was a Northern Pintail after I identified the bird in this photo.

Northern Shoveler.

Greater White-fronted Goose.

American Coot.

I had a hard time matching this one up to what is in my books. The curved bill and coloring have me leaning toward the White-face Ibis, but I don’t see a white face. Maybe some other Ibis?

Great Blue Heron.

I was surprised to see the crowd of birds roosting.

I finally figured out that they are Black-crowned Night Herons. The description in the books fit as does the statement that they roost in trees during the day.

I look forward to getting the second vaccine for more than one reason. Hopefully we can fit in a trip to another refuge before we start to feel any disagreeable side effects from the vaccine.

Sheep Delivery Road Trip

I was excited to plan a sheep delivery trip and think that we could make it a Road Trip. Many have read the blog posts about our annual Road Trips. We camp along the way, visit National Parks, and stop at all the road side markers about historical events and natural wonders. Last year we visited Rocky Mountain National Park and ended the trip at Schacht Spindle Company’s 50th anniversary dealer weekend. I just looked back to find the posts about that one. I wrote the first in September not long after we got home, but got distracted by breeding season, Lambtown, and then a severe injury in October, and I did’t complete the stories until March, 2020.

It turns out that it doesn’t make much sense to combine sheep and the kind of road trip we like—back roads, through National Parks, hiking when we feel like it—especially when there are active wildfires and horrible air quality (and besides there is a pandemic going on). So the sheep part of the trip was successful—but I can’t really call it a Road Trip. I don’t have great photos of beautiful scenery, but there are photos of the experience.

We were on our way at about 7:20 Wednesday morning, only 20 minutes after our planned departure. By this time we were used to seeing an orange sun in a gray sky.

This is not how the Sierras are supposed to look. It didn’t get any better. The majestic views we are used to just weren’t there.

We chose the route that was supposed to be the most direct to get to northeast Oregon—I-80 to Nevada, turn north at Winnemucca.

Driving across Nevada.

Air quality in Oregon wasn’t any better than Nevada and California. I assume that anyone who is reading this is aware of the devastating fires that have been burning all along the west coast.

My attempt at acting like this was a normal road trip. The map showed that there was the Vale Project Grazing Interpretive Site and Overlook. It amounted to this sign and a worn out shade where there probably used to be a picnic table. If there was an overlook I didn’t see it and there wouldn’t have been much to look over anyway.

This route took us into a sliver of Idaho. I had seen this sign last summer on the way to visit our smokejumper son in McCall. I don’t think there are any long-lost relatives here, but it’s sort of an unusual name. It would be interesting to pursue someday.

It was interesting to see hops growing in Oregon.

We knew that it would be well after dark when we arrived if we continued the drive all the way to our destination, and I really couldn’t face another three hours in the truck anyway. I always follow our route in those big map books and I found Farewell Bend State Park on the Snake River. We got there around dusk and were able to stretch our legs a bit after selecting a campsite. All we really needed was a place to park because we weren’t setting up a tent or cooking (cold homemade pizza for dinner). At home we decided that we wouldn’t both fit well in the trailer so Dan had fixed up a platform so that I could have a sleeping area in the trailer above the sheep and he would sleep in the bed of the truck.

This is the view from my sleeping bag. There were some unanticipated problems. There was kind of a tight fit with four sheep on the right and three on the left. The ewes on the right weren’t much problem once I figured out how to secure one of the loose gates so it didn’t clank against the wall every time one of them moved. The rams were another story. They didn’t fight but every time one of them moved his head a horn would clank on the wall or a gate. That gate that is separating two of them from another was NOT closed when the night started. With their movement the catch was released and it shut sometime during the night. There was continual clanking of horns against walls. There was pawing as they either were looking for food or trying to bed down. And they are actually pretty noisy when they are chewing. The clanking was the worst though. Needless to say I slept only on and off that night. I had planned to read and could have done to kill the time, but the light of the iPad drew all the bugs in the area. Does this sound like complaining? I know that there were a lot worse things going on in the world (and in all the fire zones) but I’m just telling the story they way it felt. I did like my special platform, but having sheep with horns below was the problem.

This is the view of our “camp” the next morning.

On the road again. heading to the Wallowa area. The last time I was in this part of Oregon I was on a camping trip with friends in college. I have always remembered that it was gorgeous country.

We got to our destination about 10:00. This is the ewe flock (and a goat) at Ruby Peak Farm.

I had brought three ram lambs with me so that Kate could choose which she liked best. It’s hard to choose a lamb from just looking at photos and they change quickly as they mature. I felt a lot better offering a choice. This is the lucky ram who got to stay in Oregon.

This is Ruby Peak Tamarisk, a yearling ram, who made the trip back to California with us.

Driving along the Wallowa River.

There were miles of hay fields with big barns. The smoke still hung over the landscape.

I am reminded of those postcards that say “Hawaii (or anywhere) at night” and they are black. This is driving right next to the Columbia River. You can barely see the other side of the river right across the middle of the photo.

We turned south at Portland and met up with another sheep buyer in Albany in the late afternoon. We transferred the ewes from our trailer to hers and then got on the road again. The original plan had been to be gone three full days, returning late on Friday. By this time we knew that conditions didn’t lend themselves to the leisurely trip I had thought about. There was smoke, less than perfect sleeping conditions, and covid concerns. We both decided that we really just wanted to be home. So we drove. Well, Dan drove. I slept a lot in the truck. We both slept for awhile at a rest stop near Redding, but for the most part just drove. We pulled into our driveway about 5:30 a.m. on Friday.

I’ve made a big deal about the smoke throughout this post. That was most obvious to us and was a major factor in decisions while we were on the road, but of course the most important aspect is that the smoke was there only because of the horrendous fires that were (are) burning. With two sons and a DIL on the fire lines and friends who were directly affected here in California I don’t forget that the fires are the real story.

I also hope that we’ll be able to take a real Road Trip next year and maybe focus on that beautiful part of Oregon in the northeast corner and make it to some National Parks along the way.

We slept a few hours and then unloaded sheep at home. I didn’t dare put Tamarisk with the other rams right away because they would fight. I found a wether to be his buddy and put him in a stall for a few days. This is Jade welcoming him to the flock. Tamarisk and the other rams will be turned out with ewes October 1. That will be another story