Wednesday, October 1, 2014

McKenzie River Fishing

My friend Julie and I went fly fishing on the McKenzie River last Sunday.  The weather was perfect and the fishing was pretty good.  We caught our limit of trout and I caught this steelhead:
The fly choice of the day was called a Possie Bugger.  It has this name due to the fawn colored Australian opossum fur used in it.
The guide fixed us a fish fry lunch, he fried four trout in two cubes of butter!  It was a fun day.  Julie's first fly fishing experience, my first steelhead, and my first fishing trip that didn't involve my dad or my husband.


Thursday, July 24, 2014

Oh look, it hasn't quite been a year since I posted.  I could give all kinds of excuses about night shift and working full time but really, I've just been lazy about it.

I'm at the end of four nights off and here is some of the dying and spinning I worked in:
This yarn is a result of a Judith MacKenzie workshop I took in Mount Hood, Oregon.  The theme was scrap and I came up with a festive result.  It was a little hard to spin at first since it was supposed to be random, I had to give up some of the control I try to have over everything that I do.  I ended up breaking all the different fibers into bits and tossing them together like a salad, then I'd spin with one chunk for a few minutes, toss it into the empty basket, pick up the next piece and continue like that until I'd gone through the lot once then start over until it was all spun up.  I spread it out onto five bobbins, added a couple bobbins of black alpaca and grey wool to the mix, then rotated through the bobbins a few minutes at a time as I plied three together.

On the way home from the workshop I met my sister for dinner and we swapped birthday presents.  Hers was actually on time for a change and I got to have a summer birthday for a change.  I couldn't believe what she gave me, this yarn bowl.  How appropriate and beautiful is that?!


Rocky got his tractor stuck in the mud a few weeks ago so Carly and I had to give him a hand.  She found the perfect spot, she even had a window to steam up.   It was funny, she didn't wait for me to invite her up, she was climbing in before I even got in the seat.  She's the funniest dog I've ever had.
She even gives me a wink now and then.

We did get to do something fun not too long ago.  We finally used our camper and went to Collier Memorial State Park.  It was a nice campground with a logging museum across the street.  While we were there we went to see Crater Lake and then Klamath Lake, both were gorgeous.   We had beautiful weather and it was nice to get away from the farm for a few days.