Way Behind

I'm sorry I don't have any photos for you on this post. I almost don't have anything to post at all since my life has been 99% work since our trip to Hawaii in May.

I did take a quick trip up to Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival last Saturday. It was crowded, but fun. My friends Linda, John and Darlene rode up with me and we stopped for lunch on the way. My sister, Dotty, came to the event and we had a nice, but short visit. I didn't buy much, but I spent a lot of money on Woollee Winders.

I pulled a fast one on Rocky the other day. My friend, Linda, just happens to be the wife of Ron Finley, the former head wrestling coach for the Ducks. Every time I mention Linda, Rocky has to tell me about what a good coach Ron was and how much respect he has for him. So Linda and I decided to go out for dinner one evening, but I couldn't tell Rocky about these plans because he would chicken out and come up with all kinds of reasons not to go. So Linda and I made a date for last Tuesday, 6:30 at PF Chang's.

The whole day I have my fingers crossed that I can get him there. He was stressing out about hunting preparations and we usually don't go out that early. I told he we had dinner reservations which caused a few swear words to fly. He had to wear a wrinkled shirt because it was already after six when he got dressed and asked if he looked alright. Somehow we made it out the door and got there right on time.

As we walked in there wasn't a hostess at the desk, but I saw Linda wave at us and start walking back to their table. Rocky just stands there and looks at me like I've turned purple. I told him to follow me, that I see somebody I know. He slowly starts to follow, but the further into the restaurant I get the more distance he put between us. Linda told me the next day that she thought he was going to bolt. He finally made it to the table and I introduced him to Ron and Linda; he did perk up a bit with, "Oh." He said hello, nice to meet you, and all that; but then I turned purple again when he saw me sliding into the booth. I said, "Look, they have menus for us and everything." Suddenly the lights came on and he said, "You guys planned this?" It was fun.

We had a nice dinner (PF Changs is pretty good) while Ron and Rocky talked about wrestling, hunting, and fishing. Even though he wouldn't admit it I could tell that Rocky was really enjoying himself. I tried to make him admit it in the car on the way home and all he would say is, "You know I don't like to be tricked." Bah, humbug, Rocky.

That's the extent of my excitement for the past month.

So Much To Do

First, here are a couple of sunsets from my patio:

I wish I would have taken an "After" photo of this one. The clouds were lit up for about 15 minutes and then all of a sudden it was like somebody shut the lights off and the clouds were all dark.

Well, August was a busy month for me. I did manage to take almost an entire week off work to attend a spinning workshop in Mt. Hood. I was looking so forward to it, partly because my friend Patty of Spor Farm (Shetland sheep) invited me to stay at her house in The Dalles where it is always hot in the summer and she has a pool. Well, it pretty much rained until the day before I left and by then the pool had cooled down.

I did get to have dinner with two of my brothers, Harley and John, before going out to Patty's. It was nice to see them.

Even though the swimming suit didn't get any use, I enjoyed myself at Patty's. She has the cutest little Shetland sheep, three llamas, two alpacas, two dogs, and lots of quail on her property. The day before I left Patty woke me up a little early so I could see and hear the elk. What a treat that was. This is the view from Patty's patio:

There is an orchard beyond the pool and back pasture, and then there is a creek between the orchard and the hills. The elk were down low on the hills. That evening after the workshop we watched the elk through binoculars for well over an hour. Patty estimated that there were 50-60 head.

The workshop we took was with Judith McKenzie; she is an amazing teacher and fascinating woman. I've been spinning for almost 20 years and I couldn't believe how much I learned in those four days with her; I didn't want it to end. I would say that she kicked up my spinning more than just a notch. For my spinning friends who read this, a workshop with Judith is a must! We learned the limits of our wheels and how to make our wheels work for us. I know my wheel had never had so many adjustments; I even used it's scotch tension for the first time and loved it. We made marled yarn, boucles, beaded yarn, fat yarn, thin yarn, worsted yarn, woolen yarn, frosted yarn, snub yarn; it was so much fun. I learned that most of what I knew was either wrong or only partly right; and she took the time to show us why on almost everything. It was one amazement after another for me. I can't wait to take another class with her.

Patty was kind enough to let me stay one more night so I could stop and visit with Harley and Nancy before heading home the next day. They took me to Nancy's store in downtown The Dalles, called Jitterbug. It is a cute little clothing store for women and children with a bridal shop section about to be open.

Now I've been home for a little over a week and don't feel like I've made any progress catching up. This three day weekend was full of activities. Saturday we went to the first Duck game of the year. We rode over in my in-laws' motor home. On the way we had to wait and watch a fight in the middle of an intersection. This big guy (about 6'4", 220#, about 40 yrs old) got mad when other cars wouldn't let him in the lane going to the parking so he pulls a cane with a metal head on it out of his car walks over where the the men start getting out of their cars because they know the guy is going to beat on their cars, and the guy starts swinging the cane as hard as he can at these guys' heads. Other men in nearby cars get out to help. One on them finally gets the cane away from him and he's still fighting as they try to take him to the ground and one the men whacked him in the head with the cane. They finally got him on the ground and he still tries kicking them in their crotches. Five or six men held him down while waiting for the police. An older couple were in his car that was blocking our lane of traffic and they finally moved the car out of the way. When we drove by we could see the pool of blood getting larger and larger under the guy's face. It was unbelievable, especially when you know that this happened around 3:00/3:15 and the game didn't start until 7:00; plenty of time to make the game.

We went onto our tailgate destination, set up, BBQ'd, ate, watched the ducks whomp on the Huskies, back to the tailgate, more BBQ, pack up, get home at about 12:30.

Sunday we went to Lloyd's 90th birthday party. Lloyd works at the shop, almost every day still, and is very much a part of the Dean family. He's a really nice man with a lot of knowledge. Rocky says he wishes he knew half of what Lloyd has forgotten. Happy Birthday, Lloyd.

Today ends this three day weekend with tomato canning. 40 pounds of tomatoes turned into 21 quarts today. Maybe I can rest next weekend.

Chicken of the Sea

This weekend is catch up from last weekend. Seems like we're catching up on more sleep than work though.

Last weekend started on Friday for us. Rocky left after work for the coast to go tuna fishing. I had a visitor that evening:

This little (about 1.5") bugger kept trying to come in through our glass door. I first heard it keep hitting the glass then I watched as s/he found the little hole at the threshold and made its way into our house. S/he stayed until I couldn't relax any more. S/he was put out on the patio never to be seen from again.

Saturday I got to stay home and work around the house in between calls from work.

Jill spent a good part of the day sun bathing:

Rocky made it home on Sunday with a huge cooler full of tuna and crabs. What we didn't eat of the crabs that day and the next ended up in the freezer. The tuna was a little more involved.

First, Rocky smoked it all for about an hour; this took two loads in the smoker. Then we started canning it. On Sunday we had two canners going at once and ran two full loads through them each. It takes about three and a half hours to process from the time you seal the lid on the canner until you can take the jars out. Don't forget that all those jars had to be washed, packed, and sealed first.

We had to take the day off work on Monday to run both canners two more times and this is what we ended up with:
17 half pints and 74 pints, plus four pints that didn't seal. Now, where to store it all.

Short on Time

This is a quickie since I don't seem to have much time these days.

There's never a dull moment in the Whitaker neighborhood where I work. there is a Dari Mart across the street from the shop and last Thursday if you were to drive by in the late morning you would have noticed crime scene tape and two policemen guarding a dead guy. Apparently he went in the Dari Mart that morning and not too long afterwards somebody noticed him face down dead between the newspaper recycle boxes and the phone booth. We think he was homeless man, but I haven't heard anymore on that or what killed him. We're guessing heart attack, stroke, or OD (we see a lot of drug deals and use behind the store). Whatever the cause, I'm just sorry that he had to die alone.

Nothing much to report from out little animal kingdom.

Work is getting smoother every day; I even had time to scrub the bathroom today. My first time to ever clean a urinal; thank you Playtex for rubber gloves.

Helpful Stuff

On may way home the other day I happened to notice this car in front of me with a bunch of those ribbon for a cause magnets on it. I don't normally pay attention to bumper stickers, but all the ribbons lined up caught my attention and then I noticed a cute little pudgy cartoon fly sticker that just had the web address: Flylady.net. I was so intrigued by this that when I got home the first thing that I did was log on to check it out.

It happens to be a website for those of us who feel overwhelmed when it comes to housework and hope every day that we don't get surprise visitors we should invite in. I'm trying it out; I know it can't hurt. I just thought I'd share it with you.

The other helpful tip I haven't tried, but it's easy and cheap enough. I received an email of this lady's testimonial about putting a penny on a bee sting for 15 minutes right after the sting. Apparently her doctor told her about this when she had a reaction to a sting. The next time she didn't swell up and get infected like before. Too bad I didn't know about this last night when Rocky got stung.

Hot Weekend

Last weekend was fun filled with the Black Sheep Gathering. I didn't get out of my booth very much, but it was fun just the same. I had a chance to catch up with fiber friends and snoop in everybody's bags to see what they were buying.

This weekend started out with shearing our goats; they are so much happier. The rest of it has been spent trying to do stuff inside out of the heat. I never heard what the high was yesterday, but I know it was mid to high 90's. Last night was kind of fun. I opened the windows in the bedroom and could really hear the thunder storm pass over. After every clap of thunder the wild turkeys would gobble. Then at about three a.m. I had to get up and close the windows thanks to a skunk.

Looking into the near future I am excited about an upcoming workshop I've signed up for. Judith McKenzie is teaching a four day spinning and dying workshop in Mount Hood this August and my friend Patty of Sporfarm (she raises shetland sheep) offered to let me stay with her since she's signed up for it as well. I can't wait. I've never taken a formal spinning class and I hear that Judith's workshops are the best.

Now to get through another grueling work week; fortunately this one has a holiday in it.

Happy Fourth of July!

Catching Up

I am way behind with the blog. I'm blaming Eugene Electric for that. Our bookkeeper quit right after our Hawaii trip and since business has been so slow we've decided not to replace her for now. I've been training our parts runner (who kind of reminds me of Mr. Cunningham from Happy Days) to work in the office. Jack told him he had to start wearing skirts.

I took a rug weaving class with Jason Collingwood at Fiber in the Forest and learned how to do this:

This isn't my work, I took this photo to demonstrate how a temple is used (the brown thing holding the edges even). I haven't photographed mine yet. I'm planning to weave the rest of the warp off after the Blacksheep Gathering next weekend; I'll turn it into a loom bench cushion.

Fiber in the Forest is so much fun. It is heald at Camp Myrtlewood in Myrtle Point, OR. The camp is beautiful, and people are nice, and the workshops are a blast. This is what the shibori/indigo class did:

And the carding class:

I forgot to get a photo of the felting class; their stuff was pretty amazing too.

This must have been after Fiber in the Forest because it was next in my camera. This little fawn was playing with our cat, Blue. This has happened several times this spring. All the fawns around here this year have that hair loss disease so we're concerned they may not make it through the winter.

Last weekend I went to the Northwest Regional Spinning Assoc. Conference at Willamette University in Salem. It was a lot of fun, but so exhausting. I took a drop spindling class. In the evenings the gym stays open until 11:00 and people sit around spinning. That is where I met these two cuties. This one is a new wheel called a Pocket Wheel. They are hand made by a man in Bellingham, WA. I fell in love with it and already placed my order.

And this is an antique. I didn't get a chance to talk to the owner so I don't know anything about it, I just thought it was interesting with the two wheels.

You can see from the above photo that this was in a spinning circle. The gym was full of these; I wish I would have thought to get a photo when everybody was at their wheels.

On Saturday night they had a fashion show. People paraded around the gym showing off their handspun garments. It is always fun to see what people create.

Now I get one weekend at home which I will spend trying to get more fiber ready for the Blacksheep Gathering (my favorite event of the year since I get to sleep in my own bed).