Christmas morning and it’s snowing again. Just in case it wasn’t already white enough? Around 8″ and still falling heavily. Okay, Santa! Enough is enough already! lol Hope you are warm and cozy where ever you are!
Archives
Yes, indeed. A LOT more like Chistmas!
Somewhere between 3 and 4 foot of snowfall. This one is just starting to build up. And 60+ hours without power. But we have all the necessities.. water, heat, food, even light via Colman Lantern. A generator to keep the freezers and fridge cold. It’s not as much fun as it used to be but we survive! lol
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…..
Had our first snow and the second one is on the way. Maybe. Yesterday it was three feet by Friday, today it’s 10″ and it might actually be rain. By tomorrow it’ll probably be Indian summer! lol Well, the weather folk keep telling us that forecasting is better than it used to be but still not an exact science. But you know what? I am okay with a lesser amount of snow. A little white for Christmas, enough for kids to sled or build a snow person and then it melts and goes away… that’s fine with me.
The trial is over, no more driving to town every day. The Christmas sale is over so no more frantic packaging in order to get orders to people in time for the Big Day. Now it’s time to get ready for a trip to Randy’s family. That’s going to depend a lot of the forecasted or not forecasted snow storm mentioned above. But I admit to looking forward to January and having little to do. Can that be?! lol
I hope you and your family have a very Happy Christmas and New Year!
‘Tis the Season to be….
…Jolly well overly busy! The fourth week on the jury and now we have an added 2 1/2 hours to our day. That means I leave here at 7 am and hope to get home by nine pm. But we are still working hard to get your loom orders on the way to you!
Just wanted to reassure you who might be waiting. Randy has been spending his time in the shop and I’ve been out there evenings and weekends, too. We’ll get it done and want to thank you all for your patience!
Meantime, there hasn’t been one snowflake! We’re due some rain later this week, the NOAA people tell us, and they did mention a snow level of 4000′ which is as low as it’s been so far, mostly over 6000′. We sometimes get a little wet snow here when they call for 4000′ tho we are are at 2500′. Our little valley is a cold one. I would like a bit of snow before Christmas. Hate driving in it but the first snow is so pretty and makes it feel more like Christmas, don’t you think?
Hope you are having fun this December and staying warm and safe. If you’ve placed an order… it is coming!
More trip
Cori was getting pretty bored with riding and staying in camps where she wasn’t allowed out without a leash. She did get some runs and some tennis ball chasing, but I think she’s happy to be home again.,
If you know what this plant is I hope you will post! I love this giant (at least a yard across these leaves!) and would be willing to try it here, tho it might want a wetter climate that we could offer it. This one was in Tillamook, Oregon in the camp across the street from the Tillamook cheese factory which we visited.
This appears to be the fruit or flowers of the plant.
I think this was taken in Port Angeles, WA. Looking across the bay you can see Canada. Without passports, which we never got around to getting, this is as close was we’re going to get.
The real Pacific Ocean at last! I love those crashing waves! It’s cold and there’s bound to be an undertow
but I can watch and listen for hours!
A gull watching for ‘groceries’ to be washed in. He was running back and forth with the waves, staying just out of the water.
Some pretty flotsum.
Those slug-like shapes on the rocks which were waaay below us, are sea lions, napping on the rocks and occasionally quarreling over the best spots. Just ignore the old flower head in front.
Here are some more lions. They were just ‘going with the flow’ of the tide, laying in a group in the water. I guess if you spend your life in the water this is a comfortable way to take a nap! lol
And the one napping elk we saw. This is the last Wild life photo, too. After this we turned inland and headed home.
North to Washington… and back
We’re home again. It was a nice trip tho parts were less enjoyable than others. We spent most of the first day visiting with Les Schwab. In case you aren’t familiar with that gentleman, he sells tires. He sold us 6 that day. Two for the truck which we had planned to buy and 4 for the 5th wheel, which we had planned to put off until winter. They had other plans! lol But we had no tire worries for the rest of the trip, which was good as parts of highway 101 would have been a test of an old tire!
But we got to Monroe and the Fiber Fusion North West event and tho we enjoyed the company, the sale was pretty much a bust and I doubt we’ll return again. We left there and headed for Seattle where we visited the American Girl Store and REI and both of us spent our allowance! lol
Then we headed west to the Olympic Peninsula, a part of the country we had not visited before. The weather, of course, decided to be wet and rainy but we enjoyed it anyway. We road the ferry, this was a first for me, and saw the rain forest, shipping, viewed Canada across the bay, and finally down into Oregon and the Real Pacific Ocean. I love watching the waves. Once we got into California again the skies cleared up and we got to walk on the beach once before we headed inland and home. Here’s some trip pictures.
Our booth at the fiber fair. 
A view of the volcano of Mt. St. Helens in Washington. It blew ion 1988, I think.
Randy standing the the bow of the ferry. Not exactly a classic movie shot but we didn’t sink, either, so that’s okay with me! lol
Here’s the truck and trailer parked on the ferry.
Looking back as we left the ferry. We’re on the islands, now. Next to get off this island was the ‘floating’ bridge.
Most of tie trip was foggy or raining but it was still interesting and Very Green. I did not get a picture of the looong green tunnels between the fir hedges. Thousands of trees of the same size jammed together in large plantations.
The rain forest was even wetter and most of the trees were covered in long grey green or yellow green moss ‘beards’ like these. Too wet for man or animal but there were lost of these, including, they said, a large heard of elk.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition was not thrilled with this camp on the coast of Washington. I think they got there in about the same time of year as we did when they named this spot. lol
Well, it looks like I have jammed things up so will post the rest a bit later. The sun did come out as we got south so they pics will be a bit cheerier!
Rain?
Our promised rain… well, they said 60% chance…. turned out to be 40% that it wouldn’t. Not a drop. Very disappointing as we really do need it and our rain is very late this year. This storm all went north of us it looks like, tho we did have our first little fire last evening. I’m going to have to turn the water back in the garden. But it’s been cool enough nights that all but the Kale and the other few cool weather plants have done. I picked the last of things yesterday. There are still quite a few tomatoes that I’m hoping will at least show a little color before frost so that they can ripen indoors. A late cold spring and a long cool dry fall do not make for good gardening. But here’s yesterdays harvest. The little green melon would have been a cantaloupe but the vine died so it was only starting to show some orange. Bummer. The apples are windfall, those on the tree are better after frost.
We are getting ready to leave for the next show. It’s near Seattle, the Northwest Fiber Fusion, on Oct 20-21, in Winston at the fairground. If you are in the area do come by and see us. And Randy wants to visit Grizzly Tools, which is in the area, so I get to go to the American Girl Doll Store! I’ve never been to one so I am excited. I am going to take Addy and see if they can do something about her hair in the salon, there. Meantime, I made a couple Halloween outfits for them. The knitted Sweater is a pattern from a Ravelry knitter, Jacqueline Gibb. The woven one is mine, ‘stealing’ her Boo idea, but Kanani doesn’t need a heavy sweater in Hawaii, after all! Hope your autumn is going as it should!
Back From OFFF
We had a great time at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival this year. The weather behaved and was just perfect, sunny and warm but not too hot. Lots of people came to enjoy the activities. We met and made new weavers and met a lot of weavers from years past. It was a very nice weekend. 
This picture shows a very new weaver! She’s just 6 years old. She told me that she already knows how to crochet so it is not surprising that she caught right on to weaving as well. She finished her little square here and Mom bought her her own loom. I am sure it will not be long before she has many projects to share. She went off happily to find yarn!
And here’s little Hazel Rose. She’s not so little any more, she now 3 years old, but as pretty as ever. We met another young Hazel there, too, but I did not get her picture.
And then a large group came by. Not all of these people came into the booth at once, of course! They are refugees from Burma and several of them were very interested in the looms and this kind of weaving. They are all, or most all, weavers themselves and were wearing lovely examples of their weaving skills, but found this kind of weaving new to them. A small group of them came in and tried their hand at weaving the Quilt Weaver square. I gave them a copy of my book and I was asked to sign it. First time I’ve been asked for my autograph! lol We enjoyed a nice long visit.
We also had a brief visit with Hazel Rose, who is now three years old. Mom took a photo, which I hope she will share with me. Hazel was in a hurry to get to the animal barn and see the interesting stuff so I didn’t think of my own camera until it was too late! lol And we got to visit with friends from Hamilton, Montana, who are at OFFF every year with their lovely yarns and fleeces. We hope to be visiting them next spring at their Big Sky show. But now we are going to be busy people as we have just barely a month before we are to be in Monroe, Washington for the Fiber Fusion fair up there. We have a lot of looms to replace in stock.
And don’t forget that if you are within reach of Grants Pass, Oregon in November I’ll be having a class there at Fiber Mania. Sign up now. I think it will be a lot of fun.
Home again… for a bit
We had a great time in Arcata at the Natural Fiber Fair but I came home with a ‘gift’ from someone. Sore throat, coff, head ache… Not bad, but certainly not good. I’m sure I’ll be over it soon. Meantime, I am working on projects as usual.
And the tomatoes are getting ripe at last. I think I have an orange one, too. These are heirloom Oxheart. They average almost a pound a piece & are very tasty. There’s also one early girl, a roma type, and some cherries.
This is the basket I made for Momma to pick her asparagus in. It’s long a narrow, I used willow and our native blackberry vines.
Wishing everyone safe from fire and storm.
Busy Month for shows!
I’m taking the cats to the pet motel tomorrow and getting the dog washed. We head out Friday to Natural Fiber Fair in Arcata to join in the fun there for our first time. This fair has been going on for 22 years but it’s the first time we’ve been part of it. I am looking forward to it. And it’s on the coast, which will be fun, too. as the weather is perfect!
The end of the month is the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival and we’ll be OFFF to it in a couple more weeks. Today on American Girl Knitters on Ravelry we discussed a Weave ALong to be tentatively set for January/February. that will be fun , too. We’ll weave a doll dress, of course!
Speaking of dolls… I got a new one today. She’s an American Girl, too. An older one, no longer made by Pleasant Company. I knew she was coming in just her undies so i found some patterns from fellow dollers and had some waiting for her. Now that she’s here for me to fit I can start weaving her wardrobe, too! Meet Skyler! She’s having a bad hair day just out of the box but is in great shape elsewhere. She even stands up. her mini skirt is just a tad too mini but the sweater fits just fine.
Hazel Rose 