Tag Archive | trips

Oops… I have been slack again. Sorry!

It’s already April. My birthday is passed. I thought I had a post for that in the files for later but if so it seems to have disappeared. Oh well… But I had two parties this year! My Bunko to host is in March but only a week before my birthday. So I used the occasion to give myself a Surprise Birthday Party! I was a little nervous about how the 11 would take it but they all seemed to get a kick out of it and helped me eat my self-baked birthday cake and sang the traditional song to me while I blew out the single candle! I wanted to put all 84 on it but as the event was held at the Fire Hall I was afraid I might be arrested for arson!

My 2nd party was lunch with two friends at the Trailhead café. It was two days before my April 1 birthday since the café is not open full time yet. That was fun and I got a Chocolate Cherry torte with another candle on it and gifts, too! The best gift was lunch with friends, of course! And on my birthday, Hubbie made breakfast for me to start the day right. It was a lovely day, too. I hope I get another one next year.

Lately I seem to have mostly been dealing with business emails and teaching at fairs stuff and email program fixes so spending too much time on the computer. I have ignored all work related stuff the last couple of warm sunny days and have been out pruning and pulling weeds and trying to clean up the mess in my flower beds. This winter was hard of growing things! But there are daffodils and crocus blooming in the lawn. The snow last week pushed the daffies faces in the mud, as happens every spring about this time! Tradition, I guess you could call it, but they sprang right back up when the sun came out the same day and melted it all off again. The last puff of winter, I hope! We’ll still have frost but the white stuff should be staying Up Top now.

Himself is getting the garden ready. He does the heavy work out there. My tomatoes which I planted a good month too early need to go in the ground soon. They’ll have to be covered but I hope they’ll survive it. Other than that I am trying my hand at making Orange Marmalade. Never tried this before but I ended up with more oranges than we are likely to used before they start drying up. And I do like it so it seems a good idea. I hope it is!

It now has to set for 12-18 hours my Ball Blue Book says. Interesting.

As for weaving, I’ve been working on getting things ready for the classes I have signed up to teach. Several peg looms classes this year and a few others. Our first fiber fair this year is in Farmington, Utah. The Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair. We missed it last year but this year I will have two classes, Beginning Peg Loom Weaving and Beyond Plain Weave, a class for weavers who already know how to use the continuous weave looms. We’ll take a look at pattern weaves, colors, a bit about how to design your own patterns and some lace weaving, too.

The next fair is Fiber Fusion NW in Monroe, Washington. I’ll do the same two classes there since this is further from Farmington than most weavers want to travel, it’s not going to be a double for weavers. Then Lambtown and Oregon Flock and Fiber Fair in October. But between all this will be a bigger garden this year. The garden did not do well last year so I didn’t get much canning done. I don’t really look forward to canning in the hottest part of the year, which is when stuff gets ripe, of course, but I do like to have the pantry full come fall!

We stopped at the going-out-of-business sale at Joanne’s, of course, and while I was looking at potentially useful sale items he bought this rose for me. He says he went though them all to find the most real looking one. I guess he found it, as my friend thought it was real when she saw it the other day. Of course she was across the room from it, but still, it is a lovely rose. And a lovely thought from Himself!

I hope you are all enjoying some signs of Spring where you are! My Sis in Florida is moving into summer already! I’m not ready for summer yet, gotta work up to that but will be delighted to see Spring!

Meanwhile, keep your looms polished and your garden gloves dirty!

It’s summer time…. July

Jul26

Hot last week, not quite as hot this week, repeat… We’ve been going to as much as 107 one week down to 89 the next and back again so far this month. Last heat spell was not quite as hot, which is a good thing. But mostly we stay indoors when it gets extreme. Mornings and evenings become time for outside tasks. The garden is pretty sketchy this summer, What with the last start and the extreme weather early on, it didn’t get planted on time and some things just don’t like the temps, I guess and aren’t doing well. But we are eating zucchini now at least! lol My chard and kale wee among those that didn’t like conditions so I’m having to buy my greens this year. But the black berries are starting to ripen.

Been getting some weaving done and working in the shop. I have two classes at Lambtown and have been getting stuff done for those.

Invited Cousin Dan down for dinner last night. Pizza. But just before he arrived the oven which was preheating, started smoking, and we discovered something under the bottom, was afire! Flames coming up though the vents. It got a little exciting for a bit, but Cuz enjoyed the fun, too. Turned out Katt has not been doing his job! A mouse had been stealing from his dry food bowel and, for some reason, storing it in the oven, just under the burners where it proved to be quite flammable. And it hadn’t been there long as I baked bread 5 or 6 days before and it was fine. But we got that out and we ended up baking the pizza in the Silver Fox Cabin oven. Good thing it was not rented this week! But we had a nice dinner and visit in the end so… all’s well that ends well, as the bard said. A little excitement for the day, humm?

It was pretty good. Katt is heck on rubber snakes even if he does sleep though mouse raids.

My old peach tree has lost another branch so not going to have much of a crop from it this year, wither. it lost several last winter. It is reaching the end. I guess I’d better start looking for a replacement. I think I’ll try to find the same kind if I can find the name tag and identify it. it was a good producer for a long time in spite of spring weather, bloom time when it wants to rain or have a late freeze.

From August 2022.

Still missing Rosy. It just makes no sense that she should leave before me, being the youngest of us girls. I send her an email now and then but so far she hasn’t answered. It’s the pits.

We were just goofing off,

Heading into winter now…

Nov8

When I go back through my photos, looking for inspiration for this blog post I find the same thing all summer and it’s not weaving or yarn of much any kind. Garden, canning, veggies and fruits, even a few flowers and lately apples and pears and apples and apples and…

There’s more apples. These are the Romes, best after a bit of frost. The Hyde king as the earliest, good for eating and baking and making applesauce. The unknown from the neighbors tree are a good firm tart cooking apples but also tasty if you like a tart apple. There’s a few more what I call wild trees, that produce good apples. No telling their linage but they all produced magnificently this year! As did the pears. It’s the same with them. There are a couple we know are Bartletts but there are others that are older trees. The pears are good but they do produce stones, those hard little “rocks’ that form around a bruise or the core so their use is limited if you don’t care for grit in your pears! However, there are plenty of good ones so we mostly leave these for the bear and whoever else likes a sweet fruit.

I could have posted more baskets of green beans, they were another prolific producer this summer. Along with cucumbers! Way more than we could use. I dried some and added them to the mix. Rehydrated and added to soup or a scramble you can’t tell them from anything else. I dehydrated most everything that grew in the garden this year. I put 11 quarts of dried Veggies in the pantry a couple weeks ago. The garden is pretty much gone now. There are still carrots and the celery plants Sis brought me are still looking happy. They haven’t really made stalks as we think of them, but lots of tops which have a good celery flavor. I’ll dry some of that, too. It’ll serve as parsley if nothing else!

But there has been yarn happening. This spring there was a happy class of beginning weavers making dish cloths over in Farmington, Utah, and five weavers joined me at Lambtown in Dixon Ca in October to weave Tartans. That was interesting and fun as well. The skirt is a project of mine. Not entirely successful, still not finished, I just have to give a little more thought to it! The scarf is more successful and a lot easier project! The samples shown from the class are family tartans the weavers wanted to copy. It’s challenging to take a floor loom woven tartan pattern and translate it into diagonal continuous strand weaving, but these ladies were doing a good job of it. I’ve recently heard from one who is still working on her project. I hope they all are!

The fiber fairs are over for this year. We’re looking at next year, thinking about adding one or two. Himself wants to “take a trip” in the spring. He’s exploring via Google Earth to find the interesting places to go within our reach. Our reach has a time frame as we do have stuff to do here as well. It would be interesting, I think, to be one of those vagabonds who live in their RV and just go from place to place. But not in the present 5th wheel! We’d need a larger and roomier ‘home’. And even the ‘previously loved’ ones are pretty pricey, not to mention Big. We need a Tesseract! But it’s not practical, anyway. We have to be here to make looms, I don’t see being able to take the shop with us! lol And Cat wouldn’t like it. He likes his outdoor time which he wouldn’t get on the road. So we’ll take a week or so and then come back and take care of the garden and the rental cabin and the shop, and get ready for the next fiber fairs! And I might submit to magazines again, maybe, that takes up a lot of time.

But meantime, we’re heading into winter. What that will be like is anybody’s guess. The weather/climate experts are so far covering both sides! I love it. You might be cold and wet or you might be warm and dry! I think I could have predicted that! But hey, they are trying to predict nature so I guess we have to give them a break. They have fancier equipment to work with now days but Grampa’s arthritic knee was probably as accurate at predicting. But whatever it is, we’re ready. Wood shed and pantry well stocked. What else do you need?! I hope you have a lovely cosy one whether warm or cold! i’m looking forward to some snow… but not before Christmas!

Must be fall, the poison oak is turning red!

Sep14

And while the bush beans are about done, the pole beans are just hitting their stride! I’ve already canned around 120 pints. Now I’m bagging them to take to the local Food program, along with some cucumbers which are also turning them out. And he just picked 4 lugs of pears and says that not all on that tree and there are two more trees! lol This is kind of funny in a way as in the past few years we were lucky to get 6 pears off the three! But I have pears in the dehydrator now and will be canning pears and making pear butter. They are ripening rapidly. I had two for breakfast. Delish, I have to admit. I just wish canned pears were as tasty as fresh.

And just out of curiosity, I looked up the nutrition comparison between apples and pears. It appears they are a lot alike but pears seen to have just a bit of an edge. They have more fiber and only just a few grams more sugar. I always thought of pears having a lot more sugar but at least the ones they tested did not seem to. These are Bartletts that Grandfather planted many years ago. But speaking of apples… They are about ready to pick, too. I want them to be ripe but we have to get there before the bear does! I’m surprised they haven’t hit the pears yet. Maybe because this has been such a productive year, they are finding plenty of food elsewhere. I hope so!

One of 4 lugs I have to deal with!

Other than that I am working on my class stuff for Lamb Town next month. Took Cat to the vet so get him the rest of his shots so he could spend a week or two in the Pet Motel while we attend the last two shows of the year. If you are in the area we’ll be at Lamb Town in Dixon, CA. and also the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Albany, Oregon. I had intended to let him just live outside as he’s used to doing but there is rumor of a lion in the village so I guess that wouldn’t be fair. He is pretty good at hiding in the snow but stands out pretty good in green grass. And I think that’s probably true even if you only see in black and white as I understand some/most animals do. He’s not going to like it but I doubt he’d like going to “dinner” with the lion, either!

Speaking of Cat, he was getting bored with his toys so I got the Cat Burglar out. It was a favorite of past critters and was a hit with Cat, too. He went from his pink Tribble to the cat burglar and had a great time! The stuffed squirrels that you can see under the dining table have lost their place for awhile!

So meantime I am trying to keep Sis cheered up after her knee surgery. It isn’t much fun for the first couple days. I haven’t heard yet this morning and am hoping that means she’s getting some good Zzzz’s. Mine is still working and hope it will continue doing so. I have been able to lose a few pounds this month which ought to help it some.

Okay, I guess I’d better get back at it. Hope your September is not too hot or too wet! It’s pretty nice here in the Trinity Alps!

Yarn fun!

Jul14

Well… Sis is on her way home after a couple of fun days. I don’t count the day she arrived or left as they weren’t full days and today was not really all that much fun waving good bye! But on a brighter note, we are already thinking of the next time! That will be at her place.

But did we play?! You betcha! There’s more but she took a bunch home with her, too, and , as usual, I got so involved I forgot the camera! That’s almost unheard of in these days of cell phones, huh? I guess it comes from not having one of those little devices! But now I Have Ideas! It’s going to be more fun playing with my new colors. I’m thinking of making Art with those paper towels we dribbled tests on! lol

And Sis sent a photo of her part of the pretties! All hers is handspun. Most of mine is commercial.

Dh is busy bringing in the early fruits of the summer squash. So it looks like I’ll be getting the dehydrator ready a little sooner than I figured. Everything else is starting to bloom so it won’t be long. I see some fruits on the winter squash and fancy pumpkins. The green beans, the peppers, the okra… the peas are putting on another go just in time for the 100+ summer heat. Off we go.

So now its back to everyday stuff and staying cool. It looks like the extreme heat is going to be fairly wide spread so I hope you can all manage to stay cool. Reasonably so at least! And spend your in-door time with your looms!

Hazel

April in Trinity

Apr18

It’s been beautifully sunny and warm this last week. The “glacier” on front of my kitchen is disappearing rapidly, bulbs coming up and blooming, trees starting to bud, birds and animals coming out of hiding! This morning at 28 degrees there was new snow on the deck! Not much, but just April making sure we know it’s not May yet! But the sun is up again and that white is melting rapidly.

A crocus, reluctant to open in the frosty lawn and one of the first primroses blooming under a budding mini rose.

We are getting ready to leave for the Great Basin Fiber Arts fair in Utah next week. In spite of all that has come together to make this as difficult as possible I am actually looking forward to going. The latest disaster, in case I haven’t mentioned it, is his truck. The one that pulls the 5th wheel, is in the shop. It’s brain dead. It’s computer died and has had to be sent off to a company in New York that rebuilds/programs these units. We were told a month. I didn’t want to disappoint weavers there who’ve signed up for my classes so we’ve rented a U-Haul van and an airBnB and are going anyway. It is going to be an interesting trip!

I haven’t gotten a lot of weaving done this month, most has been more mundane stuff but things that needed to be done. I did work on some rectangular stuff, nothing finished or ready to be shown. And made a couple scrubbies for the house. Stuff like that. Did I mention the Cat?

I must have. I still haven’t been able to find his family or anyone who can give him a home. He seems to be happy asking to be let out when he needs to answer nature. That’s fine as we really have no place to keep a littler box. We have been planning to take him to the shelter in Weaverville if I cannot find another home for him. At my age I really don’t need a cat under foot, and he is really good at the ankle twining cat thing! But it looks like we may end up keeping him after all. Randy talked to the temporary animal control person and was told that they are at capacity for cats and can’t take anymore. I’m not going to dump him or let him starve. He’s a very loving guy, also quite handsome and well mannered. He’s also a long haired white cat. So far in this cold weather, he has not been shedding but that’s one thing my last white cat did in abundance, I still find her “angora” on my black coat and stuff like that! But we’ll see.

We’re never going to be Vegans but I’ve been trying to be less carnivorous. It’s much easier for me than it is for Himself but he rarely complains. He did comment on an article he read saying people need to eat less red meat, saying, “That’s not a problem around here.” I just agreed! lol It’ll be easier once the garden gets going again and we have lots of fresh veggies. Winter is hard since produce is limited and the grocery store is an 80 mile round trip. I can as much as we have for it in the summer but it’s starting to run our by this time of year. We’ve planted onions and peas. He’s says he had to replant some of the onions. I think it’s the jays who pull them up. Everybody is looking for fresh greens this time of year, he put wire over the pea row, just in case!

Well, looks like I’ve been a bit chatty this morning so it’s time to say Have a Nice Day! and get to work on the days chores! Hope you’re seeing signs of spring where you are!

February again…

Feb18

But don’t worry, it’s not spring yet! More snow in the forecast on Tuesday and through the week it sounds like. I’m okay with that. We have gotten quite a bit of precip this winter but are still not caught up with the last dozen or more years of drought. Garden started to thaw a bit this week with the highs in the upper 40’s but there’s still plenty of time for that , too.

I’ve done little yarn things this winter, knitted myself a scrap vest. This is all the scraps and snippets saved from projects over the last decade, probably. Tied together in an overhand knot. Will that hold? Ask me in a few years of wearing it!

And played with a few weaving techniques, that’s about it. Just did this one yesterday. From a photo posted on the pin loom facebook group.

Randy is planning our trip to Utah next month to take part in the Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair, Friday April 28 and Saturday April 29
The Legacy Event Center – Farmington, Utah. I’ll be teaching a basic class on the 4 inch Multi loom, we’ll make a little needle book to learn plain weave and a texture pattern or two. The other class is the dishcloth class on the 10.5″ Quit Weaver Square. We’ll start with plain weave and see how far we get. The class schedule hasn’t been posted yet but should be soon–keep checking!

We’ll be at the Black Sheep Gathering, June 23, 24, & 25 and the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, October 14 & 15. Both in Albany, OR. I think we’ll also be at Lambtown in Dixon, CA, Oct 7 & 8. We’re also looking at Fiber Fusion Northwest in Monroe, Washington. June 4 & 5. Maybe. Sounds like a lot, beginning to feel like a lot as well. I think I’m getting old as these affairs are a lot more stressful than they used to be. I suppose it’s good for me. At least that’s what Himself keeps telling! lol

Did I mention that we can almost see the lake again? Yes, indeed, it has been coming up rapidly this winter. Authorities warn us not to expect it to fill this spring, tho, Partly it appears, because they have other uses for the water up here. I don’t mind sharing but it would be nice if we had some lake. Our local businesses mostly rely on that body of water to draw the tourists that they rely on to stay in business. We’ve lost a few already who weren’t able to tough it out. That’s rough on us all.

Way in the back, that thin line of blue is the lake. The rock piles (a remnant of the mining days) show the river wending its way to join that pool. This is the view across the Lake(bottom) from Trinity Center where we had tp go last month to get internet and cell service from the Verizon tower there.

And my little Fox friend is still coming for dinner each evening. He doesn’t get much, I want him to still hunt but while the snow was still frozen on the ground hunting was difficult and I wanted to keep him around. He’s my best mouser!

I guess that’s all for now. I hope it’s not too Winter where ever you are. Spring isn’t far and we can all be outdoors grubbing in the dirt again!

Carrots & Radishes

Happy New Year!

Jan1

I do hope you all have a safe and comfortable start to a prosperous and reasonably happy 2020! A little verse we should keep in mind.

But now is the time for Resolutions! Right? Like maybe changing a few, well, shall we lay less desirable habits? Like being a little more Organized. I know that it is not literally a 4 letter word, but has been pretty much in that category for me for most of my life. Looking for a loom this morning, I found this stuff in the basket by my chair. All but the jar of Ricolas, the new Territorial seed catalog & His shoes and newspapers. Needless to say, the loom was not in there! Not in my loom case, either. So I guess I’ll start this morning putting all this in it’s proper place. If I can find that place. Trouble is they are not projects., just experiments. I think he gave me a new shoe box, I suppose I can label that Weaving Experiments. Then that leaves me to find a place to store the box. Hopefully where I can find it again when I need it. Like I apparently did not do with the missing loom!

Ah well, I guess the other fun thing I get to do on new years Day, is bills. Oh well, it’s my 1st of the month job. He does the taxes and is a great wood worker but he really sucks at financial matters beyond that. We all have out strong points and he is Very Organized. It’s rare that he can’t find something no matter how long ago he had it. I, on the other hand, have to rely on luck when hunting something.

But there you go. I think the weather wizards are using the same system for forecasting the weather. And Mother Nature is using a roulette wheel to decide! We go from a huge surprise snowstorm right before thanksgiving, I mean nearly 4 foot, to rain ever since! Temperatures have run from 14 degrees F to nearly 70! And it’s raining this morning and 38 degrees on Jan 1. I don’t even want to think about Australia while I am whining about our weather. I would happily send them our rain and the foot of snow that’s left if I could.

Well, on the brighter side, trying to heed the advice picture I posted above, we are looking forward to adding a new loom to our line up this year. It is our 20th year in the loom business! It’s has been an interesting 20 years! We’ve met some wonderful people and done more traveling that we ever thought we’d do. It’s been fun for the most part and we’ve both learned a lot! Our only disappointment is not being able to interest the kids in the business. Well, they have their own lives, our parents were not delighted with our choices, either, but we all manage to make it work to our best comfort. Anyway, keep an eye out for our anniversary announcement sometime later this year!

And I hope your year is starting off the way you wanted it to! Best Wishes!

Hazel & Himself

Just the two of us!

Today blogging lesson…Street

May7

Well, up here in the mountains street & road are pretty much the same thing. It can be long stretches with on one else in sight or it can be long lines of vehicles playing follow the leader.

Last show trip of the year!

Oct3

Well, the show are fun and we meet a lot of nice people but I am rather glad to be home for awhile. We’re getting our first rain of the Autumn and there will soon be a frosty morning greeting us. Good time for sitting by the fire and weaving!

Here’s a few pictures from our trip.

Hitchhiker doll Merida had to pose beside a Redwood like any tourist!

And she got her portrait taken with the looms at the CWFF in Boonville. She’s wearing the dress I wove for her, my version of a Celtic design for this Scottish princess.

And naturally she would want to be included in the picture at Cape Blanko, in Oregon on our way up to OFFF in Canby. Here she is with Randy and Stella, watching the whales spouting around the point from the lighthouse.

At OFFF a weaver who was enjoying our looms brought us this bouquet of the Dalias she grew herself to honor our booth! Thank you, Sara! They lasted all the way home, brightening the camper, too!

After the shows we went a little further north to Visit Mt Rainier Nat’l Park, which we had not been to before. The first day was clear and sunny and gave us some wonderful pictures. The next day the clouds settled atop the mountain and it could not be seen. But the park was still beautiful with the fall colors seeming to stand out even more in the fog.

Then we were heading south toward home. But we still had our Tour Guides along the way! 😉

And almost home we saw our ‘local’ volcano, Mt Shasta, wearing her fuzzy winter bonnet! And the wind was blowing up the dust along the way.

So here we are, at home, enjoying the rain, trying to catch up on orders and planning our trip to Medford to stock up for winter. Randy is working in the wood shed as well as the shop and I am weaving on a couple projects in the evenings while the game is on.

Go Giants!

Hazel Rose

My Life in the Country