Road trip - part three

We awoke with a golden light coming through these windows - "What time is it?" asked The Shepherd,

I peered at the clock by my bedside - "7:10", I said.

Although unaccustomed to the freedom from barn duties that comes with vacation, he rolled over and went back to sleep! I was astonished.



Generally I bring my own pillows when we travel by car (or truck) - I like the comfort of my squishy pillow, what can I say? This time, I had the good sense to tuck my little down comforter into my suitcase. Glad I did, as I couldn't find any blankets for the bed. My sister swears they are in plastic bags in the closet but I decided to leave well enough alone - gave The Shepherd the fuzzy green twin size blanket and I had my comforter. It was on the "cool" side at night, so I was glad I had it.

These are the "cliffs" behind our house - unlike the areas that were scoured by the great floods, these giant chunks of rock were scooped out of the Moses Coulee by the glaciers and deposited randomly throughout the country side when the ice flows receded.








Checking out the route - just to be sure.

Honey - there aren't that many roads up here - I don't think we're going to get lost.

Windy, it was windy! - part two

Really windy - sounds like a jet plane windy.


















But not too windy for the deer - they are everywhere up there - these two were just calmly munching on some new wheat - they were making quick work of the crab apples in the yard a the ranch too.

On our visit home - part one

Mansfield, WA is the little town where I went to school when I was growing up. Our family's farm was about 7 or 8 miles west of town. For most of 12 years I rode the big yellow school bus with the other two dozen or so kids who lived out west of town.

We got groceries at the Mansfield Mercantile and hardware at the Mansfield Hardware Store. Sometimes, if it was open, we went to dinner at the Mansfield Cafe.

Funny - even after I was of "legal" age, I didn't feel like I belonged in the Town Tavern. According to my mom, it just wasn't a place where "nice girls" hung out.






The Fusion learns to be a "farm car" covered with dust from one end to the other!








The area Mansfield was settled in the late 1800-early 1900's - in 1907 my grandparents homesteaded the property that my sisters and I inherited from my parents. In 1909, the Great Northern Railroad finished their spur to the area bought a quarter section of land and set up streets and blocks - with sort of an "if you build it, they will come"attitude, the original town, which was a mile to the northeast picked up and moved to the new little city.

A couple of buildings on Main Street have burned in the past thirty years, but one vacant lot now has a new office - A Medical Clinic! Very cool - and necessary as the closest doctors office or hospital is 30-35 miles in any direction.

A group from the community has remodeled the old Post Office and turned it into a museum. I wish I had thought to ask our friend Doug if we could get in to see it - maybe next time. If you biggafy this picture (just click on it) you will see the big domed building at the foot of Main St. - that is the "new" school that was built in the mid 80's.

Like many small towns in Eastern Washington, grain elevators dominate the horizon.

"Last year, there were a total of thirty three farmers that delivered there crops to the Mansfield elevators. Annually, the elevators bring in nearly 1.7 million bushels of grain, the third largest intake in North Central Washington. The main grain harvested in the area, soft white wheat, is shipped around the world for production of pastries and noodles." (from the Mansfield website)

When he was alive, my father worked passionately for the marketing of our area's wheat, even making a trip to Japan and the Philippines as a member of the Washington Wheat Commission to drum up business for our wheat. I'd like to think that the ground work that he worked so hard for continues to benefit the farmers in our area.

Of course, every town has the rock or wall or some kind of landmark that the high school seniors traditionally paint with "their number" on one of the last nights of school. Ours is out east of town - a rock the size of a two story building - someplace on that rock is a little "70" painted by my class members - I was there, but it was darn dark so I don't remember where we put it....




And, we went to visit family - they mostly all reside in the cemetery now. I have always loved the headstone that marks the grave of my great grandfather.

Sorry mom and dad - It didn't occur to me to bring a trowel to cut away the dead grass around your stone - maybe next time.

On the way back from Yakima on the 13th of September we stopped at the Mt. Si Nursery in North Bend. It is a very sweet little nursery and we have stopped there before.

It was almost closing time (45 minutes to go, really)... The Shepherd was concerned that he wouldn't have enough time to look through everything.

I assured him that he could easily get into enough trouble in 45 minutes...




While he perused the beds loaded with exciting and wonderful plants, I sat in a nice shady spot and took in the view - how would you like to have this as the view from your "office" every day?

It was one of those magical warm days where there is just a little bit of a cool breeze that blows over your skin and cools it like a silk fan. Like the warm water that laps over you in a lake at the end of the summer.









Squash blossoms the color of sunshine.























Blue pottery pots, the color of the sky.















And see, he did indeed have time to find a special little plant. A little contorted locust to add to his bonsai collection. And it didn't even take him the whole 45 minutes.

Yes sir, yes sir, FIVE bags full!

Do you remember our road trip at the end of March to Gretchen's Wool Mill? We took seven fleeces - four from this year and three from last down for processing. True to her word, she called last week - in just a month, our fleeces were ready to pick up!





Luckily the weather was much better this time around - heavy rain in spots, but no rain at all once we got to Gretchen's place. Finished fleeces were inspected and duly loaded into the truck for the ride home.

Here they are - five bags full - (Anna Dee's & Regina's were combined)

All nicely wrapped in paper - this is Susie's from last year.

Click on the pictures to biggify so you can see the beautiful fibers!

I get to choose between Susie's fleece from last year and Gwennie's from this year - The Shepherd wants to have the other three made into sweater vests for himself. The one I don't choose will be our first offering for sale on the Washington Wool dot Net website!