Paws, hooves & tails

Since we couldn't go to the fair this year, we had our own Farmlympics. In the Paws cat-agory


is Sinda, in the black & white



and Neelix in the Ginger.












Scooter's hooves are so shiny, I wonder if he snuck into the beauty college and got his toes all spiffed up. These nice black flats belong to Gwendolyn















And in our last cat-agory and the tail end of the post, we have Neelix's beautiful striped tail, "showin' a little 'tude"

And two of our lovely ladies from out in the pasture, showing off their perfectly fluke shaped tails.






Thank you for attending the Marietta Farmlympics. We hope you had an enjoyable time. Please remember to vote for your favorites!

Doin' the Skagit - Part 2

The judge for the sheep show was a young woman named Amy Wolf. She is a handspinner and had obviously done her homework to learn the breed standards of the sheep she was judging. She gave a commentary about each breed with good reasons for her placements. Dave and Franna from EverRanch in Auburn started the show with their yearling rams.







We had a nice contingent of little fellows.

Sally Tibbets (in the flowered shirt on the right) from Sleepy Hollow farm in Granite Falls was the other breeder with sheep at the fair.


Notice the puzzled look on my face? This is where the batteries in my camera decided to take a nose dive - & I had just charged them, too. Donna's step father, Al took most of the rest of the pictures, although I was able to squeeze a couple more pictures out after the camera was turned off for a while - some reporter I make! (Thanks, also, to Franna & Donna for some of my content)

Two other Shetland Sheep breeders stopped by during the fair. Donna & Tom's neighbor, Alta was by on Saturday and our friend Nancy came down on Friday night.













Next were the ewe lambs - Donna & Tom's Amanda and Moni got first & second place.

The Shepherd is on the right in the dark green shirt, helping Donna & Tom show - they had 4 ewe lambs in this class. Moni, the little black lamb that John is leading is very pretty and I think he has his eye on her. She and Scooter would make very pretty babies with fantastic wool (and we might even get a spot or two)




Joyce Thomas, from Thistledown Farm in Edwall, WA helped out by showing Dave & Franna's yearling ewe. Joyce's granddaughter, Brianna also helped out, showing sheep as well. It was great to have Joyce join us - it's about 270 miles from her farm to Mt. Vernon, so it was a huge commitment for her to come. Hopefully next year she'll be back with some of the beautiful moorit sheep that she was telling us about.





In the lamb flock entries, the judge really liked Dave & Franna's triplets - two gulmogets and a katmoget -







Besides having the open judging by Amy, we held our own "NW Shetland Owners" group competition. While all the woolies were lined up outside the pens waiting to go out for the judging, we had our own judging and judged all the Shetlands at the show for Best Tail (Sally's Aggie got first, with D&F's Winter as runner up); Best Horns (T&D's Hemlock with a tie between Sally's Guinness and D&F's Buddy) & Best Fleece (a tie between D&F's Buddy & T&D's Amanda). Prize money, from NASSA & a donation from Eliz. Martin certainly helped to offset everyone's traveling expenses. It was eye opening to get to play "touchey/feeley with so many different styles of fleece (and I'm sure all those little sheepies were ready to say "Would you guys get your paws off our tails" (poor babies).



There were also a number of fleeces entered and having a handspinner as the judge was just the greatest. You could tell that she really liked Shetland wool! Right here, she's commenting to Donna about all her moorit sheep.

Congratulations go out to Dave & Franna for the Best Overall Fleece for a Finn lamb fleece and Reserve Best for one of their Shetland lamb fleeces.


I spent most of the morning demonstrating with my spinning wheel, so I didn't really go out and walk around at all (I'm kind of a "you seen one, you seen 'em all" in the fair department - this fair looks very much like the North Centeral Washington Fair that I spent my "grownin' up years" and my 4-H years going to in Waterville, WA.) - small, homey, a place to meet your friends and have the best corn dog you've eaten in years (mmmm, and the Shepherd put LOTS of mustard on it too) - but of course, no fair would be complete without the biggest steer in the countryside - this big guy's name is Ben and he is over 6 feet tall at the shoulder and is 11 years old. He lives here in Whatcom county. Now, that's a LOT of hamburger...

I think I could easily say that a good time was had by all! Hope to see everyone back next year!

Doin' the Skagit - Part 1

Yesterday, I mentioned that The Shepherd and I were going to visit the Skagit County Fair in Mt. Vernon, WA (about 35 miles south of here)today. In conjunction with the fair our NW Shetland Sheep Owners had our first NW Shetland Sheep show - It was a small but enthusiastic group - three farms showing and I did take my spinning wheel and some fleece to spin with - people were fascinated to see someone spinning (and I might have a lead on a drum carder!)

The Shepherd, with our Shetland friends Donna & Tom check out the judging going on early in the day



While Franna & Dave from EverRanch in Auburn do a little "pre-showring" grooming


















Donna's little ewe lamb, Moni, is not happy about this fair thing, not happy at all!









And I filled a bobbin full of yarn, spun while answering a MILLION questions about "Oh look honey, she's weaving"

Ah, no, I'm spinning. (OK, everyone be kind, this is only the fourth bobbin I've ever filled)

"OK, Where are we going now?"

For tomorrow? The show ring beckons - - -

What, more lilies?

I know I'm behind on stories about the kitties and the sheep - but I just had to show you this lily that (understandably) The Shepherd is very proud of. It is called Boogey Woogey - and is an orienpet like the lilies I showed you a week or so ago - and it is EIGHT FEET TALL (at least - JP is 6' tall and it's what, two feet above his head?) and it's not even staked! I don't know what keeps it standing upright - but I do know that the area where it is planted is fairly secluded so it wouldn't get blown down - and I also know that this area has been heavily mulched with sheep poop.

This is what the flower looks like close up.

I have a stem of this lily with four blossoms on my desk this week. Besides making our office incredibly fragrant, everyone (including myself) has been totally transfixed on it's beauty. If you were going to have a "yellow & white wedding" - this baby is your flower. It's just incredible.

Clicking on any of the photos will "biggify" them so you can see the detail of the colors and the spots. Isn't this one adorable?

We'll be back to our normally scheduled programming soon. The Shepherd and I are going to visit the Skagit County Fair in Mt. Vernon, WA (about 35 miles south of here) The NW Shetland Sheep Owners are having our first NW Shetland Sheep show - (we're not taking sheep - this year, anyhow) , but I am taking my spinning wheel and some fleece to spin with - people are always interested in seeing spinning. It should be fun - don't worry, I'll take lots of pictures.

Who Says Justice Doesn't have a Sense of Humor?

Or, who knows what you’ll learn when you are surfin’ the net - -

The Jockey Club is a private organization designated by Kentucky to track and approve names of race horses. (who'd a thought?) Without an approved name, a horse cannot race at a Kentucky track. When horse owner, Garrett Redmond wanted to name 4-year-old horse after "Sally Hemings", Thomas Jefferson's most famous slave and reputed lover – the Jockey Club (rightfully) said, “NO!” Their bylaws forbid horse owners from using names of famous or notorious people without special permission and the club's rules also say that "names considered in poor taste; or names that may be offensive to religious, political or ethnic groups" won't be approved.

So, following the path of common day actions, Mr. Redmond sued the Jockey Club, saying the denial had deprived him of constitutional rights. (OK, and what constitutional right would that be?)

Judge Alice Batchelder, writing for the three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, said Redmond has other options that may be approved by the Jockey Club, "To be sure, the First Amendment protects horse owners' rights to free speech, and we do not foreclose Mr. Redmond indiscriminately from asserting that right, but the right to free speech is not absolute in all contexts,"

Batchelder went on to write that because the Jockey Club is a private organization with power delegated by the state, it may restrict free speech so long as it doesn't discriminate against a specific viewpoint. (Go Alice!)

She also quoted Shakespeare's "What's in a name?" and cited the band America in rejecting Redmond's appeal. "In short, because he has spent three years insisting he has a constitutional right to name his horse 'Sally Hemings' and that no other name will do, Mr. Redmond now finds himself, like the songster of the 70s, having 'been through the desert on a horse with no name”. However, if he really wants to race or breed this horse in Kentucky, Mr. Redmond will have to come up with a name that complies with the Jockey Club's rules, Batchelder wrote. "A quick look at the Jockey Club's Registry confirms that 'Horse With No Name' is no longer available."
For the full article from Fox Sports Interactive Media, click here.

Relaxation, community & a riot (not THAT kind of riot)

Welcome to Three Beautiful Things Tuesday - finding three things that have given me pleasure this past week.

• Yesterday was "Seafair Sunday" in Seattle and the Lake Washington hydroplane races on TV (including the spectacular Blue Angels!). There was also a car race and a Mariner's game on. The shepherd took it easy and spent a lot of time napping in front of the TV.
• Kudos to the Lummi Tribe and all the volunteers for the success of the Paddle to Lummi 2007. The thousands of visitors saw the very best that our community had to offer and gave a new generation something to strive for.
• The nasturciums are just a riot of color - they bid me farewell in the morning and greet me at the end of the day. (click on the picture so you can see all the colors!)

  

A Visit to The Berry Farm

My oldest sister Wisten & her husband, Glenn, have a berry farm and plant nursery in southwest Washington.

Glenn's mom & dad moved to their farm in 1933. He helped them plant the original blueberry field beside their house in fall 1944/winter 1945; Can you believe that this field is still in production? Including the original field, they now have 25 acres in blueberries.

The season, over-all, extends from 4th July to mid Sept. A max-day's harvest might be 15,000 - 20,000 pounds! They used to harvest it all by "hand" pickers - people from all over the area would come to work for them in the summers, they actually ran a bus from the outlying area to bring pickers to the fields.

Including me - Well, I didn't ride the bus, I got to stay with Wisten & Glenn. It was terribly exciting for a young girl from a wheat farm - my first year must have been when I was about 12 or 13, because Chris (also known as Parker's daddy ) hadn't been born yet.

At that time, they still had a field of raspberries for commercial picking. But my tenure as a berry picker was pretty short - my row of raspberries ripened so fast behind me (ok, so I was pretttttyyy slooooowwwww) that the beginning of the row was ready to pick again before I finished the other end. (I'm sure you get the picture...) So Wisten found "other things" for me to do that summer - I helped around the house, etc. But, I continued to work summers for my sister through out high school and college - by that time, I helped take care of the boys and helped out in the retail shed.

Now days, due to state labor laws kids under the age of 12 are not allowed to pick and, in my opinion, (and this is purely editorial) the general lazyness of the American public (picking berries is hard, hot dusty work - you can make it pay if you work hard, but most people don't want to do that kind of work any more), they have begun to harvest most of their berries by machine, - that's what this contraption on the right is.













They center the row on the machine and the fingers shake the berries off into these tubs.




They actually have been using machines to harvest berries since the late '60's - working on the "belt" was one thing that I wasn't too bad at - how much trouble can you get into standing in one place picking green berries out of blue ones?

At that time the berries processed by machine were for the packing house - mostly frozen, I think -


Now, even their fresh market berries are processed by machine, then packed into the plastic "clam shell" packages that you see in the grocery store. They have "fresh market" business partner in the Seattle area and they sell a lot to customers off the farm. They had customers who would "make a day of it", driving over White's Pass from Yakima to pick up 15 or 20 pounds (or more) of berries - One of the most fun things for me was remembering these customers from year to year - (my true start in customer service!)


It was way too short a visit - less than an hour, because we had to head home - about a 4 hour drive - but "I have been thinking" (which the Shepherd says is a very dangerous thing) ever since that it would be fun to do a blog with JUST blueberry things on it - recipes - what ever I find (and there is a LOT about blueberries to be found) - so TA DA - Announcing my new fledgling blog!! Something Borrowed, Something Blueberry -
The "borrowed" part is that most of the recipes that I will post will be be from other sources - notated, of course - but I'd like to make it a really fun resource for anyone interested in blueberries - the "wonder" fruit - the newest thing I've read is that they help keep you from getting alzheimers disease -

So there you go - hope you enjoyed this brief visit to the farm and into my past - have a great weekend!

Blueberries - more later

Although these beautiful berries are from our bushes, last weekend we visited my sister & b-i-l in Mossyrock on their blueberry farm. I have a great story and more pictures for you, but no time to write it out tonight - so this is just a little teaser -

I'm also giving great thought to doing a blog of all blueberry recipes for her - I thought it sounded like fun! There are certainly some tasty recipes out there. We'll see how my time goes.

Paddle to Lummi

Our local native american tribe is the Lummi tribe - they have inhabited the area now known as Bellingham Bay for hundreds and hundreds of years. Probably the first white man to see them was Juan de Fuca, the Greek sailor who was traveling in the area under the Spanish flag in the late 1500's. The tribal reservation now occupies the local area known as Gooseberry Point. This picture was taken just a few miles from our home, looking back towards Bellingham from the point - with Mt. Baker in the background. I think this is one of the most scenic views in the county.

In 1989, in an effort to include the local costal indigenous peoples in the Washington Centenial events, the lower Puget Sound tribes organized a "Paddle to Seattle" event where tribes from all up and down the coast of Washington & British Columbia were invited to take place in a celebration much like the potlach of days gone by. This event was a success and the gatherings have been repeated up and down the coast over the past 17 years.

"Paddle to Lummi" is the 2007 Intertribal Canoe Journey, during which members of the Coast Salish tribes have traveled by canoe through Puget Sound to the Lummi Nation. They estimate between 7000 and 13,000 people will join in a traditional potlatch, or ceremony of giving, from July 30 to Aug. 4. Over 80 canoes arrived at the Lummi Stomish Grounds yesterday afternoon -

Not only has this event involved the local tribes, but the community as a whole has embraced it, many "non-natives" volunteering time and donating food and money to help the event be a success. It has also been a healing event for many of those who have participated in the canoe trips.

John & I drove out to the Point yesterday afternoon in hopes of seeing some of the canoes. I was only able to take these two pictures from the truck as we drove through - the area was heavily congested traffic wise (take your average county road and add, oh, 2-3000 cars, trucks & vans- not even counting the shuttle busses!) The atmosphere was wonderfully festive - crowded with the thousands of participants and locals who came to help celebrate this wonderful event. Even though John & I were not involved (except to donate to the food barrels at the grocery store) I am tremendously proud of this community for joining together to put on this event. There are more pictures taken by the local newspaper including video of the welcoming ceremonies. I hope everyone who attends this week has a fantastic time - it has already shown itself to be a huge success!

A Full Moon, a Summer's day Nap & Fogwash Soap

Hello my friends - it's Three Beautiful Things Tuesday!

• Glancing out the kitchen window last night, I saw the full moon coming up over the neighbor's trees. It was as big as a salad plate up in the sky.


• It was 68 degrees and sunny Monday when I went out for lunch. I found my favorite shady spot, ate my sandwich & took a short nap before I had to go back to work. The breeze that touched my cheek felt as cool and silken as lake water.


• Our friend Nancy went to the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon last month. She brought me back a little woolly toy sheep and a bar of "Fogwash Soap" - Citrus-Sea scent - a combination of orange, lemon grass and grapefruit - Their soaps are made with olive and cocoanut oils - they last a long time.

Random Thoughts for a Saturday -

It's really been a beautiful week and everything in the garden is growing & growing - the nasturciums are threatening to take over the driveway!





And how can you have a bad day when this (Mt. Baker) is what you see on your way to work (OK, pretend like that railroad crossing thingy is not there) - I've often wondered what the early settlers thought when they would come around a bend and "ta da" there is this huge mountain off in the distance. The natives called it Komo Kulshan .






And out in the pasture - Life imitates art -

One day last week I took my lunch down to the harbor - we live in a beautiful place to play and work.







The Port of Bellingham has done a fantastic job on this planting -it actually goes on for about 1/4 of a mile - It makes me want to throw a shovel in my little car and do a little "shopping" on the way home - I'm sure they wouldn't miss some of that crocosmia...

What a difference a year makes...

Grandnephew Parker & the Shepherd, Uncle John, July 2006 - he's almost one






Here's Parker, with his daddy last weekend at 22 months. He's getting to be a big boy!

By the way, remember these girls from last month - well check out what Leigh made last weekend! Is that not cute, or what! She is so talented, and I have learned a lot from her blog. If you are interested in fiber, check it out.

On cats ~

Last week when I posted my Three Beautiful Things for the week, my friend Little CatZee protested in her comment: "Hey! What about kitties! Kitties are beeyootiful fings!"

Well, CatZee - I couldn't agree with you more! So I have spent the entire week thinking of "beeyootiful fings" about my fur children - and it was hard to just come up with just three. In fact, I am finding it kind of fun, to spend the day looking for those three things that have made life a little better that day.

So here are my three favorite "beeyootiful fings" about Neelix and Sinda -

• It's been a long day at work, but when I pull into the driveway, one or both of you are waiting for me either on that rock out front, or come running around the corner of the house with a kind of "It's time you finally got home" look on your face.
  
• I sit down to watch the end of the Mariner's game with John, and Sinda curls up at my feet with her head resting on my toes.
  
• Neelix's loud PURRRRR as he walks through the house - (king of all he surveys) - he plops down in the middle of things, rolls onto his back and begins to snore. Could you get any more comfortable than that?

Some things never change...

They always seem to be going in the opposite direction than I am...

Smells like a tropical island here

Can you stand one more picture of our lilies?

John planted this stand of "orienpet" lilies a couple of years ago. I park my car only a few feet away from them. Tonight you could smell them all the way out to the gate (30-40 yards?). It was heavenly - & reminded me of being in Hawaii with it's wonderful fragrence of plumeria.
I think this one is called Caravan.


According to The Lily Garden in Vancouver, WA, The “Orienpets” are relatively new to the lily world, produced after years of efforts to combine the sublime beauty of the Oriental lilies with the more garden persistent, heat tolerant and colorful Trumpet and Aurelian hybrids."

I just love the way it smells -





Come just a little bit closer - can you smell it yet?

I'm a WHAT?

I think I'm entering into "Biddy-dom" - As in "You old Biddy" - -

Last week in the grocery store produce department, there was a dad with a passle of pre-teen boys - the dad, of course was shopping - the boys - they were checking out the Roma tomatoes - pick up one, squeeze it a little, pick up another, look seriously at the back of the store, like they wanted to see if they could pitch one back to the seafood department!

And it just popped out of my mouth: "You boys PUT THOSE TOMATOES DOWN! Nobody wants to buy tomatoes after you stand there and squeeze them!"

They looked a little shocked...who was this strange lady admonishing them - then guilty - by this time Dad was headed off to the deli - the offending parties skittered off behind him.

Is it just me? I seem to be less and less willing to stand by in cases of "bad behavior" The weekend before the 4th of July, the new neighbors were having a party. Their college-age son and his friends were lighting off M-80s (illegal fireworks in these parts - bought on our nearby Indian reservation). After our six hour trip home from my brother-in-law's funeral, we were in no mood for the BOOM, BOOOM, BOOM BOOOOM- besides that they were scaring the sheep. But you know what? Come to find out, these guys had been doing this all afternoon - not one neighbor had stepped in to ask them to stop - not the horsey people on the corner - not the llama lady across the street.

Well, we did - we walked over to their house and politely asked them to stop - which they did for a couple of hours, but when they started in again at a quater after ten, I called the sheriff - ordinarily they wouldn't have responded, but when I mentioned the fact that the neighbor had told me that they had bought the fireworks out on the res - that was good enough for the dispatcher and she sent out a deputy. I think they figured out my "no tolerance" policy...

So, where to from here? Is there a chain email that explains "how to be a biddy in ten steps or less" (send this to ten of your friends or biddy-dom will befall you) - Roget's Thesaurus lists the following synonyms for biddy: bag, battle-ax, beldam, crone, fishwife, fury, gorgon, harpy, harridan, Jezebel, Medusa, ogress, shrew, slattern, sorceress, termagant, virago, vixen, witch -those are kind of harsh -

Dictionary.com defines biddy as a fussbudget, esp. a fussy old woman. - not so bad, I think, or as an old friend of mine would say -"I resemble that remark"

"Mom, I don't think you're a fussbudget - in fact that's a funny word isn't it"

Why thank you Neelix - that's very nice of you to come to my defense - you can stop laughing now...