Road Trip in the Fusion

Are there images that you have so fixed in your mind that you could describe them to anyone at a moment's notice?

This is one of those images for me - "home" - or as I've talked about it before "The Ranch" - where I grew up - the only other place that I have lived besides Bellingham - and that was for the first 18 years of my life.

Out of this writing will come a few more - a few book reports - stories of sisters - and stories of memories - but I have to do my church newsletter first, so I hope you'll stop back in a week or so to see what I have to say.

This picture of The Shepherd and The Blueberry Farmer (my B-I-L) was taken about two years ago on the front porch of the house where my dad was born. There are actually two houses hiding behind all the trees and greenery in the picture above - this is the house on the left hand side of the picture. We have that little house fixed up with beds, full kitchen, etc. We just - after thirty or so years - have purchased an "apartment sized" refrigerator - an upgrade from the little dorm room sized one that we had in the kitchen that would only hold enough food for one or two people for one or two days (now we actually have a REAL freezer!) - Something that was so simple we don't know why we didn't do it years ago.

If you notice in the picture above, there are two REALLY big steps and not a very big area to stand while you are fixing to open the door. Plus the area in front of it was a cement pad that, over the years had broken and heaved up - a very dangerous place to walk -

This past summer my nephews, our farmer (& good friend) Doug and my B-I-L took a jackhammer and a tractor and took out all the old bad cement and we had new cement poured and the boys build these wonderful new steps (not quite finished - face boards on the top two steps and the hand rails still need to be put up - but, again, something that was so simple, we wonder why we didn't do it years ago.


Here is a side view - an area just waiting for some patio furniture, don't you think?












If you scroll back up to the very first picture you will see this tree on the very far right hand sided of the landscape. The tree is planted on a "scab patch" about 200 or so yards in front of the house I grew up in. Farmer Doug planted it in memory of my dad about 30 years ago -

But, when I was growing up, there was no tree there - just the truck sized rock that it hides.














My younger sister and I would spend hours climbing up and around this rock - it would be a sailing ship one day - a classroom the next.

Thinking about it now, it is funny that we spent so much time out on that rock - there were no wildflowers to pick and bring back to our mom - just the sound of the wind and the buzzing of the flies and bees to be heard - and our imaginations gone wild with what adventure that we'd face next up on our big rock.







The Shepherd is checking the map and getting ready for our Saturday trip to Dry Falls State Park - one of my favorite places in the world.












One road trip and you already need a bath! Poor little car.

Round and round she goes and where she stops...

A story that needs no words..........
























New fashioned wheels
































Old fashioned way to spin - true evidence of first civilizations - they had spindles - some only as simple as a well shaped rock and a really good stick. With the string they made they could make rope, thread to tie together animal skins for clothing or shelter.




































































This is going to make one pretty pair of socks.












Denise's new wheel is an antique she purchased this past week. Isn't it a beauty? With a few modifications she has planned, she will have a really nice wheel.

Guess what I'm going to do?

It's a beauty -

Last summer I told you about the Sheep to Shawl that we did at the Skagit Highland Games - Here is the finished project. It really is beautiful.

One of our members went in with John & I to donate a Shetland fleece that was to have been used for this project, (ie. Shetland fleece for a Scottish Highland game project) but the warp that they came up with clearly would not have looked good with the brown fleece that we donated.

The group made plans to use our fleece for the Sheep to Shawl that we did at the NW Washington Fair.







And here is the lovely Deb modeling the finished product from S-2-S from the fair.
















Wow - fall colors really look good on her, don't they? (click on this close up to biggafy it - it kind of takes your breath away) The reds, blues and golden look really great with Taylor's brown fleece.

We are selling raffle tickets to raise money for our guild treasury. I may have to buy a few more - but you know what they say about raffles - it only takes one ticket to win.

Spinning on the Sidewalk

Our spinner guild met today and instead of our regular place at Nancy's Farm, we met down town B'ham at NW Handspun Yarns where we set up our wheels (or whatever) on the sidewalk and became ambassadors for our craft.












We started at 10:00 but it was not too early for coffee.















There were probably about 15 or so people who showed up. Long time members like Linda who was hand blending three rovings for this thread that she will ply with a midnight blue - I hope she brings what ever she makes with it to the next meeting - I think it is going to be stunning.

And brand new spinners, like Camile who sat on my right - she had only been spinning for a few days. She gladly accepted advice that was handed her way.



Nancy was warping a loom for her Anniversary week weaving project.

It was absolutely beautiful today and she was smart enough to wear a hat - I was not - the back of my neck is burned to a crisp - yeow!







This picture says it all - A wonderful time was had by everyone who attended!

Soon it will be time to "Fall Back"

Labor Day might be over, but the frost isn't on the pumpkins yet - It is supposed to get into the high 70's this weekend!

Our spinner guild meets this Saturday - we are going to be "Spinning on the Sidewalk" down town in front of NW Handspun Yarns (my favorite LYS) - should be fun - We'll see how my Ashford traditional wheel fits into the trunk of the new car.

Speaking of which (new car, that is), I have to come up with a name for the Fusion - The Shepherd was the one who came up with the Jelly Bean for the Festiva. Hmmm - any ideas?








The Shepherd found these pretty Black Eyed Susans last weekend at an "end of season" sale at one of the local plant nurseries.







He'd been looking for some "color spots" to put on the driveway - I think they look quite nice.

By the way, did I tell you that I volunteered to be the newsletter editor for our Spinner Guild? I'm kind of torn between "What was I thinking" and "This could be fun".

My friend Kathy says it's a "self-inflicted" wound... But you know what "they" say - if you want something done, ask a busy person. And of course, I started a blog for the group.

You can find it here and eventually I'll get around to putting it on my blogroll so you can check to see what we've been up to. We have such talented members, I thought it would be fun to take pictures during our show and tell times as well as documenting our events.




Back to the farm - The Shepherd found several different pots of cheery fall flowers that he planted out in the driveway - it looks very fallish/festive driving into our place now.

Sinda thinks so.

How we spent our Labor Day...

Yes, we got a new to us car - It isn't a very good picture - I didn't realize that there was so much reflection - it looks like there is a big divot in the side of it, but there isn't - and it's dark now, so I'm not going outside to take a new picture in the dark, that's all there is to it....

Here you have our new(to us) 2006 Ford Fusion - and if I can borrow a theme from the competition's advertising - "Zoom, Zoom..."


I'm afraid I'm going to consciously have to keep my foot off of the gas or there goes my "ticket free" insurance rating!

The Jelly Bean, as we affectionately call my 1991 Ford Festiva, has started to have some major problems in it's "major" systems - and looking at putting a couple of thousand bucks into an 18 year old car, however much one loves it, didn't seem to be very practical. And, I made the final payment on his truck last week.

So, while I'd been doing some internet car reviewing, The Shepherd had been keeping his "eagle eyes" open for different cars that he thought I'd like. About 10:30 this morning he said - "Did you want to go into town and look at cars??" I said - "Sure, why not."

We looked at a couple of Subaru's - specifically the Forester, as it has a lot of head room, but we felt kind of cramped "side to side" - A Legacy sedan, which was really cute and had a lot of cool options but was WAY out of our budget and, again, I felt kind of cramped. The sales guy, who was helpful and not too pushy (for a car sales guy), said pointing at this car - "have you thought of trying out a Fusion" - Not really, but we thought, heck, why not. Wow! - lots of room in this little car - both for The Shepherd's long legs and for my "ample" girth - I didn't feel like my arms were being squished into my torso by the door - it's a little bit hard to get out of, (but maybe that will be a good reason for me to start working on some flexibility exercises, no?) So we took it for a drive. It's got a "pernundle" aka PRNDL aka Automatic transmission - I've driven a stick for, oh, about 30 years now - but, manual Fusions are few and far between. Actually we realized while we were at lunch that Fusions were pretty much few and far between - could that be a good thing? Actually it's one of the top 4 selling cars in America right now. And besides that, my dad would probably turn over in his grave if I bought anything else but a Ford...

I'm not one of those people who change cars with the model year - in fact for my "real" adult life (after college) - I've only owned two cars - and I bought both of them new off the showroom floor - a 1978 Mercury Zephyr (I LOVED that car) and the Jelly Bean, which I bought from this same dealer in 1991. (I think they got rid of the Festiva because it was so trouble free - service departments don't like cars that are trouble free...) So, I'm not into dickering for price - we did feel that this was pretty fairly priced - but wish they had thrown in the set of tires that The Shepherd wanted. (car salesman - whining "You know, we're not making anything on this car" I just hate to listen to people whine - OK, fine - we'll take the car without the new tires.

And they only wanted to give me $100 for the Jelly Bean! How Dare They??? - Nope, we'll keep it.

So, I've got a couple of ideas up my sleeve for the JB - one is a fellow in town who has built an electric Festiva - He was impressed that the body on mine was in such good shape - or, I'll donate it to the local public radio station who says they'll take donated cars, running or not...

First I have to clean it out - AAAaaaRRRrrrGGGgggHHHhhh! I hate cleaning out my car.

I'm going to miss you little Jelly Bean - we had some pretty darn good times together, didn't we?

More Shots Around Town

We have just had the best summer - I thought I'd show you around Bellingham a little.

This is one of the murals in town - click on it and biggify it so you can see it better - it is really fun.






This is the old court house that now houses our Museum of History - you can see it from out on the bay - it sits on a ledge over looking the waterfront.

Since I was in a hurry and too lazy to get out of my car, you only get to see part of the building - but it is one of my favorite landmarks in town.

It has a wonderful rotunda on the second floor where they hold concerts - great acoustics -








Unfortunately, the old museum is small and they had to have several locations to house the different areas of interest - so they have built this new museum - just a few blocks away. I think they are going to keep the business offices in the old building.





And of course, my favoritest store down town is our LYS (otherwise known as Local Yarn Store) Northwest Handspun Yarns. Nancy and the gals who work for her are the best. This is where I took my spinning class and where I got the fiber for Sophia's sweater. They have all kinds of cool things through those doors, including their shop cat, Miss Knitty.

Thanks for coming with me while I took a little trip downtown.

Sometimes ya just gotta laugh...

Yay, it's Friday and it's been "That" kind of week.

click here to see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Around town -

This lovely bit of "yard art" is at a house I've been watching on my way home over the past few years. First they took out ALL their lawn, then put in lots of beds and berms. This past spring they added this charming bit of art to their fence. (if you click to biggify it, you can barely see that they have some hens & chicks in the basket of the bike - cute)

Looking back Sunday

Peace Man!

This picture was taken in August 2006 and it is one of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken in our yard - in fact I still have it hanging on my wall at work. As the tree grew, our"peace sign" disappeared, but The Shepherd's gardens are still one of the most peaceful places that I have been.

I "Demo" spinning at the NW Washington Fair

A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from "Marcia" who said she was the superintendent of the wool barn at the fair and my friend Nancy (who was going to demo on the loom) had suggested she call me - she was looking for spinners to "Demo" in the Wool Barn at the fair this year. It seems that all her "regulars" were busy - could I come out and do that?

I talked it over with The Shepherd, as it would not be feasible for me to go out by myself - He was actually wanting to go to the fair to see the draft horses - they always give a great show before the grandstand acts come on. So, I called Marcia back and said I could do it.

I took a half day off work so we could go out a little early. The Shepherd shuttled me up to the gate where Marcia met us and helped me carry my bags in. I have figured out just how to get my Ashford Standard wheel to stay on my luggage rack - with a bungee cord holding it tight - but I needed help with all my "stuff"

By the way, we have 9 gorgeous 6-horse hitches in Whatcom county! Almost too many to run the Crazy 8's any more - but The Shepherd really enjoyed watching them perform.


If I was going to do this "Demo" thing, I decided that I needed a "Story Board" to show people some of the aspects of the craft.

I decided that "How wool goes from Sheep to Sweater" was the story that I wanted to tell - and because I have heard that so many "townies" seem to think that in order to get the wool off of a sheep, you have to kill it, I tried to dispel that myth with a picture of one of our sheep getting her hair cut last spring.

Then some samples of raw wool, roving, top and batts, and some yarn samples and a little swatch of crocheted "Luna" wool - I was all set.

It must have provided just the info that people wanted to see - I had a lot of people reading it.


Nancy G. and the loom were inside the barn, but it was WAY too hot and stuffy in there for me, so I ensconced myself out on the ramada - with a bench to lean my story board on and a spot to put my water bottle, I was all set.








Plus, for a couple of hours, I had the delightful company of Nancy B., the owner of NW Handspun Yarns. She was showing off her talent on the sock knitting machine. Wow, she could really book on the thing. She made several pairs of socks while she was sitting there. Amazing machine to watch. It made me really think about how the "industrial revolution" affected making clothing. All of a sudden, instead of having to knit night after night to make socks , the owner of this machine could make pair after pair in just a few hours! Amazing!


Here are some of the sweaters and items in the wool barn. I only got a few pictures taken before my battery went dead, and boy when this sucker goes dead, it goes DEAD.

My demo went well, I got to see bunches of old friends and made a few new ones.






And, I got this bobbin filled - it will be for yarn for another vest for The Shepherd.

Well, gotta go make a salad for our church "Secret Pal" tea that is happening tomorrow at noon. We don't hold services during the summer (we decided that god trusts Unitarians to take the summer off - ha, ha) It will be fun to see all the ladies.

Guess What?

What do you think these are?

There must be hundreds of them.

They are hard as rocks, then they are soft and mooshy.








Unless you can find one that is just right. They are very tasty, when they are just right... But mostly they are hard as rocks or mooshy.

What do you think?








A Blip on The Radar - bringing you pretty pictures and strange guessing games, celebrating my 500th post!

How time flies when you're having fun...

Fine Looking Fellows

Since they boys didn't get to go to the fair, I thought we'd strut their stuff for you this evening.

This is Cooper - His father is H.B., our HST ram - Cooper needs to find a new home.







He has one of the most unusual fleeces I've seen - the dark is short and crimpy - the white is long and wavy.

He is a really sweet fellow and is taking quickly to the halter training.







And he has splendid horns - They just keep getting wider and wider.











Vern actually is a little darker than this picture, but after shearing, he will be the silvery grey/brown that you can see in the part of his fleece below.








It is soft and crimpy like this all over. Vern will get his own set of girls this fall - coming up in only six short weeks. I can't believe that we are coming up on breeding time.

Does anyone know where the summer has gone?







By the way - anyone in need of some hops?