I’ve been neglecting my blog. All my computer time has been spent at other things–mostly trying to stay caught up with email, working on my website, and trying to organize and edit photos for items listed on the Fibershed Marketplace and on my website (each of which need differently formatted photos). I’m also trying to figure out the best way to keep track of what is listed where and which items go to the Artery. I really don’t want to take the chance on selling something on the website and find out that I already sold it at the Artery.
The website is up now and, although I haven’t listed a lot of products yet, I’m happy with it. I hope you’ll explore it a bit. I’ve worked most at getting some weaving classes scheduled for January-March and in getting handwoven items listed.
Here are some of the items that I have listed. Don’t judge my photos. I struggle with trying to get decent product shots.
I didn’t list this one because right now I can’t find it. That may mean it is at the Artery. Or did I sell it? This is what I mean be trying to keep track. I’m not doing very well with that.
My niece was nice enough to model for me at Thanksgiving.
Photobombing brother.
These are yarns from Lunatic Fringe and all appear in the latest scarf I wove. Hopefully I’ll get to that blog before too long.
I wanted to write about the weekend in Santa Barbara where I presented the Guild program and then taught a Jacob wool class.
I have stories about the weaving I was working on. This one is clasped weft. (With three yarns in each pick it took FOREVER.)
I have more clasped weft stories, but based on chenille.
Overriding the last half of the month was the Camp Fire, a terribly destructive fire. Even though were not affected here (other than the unhealthy smoke levels) I couldn’t help but think about it most of the time. This fire was destructive on such a massive scale that the population in Butte County still needs help from volunteers. This photo is one of four pieces that I donated to 
While I was trying to squeeze all the weaving that should have happened throughout the year into a month I ran into this problem at the end of a 21 yard warp. Fortunately the other 18 yards were just fine and produced 10 ponchos. I was going to write a blog post about what I did about this.
I also finished up my dyeing for the season and put together bundles of yarns for sale. I have lots of pretty flower and yarn photos to share on the blog.
I continued to help new weaver’s problem solve even if it was by sharing photos via email. (This one is before and after washing.)
Thanksgiving came along the day before the big show (for me) of the season, the Crocker Holiday Artisan Market. I took some of my pieces to my brother’s house so that I could photograph them with a professional model who happens to be my niece. Now I’m self-conscious about using these photos because my niece works with real photographers and I want to do her justice. 
My brother also helped model. He demonstrated how wool dryer balls could be used for juggling.
I finished these ten ponchos just in time to take them with me. 
Driving over early Saturday morning, the brown, smoky skies and red sun are a reminder of the tragic fires still burning in California. (The sun looked red in real life.)
Our area is impacted by the Camp fire in northern CA.
Once at the venue I got my area set up. We are given one table so I bring some grids to put in back and expand my space. I fit a lot of weaving and yarn into one place.
Friends stopped by and took photos.
Some vendors are outside or in other rooms and have foot traffic throughout the day. I have always wanted to be in the main room where the speakers are presenting. That means the sales opportunities are clustered into a few breaks and the long lunch time.
Photo from the inside of the camper shell shows that it was a lot colder than it’s been at home. 
Fellow camper and Board member, Carol (sleeping in a van next to my truck), went with me as soon as we emerged from our vehicles to go find warmth at a coffee shop while we waited for time to go to our meeting. We were both still dressed in everything we wore to bed.
This is one of the articles inside. Although they don’t talk about sourcing our clothes from locally grown fibers, they do address the issue of the incredible waste in the textile industry and consumerism. Seems appropriate to end the weekend.
Meridian Janie (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Jane)
Meridian Maybelle (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Mae) This ewe was going to be on my sale list but she had an unexpected tryst with Cayenne and may be pregnant.
Meridian Ruthie (Meridian Cayenne x Meridian Ruth), who just broke her horn and is somewhat bloody on one side. This is another ewe who may be pregnant after the aforementioned incident.
Meridian Zora (Meridian Cayenne x Meridian Betty)
Zora is a pretty little lilac ewe who was chosen from Day 1 for her cute markings, although “cuteness” isn’t listed under the JSBA Breed Standard selection criteria.
Meridian Quartz (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Jade). Quartz was chosen because, besides being a nice looking ewe, her mom is everyone’s favorite pet sheep and…
…I want to see how her 6 horns grow out.
Meridian ??? I haven’t named this lamb yet but she certainly deserved a good one. (Meridian Serrano x Unzicker Shenandoah)
bide a wee Marion (Ruby Peak Cinnamon x Meridian Maven), who didn’t go home to Oregon after the AGM we hosted in August.
Meridian Janna (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Janis). Janna is a big tall ewe lamb and is out with the breeding group, possibly to be bred by Meridian Axle.
Meridian Soprano (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Sonata) has definitely been bred by Axle.
Jade is our most in-your-face (but in a good way) sheep.
Trista is next.
We had a lot of people earlier in the day but these are the hard-core sheep huggers who was left at the end.
I brought the groups in one at a time and separated the rams. That’s Buster in the pen. His nose is already bloody because he was ramming the panel to try to get to Axle, the young 2-horn ram in the middle of the photo.
Most of the ewe flock was back together now and that was Clark’s lucky day! That’s him in the background with his head turned away.
Meanwhile the other four rams went into their “buddy-up” pen. The point of this is that they are confined enough that they can’t do much damage. That doesn’t mean that they don’t hit each other but at least they can’t back up 10 feet and come charging.
After a few days of learning to be buddies again they went back to the ram pen with minimal fuss. They all had figured out the pecking order. Cayenne (above) is #2.
Cayenne. I love a nice two horn head.
This is Spark, Cayenne’s full brother, born this year. There is the difference a year makes. Cayenne was born last year.
Brothers.
Bide a wee Buster is #1 in the ram pen.
Buster is 3 years old and Clark is his son from this year. 
Bookends?
Here’s the lucky ram who gets to stay out with the ewes for another few weeks. This is Axle, also a 2018 ram. He is wearing a blue marker…
Today I moved most of Peyton’s ewes back to the flock. Three of them were the Pope Valley sheep that came this summer, and they immediately found their two friends. That’s the five or them in the front. Large Triangle, 4-Horn, Small Triangle, White Ear, and Crooked Blaze in the back. (They do have names but I remember them better by what I called them at first.)
This is part of Peyton’s group. He got 11 ewes. 
Peyton is a BFL and these will be crossbred lambs.
Next was Buster. He was given 16 ewes.
All the rams had yellow markers.
Clark is next. He is Buster’s son from this year. It’s hard to pick him out in this photos because the ewes are all bigger than he is.
Clark was given 11 ewes.
Last we have Cayenne with 10 ewes. 
Last, there is the group of ewe lambs that I chose not to breed this year.
I had to hide behind another window because Kirby kept looking through the door.
In the middle they changed from tap shoes to ballet shoes. The teachers helped each kid get the shoes on the right feet. They stuffed the bows in the toes of the shoes. Kirby didn’t like that and twice she pulled the ends of the bows out and I saw her twisting them around each other in an attempt to tie them. Eventually the teacher tied them and left them out–I think she tied a double knot. I meant to try and teach Kirby to tie a bow while I was there but actually I think she is too young. Next time…unless she already knows by then.
On Friday Kirby went to school and Mom and Dad were at work. Kasen usually goes to day care but he stayed with me all day.
He is very self-reliant for a toddler and can entertain himself well.
I enjoy taking the kids outside for at least part of the time. The weather this day was very pleasant.
We walked to the end of the smaller road where it meets the main road. Kasen loves trucks and tractors and anything with wheels. So we started watching and listening for trucks.
I moved him to the bank on the road where we could watch both directions (By the way, look at all those flowers–it’s been raining in Hill Country.) I’d hear a vehicle and ask if it was a truck or a car? “Car.” We waved. Some of the trucker’s blew their horns. This entertained Kasen for at last half an hour.
The road home.
Back home with a favorite book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?”.
Outside again.
Katie and Kurtis have set up a play area for the kids–easier to keep track of them at this age than having them running through the dry grass and having to watch out for snakes and fire ants and scorpions.
They love the trampoline and I love the trampoline because the kids are contained. (I thought I had better photos but now that I see these iphone photos on my computer I realize that none are sharp.)
The sandbox (built by Papa Dan) is also a big attraction.
Back inside with puzzles.
You can hear when someone comes in the driveway. “Mama” or “Dada”!
Time to go see who it is.
It was Mama with Kirby. Time for the trampoline (champerline according to Kirby) before dinner.
Kirby orchestrates the play time. “I’ll be the princess and Kasen is the prince and you be the dragon (or alligator or monster) and you try to get me.” Or “You be the alligator and you are sleeping and I’ll be the princess and I’m going to get you.”
All I really wanted to do was to lie on the trampoline and look up at this amazing oak tree.
Sunset view.
I found this creature on the wall of the mud room. That’s one thing I don’t have to worry about here.
Friday night was movie night. Ice cream and popcorn and getting to sleep in the living room. Kirby chose a Starwars movie but really only wants to see “the princess” and Darth Vader. 
Pumpkin Day. We went to a local nursery to find pumpkins.
After pumpkin selection we went to the chicken yard to select a couple of new chickens to replace some that had been killed.
Does someone have an attitude? The look on Kirby’s face reminds me of one of me at that age when I was looking at my little brother.
Our campsite the previous night was at Beachside State Recreation Site south of Waldport, Oregon. The campsite wasn’t much since we backed up right to Hwy. 101.
However, in the morning we walked along the beach for awhile and were amazed at the mild weather and beautiful beach. Growing up in Sonoma County, CA (me) and Oregon (Dan) we both have the impression of the northern CA coast and Oregon coast as being wild, windy, and cold. This beach on this day was gorgeous and I could imagine sitting in the sun and enjoying a book…no time for that today.
We explored the beach for awhile…
…but had to get on the road.
We drove down the coast to Reedsport where we turned east along the Umpqua River. On the map I saw Elk Viewing Area. Sure enough, there were elk.
Crossing the Umqua River. By the way, all the rest of these photos are “drive-by”. 
Dan likes to drive and that is fine with me. I amuse myself with photos, most of which will be deleted as soon as I see them. I wish I had a barn like this.
Or this.
Sign of California. I usually stop at the Mt. Shasta overlook when I’m driving south but this was through the window, the driver’s side window at that. The sky wasn’t actually that blue but I enhanced the photo so you could sort of see the mountain.
We had an amusing time making up stories about what all those Ford vans were doing.
There were about a dozen and all the same.
We passed them. They passed us. Finally they exited the freeway near Yreka.
One of the landmarks when driving on I-5 northbound. I finally got a photo.
Approaching the mountains north of Redding. Remember the fire photos from 
Crews are still at work removing trees.
It’s a sad sight.
And it was still burning.
Almost home. When driving south on I-5, we take 505, the cut-off towards the Bay Area instead of taking I-5 as it curves east towards Sacramento. I always love these hills.
One more thing. I was reading a murder mystery the next week (while on my next adventure) that happened to be set in the Olympic Peninsula. I had to photograph this passage to text to Dan.
There is a small lake just behind the campsite and in the morning I heard this osprey. I watched quite awhile trying to get a better photo. Eventually he (she) spotted fish and I watched him dive three times, always coming back to watch from this tree. I was surprised at his loud splashdown. 
We drove over to the Interpretive Center of the Park. Outside the Lewis & Clark Center is the old Fort Canby, built to defend the entrance to the Columbia River and manned by U.S. Army troops from the mid-19th century through the end of WWII. 
We spent a couple of hours here and I highly recommend it. Dan had recently read a book about Lewis & Clark so the details of their story was fresh in his mind. I didn’t take photos inside except for this that reminds me of something that looks like it might belong in a weaving studio:
This is a faking box and the thing behind it is a Lyle gun. The sign says “Propelled by a black powder charge the gun propelled a rescue line (hawser) to troubled vessels…The spiked posts were used to wind a rescue line in a special zig zag pattern to prevent tangling in flight when fired from a Lyle gun.” There were also paddles. “These paddles with detailed instructions in English and French were sent by rescue line to shipwreck victims.”I think it’s interesting that there was a special way of winding the line so that it would not tangle.
After spending a couple of hours at the Interpretive Center we went to see the second lighthouse in the Park. This view is from the trail to that lighthouse. We are now looking south to the breakwater on the north and can see the one on the south as well. The Columbia River entrance is between the breakwaters. 
This is North Head Lighthouse, built 42 years after the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse was constructed because there were still too many shipwrecks in this area. It is still in service with an automated beacon. I didn’t realize that each lighthouse has a unique pattern of sound and light to aid in navigation, as well as being distinguished by the color and pattern of paint. (This one is under renovation.)
North Head is said to be one of the windiest locations in the U.S. This is the view of the rocky coastline from the north side of the lighthouse.
If you look closely at the rocky cliff you see cormorants–somehow gripping the steep rocky wall with amazingly little room to maneuver. 
The beach stretches for miles just beyond this rocky point.
Sign in the forest on the trail that overlooks the beach. The area gets seven feet of rain per year, falling in the fall, winter, and spring. However, during the summer there is fog. Cape Disappointment is one of the foggiest places in the U.S. having 100 days of fog each year.
The plan for the day was to get to southern Oregon so that we wouldn’t have as long a drive the following day. It was time to get on the road. This is the bridge over the Columbia River.
Now to find the another part of the Lewis and Clark story near Astoria. 
We walked around the Fort and along a trail the followed the river, but we didn’t spent a lot of time here, having had such a thorough look at the L&C story that morning. 
We read about another historic site in the town of Seaside. Before we found the site we walked to the beach.
Looking north.
Eventually we found the Lewis & Clark NHP Saltworks, a small fenced area right in the middle of a neighborhood. The expedition had run out of salt and needed more before making the journey home. Three men from the expedition spent six weeks here boiling seawater to secure the salt.
This is an amazing place. It must be just swarming with people during the summer.
You enter the factory and go upstairs to follow the hoofprints for a self-guided tour.
After the tour we got back in the truck and drove. We found a beachside (and highway-side) campground just after dark.
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