Continuing the family visit/road trip to Texas…Day 4 is here.
On the fifth day of our visit we took a field trip to Cabella’s. There is plenty of entertainment even if you don’t go for the shopping. We started with the aquarium.
There are rooms full of animals.
There are spectacular horns on these and other sheep. By the time we finished eating and shopping it was getting dark and we headed to Wimberly for the Trail of Lights.
Dozens of local businesses and families light and decorate the gardens of the 12-acre EmilyAnn Theater & Garden. This is an annual event and a major fundraiser for the theater.
Dan and Matt and I had planned to leave on Sunday for Part 2 of our Texas vacation.
First, a few more photos of cute grandkids. Actually I was trying to get a photo of a baby with a handwoven baby blanket that is part of a project I am working on. This baby is a little too mobile for that to be easy to do.
Containing him worked a little better.
We had the truck loaded and I asked nicely made everyone stand in one place for a group photo. This is the only one of all of us together during this trip.
About 10 am. Dan and Matt and I got in the truck and headed for Big Bend National Park, about seven hours away.
Here the Chisos Mountains rise out of the desert. The park entrance is at an elevation of 2848′ and the peaks rise to over 7800′. Our camp the first night was at 5400′ which meant that there was still snow from the storm which had come through.
We got there towards dusk and found a campsite just as it was getting dark.
To be continued…
Kasen slept while…
Kirby helped make pink pancakes.
Then the big kids went for a run. Two of them tried the baby jogger but that wasn’t going to work. Instead they took the real kids in the jogger.
The trail continues around the pool behind those rocks.
Public access is restricted by use permit from June through September.
I can imagine what a popular site this would be in the summer and being only about 20 miles from Austin.
This is the view looking out over the pool. 
Water drips from the ledge above. 
Someone didn’t read the sign.
I remember well that as nice as it is to get out and see beautiful country it’s not exactly relaxing when you are keeping track of a toddler.
When we got back to the parking lot they both still had plenty of energy to burn off.
Back home having dinner.
The view from the back walkway.
There is the decorated tree just inside the gate on the right.
Everyone else was still in bed but I went for a walk up the road as the sun was coming over the hills.
I got back to the house and checked inside the truck. Dan had chosen to drive to Texas instead of flying. He says, now that he has retired, “everyday is Saturday” and he preferred to throw a road trip into the plans. He had left five days before I did and spent time hiking and camping along the way. He met me at the airport in Austin on Tuesday. Now that all the kids were at the house we had to spread out with sleeping arrangements and he decided to continue with the camping mode and sleep in the truck.
Eventually everyone else came out into the snow.
Kirby started a snowman with the help of…
…Uncle Matt…
…and Aunt Meryl.
I love these kids.
We changed planes in L.A. Wildfires had started burning a few days before this trip and this is a view of the smoke from two fires blowing out over the ocean. We soon left that behind but even now there are fires raging in S. California. December! Here in N. CA we’ve had one good rain in November and nothing since. But that’s a topic for another post.
I got there Tuesday night. Kirby and I went out the next morning. She showed me her chickens and we collected eggs.
She showed me the tree near the front gate that she and her mom had decorated.
We walked down the road…
…and I didn’t know until this point that her ladybug boots have holes in them.
I have been told that Santa is taking care of that.
We looked at decorations on other properties.
Eventually Kirby got tired of being the subject of photos.
A picnic lunch after the walk.
We have another cutie in Texas as well.
I spent last Christmas there when he was only a few days old.
Brother and sister get along well.
Thursday afternoon it began to snow.
Kirby spent some time outside before it got dark.
Leaves are turning color and falling.
They will be gone soon.
The black walnut leaves are already gone. Or maybe this is one of the trees that is dead. I think the drought took it’s toll on some of these.
The view looking southeast.
Ginny’s ball was cracked and even with the “Chuckit” I couldn’t throw it very far.
Rusty runs after Ginny every time she goes for the ball. Then he runs back with her but he doesn’t always keep up with her now.
There were sunflowers in one of these fields and there were lots of seeds dropped on the road at harvest time. Now they are all sprouting.
This is Ginny while I was on the ground trying to take seedling emergence photos.
So you know that she put the ball right under my camera.
Ginny, do you know that broken tennis balls don’t float? She spent time looking for it after she had taken it into the canal.
Back at my driveway there were beautiful leaves to photograph. A wild grape vine.
Walnut tree.
The Castle was designed by Dario Sattui who modeled it after European 13th Century castles that fascinated him.
His 
Sattui brought builders, brick-workers, and others from Europe and shipped containers full of old bricks, doors, hardware, and all kinds of other building materials that had been sourced from old castles in Europe. 
Although my first thought when I heard about this place was that I would the resent pretentiousness of spending this much money and “showing off”, but this is a fascinating place and it is very cool to visit it. 
The Great Hall.
There is an authentic 13th century fireplace at the end of the Great Hall. The guide told us that those two chairs are “authentic replicas”–they were left behind by a movie company who used this setting.
Dan noticed all of the iron work. All of it, including the bolts and nails was hand made. 
Stone is all hand-chiseled.
After walking through some of those ground-level rooms we saw the equipment that is used in modern wine-making.
But then we went downstairs into the lower levels.
There are 900 feet of caves in four levels.
This barrel room is constructed with impressive brick Roman cross-vaulted ceilings.
Barrel tasting in the barrel room.
I will admit here that I am not a wine drinker. Dan and I were both more interested in the tour than the wine tasting but we stayed for that too. There were only about a dozen of us and the guide-turned-wine-expert poured about 8 or 9 different wines to sample.
I finally found a wine that I liked…
… and I’ll admit that it’s sweet and a little fizzy so I might as well just buy fizzy juice at Safeway, right? 
Leaving the castle. This door reminds me of the one in the Wizard of Oz moviewhere the wizard opens the little panel to look through at Dorothy.
View from the Castle to the hills where we hiked the day before.
I took one photo and then my phone died. So this is it–one of hundreds of odd corkscrews and other wine related gadgets. You know, the feet are some of the few parts of the butcher lambs that aren’t used at this time. Could this be in my future?
The Robert Louis Stevenson State Park to the north of the highway is closed but the Table Rock trail is south of the highway.
The trail starts out in groves of oak, madrone, and bay trees. This area was damp from recent rain and the trees looked as though they were covered with green fur.
A new kind of 
Making things larger than life through the lens.
As the trail descended the other side of the first ridge the vegetation seemed more typical of California chaparral. These are the seeds of the California Buckeye.
The California buckeye is one of the first deciduous trees to leaf out in the spring, but it also goes dormant and loses it’s leaves in late summer. Although the “nuts” may seem similar to chestnuts, these are toxic.
The trail leads to the western end of a formation called the Palisades, volcanic rock that towers over the northern end of the Napa Valley.
That is the town of Calistoga down below. 
We sat on the rocks known as Table Rock for quite awhile, soaking up the sun and watching birds and the beautiful sky. The fire missed this area, but not Mt. St. Helena in the background and the lower area along the highway.
As we sat on the rocks Dan noticed a Cal Fire plane flying around Mt. St. Helena and then saw it drop something–we wonder of that is seed to help stabilize the burned landscape.
My regular vet was out of town and I called U.C. Davis. The equine vets came out and evaluated her. This radiograph shows that there is slight rotation of the bone, which should be parallel to the hoof wall, but the coffin bone has not dropped down to the sole, which can happen in severe cases. 
Temporary pain relief was provided by some cushy pads that were measured and then cut to fit.
A paste of betadyne and sugar was applied to help the foot dry out…
…and then the pads were taped in place. 
This was just to help cushion her feet until the farrier could get here for the next trim.
She was also prescribed a variety of medications to help with pain and weight loss, some of which I had used before.
The instructions said to wrap the foot with plastic wrap when you first try the orthotics so that you can send them back if they don’t fit. 
That is easier said than done. I got the plastic on the foot OK but by the time I had her standing on the orthotics they weren’t in exactly pristine condition anymore. 
I decided that I’d just have to go for it and put the boots on.
What an amazing difference they made. This is the first time I’ve seen Amaryllis walk without obvious pain in weeks if not months. I don’t know if this is a permanent fix, but at least she is more comfortable now and will maybe be able to get a little exercise–even if that is just me leading her around the corral every day.
This local church was booked for any of the Fibershed group who wanted to spend the night after the long day at the Symposium.
It is a great place to stay for anyone traveling in that area. 
This was originally a house that was purchased from the Frick family in 1950 and turned into a church. There is a fascinating multi-level maze of rooms and halls and stairways. This view looks down from the third floor on what was originally the family’s living room.
I love this dining area, partly because the table is of the same era (at least from looking at some of it’s features) as the table that my mom bought and we still use, although this one is in much better shape than ours.
I stayed in this bedroom with five other women. There are several bedrooms with different numbers of beds. I think the place can accommodate 36 people.
When I got up on Sunday morning I decided to take a walk before our meeting and headed up a road I found behind the church.
This is my kind of Sunday morning.
The road I found led me back down to the main road and Tomales Bay.
It is great when you find open space accessible to the public.
Rebecca pointed out huckleberries which were still on the bushes, although the normal harvest season was over. I wouldn’t have known and would have avoided these unknown berries.
Stephanie (wearing her handknit Jacob sweater) ate her share as did the rest of us.
This is a much wetter area than where I usually find myself and there were still signs of the previous night’s rain.
Another testament to the dampness were the large slugs that we saw.
The view overlooking Tomales Bay. What a beautiful day we had!
As we were coming back down from the ridge that has a view of the ocean, another hiker coming up the hill saw our silhouettes and offered to take our photo. This is the view that she saw.
Sheepdog Debbie sent her out to gather up the sheep.
Debbie’s sheep are pretty dog-broke because they are used to being moved by dogs.
So for a Border Collie like Ginny (or me) it’s not very hard to get them to move.
There were a couple who didn’t want to play the game though.
Ginny moved the sheep toward the gate…
…and held them there while Sheepdog Debbie sorted a few out into the other field.
This is a pet sheep who is one of the ones who was standing near Debbie.
Ginny looks pretty good here.
I think that I should go back to Sheepdog Debbie’s place and get to work with her sheep. They don’t have those nasty horns like ours do.
Meridian Jacobs' Blog 