Grandkids and the Gravel Pile

Posted on June 20, 2018 by Robin

What better place to entertain an 18-month old than a gravel pile with tractors? These trucks and tractors have been in the garage for 25+ years Hose off the spiders and they’re as good as new.

Watching kids can be exhausting. Notice what Ginny is looking at–that’s her ball right next to Dan. Kasen found the ball-thrower. That kept Ginny entertained even though Kasen wasn’t able to throw the ball very well. See Rusty’s blog for more photos.

Fall Colors and Dogs

Posted on December 3, 2017 by Robin

I haven’t taken the dogs Across the Road much lately. I need to take the time to do that for them and for me. Here are some photos from a few days ago.

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.

Happy fall!

A Retreat

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Robin

Some friends and I had planned a retreat for a few days last week–a get-away to a house in the mountains with as many craft projects as we could fit in our cars. As it turns out it was also a retreat, albeit briefly, from the political scene. We watched, stunned, on Tuesday, but then were able to postpone thinking about it for the most part while we enjoyed friendship and fiber and walking in the woods.

Some of us brought dogs.

Ginny will write her own post about the week.

I debated taking a dog. Rusty couldn’t go because he would have had a difficult time with all the stairs in the house where we were staying. Maggie wouldn’t be my first choice because she gets car sick. Ginny is the one that would be going stir-crazy left home while Dan was at work all day. So Ginny came with me and I’m glad I brought her. Having her there made me get out and walk at least twice every day. It would have been very easy to just stay inside and work on my projects, but I’m glad that I didn’t miss the beautiful woods. The weather was fabulous, although a bit scary to have summer-like weather in November. Of course I had my camera with me on some of the walks.

The walks were refreshing (and necessary for Ginny), but most of my focus was spent on my projects. I didn’t get to everything but made a valiant effort, staying up late every night. We shared the cooking so I only spent one evening in the kitchen and that was making an easy batch of mac and cheese.

It might be hard to tell what this is from the photo. When it is delivered to my granddaughter in December it will have a covered mat on the floor, a hula-hoop supporting the scalloped roof and be supported from the ceiling. It has windows (thanks for demonstrating, Mary), inside pockets, and a door with glittery decorations. If I have time I will weave a rag rug with the leftover material. This is soooo cute, but it took soooo long to sew…and I’m not quite finished.

This is a photo of all my projects for the 3-1/2 days. You can see on the pattern envelope how the canopy looks when it is set up. From bottom left and around: a batch of 41 dryer balls ready to be felted, a rag runner woven on the Cricket loom, a baggie of walnuts ready for the freezer (those weren’t mine because I didn’t get to cracking any that we didn’t eat–I need to finish this at home), Ginny 🙂 , six chenille scarves fringed (half of the 12 that I brought), and a warp wound for two ponchos. Not shown is the painted warp that I did that was in a plastic bag ready to come home and be rinsed.

I drove home Friday, but not before stopping at the lake. It doesn’t seem right to go to Lake Tahoe and not actually go to the lake.

Ginny learned quickly that she could retrieve her ball from the lake but she’ll tell you about that in Rusty’s blog.

A Walk in the Woods

Posted on October 30, 2016 by Robin

This morning I drove to my son’s house in El Dorado County to work on some computer issues. When there was a break in the rain we drove a short distance to Bridal Veil Picnic Area on the South Fork of the American River to take the dogs for a walk.

I just used my iPhone for photos because I didn’t want to deal with the other camera in the rain so it’s hard to see Kirin in this shot. He’s way out in the river swiming back with a tennis ball. That’s Sam nearer the shore and Ginny trying to decide about the river. Ginny isn’t use to going on walks without the focus of The Toy or The Ball.

This Ball was Kirin’s and it wouldn’t have been smart for Ginny to compete for it.

Eventually though I took one ball and when Kirin was distracted in one direction Ginny got to go for the ball in another. I didn’t want to throw it too far out in the river because #1, I wasn’t sure how far she would go out to get it and #2, we weren’t sure if she could handle the current if she did go out farther.

She did get plenty of ball time on the trail.

The people were looking at things besides tennis balls.

We spent about an hour and needed to get back to the house.

What a beautiful interlude. The rain makes everything look and smell so clean and fresh.

She’s Two Today!

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Robin

So many cute photos. I may have to do more than one post.

I can use more photos if I make a mosaic. A lot of firsts for Ginny at two months old. First meet-up with the big dogs. First Christmas tree. First time in the barn. First visit to the vet.

Still two months old. Running in the fog. Spending time in the shop with spinners. Playing with Rusty and Maggie and conquering branches.

ginny-2-5-months-1 Ginny and her lamb.

ginny-2-5-months-3 Ginny and her moose.

ginny-7-months-1 Ginny at 7 months with the favorite Toy. ginny-7-months-2

ginny-7-months-4

ginny-7-5-months-1 Ginny not so happy after her little operation so that I wouldn’t have to worry about what might happen while I was going to be gone for two weeks. ginny-10-months-1 At 10 months Ginny discovered that she wasn’t a big fan of drones. ginny-11-months First herding lesson at Sheepdog Debbie’s place (Herding-4-Ewe) just down the road.

ginny-1-year-2 Ginny’s first birthday.

Ginny at two years old. Rusty will post some photos in his blog post of Ginny’s recent lesson at Sheepdog Debbie’s.

Across the Road Again

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Robin

Now that it is not raining anymore I can walk Across the Road with the dogs again. It’s actually been a few weeks and there have been a few walks but I’m behind on blog posts and organizing my thoughts.This was taken on the first walk a few weeks ago. The dogs are on the leash until we get off of Meridian Road.The field was bedded up and planted about two weeks ago. sunflowers sprouting Can you see the sprouts when you look at one of the lines almost right in the middle of the photo? Those are sunflowers.The most exciting thing for the dogs is that the canals were filled about a week ago.On the last walk I noticed that Rusty spent more time than usual in the water. He usually just goes in when he’s hot and gets out again, but this time he spent time cruising (the best way to describe his half walking/half swimming) up the canal. I think his hips are bothering him so much that it felt better to move that way.He also needs help getting out now. Last year I helped Ginny out. This year it will be Rusty. Wet dog.The alfalfa has been cut and baled once already and is now being irrigated. IMG_0886 sunflowers Here is another week’s growth of the sunflowers.The best surprise for Ginny I think is that she got to chase the Toy into the water again. Rusty will have more of these photos on his blog.

Splash Dog!

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Robin

This is the favorite Jump for the Toy spot. I took these photos with the iPhone.

Across the Road Again

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Robin

No big story here. I’m just sharing photos from this evening’s walk with the dogs.

First Ginny had to find her toy. She knows which toy we take on walks (the one that floats). While I stayed near the gate she ran through the bushes, around the garage and found it at the barn.

The sheep are in the pasture closest to the road right now.

It’s dry and dusty now.

Maggie coming when I call.Egrets in the alfalfa field.

Ginny now expects me to help her out of the canal at the steep areas.

A field of green beans.

Ginny and the Drone

Posted on August 9, 2015 by Robin

We had an interesting day here yesterday. Sarah and Bruce Barker of RightAfterThis.com were here to film an episode of a documentary series called Farm to Table and focused, at least for the first episodes, on women in farming. Farm Club members were here to weigh and sort the older lambs and Sarah and Bruce flimed us as well as other aspects of the farm.

The only chance I had to take photos was when I heard Ginny barking at Bruce’s drone. Backgrounds aren’t great and I didn’t have a very long lens so I cropped a lot, but here are the photos I got of Ginny.

Ginny’s Recovery

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Robin

Ginny is at that age where I realized that it was time for her little operation. I’m going to be gone off and on this summer and after I looked up info about dogs coming into heat I realized that I couldn’t leave and think that someone else might have to deal with that. Ginny was a sad puppy when I picked her up from the vet office Wednesday evening. They hadn’t done the spay operation until the afternoon so she was still woozy and tired all night. The next insult was The Cone, but it didn’t hold her down long. She figured out how to pick up her favorite Toy even if i was underneath the cone. This is one day after the spaying and she expected me to throw the Toy. I guess she didn’t read the instructions. This is the next day (2 days after spaying) and she is rolling around with Rusty. No jumping or climbing here and only a little bit of running. Maybe I can discontinue the pain killers.