Ye old stomping grounds

I've gone to visit my mother et al in Lincoln, NE and returned home again. I meant to do a quick post before I left, took my laptop along and thought I might be able to do a post while there, and now . . . well. I don't know how quickly I will be able to edit photos and finish this, but "a journey of a thousand miles . . ." and all that. When you see this, it's obviously done.

The high points of my trip were seeing old friends and visiting my old stomping grounds. I'm terrible at selfies so there are no photos of me or my three friends😢, but I did take photos of my alma mater and the associated church where I got married. All have changed in 41 years of course; the church has been added onto and college (now university) buildings have disappeared (notably the old science building where my FIL taught and the art building; I had classes in both), expanded, and appeared in the intervening years. Much of this I have seen, at least from the outside, in previous visits, but this time I got to see the improvements and additions from the inside as one of my friends is now a professor at the university and gave me a guided tour.

the old science building and my FIL's office were to the left of this arch

the old gym, where I played volleyball (for fun)

one of the expanded buildings, and two of the programs the school is now known for

the girls' dorm, where I lived for four years

inside the new gym, above and below

the iconic clocktower

MUCH newer art, carved from a dead(?) tree

the expanded college/university church (only the part to the right of the cross was there in the 80s)

the outside of the stained glass panels (next three photos) in the original church building

we were married here the last weekend before the pipe organ installation began

Seeing my mom was both good and hard. Except for the Sabbath hours, meeting up with friends (one each Saturday, Sunday, and Monday), having one quick coffee break with my sister, and going out for an early birthday dinner with Mom, my sister, and her family, I stayed busy helping Mom from morning to bedtime. We threw out empty boxes and useless things and put stuff out on the freebie table in her apartment complex*, shredded old documents, rearranged furniture, set up her TV, made a rhubarb crisp (instead of birthday cake, with rhubarb from the complex's garden), coordinated needs with the complex's handyman, hung pictures and photos, and tried to get her NE driver's license and car registration (when that failed, I started applying online for missing documents**). We made visible progress, but I felt frustrated that I couldn't do more for her and save my sister and BIL additional effort and time off work.

my lovely mother

The entrance to her apartment complex.

The units on the front side face the treed driveway and can see nothing else.

The units on the back side see only green fields and the back of the Holmes Lake dam.

Mom's apartment is second to last on the left, ground floor.

Holmes Lake. The top of the dam is a wonderful walking path.

*There is NO rhyme or reason in what she brought to Lincoln and what she left behind in TX.

** Mom either doesn't have or has no idea where copies of her birth certificate, marriage licenses, Dad's death certificate, or her car title are. Any of these could have been inadvertently tossed, are still in unlabeled boxes and file folders in her apartment, or were left in her TX house and tossed out with all that she left behind. Getting replacement copies takes time, money, and in some cases, information that she can no longer remember accurately.  😳🙄😩😢

I kept up with my daily step goal throughout the trip, and spun a lot of silk while traveling. This was the first time I've been to PDX since its major renovation, which made my favorite airport even better. I acted like a tourist and took photos!

the Denver airport does have a view of the Rockies, though

on my way to Nebraska

in Nebraska, against Mom's coordinating blouse

on the way home

Now home again, home again, which feels so good but is always so busy. In spite of washing my hands of the rest of the prunes when I left, I couldn't resist picking enough to fill the dehydrator one more time when I got back. In the meantime, Rick and Brian got the rest of the dead fir from our lower pasture moved into the woodshed. The garden needs attention; I harvested most of what I need for a big pasta salad and a big batch of pesto but haven't touched the tomatoes yet. Next week is supposed to be wet; I foresee baking and applesauce-making in my near future.

Poppy and I have an agility match this Sunday and when we get home a buyer is arriving to pick up young Bryan as a flock sire; hurray! Maybe he'll look around and want to take a ewe or two....

That's it for now from . . .

Hopping and dropping

An Easter Eve sunset from horseback

On Easter morning I 'hopped' into both Brian's room and ours to give my lie-abed guys some Fortunato treats – causing some alarm before I informed them I was their 'Easter bunny' (maybe some rabbit ears would have helped explain my ponderous jumping?). Then I dashed off to an agility fun match with Poppy for the morning. Back home, I caught Bridget and sheared her; I told myself I had to take advantage of a few nice days to shear the three pregnant ewes, and made a good start. Only Bridget isn't pregnant!

Poppy enjoying a sunny bathroom spot after agility in the morning

Bridget is in good flesh, but disappointingly not pregnant

Work and errands on Monday didn't leave enough time to shear someone that afternoon, so I planned to shear both Broadway and Boop on Tuesday. Ha; Broadway took way longer than I hoped and behaved very badly at one point, trying to hang herself from the head rest which necessitated releasing her so she could drag her half-sheared fleece across the ground. ARGHHH. I had to physically wrestle her back onto the stand and onto her feet; by the end I could barely drag myself up to the house to drop into my recliner.

Broadway's fleece has developed interesting mottling

Definitely pregnant when viewed from front and rear

Even though today was much cooler and cloudy, I am nothing if not determined, so I dressed in warm layers and set up at the barn aisle entrance (in case it showered) to shear Boop. I don't know why, but I am getting slower at doing this myself. Part of it is that my fleeces have gotten denser and finer over the years (as evidenced by micron testing; very happy with this year's results) which makes them harder to shear with scissors as I do, and I think part of it this year is trying to shear at a less than optimal point in the rise. At any rate, Boop eventually HAD ENOUGH, making Broadway's bad behavior the day before look like a little snit. Boop thrashed herself off the stand repeatedly, making me fear for her safety and forcing me to heave my biggest sheep back in place multiple times; and yes, she managed to drag half of her fleece across the dirty ground, too. I don't want to admit how many hours it took me to finish shearing her, or how close I came to sobbing with exhaustion. That's one third of the flock finished; can I make it through the rest? Give me a few days to recover; I'm sure I'll forge on, at least through this year's fleece harvest.

Also obviously pregnant; sorry, lambies, for the wrestling matches!

Here is one of the waiting two thirds, and the sire of the coming lambs. One of Sanson's leg straps came unstitched so I caught him to swap coats and took a photo. His hogget fleece, with its variations, will make gorgeous yarn; next year it will likely be uniformly light. Hopefully it will stay uniformly soft and fine; his micron test results are 22 AFD, 5 SD, 22.6 CV, 8.3 CEM, 21.7µ SF.

Before it gets too far past to share, here are photos from a recent 'field trip.' Our church women's ministries organized an outing to the Willamette Heritage Center on March 26. I wasn't planning to go, but one of the leaders urged me. She took weaving classes at the Center and gave me my loom, so thought I'd enjoy it (plus they needed more bodies). Even though I've been to the annual "Magic at the Mill" Christmas event several times, I got to see much more of the Heritage Center during this visit, and of course was much more interested in the weavers and looms that occupy the fourth floor of the old mill building now that I'm weaving myself. As a bonus, the PNW Community Coral Reef Project was on display in the Mill Building!

The millrace that powered the mill for most of its existence

I was amazed to learn that the crown gear teeth are made of wood!

That diagonal pipe was used to BLOW wool from one building to another

I liked, but didn't buy, this t-shirt in the gift shop

That inspired me to dress my loom with the warp I'd wound and get to work. This black cotton warp is long enough for two rugs plus a 'dummy warp;' I'll be able to tie on to this existing warp instead of starting from scratch.

First rug finished

That's it from the pooped shepherd at . . .