Can't beat the views!

With a mixture of anticipation and concern, Rick, Poppy, and I headed out last Saturday in our pickup and camper for an overnight stay at Mt. Adams Horse Camp. We planned to be there for the informal worship service . . . but did make it in time for the potluck lunch. (My honey is not a morning person. 😏)

The traffic wasn't horrible, but it is definitely getting heavier. The parking lot at Multnomah Falls was full; good thing we didn't want to stop there. Crossing the Columbia River on the narrow steel grate bridge at Hood River was much less hair-raising without the horse trailer in tow. Once over the river, we began my favorite part of this drive – onward and upward towards Mt. Adams. The first glimpses as you near Trout Lake, WA are always impressive; I waited until I had an unobstructed view to get a good shot:

The next morning, when I took Poppy out for her morning constitutional:

It was sad to see so much ground showing on the mountain this early, but the lack of snow cover is not surprising given our dry late spring. Still, the wildflowers were out in force, and we made the most of them with two long walks accompanied by Rick's office manager and her two dogs. I think I have photos of every wildflower I saw except for the wild rose; I flubbed its portrait.

Other scenes from our walks:

There were lots of dogs in our group that I didn't get photos of; I was busy managing Poppy's leash so she could play as much as possible. Most of our group also brought horses (and there were many more campers with horses not in our group); I missed getting to ride but it was nice to be able to set up and break down camp so quickly without them, and not have to worry about escapees in the night or highline accidents.

We left on Sunday around 1:00, stopping in Trout Lake for our annual treat of huckleberry milkshakes. They were tasty but very dear; I don't think we'll be indulging in them again. On the way down to the gorge, Rick pulled over so we could take pictures of the beautiful 'blue'-flowering bushes along the road, and captured a couple other lower-elevation wildflowers as well.

And then, there was "our" mountain – Mt. Hood – beckoning from across the river:

crossing back into Oregon

So that was our little get-away, short and sweet. What we found when we got home soured things a little; our boy seems to delight in flaunting all the rules. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Here we go again

Help; I'm buried under another avalanche of blog fodder and photos! I was going to get the blog-ball rolling over the holiday weekend, but between unloading and putting away stuff on Sunday (see next paragraph) and unloading and stacking 122 70# bales Monday (without the teenager's help), I couldn't muster the time+energy. I did find enough energy Monday evening to saddle up my mustang to get the mail, and got treated to a lovely sunset on the way!

first load in (to the left of the post; old hay on the right)

second load on trailer

two loads stacked; one or two more loads yet to get

Rick, Poppy, and I had a lovely little get-away with friends (tons of photos to share from that; will do a separate post).

Our garden is mostly taking off. Everything is germinating well except one hill of zucchini (one sprout so far) and the saved bush beans (zero germination; will buy a packet of seeds to sow the empty row). The starts are all looking good except the Armenian cucumbers; hoping they will start thriving. These photos were taken Monday except for the last shot, which was taken this morning. Two tomatoes and both tomatillos have blossoms!

The weather has heated up; feels like mid to late summer. I have the heat pump set to keep the house from getting warmer than 80 or 81 degrees, and it has been running much of the day. Brian has been doing field work out in this heat, then heading to the river to swim afterwards. Almost sounds refreshing, but our two local rivers are quite polluted. And my poor DH; the AC in his vet truck isn't working.

On Monday, Berlin got 'shot' – with her first CD&T vaccination. She's not quite so sure about me now. And I'm not at all sure that Vienna is nursing her anymore. I've seen Berlin checking out several other ewes for potential snacks and haven't seen her allowed to suckle mom, and Vienna's udder has shrunk down considerably. Berlin should do just fine; she's the same age Blake was when his mother died and he didn't get any supplementation.

Still spinning away on my "Theresa's Pink" roving; just switched to a pretty new Jenkins spindle. Tim, the chatoyance in this Koa is incredible!

The chickies are changing; I visited them Tuesday after work.

ten of the remaining thirteen (five have been sold)

my partridge Whiting Green is striking!

her name is Chippy

both my Whiting Greens, Dot and Chippy

Kate wants to keep the other two partridge chicks and the Brahma. So I think I'll get one of the two other chicks with white wing feathers and one of the two gold chicks with patterned wing feathers to 'match' my two Whiting Greens. I don't really need four, but with the age of my adults there will be natural attrition sooner rather than later.

Lots of news to come on the dressage blog!

That's it for now from . . .