Second taste of Fair; endless summer

I was asked to be a spinning volunteer at the State Fair, so I signed up for Monday after work and this coming Sunday afternoon. It was nice to sit or stand and spin in an air-conditioned building on a hot day, and I got to take a quick turn around the Creative Living building during a bathroom break, snapping a few photos as is my wont.

Other volunteers were spinning, weaving, and knitting

My spinning, my view

More quilts; one of my Fair favorites

These two stopped by our area; I put a mounting video on Instagram

Beautiful felt picture; no idea why it didn't get a blue ribbon

SQUEE; adorable, whimsical miniature 'homes'!

A client of Rick's created this sculpture at the entrance of the building

One of the display gardens

Some chainsaw art on my way out

Tuesday I do-si-doed with the body shop, trying to coordinate work on two vehicles' windshields. That failed (the glass company drove out to our house to do the work yesterday), but one of my two trips to town was not for naught. I picked up layer mash for the hens, and drove out to Finnicum Fruit Farm to get peaches for us and a neighbor. When I discovered he also had nectarines, I had to get a box of them, too. I LOVE nectarines, but haven't managed to choose good ones at stores for years. These are fresh from the orchard and delicious; I've been eating several a day and will freeze what I can't keep up with.

Today Stella and I are heading to the State Fair to participate on Team Morgan in the Battle Between Breeds class, three years to the day that I rode a Shire in the Draft Horse Under Saddle class. And maybe, hopefully, pleaseohPLEASEmakeitso, this will be the last 90°-or-higher day we see here this year. It's been a long, hot summer; I'm toast. But my deck geraniums are still happy, and I picked the first tomato from my garden pot this week!

That's it for now from . . .

First taste of Fair

Last night I went with Rick on his evening State Fair check-in. Walking through all the animal areas, a few things caught my fancy. There were some COVID-cautious small ruminants; a very sleepy sheep; a couple cute camelids; and a pile o' piglets:

After Rick had completed his rounds, we both got raspberry milkshakes at the Dairy Barn and wandered around the rest of the fairgrounds to see what we could see. It was late, so the Creative Living building (my favorite) was already closed, but I'll get to see that tomorrow when I'm demonstrating in the spinning circle. Some fire dancers gathered quite a crowd; watching fire flicker seems universally mesmerizing:

Today there were a couple more 'first tastes.' Our hay guy called, so we picked up the 50 bales he had for us. Gorgeous green second cutting for the sheep (first photo); no more mature seedheads in their neck wool! Obviously this is only a start on what we need for the coming year, but we are glad to have it – and so are the sheep. As soon as we feed up the rest of last year's first cutting (second photo) to the horses, we'll be moving in at least eight tons of this year's crop for them, and looking for more sheep hay.

And I got my first taste out of my new sheep mug. It was on sale because the glaze was heavy and obscured the design, but I still love it:

Finally, a huge thank-you to all who commented or emailed after my last post! It is so nice to know there are real people behind all those visits Blogger records; I hope you'll keep saying "Hi" – at least once in awhile!

That's it for now from . . .

Will you do me a favor?

"I see you; come talk to me!"

"Wait; what about me?"

Blogger tells me that my last blog post has had 71 views, but no one has left a comment. Is it just me that thinks it odd that 71 people have stopped by but haven't said so much as "Hi"? Maybe you can't; maybe something in the settings is 'broken.' If that's the case, you should be able to contact me using the hot link at right that says "Email me!"; it's the first item under the word "LINKS." Let me know if the 'comments' function is broken or difficult, so I can improve it if possible.

From my own experience, particularly this past spring, I know that sometimes I'm too overwhelmed in my  own life to do more than read others' blogs. If this is you right now, I understand and I'm sorry. Here's some beauty for your troubled soul:

Wanting to connect at . . .

Fun, sun, spun

Before this weekend rolls around, I want to share photos from our little beach excursion last weekend. We attended a going-away get-together for a gal Brian went to high school with; she and another schoolmate are going as nursing student missionaries for a school year. Poppy came along, of course.

It was cooler on the coast than inland, but by no means chilly. It was a truly beautiful, still evening, and a lot of people were out enjoying it.

Sunday evening's sunset colors at home (looking north and east) were very pretty, too:

Monday morning I looked ENE and saw hot air balloons rising with Mt. Adams visible beyond:

Even though it's been hot, some sourdough starter had to be harvested so I made another batch of bread. It drooped over the side of my pizza stone but that's okay; I had a cucumber to fit the curve!

Rick is the veterinarian for the State Fair again this year, so he's been getting up early to do a walk-through of the animals arriving before taking care of his regular calls. (The State Fair opens to the public tomorrow but Rick started Tuesday.) Before he leaves he lets Poppy in the bedroom to snuggle with me for a bit before we go out to do chores.

Poppy hunts; Chuckie supervises

I finished spinning the colorful batts I bought at Black Sheep Gathering, and have started spinning this black alpaca/Merino/Tussah that I got in a TdF prize drawing to ply with them. It's making fun yarn!

That's it for now from . . .