The trip to Sturgis was wonderful. It had been some time since I had visited. The weather was hot and dry, with the area suffering from a drought. My dad has become quite the story teller of farming with horses in the old days, stories of WWII, and such. They keep busy raising 10 calves, and 70 chickens. My dad has a regular weekly route delivering eggs in town, and they have many visitors that while initially coming to buy eggs, remain to visit, drink coffee and eat cookies.

I came home with a true heirloom. My mother is a fabulous quilter, and has completed many. The treasure is a quilt she started before I was born. It is the flower basket design, and completely hand sewn and hand quilted. I finally talked her into allowing me to bring it home. Much of the vintage fabric in the quilt are leftovers from dresses and shirts she made for us as children. I am able to identify some including fabric from a dress made for me when I was four years old. What a treasure!

Being gone for three weeks obviously got me behind schedule. When I left, it was still summer, when I returned there was a hint of fall in the air.

The apple trees produced very well this year. The trees are old and long abandoned in the creek bottom, and yet, you could see the many apples on the low hanging branches. Many have been picked and now sit in the spare room closet, the coolest place in the house. Later, if there are any left, they will be dried and will accompany us on our journey.

The mushroom season is on again, and we have enjoyed them with eggs for breakfast, and a delicious soup for the evening meal.

Roger will be taking three weeks off in November to make a trip to Arizona. It is my turn to stay home and care for the goats. He will be renting a caterpillar while there to cut a driveway, and some pads for housing and a well. He will also try and put up some fence. The fall is beautiful, the temperature more moderate during the day, and cooler at night. It will be a great time to be there.

Besides caring for the goats, I will continue the packing process, and finishing up some projects. My third shawl is almost complete, and then I will break down the triangle loom for moving. I have started knitting some scarves again, and plan of spinning enough yarn to keep me busy knitting. I also have a quilt to get ready. I will baste a back and a bat to it, and then will lap quilt by hand. No, I am not giving up my other fiber arts, just merely laying them aside for awhile. There will be no room in our travel trailer to use a lot of large equipment. So I merely have to find other ways to keep myself out of mischief.

One BIG project we did get started was the trailer Roger is building in order to haul the goats when we make our move to Arizona in January. We had been given an old travel trailer, which we had used for storage. Being ones to never buy when we can build, it was decided to tear that old thing down to the frame and building what I am referring to as the critter camper. The daunting task was to get it torn down. I promised to help with the destruction. So on a hot Saturday afternoon, with a cooler of Gatorade, and tools, we drove over to our old property in Camas Valley where the trailer was located. With the aid of the greatest tool ever invented, the cordless drill, we started to dismantle, taking all the aluminum off for recycling. Surprisingly, within a few hours, the top was ready to pull over. Roger hooked a chain to it. It was a simple task for the old Chevy 4x4, and the top was down, making it easier to take apart. By the end of the afternoon, the top was gone, and the truck loaded with all the scrap wood to haul to the dump. The following weekend, we were able to finish the task, and the trailer was down to the floor. In the days that followed, Roger finished taking off the floor, and prepped all the aluminum for the recyclers, making a whopping $55.00 in its sale. It wasn’t the idea that we would make a lot of money selling said scrap, it was a matter that it was better going to the recycler than a landfill. The trailer now sits in our drive, and plans are underway in it’s rebuilding.

We are planning a trip to the new property the first two weeks of September. It will be a working vacation. We will be renting a cat in order for Roger to cut a driveway and a pad. We are taking the travel trailer down, which will be our home until we build. So I am in the process of loading it and our van with nonessentials to take, thereby lightening the load for the final move. Roger is busy checking out the vehicles, changing oil, checking tires, repacking bearings, and all those other things he does to keep our older vehicles in top running order. He is a wonderful mechanic, and has a great intuitiveness of how things are put together, how they work, and how they should be maintained.

Our green pastures are littered with those bundles of fiber on the hoof we call goats. Their fleeces are growing well, they are healthy, and if goats are happy, they are that too. Shearing is just around the corner, and each night at feeding time, I look over the herd, and see those beautiful kids with their long fine hair, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. The adults are wearing some pretty fine fleece themselves, shiny, and clean.

I have managed to regain my pleasure in painting the gourds. For some time, they had been a burden to paint, and it had become a chore. But now, after changing my style of painting and doing some things differently, I have regained my enthusiasm, along with a huge burst of creativity. I have finished a large order for Feminine Mystique, the gallery in Tubac, and still excited to sit down and paint some more. I made my first mask, and it turned out great. I have another gourd cut and the idea for making at least one more. I never really believed that artists could have blocks, but having experienced a huge one for some time, it feels really good to be able to create again, and take pleasure in doing so.

The triangle loom is getting a work out. I completed the second shawl, and have started a third, this one being made of rainbow dyed mohair in the colors of cardinal red, royal blue, brown, teal, and dark green. The colors sound somewhat odd, but the finished yarn is rich with the deep colors. I taught myself to Navajo ply, a technique in plying with a single strand of yarn. The finished 3 ply yarn is of a perfect size to weave with, making a shawl that is light and airy, and draping wonderfully.

And I am washing wool. Other fiber friends have been shouting the wonders of a product for washing wool called Eccoscour. I had never considered using it before due to the cost, but not being happy with other products, I decided to give it a chance. It is wonderful, and I have found that it costs less in the long run, as I am able to get clean fleeces with only one wash, eliminating the cost of a second wash. It has become my product of choice.

Well folks, stayed tuned. The next missive will be filled with the wonders of the new property. Though I have been in the general vicinity, I have yet to lay my eyes on it. I am very excited about walking and getting acquainted with the 61 acres of high desert that we are already calling home.

  JoAnne takes a writing break this time as I try to put down some words about my activities recently.

    October was a very busy time as I tried to get ready for my Nov. 1 trip to Arizona.  I had the travel trailer ready ahead of time and JoAnne had it packed full of things I would need and also things that we could move to the property on this trip.   I had to work 22 hours of overtime that last week, leaving for work in the dark and coming home at night in the dark, so the pickup did not get packed until the morning I left.  There may have been a few things that I should have added, but I had a heavy load of tools, battery-charging alternater, 110 generator, water barrels, etc. when I pulled out.  I found that I had too much weight on the pickup rear axle, but shifting things around in the trailer and truck; plus adding air to the tires, put me in good shape and away I went.

    The trip was uneventful, I arrived in the area of the property early the third day, actually resting up on the way.  There was no road  to pull the trailer on to the property.  I parked it nearby on a neighbors parcel who had given me the OK ahead of time.  I was able to drive the truck up a wash onto the property to off-load some of the extra cargo, lightening the load for commuting to town.  Now I could further explore the land we had purchased. I tried to find our back corner (a section corner), but could not. My main concern at the time, however, was what was I going to do for a cat (dozer) in order to get a road into the property for the travel trailer, build roads, fence-line, house and barn pads, and so on.  I had tried to reserve a rental but several weeks prior none was to be available at the time I wanted it.  I started inquiring about hiring work done, I had a lead, but the success of my trip was in question at that time.

    When I called JoAnne that evening, she had news!  The owner of the cat had called her to let me know the JD 450G was now available, and in the local town.  I made arrangements the next day, and early Wednesday morning, less than two days after I arrived, I was walking the crawler up the road towards the property, with 7 days to utilize it 40 hours on the meter.  I had originally wanted  to plan out the work for another couple of days before I started work, but I knew where I needed to get started.   I pushed in a road , located a good place for a temporary camp, and soon had the trailer parked on level ground.  After I walked about a mile to get the truck, that is.

    One of my goals was to improve several building sites for our later use.  Not that we need more than one, but I want JoAnne to have a choice.  She had been very close to the property and loved the area, but had not actually set foot on it.  I had taken photos prior to our decision to purchase the land.   I soon had the property lines figured out and put roads up to all the potential building sites.   Some are very lofty, probably best suited for a water storage or windmill. I eventually found the section corner and became familiar with the extent of the 61 acres. 

    Another job for the dozer was to make fence line.  I would be doing work with the cat for fencing projects far into the future while I had use of it.  

A paddock to hold the animals when we make our final move had to be fenced while I was there if possible.  This I did not quite finish as I ran out of barbed wire the day before I was to depart. I had to anchor the posts down with large rocks at the corners.  Still I am pleased with all that I did accomplish.   We have a fencing standard in the covenant, in part  because we have to fence out the open-ranged cattle and the fences need to be up to the task.  Once they are fenced out, the grazing lease on that portion is terminated.  We also have to fence our critters in.

 I also worked at clearing brush where there is rich soil in the flat 'bottom' land.  Some of the live oak trees were 5 or 6 inches in diameter.  As I clear more for the garden/orchard area,  I will use the wood for firewood.  There is also lots of deadwood for firewood.

    Much of the property is sloping to the north, and is covered with lots of goat fodder.  I just love the different cacti that are found there, especially on south facing hills.  Also the yucca and grass that looks like pampas grass.  Pine, Juniper and Ash are the largest trees.  An old desert willow may show the location of a spring.  The altitude ranges from less than  4400' to over 4800' in elevation so we anticipate that the summer heat will be moderated by the altitude.  It was quite frosty there in early November.  I learned that the area was used to pasture angora goats in earlier times. A local catskinner (dozer man) told me the mohair grows finer when goats are grazed there.  This is what we had planned for.  All in all it seems a perfect place for "Hideaway Homestead".  Roger Thrush.