"A summer's sun is worth the having." - French Proverb

It's HOT.

Yesterday was hot too.... and the day before. This is when I go looking for reasons to love summer.
I found my two new Daylilies blooming for the first time. We bought them last year but I don't remember the names. The yellow/pink one has ruffles...

...that sparkle in the sun as if each ruffle carried water from the plant and overflowed just a little at the end of the flower.Maybe it is nectar that is oozing out of the edges of the flower. What ever it is, the edges glisten with it.

The other one is like an Orchid and ruffled. I love the color which is outlined at the edges of the flower.

How can there be so many different flowers? How can there be such a variety of amazingly beautiful works of art?
These two Daylilies are protected by a high round of chicken wire. The deer love them and we had the audacity to plant them outside the fence, across the driveway. The deer feasted on them last Fall, when we planted them. until we put up the wire fence. They have eaten the tops off of some other Daylilies near the fence that they never touched before. I guess they are animals of whim.... creatures of "lets see what we can chew on to aggravate Farmlady today."
If the deer are hungry they will eat anything. They have even eaten my Iris when food is scarce elsewhere.
I lost my "Bambi" mentality the first year we moved up here. I planted roses. YEP! We had no fencing at the time. YEP! The roses were doing beautifully and had wonderful buds on them. YES THEY DID!
It was May, I think. One night the Deer came to dine. The next morning all my roses were "pruned" of their flower buds. I sat on the porch and cried. By Fall we had our fence up and they had to go find some other naive, country bumpkin to terrorize.
So the heat has arrived and plants like the Rose of Sharon (or Hibiscus Syriacus) are thriving.

Bursting into flower next to the porch.

As much as I hate to admit it, the heat is what creates this perfection. Only in the passion of Summer's intensity does this loveliness appear. It's a love affair of nature with the sun. The flame of a sun's flare reflected in an exquisite scarlet blush of an adoring and waiting loved one. Plant passion.
**************************
What can I say about Summer?
The evenings are beautiful outside.
The nights are wonderfully cool.
The bee's are flying from one flower to the next in frantic gratitude.
The tomatoes are growing and my mouth waters at the thought of home grown in the salad again.
The hills are brown but there is moisture underneath from the late rain that,hopefully, will reduce the fire hazard.
The goats are happy.
The chickens are eating watermelon rinds.
and .... I love my AIR CONDITIONER.

Happy 4th Of July

"Independence: An achievement, not a bequest"

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

Lizzie and the Raised Glazed Donut.... and other stories.

Last Saturday was the first day on our own . Little Lizzie and I were up early. She ate her dog kibble and waited by the door for her family to come home It was going to be a whole week before their return and she, living so vertically in thought, didn't understand the concept of  "a whole week". She just knew something was different.
My brother- in-law arrived with a donut for me. He and my sister live close by. This is kind of a tradition on Saturdays. He takes their son for a drive and they always come back with donuts for everyone. I was surprised but there he was at the door with a beautiful raised glazed donut to go with my morning coffee.
I'm not sure when Lizzie decided to help herself to MY donut. Probably when I went into the kitchen to get a second cup of coffee to go with the donut. I had set it on the table next to the couch and upon my return.... it was gone.
As I said before, she couldn't wipe the smile off of her face. The bag was laying under the table and there were pieces of chewed paper everywhere. It was obvious who ate the donut.

By Sunday, I thought we had dodged a bullet. She seemed just fine.
By Monday, I couldn't understand why my son had been so adamant about not giving her anything but her kibble dog food. But, on Monday morning all hell broke loose.
and I mean loose....
I left for a few hours, putting Lizzie in the kitchen behind a baby gate, to have lunch with my sister. When I got back she had been sick (and otherwise) all over everything. The poor dog was one sick puppy.
I fail to understand how a dog that was bred for the purpose of catching rats in mines... to hunt badgers and foxes, could have a donut do her in. I guess her historic value is a distant memory for this breed and that she is now only been bred for cuteness and sensitivity.

Poor Lizzie.
I called my son and he said this happens every once in a while. Cook some chicken and rice. Feed a little to her three or four times a day and make sure she drinks lots of water.  Well, she didn't want to eat and by Wednesday she was laying around looking pretty bad.

She was drinking water but I guess it wasn't enough. I couldn't take this any longer. I called my son and he agreed.  That afternoon my sister picked us up and drove us to the vet.
She was dehydrated and lethargic. The vet was so nice. She said that these small dogs can't tolerate all that sugar at once and that just drinking small amounts of water was not enough to replace what she lost being sick. They hydrated her, gave her some antibiotics and something to stimulate her appetite. IT WORKED. She came home, slept for a few hours, ate some chicken and cottage cheese and acted like nothing had ever happen. Later she wanted more chicken and cottage cheese.
Thank God!! I really thought that she wasn't going to make it.  I was feeling like a really bad Noni. I think that she was also depressed and missing her family, which didn't help matters either, but the bottom line is  that I should never have put that donut where she could get to it.
 My little family is still feeding my Mom's cat, Honey. She's an outdoor cat and only comes into the backyard to eat and sleep. She is a tough resilient cat that calls her own shots. So when I saw this...

I thought that she was making a statement about how much food she was getting... but NO.
One morning before I left, I heard this loud commotion outside.
A group of crows were flying around the backyard making this huge outcry about something.

and one of them flew down to the table where the cat food was, knocked the cat dish around and picked up a piece of kibble. He  held it in his mouth....

and then flew off ....

with the other crows following him. They could have gotten some pieces from the table too, but it seemed this was some sort of game. Chase the Crow with the Kibble or maybe Kibble Hide and Seek. I don't know but one of the crows returned to grab another piece of food and the whole game started again. Amazing!
Years ago when I was driving down from Oregon I saw a hawk diving into the top of a dust devil in a field next to the highway. The small whirlwind sucked the bird down into the funnel and threw it out the side. The bird flew up and dived into the funnel again and again. I pulled over and watched the hawk do this until the dust devil blew itself out. Why would the bird have flown into the top of this wind accept to have fun? It was a natural amusement park ride for  this bird. I have never forgotten this display of pure avian enjoyment.
Like a dog that rolls it's own ball across the ground and them runs after it and the baby goats that play big goat head butting, animals play games too.
That's so refreshing. It's really wonderful to think that animals are like us in some way..That they like to have fun in their lives too.
 The crows were probably just trying to get kibble from one another.... but I like to think that they were playing some kind of game. It's interesting to watch their behavior.
*******************
Oh, and last week the plumbing decided to act up on my watch. "Glug,glug, glug".  Low and behold, the sewer was backing up into the bathtub. I ran back into the kitchen and it's coming up into the kitchen sink too. I watched in horror as the sink filled with yucky drain water. I turned on the disposal and covered the sink opening with a sponge so it wouldn't end up all over the kitchen.Luckily, it didn't. Everything that came up returned into the drain. I went into the bathroom and the water had receded there too.
Lordy, lordy.... what next? The plumber finally came the day after I left. He "rotor rootered" the pipes and fixed a few other things that were not working well. Another catastrophic disaster averted.
My father use to say that he would always have to call a plumber after I came to visit. It was a joke that we laughed about for years. I think that he was messing with me last week. A joke from beyond the grave.
"Stop messing with me Dad." LOL!

One Home with Many Hearts.

I have been at my son's house. He took his little family to Disneyland. I offered to house sit and take care of Lizzy, their dog.

Last Thursday I arrived at the house and it was the Bean and little Bean's last day of swimming lessons. Their mommy and I drove them down to the old swimming pool at the park. I remember this pool so well. I use to come here on hot summer days to swim and hang with my friends.

That was a long time ago. Now it is my grandchildren who are building memories.

THE BEAN IS SWIMMING!! He is six years old.

FLOATING... doing the BACKSTROKE. He is even coordinating his breathing with his strokes. This is something that his NONI never learned how to do. He was AWESOME in the water. 
He was so pleased with himself.

Can you see the smile? Can you see the new confidence?
*********************

LITTLE BEAN IS FOUR YEARS OLD. He is fearless and wants to do as well as his brother. He is learning to be the Creature from the Black Lagoon.... only cuter.

I want you to know that this is one brave little boy.... after his lessons he jumped off of the diving board for the first time. They had to walk out there by themselves and just off into the deep water. 

This little girl, above, walked halfway out, stopped, turned around and got off. 

I REMEMBER THAT FEELING. I had pigtails too. 
Wait! I remember this like it was yesterday. I could have been that little girl. 
Maybe it was my imagination. I had a de ja vu moment. I understood her completely. I heard her inner voice say, "No way. I'm not jumping into all that water.".... and she didn't. It was a defining moment in her life. Maybe someday but NOT TODAY. ... no way.


I finally jumped off of a diving board when I was 14 years old. I still wasn't ready, but there was this really cute boy watching me. I wanted to make a great impression so I jumped. I almost drowned. I think it was worth all that water up my nose. I really don't remember.  It was not one of my finer moments.
**********************
My grandson was next. He walk right out there and stood on the end of the board. I was fairly close to him so I said. "OK ! You can do it." (even though I was thinking "Maybe you shouldn't do this. You're so little.... wait... what are you doing....) and before I could say "Bonsai Bean", he jumped. 

MY HEART WAS IN MY THROAT! He went under the water, came back up and into the arms of his waiting instructor. We all shouted "That a boy!!", "All right!".... and I took a deep breath.

Little Bean got to play in the water fountain area for a few minutes....
Then he started to look cold....

Then he was shaking.....

Time to take the wet shirts off and wrap them in warm dry towels.

 Time to go home... with their special awards. 

Now they were full fledged, official water beans. They were tired and cold .... but proud.
*********************

When my son came home from work they packed up and got into the car. They would drive about three hours south and stop somewhere overnight. Tomorrow....
DISNEYLAND, Lego Land and the beaches of Southern California.

I waved goodbye and walked back into the empty house.

This is the house that I was raised in. My parents bought this house in 1950. After Mom died, my son and his family moved here. They have been living here for about two years.

Even a year ago I would not have been able to stay here. Too many memories, too much sadness about my parents. It was very difficult to be here, in the house, without memories flooding into my heart and mind. 
Now, it's different. 
Grief is a odd thing, isn't it? Life goes on. The sadness lessens and now the old house has the laughter of my grandchildren in it. This laughter becomes the magic that brings change and chases away the scary remains of a house filled with 50 years of memories.
It's OK now. It's the way that it should be.
Now, my son's family will write their own story, here, and I will be a part of it again.


Lizzy and I would wait for them to return.

 Lizzy and I would "hold down the fort". It's only one week.
What could possibly go wrong?..... 

I'm not Basking in the Bahamas.

Contrary to public opinion, I'm not sunbathing at the beach, enjoying a fun workshop or shopping til I drop. I'm house sitting.
Please disregard the sad puppy post yesterday. Cutter was eliciting sympathy and he got it. (click on comments).
All is well. I'm in charge of a very tiny Yorkshire Terrier that is a Pit Bull in disguise.... very funny little girl. Yesterday morning I left a donut in a bag on the table in the livingroom and guess who ate it for breakfast. Never underestimate a determined little dog when donuts are involved. She is fine. I was told she has a sensitive digestive system. Well.... the donut didn't come back up. It settled in her little stomach nicely.... and I swear she had a smile on her face all morning.  I suppose I didn't need the donut anyway.
Lizzie wants out at around 6:00 a.m. and breakfast right after that. She has dinner at 6:00 p.m. sharp. She hates cats. She loves company and she misses her family. She is also a very good watchdog.
Cutter and Carl need to cut me a little slack. They are getting extra love and puppy cookies from the Prospector back at the ranch. THE ARE JUST FINE.

Sneeking away without telling

"Farmlady is gone again, for a while. She says that she will be back next Thursday. I don't like this one bit. She needs to be here.... for us.
 Carl is behind me. He's not talking. He's got an attitude right now.
This means that until Farmlady comes home we have to let the Prospector do everything for us. Right now he is working on a shed in the backyard. We can't go out there with him because it's a big area and there might be rattlesnakes. So we get to go out in the front yard or stay inside with NOBODY to play with and no laps to sit on.
This is not a good situation for us Corgis.  Farmlady better come home soon.
This is my serious puppy face. It's suppose to get sympathy from all of Farmlady's followers.
 Please write us and make us feel better.  Love, Cutter. Woo, woo! "

A Goat and Lamb's Woolly Kind of Day

Went to our Goat Meeting on Saturday in Wilton, in the valley... to a farm I had not been to before. 

Lots of goats...

One buck that looked suspiciously like my Nubian Wether, Bart. Could it be that this handsome guy and my Bart have some shared genes? We know the same people. I bought from the same breeder.

You just have to love these Nubians... look at that face.
But, this breed (below) has a different look.

They have no ears. They are LaMancha goats and you can read about them here.  They were very curious and friendly. One followed me around the whole time we were out in the field with them. She kept rubbing against me like an old friend. She was just so lovable and cute.

Speaking of cute... Here's your "Awww!" for the day.
These baby were very reserved and keeping an eye on Mom. They wouldn't let me get too close.
But the Nubian kids (below) were falling all over themselves and being so lovable that I wanted to bring them home with me.

The "nubies" were prancing around and playing games in the sunshine. It was as if they knew just how cute they were.

Then we went to see the sheep. I was told that I could have some fleece after the shearing about a month ago. The owner said that I could have it all if I wanted it. Well....
"Baa, baa Dorset sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Fifteen bags full."
(Please forgive the adaptation of the old nursery rhyme.)
I could have brought home 15 bags of wool fleece. I chose one bag..

I don't know how much is in this bag but it's a lot. It's dirty stuff..., full of lanolin, grass and sheep poop.

"Thanks ladies"

Thank ewe (I mean you) wonderful animals. You will be cooler this summer and I will learn the process of taking sheep wool from animal to artistic endeavor.
Yesterday I pulled a big hand full out of the bag and after going online to learn how to clean raw wool, I took a small bunch of this...

 ...the dirty, lanolin laden fleece of a yearling Dorset sheep....washed it (long process that I will explain later), dried it and carded it.
This is what it looks like now. Amazing!? Yes it is.

It's clean, soft and beautiful. It's ready for a felting project or spinning into yarn. But spinning means that I need to buy some spinning equipment.. and as much as I would love to have a spinning wheel, which I have no room and is very expensive,
I think my first investment will be a small drop spindle. It won't hurt to learn from scratch. The drop spindle is the oldest way of making yarn from fleece. Here's a site that explains what a drop spindle is and does.
I love the "Warning" at the top of the link page.
I haven't gotten the "spinning" bug, yet, but I sure know what happens when the" felting" bug hits. It's like no other illness. You feel great. You don't have to stay in bed and you accomplish something while you're "under the weather". The "felting" bug is rather mild except when you find yourself hunting in the corners of you're house for fur and asking friends for their dog or cat hair. I have tried to felt everything that I can possibly think of around here, including dryer fluff and dog hair. It's just ridiculous what these passions do to you. You look at animal fur in a whole new way.
Seeing this fleece go from dirty and sticky to clean and white makes me want to spend HOURS washing and drying this stuff.

 It will probably be more like DAYS of washing and drying.... but I'm game.
Someone back in ancient times looked at a sheep or goat and thought that if the fur kept an animal warm why wouldn't it work for humans too... and so the process began.
This disentanglement from modern living has been going on for a long time with me. I don't trust the future of technology. I use it and I enjoy a lot of it, but I don't trust that it will always be here.
When I wash this fleece and make felt, I feel  connected to some ancient human who lived many centuries ago, a person that  lived close to the earth and lived his or her live with what was found in nature.. It was a matter of survival for them. For me it's a connection to that tradition,  wanting to learn what they knew. Wanting to bridge that distant time when what we did mattered and life was lived elementally.
Life was harder, physically, but the process was there. I find it hard to believe that all of this technology isn't going to collapse someday in the future and I would like to think that knowing how to make clothing by felting some fibers... or fishing in a river... will come in handy. I may never have to worry about it in my lifetime, but I want to show my grandchildren how to do this, just in case.
It's also just a lot of fun.

This beautiful animal agrees. She says, "I grow this fleece every year and you can have all you want. Just let my people know that you want some and zip, zip, zip... it's all yours. I'm ready for my Mary Jane's Farm Magazine "close up" this summer. Now, all I have to do is find a shady spot, some ice tea and and a handsome leading man. I'm all set for lights, camera.... action."

You go girl!

A River, a Gold Mine and Lunch at a Friend's

Thursday was  one of those days that California is known for and why so many of us live here. Sunny, dry, and beautiful. The temperature reached, maybe 85 degrees and there was a light wind.
I had a date for lunch at a friend's house in Wallace. It's about an hours drive from our house, if you know where you're going or have been there before.
I went the back way, across the Mokelumne River and over Gwin Mine Rd. into Paloma. It was a lovely drive. Part of my late arrival was wanting to take so many pictures along the way, but I DID GET LOST.... kind of.

The Gwin Mine is for sale if you're interested.  It was a very productive gold mine back in the day and, as they say, "Gold is where you find it." You can read the history here.
I think that these old stone foundations would make a very interesting and unique house.
I drove over to Paloma and then on to Valley Springs. I had directions to my friend's house but I had never driven down this way before so, at some point,  I thought that I wasn't going the right direction. I stopped and asked an electric line man who was very nice and knew the area. He sent me on my way with a new perspective and renewed confidence.
I was only about 15 or 20 minutes late.

I arrived at "M"'s charming home and she was waiting out front with a big smile and a wave. We had ice tea on the porch while a cow grazed nearby....

She had prepared a delicious lunch which we enjoyed while talking our heads off about all kinds of things... and then I got a tour of her farm.
There is a huge storage/ workshop that I would kill for (probably not a person... but maybe a rattlesnake.) and it was organized, as this friend always is. She is a person of perfection and an artist. There is a work "area" for every artistic endeavor, shelving and places to store everything.
This is a very useful space...

AND, a BARN too....

You will never guess who was waiting inside this barn for me.  It was the brother of the Alligator Lizard that had the near death experience with my cat, Annie. (The post before this one.) This one was waiting as we walked inside and it didn't move the whole time we were in the barn. This lizard looked right at me as if to say,
" Hey, lady! Are you the owner of that cat over near Jackson who attacked my bro' and you just kept taking pictures?. I heard about you and THAT cat."
Maybe this lizard just thought he owned the place. I don't know, but it was downright spooky the way he watched me.
The barn is empty now. "M" said her horse died a while back. She showed me the stalls, the tack and the saddle. I didn't ask too many questions. I could tell that "M" didn't want to talk about the horse.
Cows were too much for she and her husband to deal with. They both worked at the time. Not enough fencing and ... just a lot of problems. Now, she only has the black and white one on the porch.
Each of these buildings, the barn and the workshop, are bigger than her house. Now that's what I call getting your priorities straight.
This is eleven acres of flat usable land and I, having lived on the edge of a cliff for fifteen years, really appreciate the fact that ALL the acreage is usable. We own 42 acres but we live on about two acres. The rest is all up and down hill like a roller coaster.

"M" has charming little vignettes on her porch that runs the length of the house and these beautiful Cymbidiums (orchids) blooming and thriving all over the place.

They're awesome.
It was a quiet, peaceful and lovely place.. just across the street from Comanche Reservoir. The closest town is called Wallace, which only has a post office. If you want to spend some money you have to drive to Valley Springs or San Andreas or... my town, Jackson... or drive down into the valley to Stockton.
I spent the afternoon and then headed back to Jackson via ...

Passing the old stone foundation again...

I thought about the history that is so ever-present in this area and how lucky I'm an to be living in such a beautiful historic part of Northern California. I just know that  there is still GOLD around here. I can smell it.
Oh, maybe that's the Broom.

The Broom bushes are thriving with all the late rain. They may grow right over the road soon.

Even the wildflowers were still showing off along the road.
I drove on, over the bridge that crosses the wide Mokelumne and headed north. I know this road well. It's the road home.
*************************
Tomorrow.... goats in Wilton and clearing the space for the potting shed.