Seas the day........

Many thanks to all for letting me vent on this blog about the fire, it sure helps my mental health to be able to do that. The fire is still raging this morning, more resources arriving all the time. Having 100 + temps does not help with the fire fight.  Friday a dry front is supposed to come through with added winds - not a good thing. The smoke yesterday was in the highest hazard level, this morning a bit better. This fire won't be out until fall/winter rains but hopefully it will be contained before too many more losses.......hope, hope...........

I don't think I ever posted these cross stitches that I finally got framed.  I stitched them quite a few years ago, just hadn't added charms. A couple months ago I added the charms and stretched them over foam core and took them to Michael's for framing during one of their 70% off sales. I love how they turned out - they're now ready to hang at the beach cottage.  Not sure if the charms are easy to see in the mermaid piece, they're all different. The matt is actually silver - love the way it turned out.

I love the shell piece  - the charms on this one are all cockle shells.

And then there's this sweet little piece, looks big here but it's really very small. It's hard to see but there are pulled threads in this one.  I'm pretty sure all three of these will end up in our bedroom as other walls are pretty full but the bedroom walls are lacking.  I still have many cross stitch pieces done over a span of 30 years that need to be up on walls, on pillows, whatever - maybe this winter I'll figure out what to do with them all even if it's giving some away because I have nowhere for them. 
 

This and that............

 'This' is a warp of some holiday towels that are on the loom right now. it's an undulating twill that many made candy cane towels out of several years ago.  They're fun. 

'That' is the forest fire that is ravaging in our area. I thought we might make it through fire season this year without a major/mega fire but not so lucky. On July 17th we had a lightning storm come through parts of SW Oregon - our county alone had 58 fire starts the last I knew. Almost all of them were put out quickly, none remain a problem except for the Rum Creek Fire up river from us. It has now made national news programs. 

It's in very steep terrain, very dangerous for fire fighters, one died there last week. They are working on putting in fire lines and contingency lines but most of the fire fighting efforts are by air because of the terrain - bombers dropping retardant and copters dropping water. There are crews of structure protection fire fighters working on protecting homes. The evacuation orders go from 1 - get ready, 2 get set and be ready to go at a moment's notice, level 3 go now you are in grave danger and you may not be able to be saved.  There are all 3 levels on this fire encompassing a huge section of the county. For how far the fire is we are still seeing level 1 approaching where we live which is on the outer western edge of the city of Grants Pass. Levels are changing constantly - first change for the evening just a bit ago added more area near us to level 1. Governor Brown ordered the Conflagration Act on Saturday which brings more resources to the area and yesterday declared a state of emergency which brings even more resources. Some are already arriving, hope they continue to come in to help our area. 

We already have a fire plan in our house - our GO bags have been packed most of the summer and are on the floor in the bedroom to grab and run, rolling carts sit near paperwork that could be thrown in quickly. We have friends in towns just to the east who have offered us refuge if we need to leave. Two vehicles have full gas tanks. I could make light of it and say it is what it is but I can't - I get very anxious over fire and I'm not doing well, I'm very scared for those closer to the fire including many friends, I'm very scared for the fire fighters, I'm very scared for not just my city but others in the fire's path and I'm very scared for us.  Please send positive thoughts our way, we need them right now with temps around 100 forecast for the week. 

Pillowcases for Paradise

Last week our neighborhood chapter of ASG (American Sewing Guild) got a request for pillowcases for those who lost so much in the fire in Paradise, CA this past November. I picked up some fabric at the meeting and whipped these 12 pillowcases up today. Someone from our region will be going down to Paradise to deliver them.

We have many new transplants in our region from Paradise. I mean, what do you do when practically an entire town burns down. Not only does one lose their home but they may have also lost a job. The new owners of our Grocery Outlet are from Paradise, they owned a Grocery Outlet down there, it burned. The formers owners of the one here were looking to sell so it worked out for them to move to our area.

This morning I got a lesson in pruning fruit trees and a side lesson on my grapes and roses. Many thanks to two friends who came over in the freezing fog to teach. I learned so much and am ready to get out there and work..........as soon as I won't freeze while doing it. There were places around here that had sun by afternoon but my house was not one of them, it was socked in all day. But I'll take it any day over what's going on in the Midwest and back east......

This and that........

Been missing in action again - I have been busy, just haven't had much to share.  Been busy unpacking the last of the boxes (other than holiday stuff). My two studio rooms are set up ready to work in - all that's left is to put some pictures on the walls in those rooms, and the rest of the house.

I went to the American Sewing Guild meeting on Tuesday and friend Kathy taught us how to make fun visors. I love it and will be making more.

I did sew bathroom café curtains. I have family arriving next week and figured they'd probably appreciate a curtain in the guest bath. The bath is ending up black, white and gray with bits of other colors due to the black & white marble countertops. It's hard to see this fabric but it's little dashes of gray and black on a white background. Ignore the filthy windows - we haven't had time to wash them since moving in this house and I don't think the previous owners ever washed them in the 4 years they lived here. 

Here are the cafes in the master bath toilet area. I had bought a vintage table runner to make them but then found this cute dragonfly fabric in my stash - I love it, it makes me smile. We will need these once the plum trees outside lose their leaves.

And here's the café over the tub area. it also has dragonflies and is a coordinating fabric to the other one.

We have a couple apple trees at our new place so yesterday I made spiced applesauce for the freezer - it is yummy. I need to make more as we have a number of apples. I also made an apple pie. When the fridge Pillsbury Crust in the box says 'best by July 2018' believe it. It's edible, especially with vanilla ice cream, but really the crust is past it's prime - pretty heavy, not flakey at all.

And this final picture is yet another fire but this is old news. This was from Friday afternoon looking out our back door. If I hadn't known exactly where it was I would have thought it was just blocks away - it was on the other side of town, which isn't far but not a danger for us. Since then a fire broke out not far from our old house (which we still own, another story) but not close enough to be a danger but it is a danger for many others including friends. I have heard of one house that burnt but there are apparently others, no official news on the numbers yet. Hoping they get that fire out within the next few days and hoping those I know and others still have their homes once the fire is contained. And then today when driving home we saw a plume of smoke close to the fire from Friday - sounds like it got snuffed out quickly.  I am so done with fire season this year - it gets worse every year. And the story on the old house which we still own - it was close to the huge fire which is now ok on our side of the fire but kept anyone from looking at it. Just this past week a few realtors were out with prospective buyers, unfortunately none of them were interested in our house.......but at least it's getting shown now that the fire is under control and we aren't socked in with smoke.....just need the perfect person for a really nice home to go look at it.

A bit of progress.........

 Remember way back last December 25th when I opened the first package of the 12 Days of Christmas spin-a-long from Inglenook Fibers?  Well, it didn't take me too long to spin it all, but it took a while before I found a pattern I wanted to use for the resulting knit shawl. I finally finished it up a few weeks ago but going outside to block it in this smoky hazardous air quality wasn't happening. Yesterday I decided to just set up a table inside to do the blocking. Here it is finished. The pattern is called Be Simple Variations - it's an asymmetrical shawlette.

 I decided to paint the loom room and sewing/craft room before unpacking boxes. I knew once it was all unpacked they would never be painted, I mean never. I painted a bright white which is great since so much of the walls will be covered up and there's only one window in each room. Unfortunately my loom room is a bit smaller than my last one so two pieces of furniture won't fit in and it's a bit tight but I'll make it work. Here's one view of the room.

Here's a view from the other corner. I still need to buy shelving for the closet to store all the books and magazines and whatever else. Above the closet is a 3 ft deep shelf - I'm going to put things I don't use as often up there like my table loom (workshops only), inkle loom, marudai, drum carder, etc. It will take a ladder to take them down but that's ok, they'll be out of the way when I'm not using them.  There is going to be a tv mounted up high so I can see it from my chair at the table and also from each loom. What you can't see is the view out the window is the side yard with roses all along the fence. 

 Here's the sewing/craft room - I've got two tables in there so I have space to work on 3 machines, my Bernina QE440, my Bernina 1350 Serger and my cheapie Brother embroidery machine.....which does a great job. I have another cheapie Brother but it's in a carrier to take to workshops.

Here's looking in the other direction. I didn't get a picture of the closet but it's the same as the loom room with the storage shelf above. Maybe it will be a good place to store roving.......not sure yet.

I plan on starting to unpack all the boxes into these two rooms this week. I'm anxious to be able to find things and get on with weaving. I've got several special orders to weave. I've got some sewing projects I want to get to with making café curtains for the bathrooms and then a special order of embroidered towels.

We have the worst air quality in the nation - the fires just keep burning and it's not just the fires close to us but it's the entire northwest. It doesn't matter which way the wind shifts, there's always smoke. They are making headway on our Taylor Creek Fire - it's now 38% contained. The Klondike Fire, only 5% contained, is getting close to meeting up with the SE corner of  our Taylor Creek Fire. For safety reasons (for fire crews) both fires will now be under one command. It's going to be a long fire season - what's really scary is that we haven't even entered the worst part of fire season yet. We've always had fires but nothing like they've been the last 10+ years - now it seems to be the norm to live with smoke the majority of the summer.

Taylor Creek Fire keeps on keeping on.........

First off - I apologize for the sideways photos - I don't understand it but when I take pictures with my phone they turn up sideways on the blog. They weren't sideways when I downloaded them onto the computer and edited them but they show up sideways here. I'm at a loss.  So, just be patient and turn your head for the first four of them.......

The fire rages on coming closer and closer to our old house, which we still own, which we would love for someone to buy but no one will go look at it with a fire close by and this sign on our road.  The sign message changes to also say only property owners with proper ID will be let through and that's only into certain areas depending on what the fire is doing.

This is an official 'Fire' sign to direct the fire fighters in the right direction - this was posted on our road too. The fire camp, a mini city, used to be set up close to us but now it's moved a mile or so to the east - guess that's a sign when they move further away from a growing fire.

These types of signs are all over the roadways thanking the fire fighters, wishing them a safe day. What a horrible job it is - they're working with very heavy packs, heavy clothing, in 100 degree weather, long hours, many dangers and poison oak on top of it. We are so grateful they are here from all over the country to help us. This morning's fire report didn't mention if any homes have been lost but as of last night there had been no losses due to all the structural protection crews out there laying hose and protecting those homes as the fire has burned around some of them. I'm taking it as a good sign that there was no mention of any losses. The good news this morning is that there is 30% containment - not on the lines being built close to our old home but on the lines protecting many homes to the south. Updated estimated containment date is October 19th - that's a long ways off. My guess is it's the west side that will be the issue for the long term (at least I hope) and the fact that there are plans to let it join with another fire 7 miles to the southwest.

Yesterday evening we went out to our old house to set up sprinklers on the 60 ft long deck. Flying embers are a huge concern and things like pine needles on roof and gutters and wood decks are just ripe for lighting off. The good news at the old house is that the fig trees are producing a bumper crop of figs this year - maybe I'll be making fig jam later today, will definitely be dehydrating some.

We took a long weekend away on the coast to get out of the heat and smoke. Blueberry farms have opened up so we picked 24 pounds of blueberries. The berries are just starting to get ripe, depending on what happens with the fire we'd love to get over at some point to pick more while they're still available.

Here are 3 batches of jam. I've got more blueberries in the fridge for more jam making, freezing and a blueberry buckle recipe someone just sent me.....definitely need to pick up some vanilla ice cream to go with it when I run into town for more pectin.

I'm getting closer to setting up my weaving and sewing rooms at the new house. Yesterday we painted the ceiling and walls of the sewing room. I still need to paint a shelf in the closet and the door trim and Sam needs to install the new baseboard. Then we move on to the weaving room. I am so ready to unpack what looks to be almost an entire bay in the garage of boxes that goes in these two rooms......hmm, hope it all fits......

Fire season in full swing.....

Been MIA again - just too much going on and in my down time I haven't felt like blogging.....such is life at times........

 So, first up here's what I'm spinning now. I had some handpainted roving I bought years ago that I had pulled apart at the color joins which leaves most of one color with bits of other colors on the end. So, I've spun 2 partial bobbins of the one that's mostly purple with bits of teal and pink.......

......and now I'm working on spinning the bag of mostly pink with bits of purple and teal. In theory what I should end up with once I finish all the spinning is several skeins that will coordinate with each other. What will I use them for, who knows.....

Much of the house is unpacked now except for my studio space. After some additional shelving goes up in the bedroom closet and laundry room I'll be ready to tackle the loom and sewing rooms. I can't believe how long it's taking to unpack after this move. I'm so ready for everything to be in it's place so I can get back to weaving and sewing. I was lucky to be able to find the roving to spin so I can work on something fun in the evenings.

On July 5th I, and several others left for Reno - some were going just to Convergence (weaving conference), and some of us were going to Convergence and also the Complex Weavers conference. I won't say a lot about the trip because I wasn't thrilled with it. I didn't like a casino venue........at all. I haven't been to Convergence in years as it hasn't been within driving distance - let's just say it was missing the WOW factor that I remember from years past. I did have some good seminars at both conferences and went on a nice artist studio tour one day. I apologize to those who love Reno, I did not and that's all I'll say. I did take photos of some of the exhibits and will eventually post some of my favorite pieces once I get them edited.

Fire season is in full swing. Last Sunday a thunderstorm moved through SW Oregon and started over 160 fires. Luckily many of them were put out relatively quickly but there are many that are growing. I've been watching the fire that's near our old house, less than 15 miles from where we're now living. It's very close, there are many on different levels of evacuation notice, not at our place so far. It really blew up yesterday. No, we are not living there now, thank goodness, and everything is out of the house except for some Christmas trees in the garage.........but we do still own the house and it is for sale, the property won't be worth much if the house burns down and all that's left is scorched earth. I've been listening to the ODF (Oregon Department of Forestry) scanner channel online, it's fascinating to listen to firefighters on the ground, pilots in choppers and tankers, but it's also scary to hear when they're pulling out and accounting for all personnel. All the work firefighters and the supporting staff do is so appreciated - it's hard and dangerous work. I hope all stay safe and that they're also able to save homes as there are hundreds in dangers way right now between the fire near our other place (Taylor Creek Fire) and other fires in the area. Please send positive energy in Oregon's direction - the state needs it right now...........

This says it all..........

This says it all - just too much smoke here.......it's overwhelming, even inside with the A/C running we smell the smoke.........it's gross. I think I heard earlier on the news that it was something like day 17 of smoke. No end in sight..........it will most probably be with us until the fall rains start which will probably not be until sometime in October. Thunderstorms are on the way, unfortunately they will contain no to very little spotty rain which means more dry lightning to start new fires.  I've been trying to stay inside but even for the short periods of time I'm out I think I'm going to have to resort to wearing a mask.

I am so done with fire season and the extreme summer heat.........but unfortunately it's not done with us. I'm beginning to wonder what it is I love so much about the Pacific Northwest.......

Update - in the time it took me to write this post the count went up to 365 - argh

Career sox finished

I can't tell you how long these sox have been on the needles - maybe two years, I really can't remember. I was in-between projects so thought I'd finish them up. Now they're ready to wear if we ever get cool weather.

I can't go into all the fire updates because it's just too much to write and it's too depressing and downright scary. The fires surrounding our area and are growing by leaps and bounds. The fire closest to us is the top priority fire in the nation but only has a fraction of personnel fighting it compared to other fires a 10th of it's size - the west is overwhelmed with fires and there is just no more support coming. There are so many fires and so many fires with evacuations. Here we have been told they will do their best with what they've got - not a warm & fuzzy feeling. The smoke is in the hazardous stage at our house, so thick that there is very little visibility, no air support working the close fires as they can't fly due to the smoke. I'm not sure how many hours one would have to drive to escape the smoke at this point. It smells of smoke inside the house even with it being closed up and the a/c running - there's no escaping it. We did get over to the coast for a bit but the smoke eventually made it over there too. Doing the rain dance here hoping for the fall rains to come earlier rather than later this year.

 This was the yarn I spun while demo'ing at the fair - it's blocked and ready to go on the shelf until I decide what it will grow up to be. I still need to count up the yardage so I know what I've got, it's a monster skein off my Hansen electric spinner.

This is what a sunrise looks like when we're socked in with smoke.....this morning it's not yet as bad as it has been but give it a couple hours. We have fires surrounding our area - the smoke extremely unhealthy. Extended forecast for temps 100+ which is never a good thing with these fires. I feel so silly complaining about them with what's going on the Houston region.........that devastation is beyond belief, my heart goes out to all affected and who will be affected for years to come.

Eclipse mania.......or not.........

So, I have no photo of the eclipse because it was kind of a bust here - being in SW Oregon we were a bit south of the direct path but we were to see a 94% eclipse. We did go sit up the hill with our neighbor to watch it but we have so much danged smoke, so so much smoke that it was not great for viewing. We did see a red sun in the smoke and the moon crossing in front of it but we didn't experience any darkness because it was already dark out due to the smoke. It did get colder for a bit. This afternoon we decided to do a Costco run over in Medford - I-5 traffic was the heaviest we have ever seen it in the 25 years we've lived in Southern Oregon - all those eclipse watchers from the north are heading home.


The fires in our region are so incredibly scary. There are so many evacuations all the way from the coast inland to Central Oregon. The fire on the other side of the closest one to us blew up a few days ago and continues to blow up - it is threatening the entire town of Brookings and it's outlying areas over on the coast. We have friends that have had to evacuate. This fire is in-between us and the coast. It could very easily be us evacuating if the wind shifted pushing it to the NE. There is very little that can be done at the moment because of the smoke - it is too thick for the tankers and copters to fly - emphasis is on protecting homes. Mid-day I heard 3 homes had burned - there will be an update from the Forest Service broadcast online at 6:00 - we'll be watching.


Please send positive thoughts this way for the families who have had to evacuate so many fires and those brave fire fighters fighting the fires.

This and that........

Not much happening here on the fiber front, loom still not warped and have no desire to do it at the moment. Many skeins of handspun are sitting out for a woven afghan project.....once I get off my butt and get it on the loom.

 I did get the knit Saratoga Shawl blocked yesterday. The pattern and yarn came from Greenwood Fiberworks. I used Yakity Yak yarn which is superwash merino/yak/silk. Jury is out on if I like this on me. It's ok on my mannequin which must be a size 0000 but on me, not so sure, it's really quite small. I think I need to try it on again over a black dress.  I also blocked another Pei Cowl knit out of my handspun but I put it in our education fair display on Saturday before I took a pic of it.

I finished up the small felt applique stockings which should hold a gift card.......I say should because I haven't tried to fit a credit card in one of them yet. They turned out cute. A lot of handwork that bothered my smarting hand more than spinning or weaving does.

Still hating fire season - way too many weeks left of it.  Saturday evening I heard sirens and the horn honking of the fire trucks - they stopped way too close. I called a friend who lives close by and whose husband has a scanner - yes, grass fire just over the hill on a street coming off the side road behind us. And Bailey and I were alone as Sam and a friend were on the coast to do some work on the cottage and golf. Talk about panic time. I was preparing to pack up the car and leave if necessary. A few hours later she called back with an update that all was quiet on the scanner, a spreading fire averted. They were more on the ball than I - they had turned on their sprinklers and had opened their gate in case fire fighters came to tell them to get prepared to leave. We have sprinklers mounted on wood to set up on the peak of the roof but they're not up there right now, Sam only puts them up if we may be in dangers of flying embers........hmm, might have to think about that this week.

The fire close to us, Shan Creek Fire, continues to burn slowly. I've found very few details on it compared to other fires in the region but this morning there is 20% containment (that's new info since yesterday) but it is actively burning with flanking, torching and uphill runs in steep terrain. As of this morning there are now structures threatened - not us, I'm assuming those actually on Shan Creek Rd but I don't really know. The smoke smell this morning is horrible - I had to scan the sky to see if there was another fire close by when I walked out the door - not seeing anything so it must be a shift in the wind this morning. I wish updates were more often but they are better than in year's past - I am grateful for them.

Now off to try and get something done today other than letting fires consume my thoughts.........

It's a war zone out there...........

Today not only the planes have been flying over the house but the copters have been flying directly over the house too, yesterday the copters were taking a different route. Must be some great air traffic control out there on the fire line. I took this photo standing on our deck. All day some sort of aircraft was going over the house, sometimes every minute, sometimes every 5 minutes. Then it stopped.........until just now -  must have been a change of shift, or dinner break. It's really un-nerving to not be able to get up to the minute updates on what's happening on this fire close to us, I keep seeing updates on other fires including some new ones but not much on ours.

This morning I went to the fairgrounds to help set up our display - we'll be sitting there spinning during the fair, talking to the public, eating fair food and having a great time. Since then I've tried to get some stitching done on the little holiday stocking ornaments but keep getting sidetracked with fire activity.

Have I said it yet today - I hate fire season.........oh yes, I think I've said it several times but this is the first time here today............

SW Oregon on fire

We've had thunderstorms in our region for days which means now there are fires being chased down all over the area. It's scary out there. I'm back from a few days on the coast and in addition to be welcomed back by the smoke and heat I'm welcomed back to fires close by. It's tough to find the latest info on the fires but I think these planes were heading to the Shan Creek Fire just to the west of us. They've been flying over the house - anywhere from 2 to 4 retardant bomber planes one right after the other. I just ran out on the deck to get these pix. I couldn't get them all in one photo but snapped them one after another.

The first bomber over the house..........

.........seconds later, bomber #2............

..........and here's bomber #3.

They'll be coming back over the house in a few minutes heading back to the airport to pick up another load of retardant. The report is that there's a woman pilot leading the planes in to the fire.

I know the forest road this fire is off of but I don't know the exact location of the fire to know how close it is to homes.......and to us. I'm hoping with all the resources on this fire that they get it under control before it becomes a real problem to all of us living over here to the west of the city. Each time they fly over the house I'm sending positive thoughts up their way to stay safe, as well as all the fire fighters on the ground. With all the fires in our region they're doing an incredible job of knocking them down while they're still relatively small.

On the fiber front - not much happening here in the way of weaving, spinning or knitting. It's just too danged hot to get much done.

Morning update - I finally saw an update that was posted late last night. As I thought it is the Shan Creek fire close to us but these planes are not the retardant ones, they are super scooper fixed wing water dumping planes. I'm not sure where they're scooping up the water but it explains the quick turnaround time to the fire, they don't have to get all the way back to the airport. Much of the Rogue River would not work for a plane coming down low to scoop so maybe a lake/reservoir? Or maybe there is a spot in the river that will work....I'd love to hear those details. Word is that they'll be back in the air in addition to the copters fighting the fire today along with the ground crews. I'm anxious to hear the morning update which may not show up online for a few hours.

Not much to show..........

Not much to show for my time. Been here and there, haven't gotten much done in the studio........would be very grouchy over it except that I've been doing fun stuff. Above are two drop spindles with Japanese paper yarn. The one on the left is mine, on the right friend Kathy's. Next up to weave some simple little weavings (couple inches) to use as embellishment on journals. I tried one using a Weave-it type loom but it will be easier just making a cardboard loom with straight pins.

The heat wave is wearing on us and it's not even at it's hottest yet. It's over 100 today, tomorrow the forecast is 115. Fires are popping up all over - it's darned scary out there. As I was driving home from my spinning get together this afternoon I could see smoke to the west of our house. I found a little info on a new fire that had just started. We're fine as long as it doesn't blow up........with this wind and heat I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. The retardant tanker (DC-7) has flown over the house twice - looks to take 50 minutes to get from Medford (to my east) to the fire and back. I'm taking a guess our little airport here in Grants Pass is too small for it to land and fill up but I'm not sure. It should be flying over again shortly - if needed. It's so hard not to know what's going on - the fire is in steep terrain, are they making headway before it gets big? is it growing? did they knock it out quickly? The unknown can be so scary..........

Update - ODF (Oregon Dept of Forestry) once again did a great job of knocking out a fire before it became a problem - it's not out but it's contained and is in mop up stage - kudos to them.

This and that.........

 Yesterday I had enough ice to ice-dye 4 silk & rayon devore shawls.  I love how they turned out. They're now up for sale in my etsy shop and can be found in the Hand-dyed Silk Shawl section of the shop.

I finished plying the handspun I was spinning at the fair. It's a bit thinner than fingering weight. I love how it turned out. Not sure what it will grow up to be yet - I haven't counted how many yards are here yet.

Fire season is getting scarier here.  New fires are sprouting up each and every day, luckily we have enough resources to jump on them quickly. I heard a copter fly low over the house 2 nights ago at 10pm but discounted it being a fire as they stop flying at dark - I figured it was a medical copter. Found out the next morning it was for a fire a few miles up the road from us - luckily it was snuffed out quickly. As I type there's a fast moving fire south of us - not dangerous for us at all unless it really blew up, like some of those fires in CA. The road is closed between here and there as the fire is on both sides of it - this is very close to a fire from a few weeks ago where 3 homes and a few outbuildings were lost. There are level 3 evacuations which means get out, don't stop to gather anything, just get out........the road where my relatives used to live is in that evacuation zone, they're living in MT now. These fires have to be human caused as there's been no lightening here all summer. I feel like I'm holding my breath all the time.........it's tough to live under constant stress of possible forest fires........I don't sleep well, I think about fire all the time. The fall rains can't come soon enough for me but we've still got a month or more to go..........a month is a long time during fire season.........

More freebies.

I've got a few more giveaways for anyone in the US or Canada - just leave me a comment with what you're interested in and a way of getting in touch with you. I also still have a few other items from my post of June 25th that are still available - the Hummingbird applique pattern, the Notion Nanny pattern and the Welcome Quilt pattern.  I'm working on passing on things that someone else may be interested in rather than letting them languish in my studio.

This pattern has been spoken for - it's no longer available
Sewing Bird pattern - pincushion. This is really cute - I made several of these for gifts

Veronica Pocketbook - I never made this one

The Urban Knitter book by Lily Chin.  I got this in a raffle basket and won't use any of the patterns but maybe someone else will. It's autographed.

I spent a good portion of my day ridding the studio of paper. Tons of old catalogs will be heading to recycling along with a huge bag of old weaving guild newsletters. I found I never have gone back to look at them so no need for them to clutter up the space. I also had several notebooks from Convergences and ANWG conferences - I've never opened them since putting them together. I now have a nice supply of empty notebooks and many page protectors that I can use for weaving project records. Hmm, what shall I tackle next.........

Not happy about big copter flying over - can't see any smoke plumes and haven't been able to find out if there's a new fire.....hoping not.  It was the giant snorkel copter that sucks water in to drop on a fire rather than using a bucket.  It went over yesterday but was gone quite a while before coming back so I was assuming it went to a fire west of us in Agness......but this was a very short trip before it came back over the house.  And it's such a big copter it shakes the house, there's no missing it flying over. Have I said yet today that I hate fire season..........well, you haven't heard it but yes, I have said it to Bailey, our golden, he and I discuss the heat and fire danger every single day. Approximately 7 more weeks of fire season.......it may very well be longer than that but we often have at least one good rainfall toward the end of September that makes me breathe a little easier.

Holey Moley

I was just thinking about the fact that fire season is almost half over and I'm not sure how to live stress free through the second half when I saw this out the window. This is a pyrocumulus cloud from a fire that started around 30 miles northeast of us. I haven't heard details yet as to how it started.

This is a view off our deck - off in the distance under the cloud is Mt. Sexton - our view these days is really obscured by the trees.

Here's a close up of that angry smoke cloud - it is gigantic. Am thinking good thoughts for those that live in the fire's path, there are level 3, meaning GO now, evacuations right now.

We've tried to be ready for a fire but I think tomorrow I'll be working on getting even more prepared. The suitcases and rolling carts to load the most important stuff in will just have to sit out in the guestroom for the rest of fire season. I told Sam it's time to put the 5th wheel hitch back in the truck so we can load it up and pull it out if we need to evacuate due to a close by fire. I'm also thinking it's time to put those sprinklers back up on the roof - better to do it now than to wait until a fire starts. I hate living like this.

Rude Awakening

It was a rude awakening back into the heat of the valley after spending 4 days on the coast which is probably around 80 miles away as the crow flies. Yesterday morning on the coast we felt like we needed hats & gloves walking the beach, it was in the 60's but there was a very strong wind coming in off the ocean...........fast forward to yesterday afternoon pulling in the driveway here at home where it was 104 degrees - yes, a 40 degree difference.

We came home to learn about two forest fires - the Red Dog Fire is in our area, not real close to us, and not even threatening homes......it hasn't grown much since Saturday so hopefully it will not become an issue for anyone - it was started by lightening a few weeks ago, one of those sleeper strikes that pops up later. There's another fire around 45 minutes NE of us that's more active, I don't think any homes are in danger there, hope it stays that way. 

Red Dog Fire

Another rude awakening around 1am to the sound of thunder and flash of lightening.  I grew up on the east coast where it was the norm in the heat of summer but those storms were also accompanied by rain - here it's dry lightening that starts fires rather than drenching us. The spotter planes will be flying looking for smoke plumes. Bailey is usually ok with loud noises but not last night so I had a 90 pound dog laying on top of me in the middle of the night, then the storm moved on a bit, he got down because he was hot......but around 4am the lightening/thunder came over us again and Bailey was back up on top of me. Neither of us got much sleep last night....all that kept running through my head is that I need to get this year's fire escape plan together, pull out the backpack for throwing the most important 'stuff' in, some big plastic bins for other stuff if there's time to pack it.....time for Sam to put the 5th wheel hitch back in the truck bed, the 5th wheel is a small, very small with a 90 pound dog, portable home that will carry a lot of 'stuff'. I almost feel like before there are even fires real close to us that we should go ahead and put the sprinklers on the roof, then all I have to do is hook up the hoses and we're good to go.......as long as there's power to run the well pump, it's unsightly but our place can't be seen from the road so who cares. It's going to be a long fire season...........

Pesto, turkey and fires oh my...........

I'm thinking positive that our weather will eventually cool and I'll lose my basil on the deck so I made another two batches of pesto - all in all enough for 8 meals of either pasta, pizza or to put in a big pot of soup. This will be thrown in the freezer in small containers next to the other four batches. Who knows, might get another batch or two before frost. This was so good that I had to smear some on a piece of Italian bread as a snack.

 

In case anyone is interested here's my recipe for one batch - into a food processor I put 2 cups of basil, 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 cloves of minced garlic and then however much pine nuts I feel like throwing in, probably 1/2-3/4 cup. Process to desired consistency. Those pine nuts sure are expensive.

 

 No, these turkeys are not mating - it's two tom's - they are fighting for dominance. They were so engrossed in fighting that they didn't even care that I was less than 10 feet away.  Unfortunately the best photos would have been before I ran in to get the camera but I got a couple pix.

Turkeys are so stupid - they even fight stupid. The one being pecked on started running down the driveway a minute after I snapped this, then they fought some more, then he ran off for good - guess we know who one today.

On the fire front - I got an email from FlashAlert earlier today saying that as of 6pm tonight all evacuation levels are lifted on our fire - whoo hoo.  The northeast flank of the fire (our danger point) is still not contained but they must feel confident enough in what they've been able to accomplish today to drop all evacuation alerts. Temps close to 100 again today but by Wednesday we're supposed to be in the mid 70's with possible rain for a few days - I may just have to go out and stand in it.....or maybe dance........