What a rack!!!

These are 2 of the 3 bucks eating my flowers just a few minutes ago, there are 2 others that usually hang with them but I didn't notice them this evening. Sam chased them all off early this morning. At least they don't like figs.

This is the elder buck - he's huge. Boy would I love to find those antlers when he drops them, what great basket handles they'd make.

Here's one of the younger bucks, you can see the tail of the other one in the upper right corner. They're both about the same size, much smaller than the elder buck, maybe yearlings. And that's the red van behind them - it's been sitting out front for quick getaway in case of fire.....gotta always be thinking......

It's back.........

It's back - my Bernina is back, I'm so excited and I'm planning on putting it to use tomorrow working on quilt blocks......as soon as I calculate how many more I need now that I'm getting close to having enough. Jonathan at Top Stitch in Medford charged me for the part only, a board of some sort and he got it ready for me in short order knowing I'd be there today for a Bernina class. Of course a new foot (plastic package in front) had to come home with me - I've got a 1/4" seam foot for quilting but this is the one with the guide on it - it's going to be great for getting super perfect seams when I start sewing the quilt blocks together.

The Bernina class was on a crossbody bag - it was interesting but really geared toward people with the super expensive machines that have embroidery options, drawing options (yes, drawing with fabric markers), bling stencil making - way more than my machine will do....and mine will do a lot. I've signed up for another class (only $10) next month but it's on a quilt pattern so I feel confident it will be geared more toward everyone. Now I know to ask what type of techniques are in each class so I don't take another one not geared toward what I am capable of doing. But a good thing came out of the class - it reminded me about that edge stitching foot that came with my machine - I had forgotten about it, what a great tool for doing perfect edgestitching.

On the fire front (skip if you're not interested)  19 lightning started fires from a thunderstorm yesterday, none of them terribly close to us but 2 were close to two of my fiber friends, it's sounding like they were all jumped on so quickly that they've been taken care of.  Some areas actually got some rain - our area of the valley  got 3 minutes of light rain but it got windy and helped with the smoke, this morning I could actually see some blue sky in one direction, very exciting.  Here's the latest on the fires......

Brimstone - holding at 2372 acres burned, 100% contained.  They were working on this one heavily today with the copters dumping water in one area where the terrain is so bad fire fighters can't get to it - nice to have that smoke lift so they could fly.

Big Windy Complex - 14,085 acres burned, 5% contained - I looked at the fire map on this one that is west of us and see a new finger of fire burning on ridge tops in our direction - argh. Not a danger to us unless it continues on this path.

Labrador Fire - 2020 acres burned, 0% contained but it has been holding at this acreage.

Douglas Complex Fire - 42,651 acres burned, 28% contained. This one keeps moving south toward our area, if it continues on part of it will hit the Brimstone.

Whiskey Complex - 10,466 acres burned, 35% contained.

Some new fires in Northern California from the thunderstorms are being fought. More acattered thunderstorms in the forecast thru the weekend but am keeping our fingers crossed no new fires start in the region.

Countdown - 53 more days until rain

Oh crumb.......just hearing thunder now.......

Photography Challenge - 'J' is for.......

I had a tough time with 'J' but I thought of a few, friends and family suggested a few....and then there was reality as to what I could get as I'm not spending time out in the smoke......

Jar of dried figs - the ones I dried this past weekend

Japanese Maple at Evergreen Park next door to where our spinning group met yesterday

Junior Mints - these make me cringe but Sam loves them

Java

Jam and scone.....blueberry jam with hazelnut scone that I was forced to eat after snapping the pic

J-E-L-L-O

Sad news.....

Not much to post right now, thunder boomers this morning, not a good thing with no rain. Sad news on the fire front - a 19 year old fire fighter lost his life at the Big Windy Complex when his water tender rolled. What a dangerous job these firefighters do.......

On a happier note - the reason for my post this morning is to tell everyone to go check out my friend Kathy's new blog, Everbe Fiber.  I mentioned this a couple weeks ago but now she's getting more pix posted so it's worth taking a look at......she is prolific.......I feel like a real slacker around her and if I didn't love her so much........

Hope to have my 'J' photos up later today or tomorrow morning - just need a bit of time to get them off the camera and edited. I was struggling with 'J' - several friends and a family member chimed in giving me some more ideas......couldn't follow through with them all though as I'm pretty much staying cooped up in the house out of the smoke.....cough....cough....


 

Numbers of note.......

First number of note - worked on quilt blocks yesterday and now am up to 120 of them - whoo hoo.  I guess sometime today I'm going to have to sit down with the calculator and figure out exactly how many I need for the quilt. If I make it king size I figured just under 160 but it's for a queen size bed so it will be a bit smaller.

Fire Updates: not so bad for the 5 here, more have started in other areas of Oregon and Northern CA. The region (SW OR & No CA) is expecting thunderstorms for the next several days, not a good thing since it usually means dry thunderstorms with lightning that may start more fires although they're forecasting that there's a possibility they will bring a little moisture from the south with them.

Brimstone Fire - 2372 acres burned, I heard 80% contained with total contained by tomorrow afternoon but this morning on the Incident Report at 5:30am reports it at 100%.  Many of these fire fighters have already moved over to the Big Windy Fire.

Big Windy Fire - 9192 acres burned - 0% contained

Labrador Fire - 2020 acres burned - 0% contained

Douglas Complex Fires - 38,406 acres burned - 17% contained

Whisky Complex Fire - 7409 acres burned - 30% contained

Countdown - 56 more days until rain

On another note - rude awakening at 3am this morning when a 90 pound Bailey jumped up on the bed and laid on top of me. What a weanie he is - the smoke detector in the sewing room was chirping, we could barely hear it but he sure did. Sam got up, got out the ladder, replaced the battery and Bailey was happy and back to snoozing. Of course it took both of us forever to fall back to sleep.......

Sox that rock

I got back to some sox that have been on the needles for months, don't even remember how many months. Finished the first sock 2 nights ago and got started on the second, did some knitting last night and am now down to the heel. Hoping to finish these up knitting in the evening this week. These are thicker sox than my usual but I loved the colors so much I couldn't resist - the yarn they're knit out of is Indulgence 6 Ply Distrato from Knitting Fever using size 3 needles. I like them so much I might have to stop at Middleford Yarn when in Medford next to pick up some more in another colorway. I cast on 52 stitches for this size yarn.

Fire map

If you're not interested in the 'fire' updates instead of 'fiber' updates please skip.

I thought I'd post a picture of the latest fire map. To give you perspective - this is SW Oregon, that little bit of blue on the left hand side is the Pacific Ocean. Things are looking better for the fire closest to us, we'll be attending a community informational meeting later today to get the latest on the fires and hopefully hear more on what will be happening in the near future.  Thought I'd give you the latest on acres burned, percentage contained and cost - these figures are as of first thing this morning. Note - there are decimal points in those cost in the millions, the decimal point is hard to see in this font.

Brimstone Fire - this is the closest one to us, NW of us, see it above that star.
2298 acres burned, 60% contained (whoo hoo), 6.8 million cost to fight to date

Labrador Fire - this one is to the SW of us near the bottom of the map - it's in an area very difficult to fight where the Biscuit Fire burned 11 years ago and they expect this one to grow quite a bit.
2020 acres burned, 0% contained, 3.6 million

Big Windy Complex - these are the fires to the west of us, there are actually 3 but you can see 2 on this map - this is the one that has shut down a portion of the Rogue River and threatens Zane Grey's cabin plus other landmarks - they expect this might grow to 50,000 acres
6151 acres burned, 0% contained, 2.8 million

Douglas Complex - these are the big fires to the north of us, the most southern one approaching the Brimstone Fire
34,459 acres, 15% contained, 12.3 million

Whisky Complex - I couldn't get these on the map as they are pretty far north and east of us, you can just see the red at the top right hand corner of the map
5567 acres burned, 20% contained, 5.4 million

Keep sending good thoughts our way especially for the fire fighters who have such a dangerous job working in this terrain. Good news - only 2 out buildings have burned, no homes as of this morning - structural protection teams are doing a great job.

On another note - got back to some sock knitting last night, first sock has been on the needles for months, finished it up and got the second sock started - winter will be here before I know it.  Might work on more quilt blocks today - I have a total of 80 done now.  And I'm trying to think of 'J' photographs for the challenge and am stumped - hopefully I will come up with something in the next few days.

Figs!!!

The figs are ripening, more every day, more than I can stuff in my mouth.......so I pulled out the dehydrator this afternoon and filled up 6 trays worth. There will probably be more figs ready in another day or two.....maybe I'll dry more, maybe make a fig cake, maybe pop more in my mouth - yum. 

After the Biscuit Fire (500,000 acres) in 2002 the wine was especially good, something to do with the smoke holding the heat in at night and also giving the grapes a smoky flavor......wonder if that will happen to my figs.......

Countdown - 58 more days until rain (I'm giving you a break on the fire updates today, sticking my head in the sand today.....well, other than checking the updates online numerous times)

Fire update...........

Not much in fire updates this morning, they are slow coming so some of this info is from last night. The inversion layer will be lifting which will hopefully allow better visibility so the copters with water buckets and retardant bombers can hopefully be out there working the fires too. They are such a huge help to fighting fires, especially in the steep terrain.

Brimstone Fire - 2218 acres burned, 25% contained, cost $5M so far, overnight they conducted back fires, there were some spot fires but they were within the partial second fire line.
Labrador Fire - 1970 acres burned - 0% contained
Big Windy Fire - 5132 acres burned - 0% contained - they expect this one might burn to 50,000 acres
Douglas Complex Fire - 28,496 acres burned - 9% contained
Whisky Fire - 4836 acres burned - 18% contained

Send good thoughts this way to keep the firefighters all safe during this battle.

Countdown - 59 days to rain

The countdown begins......

My countdown to the rainy season and the end to fire season begins today. Yes, I know, I don't know the exact date it will rain, and fire season isn't called off after the first rainfall but I do know that often we get our first rain around the last week of September. So, I'm counting down to then with hopes it actually decides to rain earlier rather than later.  I'll be marking it off in big red X's on the calendar -  60 more days until it rains

Thank you all.........

Thank you to everyone for sending good thoughts our way. Finally this morning updates were made to the websites other than 'the care and feeding of firefighters' where they posted what they ate yesterday for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Might be interesting to some but first and foremost we all want to hear updates on the 5 fires burning.

Just a bit ago I heard a copter fly over, I ran out on the deck to spot it, it did not have a bucket but this is a big deal that it's even flying. The smoke has been so bad that the copters and retardant planes have been grounded. I'm hoping this one was doing some scouting to see if the others can start flying. The Oregon National Guard has shown up with Black Hawk helicopters and two others I can't remember the name of so there are more to add to what's already here waiting to fly.

Rafting companies and river boat guides are transporting fire fighters and supplies down the Rogue River to remote areas. The river has been checked to make sure no rafters remain on it, rapellers (is that a word? and how is it spelled?) have gone in looking for stray hikers.

I don't want to get overly optimistic about the fire closest to us but they're hoping in the next 2 days to start the mop up stage after doing more back burns.  If you don't know what back burning is - it's when they create a fire line, 2 lines in most cases, and then set fire to what's inside the line to burn it out to contain the rest of the fire. Theresa may be able to explain this better. I'm not trying to get too hopeful because tomorrow the temps are supposed to rise and with it the fires will become more active. We still have 3 other fires around us but not as close, and will only be a threat to us if they blow-up.  This is a long haul to contain and get control over these fires.

I just saw a post telling what types of items can be donated to the fire camps...of course this comes right after I've come home from the store. But since they'll be here for quite a while I'll get out again in the next couple of days to pick up some goodies for them and drop them at the fire camp near us.

Containment update:
Brimstone Fire - 15%
Labrador Fire - 0%
Big Windy Fire - 0%
Douglas Fire - 7%
Whiskey Fire - 15%

Yeah, yeah, not much progress but it's something - those fire fighters are working as hard as they can in the steep unforgiving terrain.

Hope the fire updates aren't boring you too much but it's a good part of my life right now.

To the hospital......

Well, my beloved Bernina is on it's way to the hospital today. It's worked sporadically over this past few days but mostly not. This is the first issue I've had with this machine. Sam is dropping it off today at Top Stitch over in Medford - they've been closed for vacation and this is their first day open - will probably be a very busy day for Jonathan and Karen.

This is what the screen should look like when working with no problems

And this is what it looks like after stitching one line of stitching, or turning around to the ironing board and back to the machine - goes blank and doesn't work.

I wish I had some fun project to share but there's nothing, been working on the quilt blocks which you've seen and keeping track of the forest fires. I've been using the Brother machine for my quilt blocks - nice little inexpensive machine but definitely harder to get a nice straight 1/4" line, even with a guide.....I miss my Bernina.

No real news on the fire front - they are not especially good with updates on the websites or to the media so we sit here wondering what's going on. The smoke is so bad it's in the hazardous zone in my area, in the almost hazardous zone all over the region. We've been having an inversion layer which is holding the smoke in the valleys, this keeps the fires down a bit but it also means the copters and planes can't fly to help with the fire fight. This also means we, as in the general public, are not seeing exactly where the fires are burning - that's nerve wracking.

I tried to get some good pix of the smoke and ash/burnt pine needles on the vehicles but just couldn't capture it. I have seen some great smoke pictures online, don't know enough about photography to capture what it really looks like.

Now off to take Bailey for a short smokey walk, very short, wearing my mask......

In need of a change in weather.....

No, it's not snowing here - this is represents wishful thinking on my part. 

The fires around us are still growing, the smoke in the air all over the region ranges from unhealthy to hazardous....it's hazardous here at our house. Yesterday I went to town for errands (Grants Pass) and drove with headlights on - picture thick soupy fog - that's what it looks like here only it's accompanied by smoke smell. Here at our house the van, and everything else, is covered with ash and burnt pine needles that dissolve into dust if I touch them.  And all this smoke hanging low is hampering the fire fight as the retardant bombers and copters with buckets can only drop on areas they can see which isn't on the fires closest to us.

There are now more than 5000 fire fighters working the fires, living in 3 different tent cities in the region, one up in Glendale, one in Selma, one at the high school near us with another to open near us soon. More fire fighters from across the nation are on the way, the Oregon National Guard is awaiting activation orders.

My mailing address is Grants Pass but I don't live in the city - I live 13 miles northwest of  the city in Merlin right in the thick of it. I live close to the Rogue River - as of midnight the Wild & Scenic portion of the river closed for rafters safety concerns, a decision not taken lightly as it has a huge economical impact on the region. The GP community concert was cancelled last night, the Merlin concert for tomorrow cancelled - both are held outdoors. The Thursday afternoon grower's market has been cancelled - not sure what will happen with the huge Saturday market.

Here are the major fires in my area - all are in steep and dangerous terrain, now over 35,000 acres.....did you know there are 640 acres in a square mile? It's amazing the things I've learned over the years because of forest fires (the Biscuit Fire here in 2002 was 500,000 acres and burned for 6-7 months).

Brimstone Fire is the closest to us - 0% contained, it is continuing to grow as the smoke is so thick there is no air support and the fire fighters on the ground can't even see the fire but they can hear it. This is the fire of immediate concern to us. *Update - I just saw an update on this fire - overnight they got fire line improvements on the SE side of the fire and back burns were successful - this is the closest side of the fire to us.

Labrador Fire is to the south of us - 0% contained - doubled overnight. It is burning in the area of the Biscuit Fire 11 years ago, snags and rolling logs are causing issues. Big controversy after that fire on whether or not to allow logging of the snags and logs.....decision to leave it be......now it is a hazard. There are voluntary evacuations in order.

Big Windy Fire to the west of us - 0% contained - this is the one that has closed the Rogue River to rafters, last I heard they were wrapping the Zane Grey cabin to save it.

Douglas Complex to the north of us consists of 3 fires, a finger of it approaching the Brimstone Fire - 5% contained. There are 150 evacuations, 90 in Douglas Co, 60 in Josephine Co (my county). And there are 400 other homes on stand-by for evacuation if need be.

Whiskey Complex - this is to the east of us and not of concern for us personally - 7% contained.

I am breathing a sigh of relief this morning, not because of any progress on the fire fight but because Sam who was to leave tomorrow morning for a week long trip to the east coast has postponed his trip until it's safe. I was getting panicky thinking of being left alone to deal with the situation.

This morning thru tomorrow there is a chance of thunderstorms, dry thunderstorms with lightning - am keeping fingers crossed that our weather forecasters who are so often wrong are wrong on this prediction.

Send good thoughts our way for all those who have been evacuated, those of us they may need to and for the fire fighters out on the lines who are doing such a dangerous job fighting these fires.

And for me today, I'm staying inside out of the smoke and will work in the studio to try and keep my mind off the fire situation.....not sure how well that will work but I'll at least get something done....

Photography challenge - I is for.......

I had other ideas for 'I' but I just couldn't get to them, it's just not happening right now

I is for Ireland Rd. along Rt 42 on the way to the coast

I is for Interstate 5 - this is from my neck of the woods but for those of you that don't know I5 is the main north south artery on the west coast going from the CA/Mexico border north to the Washington/Canadian border

I is for Iris........yes, Bailey got in this week, he said it was time


 

Trying to keep busy........

I tried to keep busy today and not worry about the fires surrounding our area......I wasn't very successful though. I did get some more of the quilt blocks made, 32 in all now, probably need around 160.......just a guess, will check for an exact figure as I get close.

I'm having trouble coping today, I need details and information, the more the better but not much is coming.  I check numerous sites for fire updates - very little new reported this afternoon other than more evacuations north of us and a few reports that fires have grown today and my county has declared a state of emergency. Many retardant bombers have been going over but they're not dropping at the fires closest to us because the smoke is so bad aircraft are not able to fly over those fires. I keep looking at any maps I can find when I hear locations of new evacuations.

Yesterday Sam got up on the roof and blew off all pine needles. I had him pick up sprinklers for the roof and deck and extra hoses - tonight when he gets home from work he'll figure out how to build a platform for them to sit on the peak. I'm hoping going to these measures will mean the fire doesn't reach here. Working on some other options too.

Thank you all for sending good thoughts our way.  We are not in immediate danger but we are very guarded as there are no fire lines as of yet, 0% containment and fires are growing. We live in a heavily wooded region, up on a hill with draws on each side of the house - not a good thing. And they're predicting more dry lightning this week..........What happened to that house I suggested after the Biscuit Fire - cinderblock walls, metal roof out in the middle of a big irrigated field...........

Fire sunrise

Sunrise this morning. Sunrise and sunsets are brilliant during a forest fire although we had no sunset to see the past couple of nights as smoke was too thick. This morning I'm actually seeing Mt. Sexton from the deck, little smoke to the east at the moment......too smokey to see anything to the north, south & west and we're pretty socked in with low smoke at the house.

The good and the bad.....

The good news is that finally the temps have come down a bit - it's just 81 out as I type this as opposed to the 100's it's been......but bad news is there is no being outside or having windows open to enjoy it because we are socked in with heavy smoke at ground level from the many fires in our area. Even with air conditioning running we both have headaches, are a little weezy and eyes are burning. I hear the tankers and copters flying over but can't see them through the smoke, very eerie feeling. Information is posted to the many sites I check for fire updates but not often enough to make me feel better. Just read where the fire in Galice, just west of us, has grown to 1500 acres, not a good thing, too close for comfort. And there's the fire up Pickett Creek which is up the ridge from the river a mile from us - I hear practically nothing on that so am hoping they're getting a handle on that one or are at least holding the ridge. The bigger fires are around 15 miles to the north and many evacuations last night and many more just a bit ago. It seems overwhelming to have so many fires going at once and firefighters coming in from all over the country.......been here, done that before with the Biscuit Fire 10 years ago when 500,000 acres burned near us. Trying to keep my mind on other things but am finding it difficult........

SW Oregon on fire......

I just returned from 3 days on the sunny, cool, clear blue sky Oregon coast.......what I returned to is SW Oregon on fire. While on the coast I heard about the dry lightening storm that went through our area - over 3000 lightening strikes, over 100 fires started. As we got closer to the Grants Pass area we could see the huge plumes of smoke and the air tankers dropping retardant. There are fires to the north, south and west of our house - I'm waiting to get the update for the day of how things went which I'm guessing was not good since it's windy. The smoke here at our house is horrendous - I may not be doing much outside this week even though the temps are supposed to come down to the upper 80's rather than 100. Send positive thoughts our way.............

Finally........hand-dyed yarn listed in etsy shop

Finally I have gotten this hand-dyed yarn listed in my etsy shop where I also sell roving. There's absolutely no chance of selling it if no one sees it.....now maybe I'll have a bit of a chance. Back to the yarn - it's Lace Weight 70% Merino/30% Silk, approximately 50 grams and 400 yards - perfect amount for a scarf or shawlette, 2 skeins for a full size shawl depending on the pattern. Maybe deep down I hadn't listed it yet because I was trying to decide which one(s) to keep for myself to knit a shawl out of.......