Stash-a-Go-Go and Other Things

My aunt and uncle came to help us move. Along with demolition, engine repair, and stove cleaning, they also got the very important task of stash transfer.


Their VW has the very cool Suburu conversion.


Getting bigger everyday. Father's Day scramble all by himself.


Full princess mode continues.


Before I grew children I grew plants. 2001 was the last year I saved seeds. Let's see if there's a spark of life in any of them.

Moving

Lifting boxes,

raising my spirits

by driving through here

and listening to this.

Nothing like fire to get you all excited

We had a little excitement down at the ranch yesterday — a fire, one property away.


The California Department of Forestry planes were there within minutes to drop flame retardant. B took this picture from the ground with a point and shoot. They were so close. It was awesome.


A helicopter dropped huge buckets of water.


This shows some flames and gives a sense of how low these huge planes were flying. Ghost, the stallion, stands by — the only one of four horses to even notice there was danger near. We were truly lucky that the fire was downwind. It made quick work of a barn and 10-15 acres. Had the wind been blowing the other way, the fire would probably have made it to our property.

We are ill-prepared for horse evacuation, so this was a great wake-up call. After twenty some odd years of no horse contact, I quickly reacquainted myself with halters and lead ropes; have learned that putting Vick's Vapor Rub in a stallion's nose will make him not able to smell the mares, thus easier to manage in an emergency situation; and know that we need to quickly to remedy the shortage of horse trailers on the property.

My friends really came through in the emergency with childcare. One friend took C away from the ranch, so I could stay until my mother-in-law came. We board the horses for my MIL.

Check out this little video clip of one of the planes. Thanks, B, for thinking of taking the pics.

Wow! That was scary. I heart firefighters.

I call it Rancho Fake-o

because of the house's 70s Spanish style "architecture," which includes an arched facade that serves no functional purpose that I can determine. I hear it used to sport serious shag carpet and a wrought iron room divider, too. Luckily, the land is campo — not fake-o at all — and totally awesome for all sorts of animal and vegetable adventures. I've collected about 70 owl pellets, seen Hooded Orioles mating, and identified a dead weasel. Good times.

This is the view from the side yard, taken by my sister. Click here if you want to embiggen.

Speaking Yardage Wise

We interrupt the seemingly endless — and not-so-great-smelling — job of scraping off 30 years of kitchen grease for a sun-kissed, vintage fabric interlude. Take a breath of this:







French Babar from 1968, pink flowers on Swiss Dot, blue flowers on Seersucker, five yards of Border Print, and other tasty goodies. Thanks to my mother-in-law and an awesome rummage sale. It was a welcome respite to this moving business.

Add it to the pile of things to do.

Maker Faire this weekend.

For my friends named George:

and for the ones who don't know Shel Silverstein, yet:



God, the interwebs are cool.

Craft (book) Stash

Getting ready for the move.