Graffiti Today / Road Trip Yesterday

It's that time again, set of Dorper Triplets this morning, several more ewes due soon so I got out the marking paint and tagged these three.  They are much easier to mark on the first day, by second or third day they do a good job of either out running me or zig zagging making them hard to catch.  Also I mark the ewe first, it is easier to match the lambs to the ewe that way.  Some hear the pffffffft from the spray can and end up with racing stripes, so babies get matching stripes if that's the case.  These are one ram and two ewe lambs.

They got red dots up on top their shoulders.

I finally got off my duff yesterday and took Shetland and Angora fleeces off to a new start up mill north of here.   My intentions of taking pictures of all the bags of fleece were good, just forgot and boxed them up ... oops too late for pictures.  Baa Baa Black Sheep have you any wool, yes sir, yes sir, lots of bags full, actually over 44 pounds worth.  

 I passed this ranch once before, they have 2 of these trucks, one on either end of their ranch.   I didn't find a place to pull off to take a picture of the first one, but had time to look for a wide spot in the road to get this one.

Weather here continues to be hot, but hey it's a dry heat, still in the 90's.  Love reading all the blogs lately about cold almost freezing temps.  

Happy Fall Ewe All

Wondering why Tombstone Livestock is no where near Arizona??????

When I moved here in 1999 I kept finding all these flat concrete objects, found out not the previous owner but the one before them that their nephew worked at a local cemetery.  These are temporary grave markers, and no there are no humans buried here.  Each one of these markers is about the size that would be made with one bag of concrete mix.  The dates are only year to year, and do not include months or days.  They are everywhere, I gathered some of them up and made them into a patio, I could have turned them upside down like the 16 I used to replace rotting wood boards at the bottom of my front steps, but I like seeing some of these names from pioneer families here in the valley.  The most recent date I have found on any markers is 1985.  Often wonder about these people and the lives they lived or why they were cut short.   I still have some more that I have not used, looks like the little house out back is built on them and one of the barns.  Most of these came from a platform that was part of a falling down barn.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it ................

Yesterday

Another beautiful sunrise, I didn't notice the flock of birds on the left

until I enlarged the picture on my computer

Bella telling me enough time on the computer, she wants 

some one on one time

When I went outside to feed I noticed all these vapor trails, I thought 

the Shuttle must have flown over, nope it is still in So Cal 

until this morning, should be passing over the valley soon now.

I guess the weather conditions were just right for

vapor trails, there goes another one.

And now then end of the day another perfect display from the sun.

Wishing you all a great weekend, look up and the sky, never know 

what you will see.

I went to get a Life Line Health Screen today, took camera along for the ride again and took a few random  pictures while driving around  .................

St. Anthony's Church

Stopped by a peach orchard that has not been picked yet to snap this one.

A few years ago you could have bought this store on Ebay for $600,000 dollars, actually that was the price of the whole town, population 30, it included another building on this side of the road.  The store was built in 1920, the town did not sell and the store is still in the family and open for business.

Inside the store is a real step back in time, with old wood floors, forgot to take a picture of the old original lunch counter and the round swivel stools.  I came real close to a face to knee cap encounter with a wild boar like the one on the wall about 8 years ago here, he had decided the goat barn was a nice spot to spend the night New Year's Eve, thank goodness I had not been out drinking the night before and had 2 dogs with me for our encounter.

The store is full of old antiques

top shelves are filled with old bottles and memoribilia, even a couple of wheels

Unusual gate topper and they have 2, other one is identical and is on the driveway to their house

Today the horses were all out near the road

They even posed for a picture instead of taking off like the crows did.

Should have some Dorper lamb pictures soon, several ewes are getting close to lambing.  

Shetlands need to be put  in with the rams one of these days.

Another project and a yard sale find

Last year I found this antique spinning wheel on Craig's List

Last week I bought this Ashford Traveler from a member of local Fiber Group ... I am trying to learn to spin without frustration.  Since I have Shetland Sheep and Angora Goats I should be finding a use for all these fleeces.  I should have taken this picture from a different angle so you can see my lumpy yarn, LOL.

Last Friday on my way to the grocery store I stopped at a yard sale, this was a house I have stopped at before and found lots of things.  This big bowl was $5.00, wouldn't it look good full of potato salad?

Turned it over no identifying marks but hey, for $5.00 to fill with potato salad ... still a bargain

The lady put the bowl in a plastic bag and I never notice until I got home ........... LOL, guess I could tape a Potato Salad Label over that.  I think I have seen an ad for these bowls in Country Sampler Magazine.

The news today said we had the hottest August on record and looks like September might be too, didn't have many days that were record highs, highest I remember was 109, have had single days higher than that in the past.  Looks like we are dropping into the 90's and there was some 80's in the 10 day forecast.

the

Green vs. Brown

Yesterday I went to local craft festival, I wanted to get pictures of some of the hot air balloons, well I got there about 9:30 and they had all taken off around 8 and went north of town, not a balloon in site.  Lots of booths and vendors at the festival but nothing I could not live without.  Visited a friend that owns the local yarn store and then came home.  So all I got pictures of to share are of the road coming home.

This is a local Thoroughbred Horse Ranch's race track

Usually these pastures are full of horses, but they were hiding out near the trees at their feeders.  That's "My" mountain in the back ground, well it's not really mine, but the one I have a view of across the road.

When I pulled off the road to take pictures there were about 30 crows around that puddle in the pasture, I guess they were shy and didn't want their picture taken or maybe some of them were on the 10 most wanted list anyway by the time I was ready to take their picture they were gone.  This ranch is between sections of the river and has irrigation.

Coming closer to home, the trees in the foreground are walnuts, larger trees past the power lines are along the river, the trees in the distance are more oranges

Orange trees climbing up the mountain.

This picture is just right of the one above and to the left of the other one I posted recently of my house.

Can't wait until I can take picture when everything is green and green with snow on the mountain in the background.

Time to rally the internet troops again .........

I just read on the Dancing Donkey's blog that another Texas city is planning a Donkey Roping event.  Please stop by her blog for the details of the event to be held in Eden, Texas and send your comments along too.

We managed to stop the one in Van Horn, Texas a few months ago, let's put a stop to this one also.  Donkey's don't need to be subjected to this abuse where they use cattle prods to give them an electrical shock to get them to run just so they can rope them and call it entertainment.

Please go to The Dancing Donkey and get the details.

If they want donkeys for entertainment they should try Donkey Basketball, now that could be fun to watch.

I went to town today and camera went along for the ride

My little corner of the world, there is a neighbor's pomegranate orchard in the foreground, the grey spot in the middle of the picture is my house.  Then most of the rest of the green in this picture are orange trees, it smells wonderful here in April with all the orange trees in bloom.  I will have to take a winter picture when you can see the Sierras behind these foothills and all the snow.

It is old, ugly, utilitarian, and it's mine, it keeps the livestock, the dogs and me in and when it's locked it keeps everything else out.

Don't know if these are table grapes (I think they are) or wine grapes, the vines were heavy with grapes, I thought about walking across the road to get a picture of some of the clusters of grapes.

Farmers right now DO NOT want Rain, these are paper trays of raisins out to dry, any rain right now would devastate their crops.

It was supposed to be 103 today ............. well it turned out to be 106.

Friday Fences and this and that ................

Texas is not the only state with fancy gates .......

Saw a similar fence made out of wheels this week on another blog

A sunrise I did not get around to posting earlier of the Sun coming 

up over the Sierras

This is why I get so jealous when someone posts a picture of their 

green pastures, and no there was no rain in those clouds

And the Dorpers hanging out in the shade

Can't miss this driveway with that for a landmark

Have a great weekend, now that my camera is empty I can go take more pictures 

Catalogs to read this Winter or Now .......

Sorry to say that was not from my garden this year .... Those were from 2 years ago, but maybe my inspiration for next year.

Yesterday I was looking at pasture seed on Peaceful Valley Farm Supply's web site and found they have expanded items since I last ordered from them.  They now have a Harvest and Homestead Catalog, check it out, lots of interesting items including Weck Canning Jars.

Some of my other favorite "Wish Books" are Nasco, everything you could ever need for livestock and farming.  Caprine Supply for everything goat related, and Premier for Sheep.  And let's not forget Northern Tool and Equipment's big book, Farmtek or Tractor Supply.

Weather is starting to cool off, finally forecast is for under 100, mid 90's for next week, couple more weeks and I will be anxious to start planting Broccoli, Sugar and Snap Peas, Lettuces and Chard.

COME ON FALL

Now if I can just remember where I put all my Halloween decorations.