The "Bob" Part 1

so, the railing is in the way, and ridiculously enough blocks the most important sentence about Bob Marshall but, here it is.  This sign is in Ovando, MT

Every year, Brian and I go on a 1 week horse pack trip in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.  We look forward to it from the time we get home one year to the day we leave the next.

This year we almost got skunked.

 Not literally, but you know what I mean ~ we almost didn't get to go.

Traditionally, we have gone the last week in July, to try and get in after the snow melts on one end and beat the fire season on the other.We have done really well with this timing and so planned the same thing for this year.

Well this year we had other fish to fry during that last week of July.  Namely this:

Yipes!

Yes, moving 1204 square bales, by hand, three times (load from field, unload from trailer, stack) kind of sucked the wind out of our sails.  (Don't be impressed with me- my dear husband did 99% of this). 
I may have let the trip go, but Brian is not that kind of guy.  He convinced me (thankfully!) that we should try it over the Labor Day weekend.  So I pleaded with my work to have the Friday before and the Tuesday after off and away we went!!

Yay! Away we go!!!

We left after work Thursday and arrived at the Monture Creek trailhead at 11:30 pm, in the pitch black.  We have never been to this trailhead before and so being dazed and exhausted from the 6 hour drive, made a premature turn and ended up in the Outfitter's Camp.  We did not know this until the next morning, although we were a little amazed at the number of horses in the corrals there- luckily we pack our own corral, so we were set up in under 45 minutes and fell into bed.

This photo is from our Pee Wee Creek trip, but shows our corral set up nicely!  And that beautiful white trailer in the background?  Most fantastic sleeping accommodations- ever!

We woke in the morning to the sound of tractors and lots of people moving around.  When we ventured outside, we realized that we had camped inappropriately.  Outfitters pay a lease to be able to use the Outfitter Camp and they do not take that responsibility lightly (rightly so).  We located the public area, made some apologies and moved over where we should have been in the first place!

They have beautiful facilities at this trail head:

Four wooden corrals...

with troughs for hay.

Happy, happy, hay-eatin' boys

Sorry, you have to bring your own cute cowboy.

The summary (if you are already tired of reading about this) is:

• 88 miles
• 4 days
• beautiful scenery (rocks, rivers, trees and the occasional grassy meadow!)
• wildlife (elk, deer, bear sign, wolf howls)
• 2 horses
• 1 mule
• 2 happy campers :)

The long story:
We travel pretty light- Brian calls it backpacking on horseback. So, no cast iron pots, no wall tents with stoves and cots, no big screen TV.
We do not suffer however- this is our house (big bonus- it's mobile!):

From trees...

to rivers!

And our bedroom:

Yes we do have an inflatable mattress.  If you think we're sissies, you ride a horse over rocks and mountain passes for 22 miles and then sleep on the ground!!!

Dining room:

Stables:

Complete with tack room:

For evening entertainment, we have something better than Survivor.  It's called Nature!

Fall beauty...

Now, personally I love these tipped over trees.  The root configurations are so fascinating.  My horse, however, is convinced that this is an H.E.M. (horse-eating-monster)

Waterfalls...

We were captivated by this little whirlpool.

See how it sucked the yellow flower in? 

Well, I am out of time today, but there is more (much more!!) to tell...

So until next week- Happy first day of Fall!!

Fiber Extravaganza!!

Even though it has been "hot, hot, sunny, bright, I can only stand to be inside after dark, summertime wonderfulness"... I still have a couple of fiber fun things to share!

First there is this:

Warp painting with Kristie!!

More photos can be found here: Blue Flag Handweaving Studio's Facebook page. 

This was a super way to spend a summer day.  We started at Kristie Sherrodd 's Studio, Blue Flag Handweaving Studio in Sandpoint, ID, where we talked about design, color wheels and looked at a bunch of painted warps. It is simply amazing how beautiful a scarf (or any fabric) can be with a painted warp.  Even simple plain weave can be transformed into a rhapsody of subtle color changes and depth. After some book work and planning, we measured off our own warp to paint and had lunch (as usual a highlight of my day!!)

After noontime sustenance, we reconvened in Kristie's carport to paint away.  Now, I always imagined that a painted warp entailed warping your loom and then painting the threads while they are on the loom.  Seems messy.  And, since a lot of dyes have to cure for 24 hours, time consuming.  There is, of course, another way: lay your warp chain out on a table to paint it.  Which is what we did.  So incredibly fun!!!  I highly encourage you to take a class with Kristie- she is a super teacher, uncommonly patient and exceedingly talented.

At the end of the day, we took our dyed warps home to cure and then wash.  Here is what mine looks like: (ok, I never took a photo of them, but Sharon's friend Al did at the Weaver's potluck and here is a link. Photo of my painted warp chain)


Which brings me to the next thing! The Third Annual Weaving Study Group Potluck - wahoo!
We had soo much fun- We ate, we talked, we toured, we drank, we spun.  Once again, I took zero photos, but here is a link (with permission) to Sharon's Flickr's photostream. 
Weave Study Group Potluck 
She and Al took a bunch of fantastic photos- they make our ranch look so beautiful.


ok, so lots of photos to look at, but none here... so here is one in parting!

Happy Chickens!

Next up...
The Bob.

Summer's Recap (Warning- It's a long one!)

My commuter vehicle

I find it hard to believe... Summer is done. Well, not done exactly, but the mornings are cool enough for gloves while doing chores and that is a sure sign that Fall is on the way.

And it has been three (count 'em 3) months since I have posted.  geepers.  Well, let's see what I have been up to...

The Economy of Food (a.k.a. The Wealthy Farmer)

"The Wealthy Farmer"- it seems like an oxymoron these days.  When I Googled an image for the term wealthy farmer, I ended up with a bunch of links to blogs about farm subsidies and "how the U.S. agricultural subsidies system rewards wealthy farmers and tilts the food market in favor of cheap, unhealthy junk food".  I am not sure what I was hoping to find, but this result was slightly depressing. 

I ended up on this thought train today after I read The Hen House blog: Never Ever Apologize for your Price!  It is interesting timing as we have been discussing our recent price increase on eggs (from $2 to $3 per dozen) and the resistance we have gotten on trying to charge a fair price for other food items we have raised.  As I commented on the Hen House blog,

We raise the food because we love to do it, but are both forced to work off-farm to support our "habit". Properly feeding and taking care of animals is not cheap, but some people seem to think we should give away the fruits of our labors for free, or near free.

I deeply appreciate our egg customers.  They allow us to do something we find extremely rewarding (raise food animals) without completely bankrupting ourselves!  The egg business is not what I would call a money maker, but it is almost self sustaining (as long as we don't figure labor costs in).

Chick Wagon

 
The problems are deeply rooted and multi-faceted.  Our society has been programmed to expect cheap food.  Not necessarily healthy (for us or the environment) but cheap.  We have been disconnected from the earth in such a way that we don't believe that food comes from an animal, or a plant.  Instead we believe that food comes from the super market- neatly wrapped, prettily packaged, synthesized, convenient and produced by "somebody else".  We have been brain washed to believe that raw milk will kill us, but commercial milk with rBGH is the best thing going.  That meat from your neighbor is suspect, but "USDA" inspected meat from a factory farm is A-OK. That a locally produced ear of corn with a little bit of worm damage at the tip is gross, but genetically modified corn products (a.k.a. high fructose corn syrup) should be in almost everything we eat.  How did we end up here?  Personally, I can think of only one answer: Corporate greed.  How else can you explain such a big, unhealthy gap between us and a simple, basic necessity?

Thompson Falls Farmers Market

I encourage you to click the link to the Hen House blog above.  There is a very interesting quote from Joel Salatin there.  Part of it reads:  

"We can never change the food system until the best and brightest find romance and reward in this foundational agrarian vocation. And anyone who thinks farmers don’t deserve to live as well as any urban upper middle class family disrespects the very essence of their dinner and the landscape their children will inherit." 

Think about it- if you were forced to give up everything, every luxury, every non-essential item, you would still have to eat.  Air, water, food.  The three absolute necessities.  We, as a people, will fight for clean air, for clean water.  Are we willing to fight for clean food?

Last Year's corn (and Johnny Jump Ups, of course!)

 
We recently took something called a "staycation", wherein we took time off work, but actually just stayed at home.  It was kind of by accident, as we had planned to take a horse trip that ended up not working out at the last minute.  I have to say it was one of the most fun and rewarding vacations I have had in a long time.  It made me realize that what I truly love is right here, at home.  What makes me sad, is we can't find a way to make it work financially.  So we will continue to spend about 75% of our time at off farm jobs, making the money to keep our ranch, our real joy, afloat.  Keep in mind, I am not complaining.  So many people work at jobs as much or even more than we do and don't have what we have to come home to. I am overwhelmingly grateful for what we DO have.  My dream is to be able to do it every day.  And keep the bills paid. 
 

Horse Love

Best Friends

Sometimes.  Other times, ears fly back, necks stick out and teeth are bared as my sweet little paint horse chases off this big Belgian gelding.  

My favorite parts of the day are the morning chores and the evening chores.  Even when the weather sucks (which lately is more often than not) or I'm tired or grumpy or whatever, going out and taking care of our animals always makes me feel better.

We had big plans to travel to Wyoming this weekend and do our "second annual elk antler hunt" (similar to an Easter egg hunt, but located in the sage brush and there aren't any bright colors to help you out!) We went last year and it was a blast- we found 6 big antlers and $404 cash (no joke- it was weathered and mouse chewed and under a sage bush), so needless to say I was geared up to "hunt" again!  This year however, the Bridger-Teton forest is keeping the critical winter elk habitat closed an additional 2 weeks, due to... you guessed it SNOW! I guess we aren't the only ones suffering from the winter that won't end.

Well, since we have the time off, the new trailer is all ready to go on its first trip (and I can not believe I don't have one photo of it) and we are emotionally all geared up to ride, we will be going somewhere locally where there is rumor of sun and springtime glory (I am keeping the actual whereabouts confidential, to protect the innocent) to ride and camp.  I am so excited, I can barely stand it!!

One of the biggest deals about traveling is finding someone to care for our stock while we are gone.  I hazard to say that there are not very many people who enjoy slogging around in the mud, hucking hay and hauling water as much as I do.

But this guy here:

I love camping!

 Insists it is time to go camping!  So off we will go.

The five of us, one year when we actually had summer...

I have two things I want to share with you:

1. Shelly at Butternut Woolens wrote a blurb on her blog about my snow curl photo and Brian's snow roller. (Thanks Shelly!)  Go visit her blog she has the most awesome hand-dyed yarns there!!!

2. I read about something called a Fibershed today on this blog: What's a Fibershed? Very interesting idea.  Local food is currently all the rage (for good reason), so local clothing seems like the logical next step.  go read about it and tell me what you think!!

And if you happen to see the sun, can you give it a message?  Northwestern Montana misses you and wishes you were here! 

Shearing day extraordinaire!

Finally, finally, finally!

SkyLines snowy driveway to the sheep barn

I have been wanting to write about our most spectacular experience at SkyLines Farms down in Harvard, Idaho. My first excuse was that I didn't have any photos (yes, it's true I forgot my camera and my darling husband is still using a 35 mm, and when he got his photos developed he didn't get a photo CD!!) then dear Melissa, owner and shepherdess at  SkyLines emailed me some, and then work got the best of me and then the dog ate my homework... oh wait, that's an excuse for a different time.  So here it is, at last.


As you can see it was still snowy, snowy when we ventured down.  In fact, we almost canceled as we had blizzard conditions the week before.  Our original plan was for me to take Friday off of work so that we could drive down and spend the night and be up bright and early for Saturday's shearing.  Well, the only part of the plan that didn't change was that I took Friday off of work...  Instead of spending a leisurely day driving, we spent the entire day pulling 24 inches (that's 2 feet!) of fresh wet snow off our less snow-worthy outbuildings.  I called and told Melissa not to expect us that night and then we both passed out on the couch, with big plans of getting up early to drive down (you know like in school where you tell yourself, I'll just go to bed now and get up extra early tomorrow and finish that report). Well to be there at 8am for the start of shearing, we had to leave about 4:30 am, which we did (I know, I know you are all shocked, yet impressed).


It's 4 am, the alarm goes off.  We wander outside with flashlights and blurry eyes, throwing hay at confused animals who are wondering why their crazy humans are out there in the middle of the night.

Driving commenced.  In the dark.  and little snow flakes started to fall. and then more, and more.  Suffice it to say we got about 25 miles from home to a cool little place called Hope, (honest it is called Hope) and we were, well, beyond hope. It was snowing so hard that Brian could barely see the road and when we stopped and opened the door to look out, ours were the only tracks.  It seemed ridiculous to drive 4 hours in a blizzard, work hard outside all day, and then turn around and drive 4 hours back home. We waited.  We conferred.  We decided to turn back and go home.  yes, we did.  We drove about 21 of the 25 miles back home and the snow stopped.  Completely. Well, guess what?  yes, we did, again.  We turned around and drove the 4 hours and boy am I glad we did!!  Super fun day with super fun people.  okay, okay!! here are some more photos:

The "men-folk" working hard

The "women folk" actually working :)!

 Although I poke fun at the men here, shearing is hard, hard work.  Melissa has a great set up, indoors with a small pen to section off the current group of sheep waiting to be sheared and then a big covered area where we did the skirting (taking undesirable, unmentionables off the otherwise beautiful fleece- as Melissa told us, the lady in uptown Manhattan, opening the box containing her long awaited fleece does NOT want to pull out a clump of sticky, wet sheep poop!)  If you have never been to a shearing, I highly recommend it.  The only thing I can compare the actual shearing to is a magic show.  


The fuzzy, unshorn sheep mill around baaahing and looking nervous.  One of the helpers grabs up the next candidate and escorts them to the shearing platform (aka a plywood sheet). Martin, the shearer (or Magician, depending on your perspective), deftly takes control of the sheep which instantly relaxes.  Using a tool that looks like something you could easily use to cut off your toe, Martin whisks off a year's worth of beautiful, luxurious wool.

The fleece, miraculously still all in one piece, is then carefully picked up and brought to the skirting table.  Melissa made the coolest skirting tables out of 2 x 4s and PVC- portable, so she can use them wherever they are needed.

Yes, Hartsong Ranch will be having one of these soon!

The fleece is then tossed onto the table, shorn side down, and the meticulous picking, pulling and general inspection begins.

Here Melissa is giving direction to one of the skirters.

Second cuts (the teeny short bits of fleece produced when a section of sheep is clipped twice) generally fall through the slats as the fleece is picked up, shook and dropped down. As skirters, we attempted to find the neck and corresponding butt ends, so that when we folded and rolled them we could do it in the proper order.  Then all the "icky" bits (dirty, matted, full of VM- a.k.a. vegetable matter) were pulled off and put in the scrap pile under the table.  Melissa composts the dirty wool- which is quite a pile because she wants her fleeces to go out to her customers as clean as possible!

Dixie with the skirting pile

The skirted fleeces are then folded, rolled and bagged.  The responsible sheep's name is put on the bag and the bag is piled in the truck bed with all the other bags!  Martin sheared and we skirted and bagged 47 sheep fleeces!  The bags are then transported to Melissa's wool shed, where they are weighed and then sent to their lucky new owners.  


We had a fantastic lunch and awesome conversation all day.  Such a fun, interesting, worthwhile day.  And, to top it off, there was this:

Rainbow! a perfect end to a perfect day.

So, it took me a while to post this story, but it was worth the wait, wasn't it?  Just like participating in shearing day was worth braving the snow storm and making the drive!  The best things in life aren't always the easiest things in life.

HAPPY SPRING!!!