Farm Day Demo

The demo up in Hidden Springs went off without a hitch.  This is the Dry Creek Historical Society's annual event celebrating the renovation of the Schick-Ostolasa Farmstead.  The sheep were great, the grass was perfect, the dogs did wonderfully, the weather was awesome, the friends amazing, and, best of all, the trailer could practically fly.  Too bad I didn't get a picture of it.  The thing was like a transformer! 

I didn't get many pictures of us working stock (surprisingly), but I got tons of photos of the event itself.  Here we go:

Here is the apple cider station that was right next to us.  This was the most amazing apple cider I have ever tasted.  I would have bet money there was sugar in it, but that was just the flavor of the apples.  Yummy!

And our dogs loved this dog guy.

The old barn ...

Iron work.  This stuff was amazing.  I grabbed his card if anyone is interested in contacting him.

I think one of these would look very cute hanging in my kitchen.

Here's a closeup of the detailed snake heads on the ends.

The equipment he uses:

An old tractor:

The new barn:

The wood carvings were amazing ...

And beautiful silversmithing ...

The baskets up for silent auction.

And these guys are great!  The kids were really enjoying it.

And these people ...

They were SO patient with us!  We had some sheep that were DRAWN to their trailer every time we came anywhere close.  A couple of times, they ended up in their trailer. 

A tired stockdog.



And this is Kelsey with her dog, Ewan.  This was their first demo, and they did a great job!

I'd like to thank the crew.

Ok ok ... hang on ...

L to R:  (People:  Kelsey, Katy, Jaenne, Valerie and random kid)  (Dogs:  Ewan, Bett, Mo and Bolt)

Not pictured:  Phyllis and Rusty

Thank you everyone for all your help in putting on a fun event!

Jodi

De-Squeak Me, Baby

I was driving home from work today ... on the freeway ... stuck in traffic ... and the squealing from my tires was making me nuts.  After I stopped by the dealership to drop off my payment, I swung by Mr. Sexy Mechanic's shop.  This is the same Mr. Sexy Mechanic who, when I needed my rotors replaced, he replaced them and then drove my truck to my house for me.  I live right up the road from his shop.  Thinking of him standing in my living room makes me sweat.  Anyway, back to what I was talking about.  I told Mr. SexMech that my brakes were squealing like crazy, so he told me to pull my truck into the shop.  I walked into the office to talk to him while his boys jacked it up and took the wheels off to take a look at it.  SexMech tells me that a lot of times what causes squealing is dirt, and commented on what a dusty, dirty world we live in.  We walked back over to my truck and he took the air compressor thing and blew a shit-ton of dirt out of my brakes.  One of the boys commented, "Wow, those are brand new.  Look at how clean they are."  So I guess my brakes are good to go.  The cost of this adventure?  Nada.  AND I got to ogle over SexMech.  I told him that I needed my oil changed, and we made an appointment for some time Saturday morning. 

I left the shop, drove home, and couldn't help but to take personal the dirty world "we" live in.  He's seen where I live.  It's dusty and dirty.  Always.  So I promptly broke out the hose, the soap, the bucket, etc., and gave my truck a good old bath.  So now it's nice and clean for SexMech on Saturday.   Hee hee.

So why haven't I chased after him?  Several reasons.  I'm fat and old, he's got a girlfriend, he's younger than me, he's got a girlfriend, he's got kids, and a girlfriend.  But man is he hot.  He's not even the normal type I go after.  He's not much taller than me, if he is at all, but he's got some eyes that make me melt, and he looks right at me when he talks.  That's something I don't find much nowadays.  If I didn't know any better, I'd almost think he is actually listening to what I'm usually nervously rambling about when I see him.  Oh man, I hope he's not actually listening to that gibberish.   He's sweet as sweet, and I love his laugh. Way too cute.  Best of all, he's got a huge brand new truck that could drive right over the top of mine and never touch it.  Gorgeous! 

C'mon Saturday morning!

KnottyPineRanch.com

I'm trying to get back into updating my blog on a more frequent basis, but I'm really not that excited about posting just to post.  I'm seeing more and more bloggers blogging inane stuff on a daily basis (even to the point of setting up a blog to post on a timer for when they are out of town) just to put themselves at the top of blog rolls.  I'm not really into doing that. 

I finally bought the domain name.  You can now reach this blog at http://www.knottypineranch.com/.

Another interesting thing I wanted to mention is I saw a very informative post regarding Border Collie Collapse that people might be interested in reading.  HERE is the link.

I'm doing a demo up in Hidden Springs this weekend.  Just checked the weather ... it should be quite pleasant and we might even get a few very welcome showers.  Here's the link to the FARMSTEAD.

So, if you've been following me on my FACEBOOK, you probably know that I've been having so much fun with my plumbing and appliances!  The shower is still backing up on me, so the plumber is coming over tonight with a different machine to see if he can get the pipe cleaned out.  The guy came and fixed my dryer over the weekend and that cost me a pretty penny (well, lots of pennies, actually).  Hopefully, eventually, everything will work ... and I am praying it happens before winter.  I have a feeling we might have a doozy of a winter creeping up on us.

Speaking of which, I went and bought one of those big blue 55 gallon barrels, and finally bought myself a reciprocating saw, and sawed the barrel in half longways.  I needed a couple more water troughs ... one for the ducks and one for the sheep when I have them in the west pasture.  I cut it in half and it worked perfectly, although I think the one I'm using for the ducks is too high for them, so I'll have to dig it down a bit.  I'll have to buy a couple of caged de-icers for both for the winter.  Not sure what to do for water for the pig yet for the colder months.  I'll have to ask around.

Oh there goes my ignorance again.  I guess the guy that hates seeing that type of stuff has stopped reading my blog because I haven't heard from him.  Oh, and ... three of my goldfish are still alive and still swimming around happily in the sheep trough!  Whodathunkit?

I am going to do some work on the Idaho Stockdogging Blog.  It needs some serious updating and a facelift.  I am also going to set up a facebook fan page for it.  Make all the links easier for the handlers and stuff.

My very dear friends, Jennie and Cheryl, came up from Southern California to visit me over Labor Day weekend.  We had a blast!  We went up to McCall on Saturday, sat on the lake and had a couple of drinks, then went to lunch at an awesome little bistro up there.  Came down the hill, met up with Justin, and hung out at the Reef for a bit.  Sunday, we hung out at the house, went for a nice walk, putzed around and did a whole lot of nothing, while the plumber snaked out my mainline.  Justin came over for a BBQ.  Monday, we went to the lake, checked out the Osprey nest, went down to Marsing and had a couple of drinks and asked the bartender for a suggestion of what to do for a few hours before dropping them off at the airport.  "Cleo's in Glenn's Ferry," she tells us.  Oh yes.  I forgot about that place.  I'll have to post a complete write up of that when I go back and take some photos.  I didn't have my camera with me, and I had no idea what a photo-worthy event that would be.  I have also since gained some history of the place, and one of my neighbors is a key player.
Anyway, a few photos:

While I was waiting for the girls to arrive at the airport, I figured I would have a beer.  The bar is right there.  So I am looking to see what they have on tap ... and much to my surprise, I see this:

That's my favorite!  And I've never seen it on tap before!  So ... I order one.  It comes in a nice, large frosty glass with a fresh slice of orange.  And it was so good!  I get the bill.  It was almost $9 !!!!!!!!!!  I about fell out of my chair!  LOL!  It was good, but it was certainly no $10 beer.  I guess it was worth the experience though.  I wish I could have taken the tap with me though.  I love the mohawked orange dude.  He's so cool.  I wouldn't have minded taking this sign home either.

Here's Jennie and Cheryl arrival.

And here's Wilbur. 

He's not Mr. Personality like Bacon was, but he's still pretty cute. 

I spent quite a bit of time last weekend cleaning out my "garage" (in quotes because there's no way to put my truck in it ... so is it a storage building?  It's not a barn ... ).  It's got a great work bench, that, up until now, was covered in miscellaneous crap from the house and I had no space to work.  Well, it finally got to me to the point where I did something about it.

So now ... I just need to clean out the other side of the room.

I'm finding that now that I own the place, putting stuff away is a little more complicated than ... just ... putting it away.  If there's a shelf that needs repair, it gets fixed first rather than jerry rigging it and putting the stuff on it anyway.  If there's something "not quite right," it gets made right beforehand.  So everything just takes longer.  And that's ok.

So once I had a work bench, I was putting away a little wooden sign I had that said something stupid like:  "No one notices what I do until I don't do it."  <-- Pretty appropriate in my former life, but pretty moot today.  So ... I painted it.  And stuck it on Wilbur's house.

I am sure that will be the first of many corny things I do in my spare time.  Because I can. 

Well, off to go meet the plumber at my house.

Jodi

Bacon II

Welcome home, Wilbur!

Glenda and I went and picked up an 8 week old Duroc pig today.  Bacon was so good, I figured I'd get another one.  And Wilbur is absolutely adorable.  He's younger than Bacon was when I got Bacon.  Despite not liking riding in the truck in a crate, he settled in quite quickly and started foraging right away.  I'll take pictures soon.  It's nice having a resident back in the pig pen.

Come Halloween, we'll have to go to the store and pick up some webbing and a "Charlotte" for his house. 

Off to bed.

J