A View of the Races

I am writing about the races today, I want my grandchildren that love horses to see some of these beauties. They are so awesome and magnificent I wish you all could see them up close. The grounds here are so wonderful and compared to other parts of the country, the weather is perfect

I talk to people from every state in the Union that plan their vacation around this time of year, just so they can come to Del Mar. We have had a really mild summer, with some really warm days just starting this week. It was 83 at Del Mar yesterday. I hate to tell you what it was in Ramona. Someone called from Lakeside with 112. It was 99 at 6:30 when I got home from work. I knew we were in for it because it has been cool and foggy in the morning and heating up to about 80 during the day, for August that is cool.

Back to the races. We have been selling tickets like crazy. Everyone from Palm Springs and Las Vegas have been coming to get out of the heat. The beach is within view from the second level of the stadium.

We will be done on Sept 9Th. Then it's time to go back to playing full time. I am really looking forward to moving into my new studio and getting all my wool out to play with. I have been weaving and spinning and even some knitting.

Until then, keep on keepin on.

Sheena

More Garden News

On my day off this week we are going to can pickled beets. I will also make more pickles. Gotta make hay while the sun shines. I really must confess that I am enjoying all this. A long time ago I did this type of thing every year. I love the whole process.

I think I would have loved to have been a farmer. The fact of the matter is, we have had the best of both worlds. We had a little taste of farming/ranching, but our lively hood wasn't dependent on it. We had all the animals, steer, goats for meat and milk, chickens, rabbits, pigs, horses, and dogs and cats of course. But we just played at farming. We didn't have to depend on the weather which around here there isn't any and we had a well, so we had plenty of water. I haven't done this in years because of all the hard work and my back just isn't up to it. But I'm having a ball.

More garden pictures. This is beets and onions

Some of the harvest. Squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, crookneck squash funny little flowery looking zucchinis.

Now we have spaghetti squash getting ripe, and butternut squash too. Yummy I could be a vegetarian. Maybe a hamburger now and then or a steak once a month, but for now veggies are the best. Did I mention that we have 28 tomato plants. Big Boys, Better Girls, Roma, cherry, yellow pear tomatoes and a wonderful full size yellow tomato. They are so good.

When talking about the garden , I forgot to mention Ron's little corner of the garden. His friend gave him some seeds to grow water melons and cantaloupe. They are doing really good and that is what got him hooked on watering the garden. He has a vested interest. In fact I hear him saying things like" next year I'll do this" and next year I'll do that." He is enjoying the garden more than he thought he would and now sees the value of growing your own produce because everyone is so excited about the stuff, it must be good. (he doesn't eat vegetables himself, we count onions as a veggie just for him) I have been cooking lots of veggies and he has been eating some even when he doesn't know it. We are practising the "Don't ask, don't tell" rule around here when it comes to dinner. We also don't tell Nan that she is eating goat. that's another story.

I don't know how to tell when a watermelon is ripe on the vine??? I guess we'll just pick one and see. I am kind of waiting to see when they stop growing then waiting to see if they change. The cantaloupe are easier to tell and we have about 12 of them on three plants. There is also one that is starting to look like a honey due although no one admits to planting one. It's a renegade!

I'll take some pictures of the Watermelon tonight.

till then,

Spin on....................Sheena

PS I got some new roving on it's way. It is from Mollie who is 3/4 Moreno and 1/4 Ramboulet. Luscious chocolate brown. Can't wait!

Yarn for Amy

I bought this beautiful roving

from Loraine Powell a couple of months ago to spin for my friend

Amy. I have been working on it off and on and am finally

getting enough done that I think there is hope for a sweater.

I have this beautiful book I am going to send to her even if she

doesn't use any of the patterns in it. I love the way it handles hand spun yarn.

One more interesting thing. I dyed some yarn (white columbia from Freckles)

with some of the beet juice from the pickled beets we made. What a surprize.

Never dreamed that bright "beet red" what produce this orange yarn.

It's beautiful, but totally unexpected.

This is just a few of the things I've been doing lately.

I am still trying to catch up on the house stuff. It

will probably take me most of this next year, oh well.

Spin on.........................Sheena

Holy Garden!

THE GARDEN

At the beginning of spring we all wanted to plant a garden. So we did. We have 28 tomato plants, and lots of chili's, Anaheim, jalapenos, yellow chilli's and purple bell peppers. We have about 100 onion sets planted 5 packs of assorted beets, 7 different kinds of squash, turnips, okra, egg plant and lots of cucumbers. Green beans and radishes and carrots oh well, you get the picture. BIG GARDEN!

This is the garden. It has gotten totally out of hand. We planted it with all good intentions, then everyone got busy. Papa continues to water and refuses to weed. I weed on my day off, but never get it totally done. There are lots of veggies coming on now. We are drowning in squash (7 different kinds) I just ate my first spaghetti squash last night and it was really good. I of course love zucchini and have been making bread and all kinds of wonderful things. Last week I made chocolate zucchini cake. Yummm. I put zucchini in my spaghetti sauce last night, and probably will put some in the meat loaf tonight.


Now it's time for cucumbers. Oh my goodness. Oh well, had to make pickles. First I made bread and butter pickles because the cucumber got too big. This week was better. I picked cucumbers every day and kept them pretty small. Made dill pickles on my day off. Rhonda was here to help on the second batch so it went pretty fast. We now have 12 pints of bread and butter pickles, and 14 quarts of dill pickles. It's not over, that is just this week. We will have to continue because the over whelming gilt of not doing it is more than I can take. We will pickle and can beets this week. Did I say we planted 5 packets, all different kids. Wow, we have been eating beet greens as fast as we can (which is the real reason we planted so many) Now we have to do something with the beets.

DILL PICKLES BREAD & BUTTER PICKLES
I sure hope we can keep up the pace. I've knitted 4 face cloths for Arlene at work this week and Karalyn and I are starting a new sweater we found on the Internet. Should be fun. I am still working on Amy's yarn.

Spin on.............................Sheena

Freckles after the "Hair cut"

Poor Freckles. I feel so sorry for her. I always make her look so pitiful. Oh well, the other sheep don't seem to notice. Of course they have their own version of the "Hair Cut" so they know better than to make fun of her. I still have three more to do that I hope to have done before we go on our trip.

Wish I was spinning!.......................Sheena

Beautiful Del Mar Race Track

Things are really busy for me right now. I have been knitting when I can, but nothing that takes much thinking. Mostly wash cloths and little stuff. I have been spinning on Amy's yarn, and hope to get that done in the next few weeks. I can't believe how long it takes when I am so busy with other things.

Ron is working on my studio Wahooooo. It is coming along really good. The kids spent there time in there as a dorm of sorts and now he is busy finishing it up. I can't wait to get in there and get all my wool working equipment set up and get to work. I love working with wool and have lots to work with. I plan and setting up a dyeing station too. I have 5 white sheep, so I really do need to learn to dye. I also love color so that's a real plus for me.

When I get done working (Sept. 9Th) we are planning on going on a trip. I have lots of ideas for that going on too. For sure we will go to Morro Bay and see my sister who lives in Atascadero and then on to Idaho to see Ron's niece. We will end up in South Carolina to see Brian and his family and a stop on the way in Alabama to see Dana and her family. I love these road trips and want to go as long as we can do it. I love seeing the country side and all the different things this wonderful country has to see. Every place has such a special quality all it's own.

That's all for now, pictures later.
Spin on....................Sheena

This is Freckles before her hair cut. What a wooley Baby. She is busting out of her coat! Man she has really beautiful wool. I have to take an after picture so you can see how funny she looks after she was sheared. (I am not a pro)