Visits End

I think everyone can identify with the mixed feelings as you give a parent or a child a hug goodbye after a visit. You hate to see them go and wish for a little more time on one hand and on the other, it is nice to have life as you are use to it, return to that pleasant day to day routine you have. So it was last night when I hugged my parents after a wonderful last meal together at a great eatery in Ashland. They always take a hotel room near the airport so they don't have to worry about an early morning drive down the mountain. We say our good byes and Gene and I relive the highlights and the very few lowlights of the visit as we drive home to our newly emptied house.

My Dad did indeed get every scrap of weaving done on his two long runners and no, I didn't get pictures. Simply forgot in the moment of enjoying the finished project. They were lovely and I promise when I get pics of them in their rightful places, all hemmed and ironed, I will share them. Plus, I got to keep all the cones and there is a lot of bamboo left!

My Mom and I did a fair amount of shopping and I was able to ferret out a new used bookstore where she found a whole heap of her much loved 1920-1940's mysteries. We also found her some great shoes. No visit would be complete without our family Emelda Marcos packing home some new footwear. I think she's given up on me at least this time around. She also got to keep busy doing dishes. She loves to do dishes even though we have a dishwasher of the mechanical variety, she complains when this task is snatched out from under her.

Being the good daughter I am, I let her wash until her hearts content. I also tried to convince her that vacuuming was a great vacation activity, but it was a no go. ;-)

On farm news, nothing really to report, the paddock is muddy, Puck has again disappeared, and Bond, if he has been around, has not bothered with the tack room.

My mother came out and helped one cool sunny morning with the late fall goat wrangling. I was able to get all five goats fixed up for winter. Bottoms where clippered down to keep them neat, hooves trimmed, coats dusted and everyone was wormed.

It was a great help having an extra pair of hands especially with getting the wormer into the little devils.

Our local nice guy and window helper Matt dropped off some antelope meat he had hunted in Montana last week and Thursday night we had antelope stew. Milder than venison and very sweet. It was a nice surprise. He'll be getting a homemade from scratch pineapple upside cake in return.

I have a special test warp on Hey Baby, which is a whole 'nother blog. I had to rush to get it on as everyone, myself included, wanted to see if it would work out. I sold the two pet prayer flags I had down at the local premium pet food store and have a request for more. A warp is in process on the Murphy loom for just that and I hope to get some for gifts from it too.