Rootstalk - Part Two

Saturday -
This morning I decided to try a green smoothie for breakfast along with my oatmeal bar. It had strawberries, bananas, kale and spinach in it and was really quite tasty. Then I am off to my next class which was speaker Jim McDonald. He spoke to us on topical potions, poultices, and a way to make some very easy fixes for cold season and such. He was quite a character as he would act out some of what he would tell us, but had some really good info for all to learn. He was cooking onions for a poultice and then some white sage for a steam inhalation which made the room smell quite lovely.


After his class I was to go off to an aromatherapy class but hunger pangs won over again. This time I tried a vegetarian sausage with sauercraut and it was surprising good too.  By the time I finished eating and looking around at the vendors table and finding more things to buy, I decided to go back and lay down before the party got started at 8pm.
I had found a beautiful skirt, top and scarf to wear to the Masquerade ball tonight and my friend Pam, bought a skirt she was gonna wear.

Once we all started getting ready for the party to begin, snacked on what munchies we had brought with us, here comes the band of drums and tamborines up the path right towards our campsite. This puts a face to who had been keeping me up at night.

Funny how now I am enjoying the dance and music along with everyone else. This was to start off the evening festivities and boy was it an awesome way to do that. They are called the Samba Ja band.

So here we are decked out for the festival and off we go.

I did not get Cheryl in this picture as she was off having one of the fabulous massages that a couple were doing up at one of the vendor tents. I had a half hour massage earlier today and it has helped me be able to have a good evening without hurting.

Just before the bands on stage began, Pam and I went back to our favorite clothing vendor and she bought another skirt, I bought a pair of pants and MaryJane Butters saw us with our skirts and thought they were so cute she found one she loved as well.


Aren't these the cutest skirts?  I could have bought up the store if I had more money to spend. Everything is ruffles, layers and just funky cool.

The vendor would not let us leave until she took our picture so she could show off how her clothes look on others. We had so much fun looking at her pieces. Check out her website at avatarimports.net. I bet you will find something you'll like too.

Out into the food court the music has started and lights are coming on everywhere. But first a bathroom break. Can you tell what fun is about to begin? Isn't her costume too cute?

Pam and pussy cat?

me, April, Cheryl, Robin

tea pavillon

So many of my pics did not turn out as I had a new camera and could not figure out how to make the flash work every time.  This is the tea garden where you can get free hot or cold tea all day long. The lights are so pretty.

People were in robin hood hats, fox hats, gowns, capes, animal faces, you name it all the wild came out tonight.

I did'nt stay up long. Had some a piece of vegetarian pizza, an advil and off to bed to get ready for the ride home in the morning. I did not hear the music all night long this night.

Sunday -

We are up before the sun comes up, I go and take a nice shower, we begin to take down our campsite and I wonder off through a nice path to find the cart to come and take us back to our vehicles. Once he arrives and we load up his huge trailer and the back of his van we are off to the back forties. He says we are the second people to be leaving. Pretty good we got out before the rest of them strirred. With over 1,000 in attendance, I did not want to be in that kind of mess.

Once out of the woods, back into Salem, first thing I do is stop at Starbucks for a latte and a bowl of oatmeal. From there it is just a few hours until we are home.

I hope that they will have an annual event like this as it is so informative, calming and just plain fun. Hope many of you will think about going if you enjoy learning about botanicals and back to a more natural way of living then this is the place to come.

Rootstalk - Part One

Wednesday -
There were five of us girls from our local farmgirl chapter who went off to Rootstalk for an adventure in back to nature. It began with a 4 hour road trip that would take us to our first overnite stop where we were staying at Robin's folks home up in Drain, Or. Their beautiful spread on a hillside with wild berries and pines abounded. We pitched our bedrolls out on the driveway thinking we would enjoy the night stars. Before we even had sat down to a wonderful, filling dinner Robin's folks put together for us, dad tells about a bear they saw a week before just down across the yard. So guess what? Yep, we all moved our beds into the garage although we did leave the door open for the fresh air,we felt like we were not so much bear bait. Yeah, right. We laughed well into the night with silly stories.

Thursday -
By early morning after a splendid breakfast feast, we hit the road to Salem which was another hour and a half away, and were the first campers to arrive at Rootstalk. How excited we were to think we could have first pick of our camp site and begin enjoying the vendors wares early on.

We were greeted by this nice gal who was given orders that no one was to enter the grounds until 2pm so she allowed us to park at the side of the road until opening time.


We pulled out our chairs, munched on goodies, chatted with others who came from afar and waited for 2pm to come.
Nearing 2:00 we had several cars behind us and the road was not very wide for allowing the vendors and larger trucks to get by us, and it was not easy to see what was around the bends, so I think they let us in a few minutes earlier for safety reasons.
This is a first for Rootstalk so there will always be kinks that need worked out.

Well, once inside we were instructed to unload our vehicles onto the side of the road near the registration area. Then someone would come by and load up our things into their vehicle to take us up to the camp site. So I went in the direction they sent me to park my truck while the other girls road up to where we were to be deposited on the side of another road. The parking lot they sent me in my truck, and Cheryl in her car, was way down in the back forties and if you needed a body adjustment or not, you got one. We were driving through an open field of holes and tall grasses. We were then instructed to walk back or wait for sometime before a ride came to take us back up the hill and that it would take us only 15 minutes to walk it if we chose to. With the steep hills ahead of us, we began our first hike, but knew it would take us probably 30 minutes to get back up there. One unhappy traveler decided he would not park that far away and proceeded back up the hill and gave us a lift to the top. Thank you Grant.

Once back up to the registration area, we caught a ride on a golf cart, which we had to hang on to for dear life from falling out the open back, and we were taken to our camp site where the girls had been dumped and were busy hauling everything to a spot where we eventually set up camp. It is close to the bath and showers and near the pond and just down a path not far from all the activities.

By now we have all worked up a good sweat with loading and unloading our tons of stuff, and with the humidity in the air, we were off to hit the showers and then hopefully to find something to eat as it is now close to 4:30 and we had done nothing but snack since breakfast.

Well, I'm not a health nut by any means, so finding food I could eat and know it would fill me up was a bit of a challenge. Octopus, anchovie pizzas not my thing, cabbage wrapped strange veggies, not my thing, aahhh..... cafe latte won my heart. It did'nt hurt that I had crackers, cookies and yogurt back at camp.

The night comes on and we settle into bed listening to some of the singers and musicians playing beautiful relaxing music as we drift off to sleep. But...........lo and behold, hours later I am awakened with someone shouting like they are looking for their kid, and then it starts this beating of a drum and others chanting or something. It is as though I am in some far away place like the Amazon or such and the natives have started a ritual of some sort. At first it is kinda cool music to the ears and then when you're hopeing it would slow and come to a hault, it only gets louder and louder and louder and lasts well into the wee hours of the morning.

Friday -
Morning is here, the natives have gone to bed, we climb out of our tents and I am in search of an eye opener so I'm off to retrieve my latte then back down the hill, through a beautiful path of wild berries and wild fern and flora, to the outdoor amphitheater to see speaker Kathi Keville talking to us about medicinal herbs for sustainability. Some of the gals have joined in for yoga, but I am too sore for this this morning. I take notes for an hour, then it is off to another class.

I have come to see speaker KP Khalsa. He will speak about the holistic healing system of India. It is about the practices of every aspect of a person's health and lifestyle.

Here we are to learn about the ancient healing wisdom of Ayurveda. I have learned that my Dosha is that of a Vata, a swan. I have the body of a weak and frail structure, I am of creative character and I crave sugar. Boy, he sure knew what he was talking about. Had me down to the science of all being.
After tasting some very strange things which were passed about, that are good for you,  I just had to go find something to wash my palate once the class was over. But first I was going in search of some real food to stay my hunger pangs. I managed to find some quinoa with shredded pork. YUM!

Around four I went to sit on the side of a hill to listen to speaker Wren Davidson who told us about 12 master healer herbs we probably see on the side of the road or our own backyards. She told of their healing properties and how to collect the plants themselves.

Afterward I shopped at some of the vendors booths where I found a nice walking stick to help me up and down the hills and I found a sample of some pain reliever to apply to my back and arms, which by now are hurting really bad, so it was back to camp and early to bed.
Sleeping soundly for awhile, I am once again awoken sometime into the late hours with beating of the drums. Yep, well into the wee hours of morn. These natives aren't sleeping tonight. I tried the ear plugs that I found at the medic tent earlier on. I tried covering my head with a pillow but nothing worked to quiet the sounds, until I discovered I had brought some Advil PM. Oh what wonderful stuff.

                             Stay tuned for some more adventures tomorrow.

busy,busy, busy

As some of you know we have been very busy around home. After 20 gallons of paint, the outside of our home has a new coat for winter. I think I actually found the dark chocolate I was wanting before.

Then there is the 10 gallons of sealant I have yet to finish for the decks. I am trying the new stuff called Restore. Not an easy texture to work with and with so much to do it is taking me a few days to get it done. It is very messy and you are constantly dipping in the pan as it only covers about two feet at a time. Nothing like paint itself.

My pictures are not very good, kinda blurry. I think I am due for a new camera. But here is how it is looking so far. The green is actually a tile green (looks teal here) which darkens as it dries to almost a deep forest green. I needed it to look like I had grass under my feet.  I'm tired of dirt or snow. I think it adds warmth to the house. Hubby is not so crazy about it. But like I told him, I could always throw a rug or two down and he'd never no the difference. Not sure what I should do with the beams under the roof. Should I paint them, leave them alone, and if paint, what color?

I was afraid to do the brown as it would darken it too much underneath. Green may be funny looking from below. Help, I'm thinking I should leave it alone.

Today I am taking a break from the porch. The second coat will have to wait until tomorrow. Besides, it isn't very warm outside today, at least it's a good enough reason for me. I have been organizing my bags that will be going on my trip to Rootstalk. We will be leaving next Tues, spending the evening in Drain, Or. then going into Salem the following morning. Then the fun begins. I plan to take as many pictures as I can. So hope to have some wonderful things to share when I get home.

I will be home for only three days before I am off the the beach for a week. I sure hope the weather holds up and it won't be too cold while we are there. I sure enjoy riding my quad on the sand.

Hope your summer has been a pleasant, fulfilling one. It is always  nice to get caught up on the larger projects that need done.  Did I mention, there is still lots of outdoor furniture that needs redone. I'm sure I could find an extra paint brush or two around here somewhere.

Now I'm off to see what you have been doing this summer.

Great finds

We took a trip over to Medford today, which is 75 miles for us, and purchased two dog kennels for $200. If I keep rescueing animals it will be nice to have a place for them to be safe. I thought I might even take on boarding once in awhile too. While we were there my eyes spotted the galvanized animal trough, so of course I had to ask the woman what she was gonna do with it. She sold it to me for $10 and the smaller one for $5, and she gave me the old wheel barrel that was gonna be taken to the dump. I think it will look great with flowers in it, and she then gave me the old milk stool and honey pail and large igloo dog house. Not a bad catch for the day, would'nt you say?

two kennels

A little bit of work ahead to get the kennels cleaned up and set up, but it was well worth the price to have extra room for the critters. By the way, that snake skin on the left of the pic was a rattler my hubby came upon a few days ago. It measured in at 47 inches and let me tell you, it was large. I had'nt seen one since moving away from Phoenix, AZ. I don't even remember one being that large then. We skinned it and now it's drying. Bet it'd make a pretty nice hat band or belt.

I will be using the troughs as my raised gardening beds. I have three already and they are working out really well for me. Besides not having to bend over, they keep more heat on my plants therefore helping them grow. And with our short season, every little bit helps. We are suppose to have a frost tonight, ugk, so I have covered my tomatoes with hopes of one day soon, having red ones. I can't say I am ready for Fall just yet since I have'nt had any red tomatoes from my garden to speak of.

How is your garden doing? Hope you are having a bit more luck with yours than I have had again this year. Keeping my fingers crossed still.

Tinkering

I have so loved trying my hand at making different types of crafty things. I see so many beautiful items that you bloggers have made that I am tempted to try them myself. I am just not that talented in many of the crafts but I did attempt the coffee filter wreath. My first one turned out so bad that I knew I had to really think about the layout of the filters so that they would come out more even all the way around.

As you can see the uneven layers from this one. I just was'nt thinking, just glueing away...


So a few days ago I decided it was time to try my luck on another coffee filter wreath. After burning my fingers so many times from the hot glue gun, and using lots and lots of filters, this is what I ended up with.

Not bad, huh? With practice I hope to improve. It definately takes time to complete one of these. I worked several hours one day and finished it the next.

Then I decided to try one of those cone shaped paper rolled wreaths. After using some pretty old music paper, most were tearing, I finally got enough rolled up to put this wreath together.

It turned out okay, but always room for improvement. This one was a little easier, but still managed to take a few layers of skin off my fingertips. Those glue guns get hot! 

There are so many projects I would like to try. I am still practicing the fabric roses. Not even gonna show you those pics. :/ Talk about needing lots and lots of practice. But what a fun way to use up all my scrap material.

I will keep watching your blogs for more fun projects and want to thank you all for helping this ol' gal learn some new things. There are so many great crafters that I have found through blogland. Love that you all share with us.

Blessings,

Gail

Doggone it, we've done it again

Yep, we have once again rescued another dog. Her name is Suzy Q. She is a Heeler and about 10 months old. I brought her home yesterday from an older gentleman who cannot take care of her. She is doing very well with our other girls so far. My goal is to teach her how to be around my chickens and cats. These are all new things to her.
Is'nt she cute?

That's Pearl on the right. She is just a little over one year now and she's a mini Australian Shepherd. She is totally jealous but loves having another she can run and play with. Her cousin, Cora, comes up every few months to play. She's a Heeler too and about the same age as both these girls. Won't they have a ball all together?

For the past few days I have been dogsitting our neighbor's dog, Zeus. I think he looks more like a giant slouth. What do you think? He is such a gentle dog, but boy is he a big, big boy.

Life has'nt been boring around our home. Plenty of doggy music going on. We have our two little one's , Jade (mini aussie) and Onyx ( min pin) playing together in the house while the others are getting to know each other better.

 Suzy Q is sure loving to run around the acreage we have, but I need to teach her to be in a kennel also. We put our dogs in crates to sleep at night. Keeps them out of mischief and gives us better sleep. At least sometimes.

Driving crazy



Whitehorse Falls

My younger sister and her daughter have come to visit us this week. We did an overnight to the beach but first stopped at a few of the many waterfalls our area has to offer.
This one is right off the highway with picnic tables to luncheon at and a bridge to walk out onto for a better view of the falls. Everything is green and breathtaking.


Further down the highway we came across the next falls which we had to hike some ways back and up into the woods. It was quite a climb but very refreshing once we got near the top. It is almost like a huge canyon opened up and out poured the falls.

Watson Falls

Toketee Falls

After climbing as far as we did, we did not make it further to the top so this was the view I could capture. We then continued down the road to the falls that really took us on a hike. There were 97 stairs to climb up along the way with 125 coming back down. But the view was well worth the hike. My only wish was that there had been an elevator down to the pool of water itself. One could certainly work up a good sweat getting to it.

After the falls we drove on into Bandon, Or. to find a spot for dinner and a place to lay our heads. Spent the night two blocks from the ocean and slept like babies.

Bandon

Off to breakfast and while looking for our beach we missed our turnoff in Gold Beach where we were hoping to spend a few hours, only to end up in Northern California on Crescent City beach instead. Spent some time there before journeying back towards home, only to once again miss my turn off and we ended up far north  near Crater Lake driving through miles and miles of forest before finally reaching the highway closer to home. Although we missed some sites we did manage to be pleased with the many lakes and mountains and gourges we saw along our trip.

Crescent City

Next year, map in hand, we plan to stay a little more settled into a campsite where we can lay around, relax in some water and do some gentle hiking. Leave the driving to just getting there and getting back home.

Deck pics as promised

I promised you some pictures of the additions and changes to our home. Here are a few but keep in mind that we have still got to paint the house. I have picked out a nice chocolate brown instead of our poopy brown which by the way was called 'cabin brown' when I bought it. It looked good for awhile until the light hits it just right, yuk!

old railing

new railing

new addition

craft room door

I am so thrilled to finally have a roof over the back deck and the view through the living room window is no longer blocked by the ugly railing. This has been my wish for several years and it finally was able to happen for us.

My husband is officially retired now since the new owners (again) at the Ford dealership would not hire him back as they said he was 'old school', we are now able to get a lot more done around the place. We have a neighbor who has been out of work, he builds homes, so we were able to help him out along with having some of our plans fulfilled. He will be putting an open roof, gazebo type over another small deck area where we sit out with an open fire pit in the winter. He has done some really nice work for us from roofing the work shop, putting lights in it and the chicken coop is now wired, to new front porch steps, new step to craft room and making the bought door fit the craft room properly.

I am really gonna miss when he moves away. I keep praying that our economy will come back and so many workers can go back to work. He has four girls he is trying to raise by himself so any work coming his way is a plus. We have told our neighbors of his beautiful work, so for now he is staying busy doing things for them.

As for my husband, he now sees there is no end to all the work that needs done around the place. Just keeping the yard work up is a daily chore. I think he has finally realized I have'nt been sitting around here on my butt any more. Guess that's why I don't have one. (giggle)

We Did It!

Today was the first time my daughter and myself decided to set up a booth to sell our crafts. We did this in the town of Bonanza at their annual town yard sales and Big Springs Carnival. This is how our booth was set up. Before everyone started arriving we were set up in about 30 minutes. When we did our practice run, it took about 5 hours. We have never done anything like this ourselves and we really wanted it to look like a booth we would both stop at and purchase something from.

I wish I had taken pics of all the other vendor booths that set up and the crowds of people that flowed throughout the day. We decided if we sold even one thing we did okay. We managed to sell several of our products and got some really good feedback from the people. It was a great learning experience for us as well as meeting the new vendors and learning from some who have done this for a long time. We had so many nice comments on our booth set up and the pretty way we displayed our crafts and how some were made. This of course lifted our spirits which helped us make the decision to do another event.

We have already signed up for the Chili Cookoff event and Homemade Craft Fair in late August. It is going to be two days for the first time this year but we plan to do just one day. We are looking forward to making some more things and keeping the old creative juices flowing.

It has been fun to see other people enjoy what we have loved making these past few months. I promise I will try to take more pics next time. It was a pretty good turn out for our small town.

Home from vacation

I've been away on vacation visiting my son and siblings and my mom in Idaho. Everyone is doing really well and my son looks great. We did a little shopping and yard saleing but mostly sitting around, resting and talking. The weather there was hot in the high 90's compared to home in the 70's. The air conditioner was in force as outside was pretty humid most days I was there. We had a good visit as usual but it is always too short. It is hard to be away when veggies are growing in my garden and hubby does'nt quite water the way I do. Needless to say the sprinklers have been going since I got here.

I did come home to an awesome suprise from my hubby, of a new back deck addition and finally, my roof! Now I feel like I have extra rooms I can got into. It totally makes the whole place look like a cabin retreat. I love it!

I also got a new door for my crafting studio with windows to let in more sunlight. I guess he did'nt do too shabby after all. Will post pics when I get some time.

We have lots of projects in the works around here and the biggest one I would like to get done is painting the house along with my new deck area. It has been 3 years and it is in dire need of paint. So I must retire for now as I have lots to do. Stay tuned for pics in the near future.

If you happen to be in the neighborhood, I could surely use some extra hands. I'll even put out the sun tea.

4th of July

What a great day we have had. My daughter in law and myself have been busy the entire day creating beautiful things in my craft studio. I have made a couple of drawstring purses, and a pillow. She has decorated and designed a dozen or so gift bags. We have totally enjoyed the peaceful day it has given us.

I decided to take a break from it, and there was no better way than to go riding on our quads all up and around the countryside. The resevoir below was full and looks as pretty as a lake. By the time we got back home, her husband cooked us up some nice BBQ'd ribs to die for. With that, some good ol' potatoe salad and a wine cooler or two, it was a nice way to wind up our day. One thing for sure we have not missed some great BBQ these past few days.

Yesterday we went to the show to see the new Pirates of the Carribbean, which was a pretty good flick. Day before we spent the day going to antique stores and finding a few things we could'nt live without. It has been really nice having someone around to share my studio with and do all the girlie things we love to do.

Hope everyone is having a nice and safe 4th of July. We will sit peacefully on our deck and listen to the firecrackers in the not so far distance.

Annual Klamath Falls Cruise

Last evening my hubby and I went first to dinner at our favorite Mexican Restaurant, El Palacio. After stuffing ourselves and finishing off a couple of blackberry marquritas, we mosed out onto the sidewalk to watch the annual Klamath Falls Cruise. There was at least one hundred this year compared to the last couple of years. It has really grown and was a delight to watch. Here are some of what we saw. You'll probably find one in there you owned at one time or another. We always do and love reminising about the times.

Hubby's fav

You can see there were lots of people all up and down the sidewalks watching the show. Out at Moore park earlier is where the Show and Shine started and there were over two hundred cars lined up so you could walk around the cars and look inside and drool to your hearts desire. We were not able to make the show but at least got to see some of these beauties as they cruised down the street.

I could'nt put all 70 pics on here but I hope you were able to find a few memories of your own you can share.