Walk on Water

Graduation is just around the corner, so high school classes are finishing up projects. The Physics classes at Dixon High have a project called Walk on Water. The idea is for teams to figure out a way to get across the pool using “foot-power”. I don’t know all the criteria, but I do know that they couldn’t make a boat, use oars, etc. and they had 2 minutes to cross the pool.  The teams who are able to accomplish the task (and turn in the written work) can use the Physics final as extra credit.

The day started with one of the students playing the National Anthem on his electric guitar. Then the crafts were christened by dumping water on them. I took photos of all 16 entries, but will include only a few here. There seemed to be 2 main types of creations–raft-type of crafts powered by feet and  floating foot-gear. The former seemed to function better than the latter in most cases. There was a 3rd structure as well–wait till you see that photo at the bottom!

This is my son’s team with the smallest guy as the “walker”. That’s Chris in the water in front. The “walker” had a bar to stand on but brought pedals forward one at a time that turned the paddle wheels. They used large water bottles as floats and old plastic pipe that has been lying around our place since we moved here–they had to buy a lot of fittings though. (I think the local hardware store has to stock up on duct tape and PVC fittings for this event.) And, of course, there is baling twine.

This team used a similar idea but taped shoes onto the pedals so the feet would stay in place and they made a different kind of paddle-wheel.

Here is the most successful of the floating foot-gear style. I don’t know what the big tubes are, but the walker’s feet are so well sealed in them that she had a hard time getting them off.

Here is another raft type of craft. The walker used the supports to hang on and paddled the water directly with her feet.

There were several of this style, but they kept filling with water. I think that this one finally made it after a few attempts.

This is was a crowd-pleaser–the hamster-wheel craft. There is a PVC pipe framework inside and the walker rolled through the water in a record-breaking time of 21 seconds. It’s a good thing that it moved quickly because it didn’t take too much longer until the cardboard structure was falling apart.

A bunch of clever kids, don’t you think?

Decisions, decisions

I decided to donate a lamb to the raffle held by JSBA (Jacob Sheep Breeders Assoc) to support AGM (Annual General Meeting)–  http://www.patchworkfibers.com/raffle.html –but I needed to figure out which lamb.  So it was also time to  figure out which lambs I want to keep (and choose the raffle lamb from this batch).  This is not an easy thing for me, especially since I just counted sheep after an auction trip and I still have 114 and I really should have only about 50 by the time breeding season comes around! The first step was to sort out the ewe lambs and then sort them into 2 and 4 horn groups. I didn’t get them all in here, but I sorted out most of the older ones.

This is most of the 2-horn lambs.

And this is most of the 4-horn ewe lambs.

I don’t think that there were any lambs that I wouldn’t be happy with in the flock, so it was a tough decision. Here are the 2-horn lambs I chose.

Here are the 4-horn girls.

The girl on the left is the lamb for the raffle–guess I should come up with a name.  Here she is:

She has a very pretty fleece and her sister is in the 2-horn group that I’m keeping.It was a tough decision. I think that my thought process on this might be a good topic for my Farm Club News–maybe that will be the next one.

http://www.meridianjacobs.com/exec/eFarmClub.asp

The rest of my lambs are on my website:

http://www.meridianjacobs.com/exec/eSheep.asp?categoryID=Ewe%20Lambs

My New F-word–F…Foxtail

Also could be titled “Yet Another Reason I Don’t Get to the Loom”.

I trimmed border collie, Rusty’s, feet this weekend. I was late in the season and his toes were packed with foxtails. I was able to pull most out, but there was one place that was oozy and I couldn’t find a foxtail with my non-medical equipment (tweezers). I waited until Monday and took him to the vet. While he was on the table the oozy spot squirted out the foxtail and we were going to let it go at that. The vet, as any good vet would, suggested checking Rusty’s ears. He hadn’t shown any signs (shaking head, etc), but he sure wouldn’t let us hold him well enough to look in the left ear.  So I left Rusty to be knocked out for a better look. The little foxtail on the left below therefore cost me $200. Two days later the foxtail on the right cost me $50 (lots of shaking his head, but able to pull it out without the sleeping drugs).

For those of you whose dogs live in utopia and don’t know about foxtails here is what they look like:

And this is a whole field of them. The vet recommended that we landscape our yard so that we don’t have foxtails. Ummm…that would be another thing that has been on the list–not “landscaping”, but planting some bushes and turning the dog paths into paths with some kind of surface that doesn’t turn to mud in the winter. I did go out with the weed eater and try to zap the foxtails growing in the yard around the house.

As I was weed-eating  I noticed the pomegranite trees. I love pomegranites–not just to eat, but the whole cycle of the flower.

Here is a flower that has just lost it’s petals and you can see the part behind the star-like points will become the pomegranite. Those are flower buds that haven’t opened around it.

This one still has one petal but is already starting a baby pomegranite.

These pomegranites will be included in the fall produce baskets for Gourmet Farm Club members.  See the following link:   http://www.meridianjacobs.com/exec/eFarmClub.asp

Hot dogs

The TV weather people are thrilled. They get to say “triple-digits” for the first time this year. We’re not so thrilled–I like the 80’s and even the low 90’s, but I can do without triple-digits. We don’t have A/C and count on the whole house fan and the evening delta breezes to cool us off at night.  I don’t see any delta breezes yet and I have a little clip-on fan blowing on me while I sit at the computer.

My son and his new wife are finishing up their honeymoon. In fact they are on a plane as I write and we’ll be picking them up in S.F. tonight. I’ve been dog-sitting since Thursday. The dogs’ other grandmother had them for the first part of the week. These dogs live in the foothills and aren’t used to triple-digits either.

Sam is an Akita-mix. On his first day he spent a lot of time in the pool.

Guiness is a 7-month old puppy (already 70 pounds) and spent a lot of time in the hot afternoon sleeping near my computer. He has his head on the teddy-bear that he carries around with him.

The hot dogs will be glad to get back to the mountains tonight.

Leash it!

I’m trying to figure out a name for my new product. This is the one that is going to make my fortune. Well, maybe not…but it involves yarn and it’s fun to do. These are the leashes I’ve been working on. I think I still need to do something about some of the tassels and beads to neaten them up. My original idea was to splice the ends, but that would involve learning something else and a lot of time and then I wouldn’t have an excuse to go buy beads.

There is a member-screening at the Artery’s Annual Meeting this weekend and I’ve been planning to get these ropes done so I could take them to the screening. I also need to finish some more buttons.

I’m back to the loom–trying to weave off the warp that I put on before I broke my arm in January. This is a baby blanket warp on the AVL.

This blanket is still on the loom. Purple enough?

These will be listed for sale on my website soon I hope.

Dixon May Fair

What do we do Mother’s Day weekend? For the last 20+ years it’s been spent at the Dixon May Fair because my kids have been showing livestock. My youngest is a senior and this is his last year (or maybe next to last) showing his dairy goats. This is Trista, who was State Fair Champion last year.

Chris had help showing his kids–they would have had the Cute Award if there was one.

Chris has won Dairy Goat Showmanship every year that he has showed. That means that he enters Supreme Showmanship in which the winners in all the other species compete. They show beef cattle, dairy cattle, meat goats, dairy goats, swine, and sheep. Here is Chris showing a dairy cow. Chris has won Supreme Showmanship in the past but was 2nd behind one of his Dixon FFA friends this year.

Now Chris says that he’ll need to come back and show next year so that he can win Supreme Showmanship. He is eligible to show in FFA for one year after high school. The trick is to figure out who will be maintaining the goat herd if he is off at a job, school, etc. Hmmm, that would be me.

More wedding photos

Here is a photo that shows the back of the shawl–my fiber friends are asking for this.

This is Chris catching the garter. When he learned the significance of that he tried to give it away as quickly as possible.

What flower girls do when waiting for all the adults to finish with photos:

I Have a New Daughter!

Yes, I have a new daughter (-in-law).  And I didn’t have to deal with the teenage years. My son, Matt, married Kaleena on Saturday and we are all very happy. Kaleena started planned the wedding last summer and her organization paid off. (If she ever wants to quit her U.S. Forest Service job she could probably be a wedding planner.) The only thing she couldn’t control was the weather, but the rain didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits. Here are some photos.

In the photo below that’s my husband, Dan, me, Matt, Kaleena, and her mom, Mary. I am wearing the v-shawl that I wove to wear with the dress that I dyed. That was my wedding dress and with the input of my weaving friends, I finally chose a color to dye it.  Then we chose yarns for the shawl. My main idea was to not stand out in the crowd. I figured that if no one noticed me then I did all right.  I didn’t want to have people say “Who the heck is that?” or “Why is she wearing THAT?” Kaleena’s colors for the wedding were dark brown and sage green and Mary and I both matched pretty well. (Mary sewed her dress and jacket too.)

In this photo that’s my other kids, Chris & Katie on the left of Matt & Kaleena, and Kaleena’s sister on the right. Didn’t Kaleena choose a great setting for her wedding colors? Or did she choose the colors to go with the setting? Even the clubhouse where the wedding and reception were held was perfect. The carpet and chair upholstery was the green of the dresses and the huge picture windows had a view into the tree tops.

Kaleena let all of her little nieces and her nephew participate in the wedding. The littlest flower girl tried picking up the rose petals that the others dropped down the aisle.