Quiet Family Christmas

Daddy between the living and dining areas.

We had a nice quiet Christmas I'm Mountain View this year. The weather was sunny and in the 30's. We did chores in the morning. The angora goats were enjoying their Christmas present, the newly fenced east pasture with new shelters for them and their llama. This pasture has been without animals for a year, so it's nice and clean for them to kid   

Then we finished the Christmas presents that needed finishing, baked pies, boiled sweet potatoes from our garden and went to my parents for a wonderful Christmas dinner and gift exchange. 

Lena created a wonderful family photo album for my parents. She had to go through hundreds of pics of goats, sheep and horses to find the people. In one late night moment of frustration, she looked at me and said, "I've only found one picture of you where you're not holding a horse, a goat, a child or a snake - in that order." 

I was amazed that there were pictures of me. I thought I was always on the other side of the camera. 

Merry Christmas from Mountain View!

My mom

Aunt Jeannie and my son, Arjuna

Their treasured Black Forest quilt hangs at the bottom of the stairs to the Quilting Loft.

My cedar blanket chest

I've always wanted a cedar blanket chest. I remember as a teen, wishing I had one for my hope chest. At some point, someone gave me a little replica of a cedar chest for a jewelry box. 

It's one of those wants that went by the wayside as the years went by. So I am still dazed and amazed and bursting with thanks for what I found when I got home from working a 13 hour day yesterday. It's the most beautiful cedar chest I have ever seen in my whole life. And it was sitting under my triloom, just for me. Really. 

Thanks Mom and Dad!

It is gorgeous natural cedar with a glossy smooth finished top the sides are dovetailed smoothly. It stands on four cute little hand turned legs. Inside it is smooth sanded, open for my wool blankets (and now shawls and yarns as I've grown up to make those things) and it has a nice little lidded box on one side for treasures. 

Mary Banker told us about the cedar chests when we visited her last week. They are made in a training program by prisoners and sold through a little store in Calico Rock. The money then goes to the prisoner's family. They will take special orders. My dad is designing a desk he wants for their new home. 

And I'm sitting on my incredibly beautiful new cedar blanket chest still feeling dazed and amazed and writing this blog post. Thank you so much. 

Black Forest fire

My parents bought this land in Black Forest Colorado in 1974, in part to appease a teenage girl who was bereft at having to leave the Colorado she loved for the unknowns of life in Korea. In part, this land brought me back to Colorado in 1979, giving up a full scholarship to Auburn to go to Colorado State University.

Land in Colorado heals slowly. The trees in this forest will not return in my lifetime.

509 people homes burned, and countless other buildings. But some of the animals survived. There is a little bunny now living under the rubble of the garage doors. My family puts food and water down for him.

The Colorado of the 1970's is hard to find today. I left in 2006. Water is in increasingly, severely limited supply; housing developments and highways blanket the front range from Cheyenne to Pueblo. Traffic sounds have replaced the sound of wind through the tall grass prairie.

Since leaving Colorado, I have come back for family and friends, but I no longer feel any connection to the land. My heart is now in the Ozarks, with our forested plateaus and deep, rugged valleys. I love the Ozark rivers and lakes and people and life.

I'm headed home to the Ozarks today, still worried about my parents and brother and sister-in-law. They are in safe places and sorting through. There is still so much work to be done on the property, hard, physical work. And then, it's going to take a good bit of time to deal with the insurance, and the sifiting and the minutiae of life that has to be put back together now. Please keep them all in your thoughts and prayers. And thanks to everybody who has helped so far.

Words just don't express...

Iris coming back up through the cracked and melted glass that was my parent's bedroom window.

Rubble

What's your favorite possession in the whole world? Do you know where it is?

If you know what it is, but not where it is, I suggest you find it and get a safe deposit box to store it in. It's obviously something that you love, but don't need to touch every day.

If you don't know what it is, take some time to figure it out. Then you can decide whether to put it somewhere safe - or to leave it out or put it out in display, so that if you have 10 minutes to leave your life as you know it, you at least have a chance of grabbing your favorite thing.

Free advice, take it for what it's worth.

It was a brass tea pot. The stucco beam behind was a porch support. Stucco is supposed to be fire-retardant. The insurance adjuster said it took a fire of at least 7,000 degrees to melt the I-beam in the background.

Leaded glass that used to be a bowl and green marble counter tops, now white crumbly chunks. The trees were that far from the house.

Burned pine trees.

My dad and my brother consider a portion of the basement, and what might have been on the floors above the hole. How did things shift as the house came down?

Sifting in hopes of finding... something.

Carrying rubble out of the cleared areas of the basement in hope.

 Fire mitigation was done, see how far apart those trees are. In this firestorm, it didn't help. Structure survival was all luck of the draw. 509 homes lost, and countless garges, barns and other structures. Yes, we are thankful to the firefighters, or far more would have been lost.

A Hummel, a David Winter Cottage and a leaded glass crystal collection after a 7,000 degree plus fire.

Paradigms shift after disaster

So many little impressions flitter through this week after the fire that took my parents and brother and sister-in-law's house, as well as 508 other houses and uncounted outbuildings, barns and garages in the Colorado town of Black Forest.
My folks are holding up well, and so many people have been incredibly generous.
It is a huge, shocking total life change and that is showing in little and big ways.
I grew up in a family that loved to collect things. Beautiful, fascinating things from around the world.

A fascinating collection of meters at my brother Russ' house.

 My brother Russ (the one who still has his house) has several delightful collections displayed around his living room. Interesting things that are curiosities in themselves, but as a collection they draw interest. He inherited the collecting gene and the ability to do cool displays gene. That's a good combination.

My parents house was like that, with fascinating little collections in every corner. They were artfully displayed and kept clean and dusted. (There are some genes I failed to inherit). Now they are all gone. My dad says he doesn't want a lot of stuff to have to deal with anymore. Understandable.

The Quilt Room was the center of their house, and Quilt Guilds and Quilting Bees were the center of their social life. The loss there is too painful to even list. My dad says he's not sure if he wants to do fiber arts any longer.

Yesterday when we went clothes shopping for my folks, my dad bought a pair of sandals. He's never worn sandals before. He says they feel ok.

My mother has done laundry on Monday all her life. Her mother did laundry on Monday. That is the day you wash clothes. Today, I convinced her that it really was possible to do laundry on Sunday. And we did, though there weren't many clothes to wash.

As my dad said today, the memories didn't burn. The collections and pictures and other memory anchors did go up in the fire., but the memories and treasured relationships are still here.

Emotional exhaustion

Long day. Emotionally exhausting. Everybody is ok, but tired.

My mom Judy, brother Russ, dad Dick, me, and brother Scott after dinner last night. Can you believe I am the short one in the family? Can you believe we all smiled for this picture? Conditioning.

We went out to their property again today. Hard to call it anything else at this point. We put a few things in the big shop... a chain saw that might work again and the handle is only a little melted; sheets of copper that used to be planters; the tools we had just picked up. My parents had a beautiful tile mosaic in their entry hall. I went up to the pillars to see if maybe the tiles could be salvaged. Behind the pillars is a huge pit.

Porch pillars. Stucco houses are supposed to be fire resistant.

As I came by the garage space, I saw rivulets of shiny aluminum. I'm sure it used to be their canoe.
We found some saw horses, blackened through, but still standing. Some heavy guttering was near the scoched hulk of the tractor. On our way out, we used these to make a bit of a barricade across the driveway. Black Forest roads re-open to the public tomorrow. Sadly, looters are an issue.

Next we went to the Post Office to try to pick up their mail. I held my mom's place in line, while she found a bench to sit on. For about an hour, I listened to a line of folks who had all lost their homes, lost everything. A women just a bit of me in line talked of how her parents had built their home in Black Forest 64 years ago. She herself raised her daughter in a cabin down the road from their house. Her brothers lived along the road in houses they had built. All the houses are gone. She's not sure what she's going to do. As she and my mother exchanged news of mutual friends, they discussed where they might go from here. My mom mentioned that they were considering moving to Arkansas. Her friend was very intrigued. Perhaps she will come visit us in Mountain View.

It took two hours to get from the Post Office in Colorado Springs to my dear friend Julia's mom's house in Denver. My dad drove through horrendous traffic. The house is wonderful, comfortable and she has it all set up for my folks. After quick hugs and inadequate thank yous, as well as a quick lesson on how to give the resident cats their medicine, collapsed into the living room chairs.

Julia's mom's house. Thank you so much for loaning this wonderful place to my parents while they rest and regroup.

My parents are eating well. They've been having breakfast at the hotel. Today we stopped at R&R Cafe for lunch after picking up shovels and more gloves, air masks, water, a shovel and a rake at the disaster relief center. Some wonderful anonymous person bought our lunch. My dad and I had whole wheat, grilled vegi sandwiches and my mom had a quesadilla. All great food. Tonight we dug through what they had in the bags and cooler. My dad and I made salmon tomato sandwiches. Weird, but good. We are all tired.

Smoke from the Wolf Creek Pass and other fires shroud the mountains and turn the sun bright red.

As my dad was headed to bed, he put his hand on the fireplace mantle in Julia's mom's sun room. "I had one like this," he said, looking so tired. "It was a little wider and a bit longer. Solid black walnut. It was in the basment."

Good night.

Leaving, on a jet plane

I'm headed out this morning, first to Little Rock to catch a flight to Denver and from there, to where ever I'm needed. I wish the situation was different. Oh, how I wish that. But I am thankful I can go.

I so love my daylilies, Thanks Charles and Linda!

I am so incredibly thankful to everyone who came together to help so that I could go be there for my family in the aftermath of the Black Forest Fire. I promised I would blog to let everyone who has put their hearts out there for my family know what was happening. It's the least I can do for all of you who care so deeply and have shared so much.

The last few days have been busy with preparation to go to Colorado. That included a lot of paperwork at work and delegating a lot of tasks to a lot of already busy people. The Ozark Folk Center is such an incredible place to call home!

I had a commitment this past weekend with Tina Marie and Tango to demonstrate at the 40th Anniversary Celebration at Blanchard Springs Caverns. Of course, the donkey stole the whole show. He was a gentleman throughout the afternoon, even when you couldn't see the donkey through all the children.

Helping Tina and Tango promote the Ozark Folk Center.

Part of the prep for being away included giving Pequena her summertime saddle haircut

And then there were farm chores to catch up on. Even in times of disaster and heartache, life continues. I got the last of the garden planted. Okra now rounds out the year's plantings. It's a funny mix this year, should make for some interesting meals this fall and winter.

I gave Pequena her summertime saddle haircut. She orgled and gurgled and spit the whole time, but stood still so we made it a short ordeal. She's 8-years-old now, she ought to be getting used to this process. She so loves to be able to really scratch her back now.

Of course, Lena and Shawn will take great care of everything on the farm while I'm gone. Everybody at work will make sure all the details are taken care of there. It's all covered, so I can go try to help my family. Thank you all so much.

Packing this morning has been a challenge. I want to take what I'll need, so I am not a burden on an over-burdened system. Boots, jeans, heavy gloves... I want to take things for my parents. My Aunt Jeannie and I keep talking on the phone about things we see in our house that we want to send to them. When I washed the fry pan last night, I wanted to take them my extra set of cast iron pans. Jeannie keeps finding family treasures that she wants to send - and blankets and towels. All silly things to think of at this stage. What good is a cast iron pan to someone who no longer has a stove. The thoughts are all so confusing. I'm hoping it will be easier when I am out there. Then I can see what we really can do to help.

Nilly is positively fat in the new cut hay field. I think she's looking so good because of all the hugs Bettie sends her from North Dakota! Energy from afar really does help.

Those of you at OFC who read this, please share it with everyone who doesn't. I know so many of you wish you could be going to physically help all the folks in Colorado. Keep sending your thoughts, energy and prayers. It all helps. And I promise I will let you know if there is anything else you can do.

My family is safe and that's what matters

It's official, My parents and brother and sister-in-law's home is totally gone. But they are all safe. That is what is important. Treasures can be re-hunted,  new works of art can be quilted, carved, stitched, woven and painted; necessities can be bought. Houses can be built or bought and with time, turned into homes. People are unique, precious and irreplaceable.

My family is safe and I am so thankful.

Family is what's important. And they are all safe. Picture taken this past Christmas at my folks house.

 

I am very thankful to the El Paso County sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement folks who braved the fire to assess the damaged areas. There is a relief in knowing. Now those who know can move on to the details of insurance, new housing, clothing and transportation.

 Many of our dear friends and family-of-the-heart have offered help from transportation to fully furnished house complete with kitty cats. Thank you all for taking care of my folks (and me!).

I am flying out there next week. By then, maybe I can help in some way. This morning they announced that under current conditions, they think they'll have the fire under control by June 20.

My dad said, "A hug would be nice, but there's nothing you can do. Don't come out."

Sorry Daddy, I need a hug. See you Wednesday.

My parents got the trailer and Suburban out. The corner of their house shows on the right of the photo. This picture was taken before they went to Alaska in 2007.

 

My brothers and me in front of Scott's "car house." While the status of an outbuildings is still unknown, there is little hope for this structure and the 12 cars inside.

Take time to enjoy the people in your life, too

I know this blog is about sheep and gardens and the sunny side of life. That really is how I view life. But today, I just have to be a little more serious. I was at a goodbye potluck for our park superintendent when I got a call from my brother. I have two brothers. I love them both dearly and ever time we get together, we are amazed at how much we enjoy each other's company. But we only get together about once every two years, and we don't talk on the phone too much more often.

The kitchen is the heart of their home.

I could tell from his voice something was wrong and so I stepped outside to talk. He told me about the fire that had started a few hours before near my parents house in Black Forest, Colorado. This is my parents dream house. They bought the land in 1974 and had saved and planned and worked on it for years. Finally, in 2001, they began building. Eventually what they built was big and tall, full of light from the windows that bracketed a glorious view of Pikes Peak. The light natural wood interior showcased their collections of treasures and memories from a lifetime of travel around the world. The house is really huge and as they developed it, it became a home for both my parents and my brother and sister-in-law.

My youngest brother had not been able to reach my parents. While he and I spoke, he got a call from my other brother. He and my sister-in-law had gotten out, with their cats and were at my brother's office. They were going to go stay with friends. They said mother and daddy had gotten out too, and were headed to the evacuation center.

Just two days ago, in our usual Sunday phone conversation, my mom had told me about further fire mitigation that my dad was doing. Every year, they've cut down pine trees and cleared the property. They've hauled probably hundreds of pines off the property, some of them beetle killed and some of them to thin it out for the health of the trees. The whole property still is beautifully wooded pine forest. My dad had cut down all the smaller pine trees within 30 feet of the house and loaded them on the trailer. He was waiting for my brother's help to take down the larger trees inside that 30-foot recommended perimeter.

Shawn and I came home and went right to our computers. What we found on the Black Forest fire was terrifying. The video in that link made me realize that my dear friends Kris and Val had likely lost the Table Rock Llamas store, one of the most wonderful fibery places on the planet. Their store is less than 500 yards from where the video shows and about a mile from my parents house. 

The whole scenario was somewhat deja vu. About this time last year, we had fretted while Shawn's daughter and her family were evacuated during the Waldo Canyon fire. This branch of our family just moved to Greensboro, NC, last week.

Shawn finally got through to my parents on their cell phone. They were at the evacuation center.

Sit and visit - and laugh

My dad said everyone there was being very helpful, making sure they had their medicines and any food they needed. I was very relieved to hear they were being taken care of. I called my brother back and told him in the course of our conversation that I wished they would all leave fire-ravaged Colorado. Having to go through the stress of worrying about family every fire season was getting tiring. He retorted with a very valid comment about watching the weather radar every time there are tornadoes reported in Arkansas and wondering if my family and I were under the dark purple areas, or just in the bright orangy red areas. And then for good measure, he reminded me that Shawn's daughter and her family had just gone through their first hurricane warning in their new home. Life is not safe, we agreed.

Life is not safe. Your family and friends are more valuable than any treasures. Take the time to spend time with them. Nourish those relationships and maintain those connections. Life is not safe no matter where you are.

Please send prayers, thoughts and energy to all the folks in Colorado right now dealing with the devastating wildfires.

Geek shepherds

Our Higgs particle in front of her triplet sister
Hodge Podge

If you're reading this post looking for apps to improve your flock, you might be disappointed - though I can tell you that we've been using FlockFiler for our pedigrees for many years and love it. The Jacob Sheep Breeders Association has an awesome pedigree database, too and I enjoy researching our sheep ancestry on it. But actually, that's not what I'm talking about here.

I grew up in a family where things like tectonic plate movement was a perfectly normal dinner conversation. After all, my daddy is a rocket scientist. So my children were raised in a household where discussions of Bram Stoker's writings could lead to studies of fly genus and species. It was natural then, when I named Elizabeth's littlest afterthought triplet Higgledy Piggeldy that she instantly became Higgs Boson particle. After all, she is the littlest particle of a sheep in our flock.

And when it was announced on July 4 of this year that they had found the Higgs Boson particle, we just looked at each other and said, "Wow, google earth is now good enough that they can see Higgs."

Sheep talk and ticks

"Family is very important to sheep."

Some people laugh at me when I say that, others accuse me of being anthropomorphic, most just nod their heads.

But it is true! And I'm not the only one who has noticed. I think most any shepherd will tell you the same thing. This phenomenon is noted enough that researchers have studied "visual recognition in sheep." They could have just asked a shepherd or gone and spent a year living with a flock of sheep.

I spend lots of time with my sheep and I watch how they behave and interact. the picture at the left is Marjoram, comforting her yearling daughter who just went through her first shearing. Button seemed very confused by being naked, she acted like she was just going to huddle under the tree and die of embarrassment - but with her mother's gentle coaxing, she was up grazing with the flock in about an hour. (Sometimes I even think I'm being anthropomorphic!)

I first noticed the strong family bonds when we began separating the first time ewes from the older ewes for lambing. This way we could keep a closer eye on the first timers and give them feed that they didn't have to fight for. After everybody had their lambs and all the sheep were doing well, we put the two flocks back together.
I watched Licorice greet her yearling daughter Ogre and the two of them sniffed and burbled over each other's new lambs. Marj's twin yearling daughters ran right to her and she let her new twins sniff their older sisters and as all 4 new lambs toddled around.

In the move to Foxbriar, several families of sheep moved together. Because we could not take the whole flock, several of the ewes moved to Arkansas without their mother's or daughter's. The sheep that moved here with their family seemed to settle in better, quiet down quicker and loose less weight.

But, as much as I have been worrying about the sheep's health, shearing them was enlightening. They are very healthy, the fleeces are strong, their parasite loads are way low, and they are fat (oops). They are due to start lambing this Tuesday - so I would rather have them on the little too heavy side than too thin.

The most interesting thing though, is, the sheep don't have ticks!

The ticks are terrible this year. The locals say they haven't ever seen them this bad. Some of the people who've moved here are wondering if they will let a little bug chase them off the mountain. We routinely pick between 6 and 20 off of each human every night, and that's not counting the ones we burn during the day. The goats are covered with them, I pulled more than a dozen out of one of Erie's armpits and 3 off of Beth's eyelids (YUCK). The dogs and the horses get their biweekly dose of One Spot and seem to do ok.

But the sheep - the sheep who have been on the farm for 6 weeks now, without any one checking them over for ticks - have about 20 dead ticks (and one live one on Coriander's ear) throughout the whole flock! I find more than that on one goat's udder at each milking!

Is it the wool? I'll check them over the next few days now that they are naked and see if they start picking up the little buggers. Until then, since even I can't imagine wearing wool in the summer in Arkansas, I am going to scatter the "trash wool", dung tags, ruffs, belly wool and some leg wool on the ground all around our camper, Midas.

Is it the lanolin? Maybe. The ticks that I did find on the sheep were dried, shriveled, mummified and covered in lanolin. If that's it, maybe I could make a lanolin tick repellent?

Is it the sheep smell? Sheep do have a distinct odor and they tend to sweat a lot, especially when they are nervous. Maybe ticks just don't find that appetizing?

Is it because we cleared the briar out of their pen and they don't wander the woods like the goats? Maybe, but I can get 6 ticks up my pants leg just walking from the camper to the barn and that is bare dirt anymore.

I'll let you know what I find with the ticks and sheep. Perhaps we can figure out a way to keep the bugs from winning!