July Visitors

My how time flies. Summer is always a busy time with gardening at home and bird monitoring on the coast at least twice a week. July this year had all that plus an attempt to catch up on hoof trimming (3 horses, too many goats), make lots of ice cream (too much milk) and visits from Johnny's nephew Jeff from Illinois and our grandson Ian from Washington. Alas, I took few photos of the visits. Johnny did a little better.

While I monitored birds at Road's End, Johnny and Jeff explored the beach at Cape Kiwanda. They found goose barnacles (thanks, Barb, for the i.d.!) open and waving.

Jeff examined something or other on the beach...

Back home, I modeled his position while hoeing the garden.

Jeff was here for the music fest near Willamina that he loves, so we can be excused for not taking many photos of him. Johnny joined him for a few hours on the last day.

Ian arrived by train the day after Jeff left. He came prepared to cook all our suppers and he did. They were delicious. Here he poses with the pizza he made.

The day after Ian arrived, we had a visit from Robin, the kid sister of Johnny's childhood friend, Ray Flesher. It turned out Robin had been a classmate of Johnny's nephew Jeff back in Illinois. She and her husband were enroute from Seattle back home to southern California, had read one of my goat books and decided to meet us and reminisce with Johnny. Of course, they had to visit the goats.

The next morning, a Friday, 8-year-old neighbor Kizer came to milk goats with me. He had decided he wanted to learn to milk this summer so comes every Friday morning to milk and help with all the chores. I took this photo on his first time... He used one hand at a time and did manage to squeeze out a thin stream of milk.

A few weeks later, he had become a pro with two hands.

Ian and Johnny, meanwhile, had a project to cure and smoke pork to send back home with Ian. Johnny took photos of the operation.

Ian stirring the brine

Ian hamming it up

putting meat into brine

cured meat hanging in the smoker, ready for smoking

smoking

Ian slicing bacon

Ian wrapping meat

Ian labeling meat

I presume Johnny worked, too, but the only photos that Ian took were of the kitty "helping".

The only photos I took were of Ian swinging a machete, cutting back underbrush, as we cleared trails in the woods...

... and sharpening the machete with a stone down at the creek...

 At Ian's request, I took photos of his small creature, I think he called it "Blake", on a rock pyramid that Ian built. Apparently, the goal is to take photos of Blake wherever he travels around the world.

I also took photos of butterflies and other insects we came across in our ramblings. I send the photos to web sites that identify them for me. This pretty beetle turned out to be a diurnal firefly.

Ian also accompanied us on a Black Oystercatcher monitoring hike, naturally. Here he posed with his binoculars... backwards. He's a fun kid. I would have liked to keep him all summer but his parents wanted him home.

At the very end of July, I drove Ian home to Seattle, picking up their good friend Bonnie, visiting from Montana, on the way. Here Bonnie works on origami projects in the Traumhof dining room. She had previously folded 1,000 cranes for Jessica, in hopes they would bring her joy and renewed health. You can see them hanging in 50 crane strings all around the dining room.

Jessica was showing horses that weekend. On Saturday we all went to the show to watch her ride. I forgot to bring my camera to the show. Duh. She did well at the show with Lily, the horse "Grandpa", my dad, helped her import. He would be so proud of Jessica and Lily, going up the levels together. Lily is a schoolmaster now, having retired as a Grand Prix horse, the first horse trained to Grand Prix at Traumhof. This year she and Jessica have placed first or close to that at every show at 3rd level. That's quite an accomplishment for Jessica, who has severe issues with using her hands and back thanks to spinal problems. But Jessica is a very determined woman and has an amazing rapport with Lily.

The only other photo I took on this trip was of the high garden fence that Johnny built last time he was there. Corn and zucchini and tomatoes and more are now protected from the ever present deer.

And suddenly it is August. My how time flies.