You don’t have to ask me twice…

One afternoon Hunter & I were greeted by a man driving this truck and he was in our driveway.  Believe it or not, we get a lot of people stopping by about the goats or asking about a lost animal – but, this was different...This gentleman wanted to know if we would like some free chips for our animals & landscaping.  Apparently, this company does the clearing for Central Electric Co-op when they need trees trimmed out of the way or they are laying new line.  They happened to be working up the canyon a bit beyond us and they look for farms and properties that they can give the chips to so they can empty their truck as they clear off the land.  They also ask if they can leave their rig on your property overnight so they can conserve gas.

So, when he asked I said “absolutely!”  I will take the chips for free and help you reduce your gas consumption…  They ended up dumping 3 loads out in the goat pasture and he kept my card for future jobs.

The goats loved the “fresh” eats and this stuff will be nice for the mud holes and area that get really mucky over the winter.

Maybe, just maybe I can do a little landscaping with it in the spring – if they don’t eat it all!

I sure hope they come back to dump some more chips :-)

View Point Above Prineville

I was trying to think how long it has been since I was upon the Prineville View Point and I am thinking a little over 15 years.  Hunter kept reminding me that he wanted to go, I had told him I would take him, blah, blah, blah.  You know how it goes, they remember only what they want to hold against you.

So, on 7/6/10 we had some time to check it out after swim lessons.  Here are the pictures I took…

This is looking south east; the City of Prineville golf course is below – Meadow Lakes.  For those not familiar with the lay of the land around here, the hill I am on and the others in the near background are called rimrocks.  Prineville reside in a valley.  Our home is up above & around to the left of the rimrock you see in the center.

As we go we scan to the east and this is the lower Crooked River coming through on the edge of the golf course and then we have the sprawling metropolis of Prineville coming into view.

If you look closely you can see the courthouse in the top third of the picture dead center; my parent’s house is just a block south of that.  Unfortunately, the air looks kind of smucky.  Either we had a fire burning or they were burning fields.   (I have enlarged the picture below to show the courthouse)And here we see the new and improved bridge over the Crooked River that allows all of us to escape Prineville and head to the big cities of Redmond & Bend.

In this picture you see the blue buildings and this is the Les Schwab production facility.  For those of you not in the know – this is a tire production facility started by one great man named Les Schwab.  He employed a lot of people in this town over the years and they make great tires.  You will see his tire stores in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah & Alaska.  The production facility is blue but the stores are white with a red band around them and the logo is red & yellow.

The facility stretches along the river and around the rimrock we are standing on.

And that is pretty much the view from the rimrock of our little town.  Facebook is building up on the rimrock we are on but it is a couple miles beyond us so I could not get pictures.

Prineville grew a bunch over the last 10 years and a lot of people commute to Bend or Redmond for their jobs.  With the price of gas going up, lost jobs and the recession the town has shrunk in population; we won’t even go into the passing of Les Schwab and the move of corporate headquarters to Bend. 

You cannot see all of the empty houses nor the businesses that seems to pop up over night and then close the next month.  It is kind of sad to see the little town shrink because of all the people that are hurting.  On the other hand, I will welcome the return of that small town feel.

We hope that our business will continue to grow even though Prineville has stopped.  If you are in town and you see me please wave or stop to say hello.  I really like meeting new people and seeing old friends and… It is quiet possible that I will have a goodie for you!

Of course I had to include the advertisement on wheels sitting up on the viewpoint so you will know me when you see me…

 And a parting shot for this post :-)

Check out the reflection in my glasses – see how long my arms are? Ha! Ha!

Have an excellent day!

My First Mini-Zine

Have you ever heard of a mini-zine?  It is pronounced like a magazine but it is a mini and you make it out of 1 sheet of 8-1/2" x 11" paper.

This is another one of the Artfortytwo.org swaps I signed up for.  I had to study up on this one a bit so I went out to YouTube and watched some videos on making these babies.

Once I got the gist of the layout I started using my Corel Draw X3 and all of those handy dandy little freebie digital scrapbooking files I have been downloading for an eternity.  See, I knew I was downloading all of those files for something :-)

This is what I came up with on my first try - not too shabby!  I have got all kinds of ideas for this!  I can use pictures and really start advertising with this...

Front & Back

Front view

 First & Second Pages

Third & Fourth Pages

 Fifth & Sixth Pages

And this is what it looks like flat...

I have some plans for these little marketing gadgets.  Anyone who wants to help fold when I order for the business just step right up :-)  I pay in buttons and scrapbook scraps...  Please don't all call at once because I do not have operators standing by...

The Return of the Puzzle

Remember way back in May of this year I posted the picture of the puzzle that I sent off for a swap?  Well, Tuesday was a scrappy mail day!  I got my swapped puzzle back and all of the pieces are some shade of purple!

I sent this puzzle in…

and after all the pieces were swapped I got this puzzle back!

I am thinking that this was a totally fair trade!  A big thank you goes out to Julie for hanging in there and hosting this swap and to all the ladies for participating.

Twinchie Fun

It is probably a little nuts but I am enjoying the twinchie swaps.  Here is my latest twinchie for a swap with no theme.  I mailed these to the host, Mary, in MO.  The swap is all due on 9/30 so I should see the swap back in the mail the first part of October.

And here is the twinchie I made for the long journey to Missouri…

Tag Swap

I signed up for a gob of swaps the other day on Artfortytwo.com and one was a tag swap.  The gist of the swap was to make 3 tags and send them to the person who signs up below you.  I made these three tags but I am waiting for someone to sign up under me.  If no one signs up I before the deadline I send my tags to the 1st person on the list.

The Key & Locket tag

The Button tag

and the Art 42 tag

 I was thrilled to get the tags from the person above me on the list last weekend!  I just love them and here they are with some extra scappy goodies…

I love the vintage scrapping (I don’t do it that well myself) so this was a great surprise.  Thank you so much to Corinne in VT for hosting and  Kay in MI for the tags!

Swimming Lessons

The summer also brought the need for swim lessons.  hUNTER WANTED US TO PUT UP OUR POOL THAT WE PURCHASED LAST SUMMER BUT HE HAD REFUSED TO FINISH HIS SWIM LESSONS UNTIL PUSH CAME TO SHOVE THIS YEAR.  hIS FATHER & i TOLD HIM THAT WE WOULD NOT PUT THE POOL UP UNLESS HE LEARNED TO SWIM.  aND OFF TO SWIM LESSONS HE WENT…

lOOKS LIKE HE IS HAVING LOADS OF FUN ON THE PADDLE BOARD…

hE LEARNED A BUNCH OF SWIMMING STROKES ALONG WITH FLOATING, JUMPING IN AND TREADING WATER.  i WAS EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH HIS PROGRESS.

aND, HE GOT TO PUT THE POOL UP AT THE HOUSE…

sOMETIMES IT IS JUST WORTH IT TO GET SOME OLD LONG FORGOTTEN PROJECTS OUT OF THE WAY SO YOU CAN ENJOY NEW THINGS…

4th of July Weekend

The fourth of July was a long weekend for all of us.  Warren had Friday and the following Monday off so we got to go camping and do fireworks!

We went camping up in our old stomping grounds above Paulina.  Beaver Creek Road was a mess since they have been working on it all summer but we eventually made it to the "other side" of the construction.  Everything got bounced around in the trailer but no major damage.

Of course we had an extremely wet spring and i kept telling Hunter that I bet the snow doesn't completely melt of the the Cascade Mountains this summer.  but...it had started to warmed up prior to the fourth so I prepared for the same icky brown grass.  As we drove past the fire caution level sign we saw that it was only a 1 - that was strange for this time of year.  That meant we could have a campfire...hummmm.

As we were driving up to camp I was extremely shocked at what I saw in both the forest and the desert areas - fields upon fields of blooming wild flowers. 

In this picture below you can even see the burnt forest in the background from several years ago during the Boeing Field Fire on Black Canyon.

  I had not brought my wild  flower press because I have never had a use for it at this time of the year!  I would rally to find supplies in the trailer to do a make shift press - I did not want to miss out on all the little pretties for future cards...

Obviously we got camp set up and unloaded the quads.  We took the 4-wheelers so we had a chance to see the countryside and it was so pretty up there.

There is still snow up in them there hills!  This was taken up on Spanish Peak and that snow was hard and a little slimy to pass over so we went around.  What is all that stuff they are talking about with global warming?  This is July people - we don't have snow on Spanish Peak in July usually!

As a matter of fact, it was so damp up in the woods that we didn't even raise must dust on the roads - totally weird!

We had a fire and we did some shooting...

The dogs enjoyed themselves...

  We found this really strange mushroom that looked like a soccer ball - Can anyone identify this for me?

And then the time came to load and go back to town for fireworks.

Isn't it nice that Peaches helps us when we are taking the pads off of the quad...    And, please take notice that Warren loads the quads (he also unloads them) since this is not for the faint of heart - like me!

And, we are off...

Along the way we stop so I can take pictures of the Miller Ranch.  Their fields are in different states of haying and I just love all the green!

The cattle guards are always like hitting turbulence in a little prop plane but a very common thing for us Oregonians...

This sign looks like some of out redneck friends have been using it for can target practice...

And then there is the loan Juniper tree on the way home that shades many animals over the summer months...  One last look at the scenery before it turns to the nasty crackly brown color that we all dread during bow season.

And off to home and fireworks...

Here is Matt Smith of the "Smith6" (Heidi is hiding behind him) sitting out front of the fire station watching the kids do fireworks.  Usually Matt and Warren light all the fireworks for the boys but this year they decided that Justin & Hunter were big enough to run their own show.  The kids had a blast!

  And the adults got to visit and eat wonderful cookies that Cathy Huntley brought down.  Yum!

Same time, same Bat channel next year...