Boat work

Well, it is undeniably fall here. Our neighbors trees are flaming red, and our entire arboretum has turned to an enormous leaf pile. Tilly seems to be enjoying that. While we were out on our morning walk, we (Tilly and I) ran into our neighbors who moved here a year ago. We joined them in their walk and talked about all the important things; Star Trek and Island life. It's great to be meeting people and starting to feel connected. 

On that note, I also headed over to Mary's Found Fiber Farm to give her a hand with shearing. One thing I learned in Eugene is that shearing can mean very different things to different people. Mary's style took after my friend Tracy's on McTavish Farm with her Shetland sheep. I was glad I turned up for shearing day! Tracy and Mary both shear their animals themselves, tacking a few on a day by putting them on a stand one at a time and getting out the electric clippers. No one else was at Mary's farm to help her, and she was taking on the male pygora goats! I helped keep them on the stand and scoop up the clipped fiber as well as standing by in case there was any trouble while Mary trimmed hair and hoof. Some visitors came by to buy fiber products while we were working on the most skiddish boy, so it was extra lucky I was there to keep him safe on the stand while she went to man the shop and tend the customers. When I have my sheep, I'll probably have a shearing system a lot like Mary and Tracy's. In contrast, my friend Rolly in Eugene had the most impressive shearing system I have yet to see. While many women have years worth of fleeces piled high in their garages and attics, Rolly was selling the fleeces as they came off the animals to a steady stream of customers all day on shearing day. She had hired a professional shearer to take on her large heard of Romney sheep, and by the end of the day was able to pay the man in cash from what she'd sold with money and fleece to spare. To me, Rolly is queen of the fiber farming world.

After my work was done, I took off up to Oak Harbor to help act as a human clamp and lend a hand in any way I could on Joe's boat while Tim worked on rewiring everything. There is great sea life in the harbor, including a seagull with a cross-species friendship and a jellyfish well over a foot across. I wish I had something in the photo for perspective, but I wasn't about to let Tilly go for a swim.