Last Post - Honest

The 5th wheel became the social center for children: five cousins, two neighbors, no fighting. Remarkable.
Adults socialized in the garage. Our grand-
niece has completely passed out. She is held by her mother, seated next to her mother, whose 87-year-old mother is at the table, playing Hearts. She saw those cards come out and she was all over them - she loves cards. I could kick myself for not thinking to get a four generations shot!
Last year Audrey rode a mile from her house bareback and this year she is riding with Belle and her brother Rogan is riding the other horse. They do have to cross a paved road but the rest is dirt and Belle's grandmother drove ahead of them to open the gate.
Belle's feet don't even reach the horse's belly. We all just stared as she slid off by herself. We're fenced so they took off the bridles and let the horses run. Then they played with the rest of the kids. Our llamas couldn't have cared less - false reputation that horses and llamas don't tolerate each other.
There were *so* many cousins. The two women are cousins and the three children are cousins - and there are more. They all were invited and now say they want to come next year. More tents!
Ian's oldest son organized the First Annual Sagecreek Horse-
shoes Tourna-
ment, complete with brackets, and it went for two days. Fortunately I lost in two hours.
Petie goes to all the Bluegrass festivals but skipped Strawberry this year in order to come be with us. He plays claw hammer banjo and we couldn't get enough of it. He is Ian's friend from community college and gymnastics!
Noah loved the banjo so much that Mommy made one for him too. His form is good but he needs a better instrument.
Jason (nephew-in-law) brought a box of cigars - huge success. Here's John, his dad Paul and Pete.
SIL Michael was smoking one until his tragically exploded. I told him he needed a little cheese with his ham. Note the knitting in the background which makes this a fiber post. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
These four days were intense on so many levels. This is one of the moments that sticks with me. Alexia has finally warmed up to her big brother and has decided that she loves him. John and his Uncle Matt instantly bonded. That was sweet too.

I leave you with a view of our Red Rock Valley from inside the stables.

Hey diddle dumpling, my grandson John

At the airport, Christina says an emotional hello to the baby she relin-
quished over 23 years ago. Her ten-year-old son looks on.

These are his wonderful parents. I meant to have more pictures, but well, it was pretty emotional and I meant to take more pictures. I just said that.
Chrissie and her boys. I have no idea where anyone else is. Did I mention it was an emotional moment???


Kitchens seem to be the place people collect to visit. I caught this picture that night after they got here. John went with Chrissie to her belly dancing classes - they were the first classes of the semester and she really needed to teach them. They were both exhausted.
They're looking through the photo box - I've pulled everything from the magnetic albums in antici-
pation of placing them in archival albums this winter. Back row: DD Chris, DS Josh, me - Front row: Alexia, John DS Matt and his girlfriend Julia. John and Matt has been texting for weeks and were instant best friends.
I'm not sure that any one picture shows how much John and Matt look like each other, but I can tell you that more than once over the weekend, I'd catch one out of the corner of my eye and be fooled.
Alexia was absolutely in love with her big brother, maybe a little to the excessive side.








A little ham~














I'm thinking that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.





John's parents are simply unbelievably wonderful. His mom Karen and I enjoy a laugh as the boys look at photos of Matt's childhood artistic expressions. She made two photo albums for Chrissie. John made insanely similar projects. Matt and John spent time talking about their art, bands and their music. Matty was only five when his newly anticipated "brother" didn't come home from the hospital and it was very hard on him. I don't know what to think. Nature vs nurture? His parents are so cultivating. I don't know what to think. I just said that.

A Visit to the Potter's Shed

Joe Winter is a potter who lives a half mile north of us on the same dirt road - he made the big pot that's in the hall that GD Lexie is finally taller than - bad sentence. He and Ian had been emailing each other and set up a studio visit for all of us on Sunday morning. He offered to demo throwing a pot.
And now that little lump has been formed into a tube. GS Logan was completely captivated and I do believe this will be one of those defining moments that he looks back on.





You can see the shape begin to change and bow in the middle. Logan is nine and Joe told us he started throwing pots when he was eleven.






The piece has taken on the form of a vase and Joe is explaining to Elise how he shaped it.

Joe put a fan on this vase to get it partly dry in order to form it into a flounder shape with the use of paddles. That's his name for the shape. I've been calling it blowfish, but it's the wrong swimmer. We have one of these pots - and more.

The final steps are a matter of smoothing and shaping - from round to flat. His shaping tools are all remnants and really unremarkable - it's his skill that make indelible shapes. He entertained all questions, no matter how mundane.
Joe planned our visit to coincide with some raku firing. One minute he was throwing a pot, the next we raced us out the back door because it was time to pull a pot from the kiln.
He established a safe zone for us because this kiln fires at 2,000 degrees and you can feel it. This pot glows orange because it is so superheated. The material in the kiln is good up to 2,700 degrees and I know this because one pot fell over and collected some of the lining material. He said he would sand it off and apply another finish.


We all gasped and aahed when he plucked this pot from the kiln.


From the kiln it goes into this trash can. In the can to the left you can see strips of news-
paper. Joe tossed in handfuls of the paper and popped the lid back on to produce the flames you see. This step draws the mineral in the glaze to the surface.
And cooled, here's that same pot. I am always astonished at Joe's magic. For him it's all in a days work.


This is Joe's MFA thesis equivalent. He said it took more time to build this than his house. He threw the pot up to near the top and then built the rest. He said that when this was dried as greenware, he laid it on the ground and smashed it. Every piece was labeled on the back, glazed, fired and then reassembled. I've seen him build big. He throws in pieces and then seams. I love to watch him work. If you come visit me, I promise you a visit to his studio.

Sissy's Riding Lesson

Our grand-
daughter Elise has been taking riding lessons in Redding, where they live. Ian had arranged for her to get a lesson on Saturday, but DD Margi got caught in Burning Man traffic and arrived at the same time as the tear-drop trailer. Since I can't back up a trailer, I was elected to take Sissy to her riding lesson.
Because we were late, the scheduled teacher had to take her son to his football game. The lesson would be with Lynn Lloyd, hunt master and rancher, but we'd have to wait a bit. There is plenty of entertainment as Sissy and DIL Missy discovered.
Missy was stunned to realize that many of the horses are bigger than she is, and there are many horses. Sissy will be riding Stanley, an old swayback horse that still works and earns his keep.
Sis will be riding English and learning to post in this lesson. Lynn wraps Sissy's legs to prevent chafing and irritation from the up-and-down motion during posting. Take a look at this tack room!
Elise is only 10-years old and has only been riding in an arena and for a matter of months. As the time came close for her mount, apprehension was written all over her face. I wasn't worried. My now retired dentist used to bring her girls out here for riding lessons.
Lynn handed Sis off to Missy to lead out while she got her own horse ready. I think she looks great in the saddle - an absolute natural. And I apologize for this being a longer post than usual, but I am just so proud of the way Elise handled herself.
And off they ride into the sunset - well, not quite. They ride off into the desert for an hour-long trail ride - just Lynn and Sissy. She was excited, tense, scare and excited - and trusting.
An hour later, they're back and Sis is grinning from ear to ear. I hope you can see it. Stanley's head got in the way her head as she went by me, so I only have the image of her happy face in my memory. She did great and she loves Lynn - wants to come back for a week of horse camp.


Two hours later we arrived back at the camp, just in time for the horseshoes tournament. They had already played one round so we had to play two, back to back. Two hours later.....

The 3rd Annual Gathering

This is the Sparking Boy campus over Labor Day weekend. Ian and I are just about done getting cleaned up after five days of guests. I think the dogs will be traumatized for longer than that. Ian took down the last tent today. We had about 30 people at night, plus neighbors and various and sundry dogs.

Our first guest arrived Thursday, Ian's friend from way back in com-
munity college. He's retired and has taken up claw hammer banjo, following the music festivals. He chose us over Strawberry this year! Friday afternoon, we had equestrian guests, much to the delight of our grandchildren.
Audrey is riding with Belle who is so tiny that her feet don't even reach the horse's belly. Rogan rode alone on Mercedes but the wind was blowing most of the time so he rode with one hand and hung onto his hat with other. That's Carol who says that riding Mercedes is like riding a sofa.
And, dismount. Belle is so teeny and so confident. Audrey rode Mercedes over last year by herself. Belle's grandmother came over first and opened the gate for the kids - they were an even bigger hit this year.
Since we're fenced, the kids just released their horses and went to play with our grandkids. As you can see, our gate is to the left. Those late arrivals were in for quite the surprise.



Um, look. There's a horse running down the fire break.




Um, look. There's a Forester with a tear drop trailer running down the fire break, flanked by niece Allison and Uncle Ian. We had so much family and so much fun. In truth, for me it started at the airport where I met my grandson and his parents. The Gathering was so full that I have to post it in pieces - sorry. It's my bedtime - to be continued.

Grandsons in Sports

I wasn't able to go to the fair last Saturday and see the handspun/
hand-
woven judging because all three of our grandsons had games. None overlapped, so we were able to see them all. This is five-year-old Evan's team in the blue, the Sea Monsters. They only field three on a team, which makes so much more than sense, but even so they end up kicking each other's shin guards.

The games are mercifully only 30 minutes long and this is a half-time carbo-loading break with Ritz crackers.


Then we were off to 10-year-
old Kiernan's football game, where there were as many cheer-
leaders as ball players. The Sierra Youth Football League is attached to high schools as a kind of feeder program, so this is Wooster High School and Kiernan's team are the Colt Freshmen.
It's super hot and Kiernan (#38) is clearly not having the time of his life. We are all sitting under umbrellas in an attempt to dodge the heat.

Lexie Lu has a bag of grapes and cherries which she has graciously offered to share with me. She started kindergarten on Monday
.
After a quick lunch at In-n-Out Burger, the only fast food I will eat and the first time this year, we moved on to 9-year-old Logan's soccer game. His team are the Green Virus. I don't know - I didn't ask.
Logan absolutely loves this game, and I have to say that it's a heck of a lot easier and more comfortable to watch than the American form of the sport.
We left here at 8:45 and got home at 3:30. The weather couldn't have been better, and we got to spend relaxed, easy time with our families. It was almost like a holiday but without the presents.