Home from Yosemite

We have been home from our trip to Yosemite to visit our son, Sam/Zac/Satchmo, who lives and works at Evergreen Lodge just outside the National Park, for almost a week.  He has lived there on and off since 2008 and this is our 4th trip there to see him.  We love it, but wish he weren't so far away.

Both Sam's and my mothers went with us on this trip.
They were tired of hearing how beautiful it is out there and wanted to see it for themselves.  We had a great time and excellent accomodations at Evergreen Lodge

Since we were there last, there is a beautiful pool and hot tub with a fantastic sunset view which we took advantage of on a snowy day. 

 











The lovely sunset view was unfortunately  enabled by the fact that so much of the landscape adjoining the lodge property was devasted by the Rim Fire in 2013.  After evacuation of the lodge personnel, including our son, 250 firefighters stayed onsite and prevented the lodge property from burning.  It is amazing to see how close the flames came and how untouched the lodge property is.  It gives me great respect for the men and women who fought that fire, which is the 3rd largest in California history.

We arrived home to absolutely fabulous weather for mid-November.  Sunshine and temperatures in the 60's and even 70's.  And it looks like it will continue to be nice for a while at least.

The beavers have been busy getting ready for winter, with a new layer of mud on their lodge.

 And with the leaves off the trees and the undergrowth  frost-killed one can get a better look at their pond from the road.  In this photo 
<<<  you can see the old bridge in the center and their lodge is on the right side of that old collapsed bridge.  You can see the railing in the photo above.  Maybe now I will be able to get a glimpse of the beavers again.  

 



Everyone is enjoying the sunshine

And the dogs were quite happy to swim in the pond on Monday.  

Sam shot a big 8 point buck with his crossbow Monday evening, and spent all day yesterday butchering it.  He got 100 pounds of meat off this deer and we will share some of that with his parents.  Tomorrow I will be canning some.   Sam is also going to tan the hide using the brain of the deer, which he has never done.   I apologize for no photo, but it was late when Sam got in with the deer Monday and he got right to skinning it since the weather is too warm to delay.

Upcoming, Grover and I have an agility trial this weekend in Zanesville.  It is a 3 day trial, so we have 3 attempts to finish our Open Jumpers title.  We need only 1 Q run to move up to Excellent in Jumpers.   Another Q in Excellent standard would be nice as well.  But I really want us to get that last Jumpers Q.

 


I took a couple small projects with me on our trip, a pair of socks for Sam, of which I finished one.  I think I got most of it done on the plane.  Socks are great plane knitting.

The other project was another pair of mitts for sale at the Christmas Festival.  I have been delving into my yarn stash and using up small amounts of leftover yarn for these mitts.  This particular yarn is some of my very first handspun.  The grey is from an alpaca named Jillian, who we acquired in 2000, and the blue is some merino wool top I think I bought on ebay.  I plied the 2 together and I am sure I knitted something from this years ago, but I have no idea what.  I like the way the mitts came out and this used up most of the remainder of that handspun yarn in a lovely way.

In case I do not get a chance to post next week, Happy Thanksgiving!!