House-sitting, Poppy Festival & Stuffed Animals

I realised, I never put up any photographs of the dogs I took care of last weekend, or talked about it for that matter. It was certainly an interesting weekend, confirming that no, I never want to raise a puppy. They were so rambunctious and full of energy in the mornings, and seeing as I'm not a morning person, I wanted to kill them. Haha, okay, thats a bit extreme, but I was not happy about waking up so early to something so full of energy. But they were good besides that for the most part. However, Ali ate my shoes. :0( But that was about the extent of the misdemeanors. But here they are in full-colour: Ali (pink collar) and Emma (red collar)!






Then on saturday my mom rescued me for the morning and we went to the Lancaster Poppy Festival. For it being a Poppy Festival there was very little to do with poppies, curious, I think. But it was great, in spite of the lack of poppies to which we were celebrating. We went to the petting zoo area, which was far more extensive than just a petting zoo. There were stalls for a couple regional wildlife rescue agencies, a falconry show, and a rainforest tent. There were also a couple 4-h animal providers there too.

















Then a couple days ago Joel sent my sewing machine to me and I've been having fun with it for sure. I've made several little stuffed animals and its been great to make them cause its so quick. Instant gratification sewing!

Farming and Cards

I've been hired!! And Joel was hired too!! I'll start working at Wheatland Farms on June 23 and working til October 25 (or later?). I'm super excited about it. I'm going to work at that farm, 8 Acres Farm and a flower and fruit farm. They all share their workers, sometimes the workers stay on only one farm or they go between all four of the farms. I'm so thankful for this opportunity because I've been really wanting to work on a farm for quite a while now.

I know its not going to be the exact Utopia as I imagine it to be but thats okay. I'm looking forward to feeling worn out at the end of the day because I've done something useful and not just with my mind.

Also, as I said last time, I've update my Etsy shoppe. I've been spending time making cards in the last two days. Its great cause they don't take all that much time but they still look pretty good, if I don't mind my saying so. ;0) These are a few of the cards I've done so far:











Oh and if you haven't visited my Save the Brown blog, I bought a succulent at the Poppy Festival on saturday. I also started an avocado pit in water. We'll see if that one grows or what happens to it.





And thats about all thats going on right now, but thats pretty big. The thing I've been wanting to do for so long has finally become a real possibility and definite plan in my life!

Etsy updated!

I am about to shamelessly sell myself to you. I just updated my Etsy shoppe. Here is a link to it: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5152307 Not that I want you to buy my things but I want to show off. :0) Like I said, shameless.

I just applied to a craft show that is happening in Baltimore, MD on June 21. The Baltimore Craft Mafia are hosting it at St. John's Church in Charles Village by Johns Hopkins University. Here is the info from the website: The event, featuring 40+ crafty vendors, will be held indoors at St. John’s Church, located at 2640 St. Paul St, Baltimore, MD 21218, from 10:00 AM until 5:00 PM. So if you're in the area at the time you should totally check it out. Whether I'm there or not! :0) Just wanted to throw that out there.

I've also applied to a farm in Pucellville, Va. Its called Wheatland Vegetable Farms run by a husband and wife and lots of interns. Joel also applied to work there when he's done with Habitat in July. I'm really hoping we get accepted, well, me especially cause thats what I am hoping to do this summer and fall if they accept me. (Mid June to the end of October) They grow lots of vegetables (numerous heirloom tomatoes -- yum!) and a few fruits and flowers. Their description of the farm and living there was really down to earth, they weren't trying to gloss it over or glamorize it, which I really appreciated. It sounds like it'll really work me hard but I'm looking forward to it. I am ready to feel tired in both mind and body and appreciate the sleep and the food I've been given. I feel very disconnected with the soil and the food that comes forth from it, so I'm really happy for this opportunity.

A Drive in the Desert

This morning/afternoon my mom and I took a drive out into very uninhabited desert areas. Yesterday my mom went to see a friend in Bakersfield and was so inspired by the drive and came back rather excited saying we should go tomorrow (today) so that I could take photos of all the flowers for her. Joel, I'm sorry, but you didn't see the best week of poppies -- it turned out that it was this week!





Then we decided to take a backroad back home. We saw a sign that said, "Next Left" so we decided that was good enough for us. It didn't say anything besides "Next Left" though I believe it, at one time, did. So we turned left.

There was a broken down old house.



And next to it there was a water tank that was rusty and beautiful.



We drove along the road a bit longer and then I spotted HUGE pine cones. I'd never seen any so big in my life!




And these were some other lovely plants and flowers next to these mondo pine cones.




Then we drove some more and passed lots of sandstone that had tree roots growing out of it at random intervals. This was a really cool one.



Here are some horses. Its a mom and her two foals. One is on the ground laying down and the other one is trotting by the fence.



Last week in the newspaper there was an article about these plants. I think their name had "jerusalem" or perhaps "paw" in it, but I don't remember what they were called. And they are either super prickly or super sticky. But I didn't touch them so I couldn't tell you which it was. They were in a part that had been burned a couple years ago.




Which was very close to a small pond. There were some little mud hens (aka coots) but as I took the picture they dove into the water.



We drove along Pine Canyon Rd., a bit longer when we came to this pen.



I couldn't tell what the animals were beside the horse (thats why the above photo is blurry -- not cause I think blur is artistic or something silly...). Then I got closer and was able to use my zoom to see what these animals were. The littlest one walked away from me and then turned around.



I still don't know what that guy is, but he's cute. Then the other mystery animal came walking towards me. He was a blond donkey! And very friendly at that. He walked up to me and kept wanting to have me scratch and rub him. He was very adorable and I was happy that he came over to see me.







And when we finally got on Lake Elizabeth Rd., we saw a coyote. I was really surprised to see one in the day time. At first I thought it was a fawn but then I realised it was a coyote. He looked like he was doing well. I've only ever seen really lean coyotes.



And we inevitably stopped again to see the poppies from another angle.



And then we saw sheep! There were two whole fields of sheep grazing. They really like the wildflowers, the poppies and fiddleheads in particular.



The shepherd was out there tending the sheep too and some girls were talking to him about it I guess. They later took a picture of him so I'm assuming they weren't family or friends or anything. He looked like he was telling them what it was like being a "real life" shepherd.




And the shepherding dogs were very good. They kept an eye on the sheep and acted as crossing guard when the sheep would go across the street so they wouldn't get hit by the cars. It was fascinating to see it work so well. The dogs were totally chill and didn't seem to mind the sheep at all, what I'm trying to say is that they weren't bossy sheep dogs.











All in all it was a good trip and I was really happy to see so many parts of the valley that I wasn't familiar with. Not to mention all the animals that I met as well.