Our friend, Jim, has gotten into the habit of running away from home any time it might get above 100 degrees. So far, I think he has managed to miss at least six days. Gordy and I have been invited to join him. But with the high cost of gas, we have opted to stay home. Can you say staycation?

 
Acorn woodpecker takes a drink - The green heron has returned

This means plenty of walks by the river and afternoon cool off periods in the pool. On one walk, there was a puddle on the path from the sprinklers at the park. The acorn woodpeckers were taking advantage of it to drink and bathe. I had to chuckle at them - it is rare to see a woodpecker on the ground.

We are in a period of transition down by the river. Some birds that disappeared in late winter are back and some that have been here are leaving. With the hot weather, alot of the critters are just hunkering down, keeping cool.

On one walk, Gordy, Buster and I stopped under a tree to cool off. Even in the early morning it sometimes gets pretty hot. Gordy happened to glance at the ground and just inches from his foot was a rattlesnake! Luckily, the snake was stretched out and Buster didn't see him. When we moved away, the snake quickly slithered off. Whew!!!!!

 
Cheri with the Calveras County Frog - the Solano County Chicken

The California State Fair began on August 15. Gordy and I went on the first Monday. This year, to encourage people to come on Monday's, if you got there before 4 PM, parking was free and the entry fee was half off! We always like wandering through the county displays. Some counties really go all out like Solano County's chicken hut.

When we are walking around, we always try to figure out the object du jour. In other words, what item from the vendors tent is the best seller. This is determined by what item most people are carrying around. Some years it has been mops or brooms. This year it was the "ShamWow". An super absorbent rag that came in a pack of various sizes. The person promoting it had quite the pitch that ended with "When you see this on TV it costs $30.00. But for you today, you pay only $25.00 and for the first ten customers, you get two packs!" Which is probably why we saw everyone carting around 2 packs.

 
Piglets on display - rice field at the fair, a close look at rice on the stem

We always walk through the animal and farm areas of the fair. This year, we were there on the day that the 4 H and FFA (Future Farmers of America) kids were showing their animals. I noticed that the pigs had different notches in their ears and asked the girl tending them why. She said that sometimes someone wants to know the parentage of the pig. The pigs in each litter have a unique notch pattern. So, she keeps a book with the ear notch patterns in order to identify the parents.

After viewing the animals and watching some of them being shown, we wandered over to the race track. The theme for the fair was Hollywood and at the race track, they had a display of some "Cars of the Stars". In wandering there we came upon a buffet with an bar. Gordy wanted a gin and tonic so I went up to the bar and place an order, fully expecting to have to pay for the drink. Nope, it was free! We had strayed into a reception before the auctioning of the 4 H and FFA winning animals. The bar was free probably to loosen the money for the auction. So, we had our drink and left.

The Border Collie Frisbee Act

At the "Cavalcade of Horses" they have a number of exhibitions. One was stunt riding. The act we loved was the guy with 10 border collies. He drove up in a van with all ten loose in it - not in travel cages. They all were acting like Buster. He had these dogs trained to do different frisbee tricks and would give them orders like turn around 3 times then catch the frisbee. By golly, they would do 3 360's then jump up and get the frisbee. Just amazing.

Mick Martin and the Blues Rockers were playing at the beer garden. We bought a beer and sat to watch. The young boy that had played harmonic with them a couple of years ago at the Jazz Festival, was once again playing with them. He still was really good. Gordy got to talk to him and found out that he now plays with them pretty regularly.

It was a good fair and we had quite a day. Buster was happy when we got home.

The Best BLT

In the summer, Marilyn and Jim provide us with great tomatoes. The BLT in the picture above is made with a Great White tomato. It is a very large, meaty and tasty tomato. and, as you can see, it only takes one slice to make a sandwich. In fact one tomato often makes 4 sandwiches!

2008 Grape Harvest

We harvested the grapes on September 2nd. While we were picking, Gordy commented that the vines seemed to be proudly displaying their produce. We had some pretty bunches. However, we only got 88.5 pounds this time. We lost a lot to raisining and critters. This year, we rented a crusher, destemmer. It spits the stems out the front and the crushed grapes and juice into the fermenter on the side. In the past I have tried to manually take out the stems, but it is a very time consuming and almost impossible. The stems could be the reason for some of the off taste we have been getting. Next year, Gordy is going to water more and see if it cuts down on the raisining. When we pressed, we got around 7 gallons of wine. By this time next year, we should know if the destemmer helped.

So, that's where we are.

Thanks for stopping by,