Wild Weekend

I know it's been a while since I wrote. What can I say? Wintertime.

This past weekend was so weird, though, that I wanted to make sure that I told the story. I had a local show in Roseburg. At these local shows I don't expect to make much money, but the expenses are way less, too, so it all balances out.

I learned that it's easy to make a respectable indoor booth by leaving the top off. Here's my indoor setup, mostly completed.

I was quite nervous going into the show because the weather report called for the first real snow of the season during the first day of the show. What's the big deal, you ask? Well, my new yurt has a very flat roof and I've never seen how it responds to snow load. I really didn't like the idea of having it come down and sit there all weekend before I got home to deal with it.

And then I learned that the local police had gone on the television and advised people to stay home unless travel was absolutely necessary. I cleared it with the show organizer and then left at 1:00 PM, after talking to less than a dozen shoppers in three hours.

I went to the local tire company and put new tires on the front of the van and then drove home. The highway was terrifying, but my local road was worse.

You see, our county is all-but-broke. There is no money for fripperies like plowing or sanding country roads. If you live out here, you'd better have snow tires, chains, four wheel drive, and a stocked pantry in case they don't work.

But I made it and the sight that met my eyes was a gorgeous one. The yurt had a few inches of pretty heavy snow on it, but was not sagging even a tiny amount. Instead, it looked like some kind of giant frosted cupcake.

And then there's the view. Wow! It was much more gorgeous than a camera can capture.

Since we didn't know how much more snow was coming, Jo Jo and I decided to shovel off both yurts and the entire deck. Why not? It would be a few hours before the house was warm enough to hang out anyhow.

And here's the evidence of another miscalculation in setting up the homestead. I somehow completely forgot that we get snow here. When the tall yurt sheds snow, it will get trapped between the two. So, yeah, I made myself a continuous chore getting the snow out of there whenever it falls, but that doesn't really happen very often.

Ta-dah! All shoveled, warmed up, and ready to relax in.

The parts that we couldn't reach with the broom will be cleared by the woodstove.

In the morning there were icicles and frost, but all they did was make the scene even prettier.

It's nice to look at the snow in the trees from the warm interior of the yurt.

Woohoo! Forty degrees above the outside temperature. Thanks, wood stove!

And how did the show end up? Well, I went back on Saturday and Sunday, but the customers never did come out. I did what it is that vendors do in this situation: met the other vendors and did some great trades. This is the score of the weekend - a Bowie knife, handmade by a man named Ken Phipps. Actually, it was a posthumous collaboration between him and a man named Bear who designed it and cut the original blank. It was really quite a nice consolation prize and one that I'll treasure for years.

And, yes, I know that it's too big for skinning. But it's just the right size for gutting, quartering, and much of the butchering. And I live in Oregon, where there is no restriction on the size of blade that can be carried as long as it isn't concealed. Uh, no worry there!