Railtown 1897

In July when my hubby and I went to Portland, Oregon, one of our stops was a night in Jamestown, CA. We chose Jamestown because they have a fantastic place for train lovers like us, it is Railtown 1897. Purchased in 1982 by the State of California, Railtown 1897 is a 26 acre park, one of North America's last operating steam era railroad facilities.
If you visit make sure you stop by the Depot Store.We met a very helpful young woman who was working behind the counter, I so wish I could remember her name... anyway she was a fellow train fanatic and a true local.
We were able to take a self guided walking tour through the park, my favorite kind.
Here are a few photos...

You gotta walk on the tracks... 'cause that's what they do in the movies.

The whole time I was in the roundhouse I was trying to get a candid shot of the men working on the engines. They were wearing the cutest overalls and one man had a big white beard... I mean they fit the picture so well. However they seemed to step out of my shot just as I pushed the button every time! Camera shy I guess.

The blacksmith shop. This room is an arachnophobe's nightmare. Lucky for me I like webs!

The machine shop has overhead belt driven tools. I was a little bit scared standing under those belts...must have been terrifying when they were all running. Oh... by the way, this is still operable!
I love the old electrical boxes mixed with new parts.
Looks like he is up to no good.
I think this wall is so cool. I want to duplicate it in my house... somewhere.
Many movies were made using these beautiful engines, here is a smoke stack that was blown up in Back to the Future III...

and the one on the right was in Little House on the Prairie.
Locomotive #3 was also in Bad Girls and Unforgiven. Many movies and TV shows were filmed in part at Railtown 1897, such as High Noon, The Great Race, The Rare Breed ( I love that one), The World's Greatest Lover, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, The Gambler (swoon), Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Father Murphy, Rawhide and Lassie. There are many many others, these are just the ones I remember well.

I had a hard time getting a complete shot of this back drop, it is an arch, which you can't see. I just needed a creepy man with a big black mustache tying a damsel to the tracks. Maybe that guy with the Tie-Dye on? :O)

One side of the roundhouse...

the other side of the roundhouse...
and tracks coming out of the roundhouse leading to the turntable.

Looking towards the turntable. It would be awesome to see the turntable in action.

This made me think of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.

When we saw this on the bottom of this train car we wondered what cast iron shoes looked like...
then we found the shoes!


One big disappointment was that the passenger train ride only runs during the weekend... we were there on a Tuesday. Someday I am going to ride in this train car. It costs extra but I think it will be completely worth it. Those little windows on the top are stained glass on the inside.
The car is decorated with elaborate woodwork and cushy seats. A 1920's luxury passenger car. So beautiful... I must ride that train.

Can't you just see me waving goodbye?

Farewell :O)

Pillow Talk

Today I can finally show you all a pillow I have made. My beautiful cousin and her lovely new husband will receive it this afternoon. This project just flowed from me... well... except the fringe. I made the front/top and quilted it before I went to their wedding in July but I couldn't find any trim to match and it needed trim. Our tiny town has lost it's fabric store and now the nearest one is 45 minutes away. They do have a nice selection of fringe and lace there but nothing seemed right. I did finally find a light green fringe that matched, I hope it complements the color of my cousin's living room walls.

I have to mention an amazing quilter named Tonya. Her blog Lazy Gal Quilting has been an incredible learning tool for me. She has taught me how to be "free" with my quilt blocks. Tonya's free pieced letters have changed everything I thought about quilting... I thought it had to be perfect. Her improvisational approach is just my thing. I have a tough time following other peoples patterns and I want all my projects to feel like my ideas. Several months ago Tonya was asking her readers to send her free pieced quilt blocks using four letter words that were happy, like hope and love, using bright fabrics. I joined her group of quilters and made two word blocks "Free" and "Luck". Here is the free block, I guess I sent the luck block off without taking a photo first... bummer.

Those two blocks were a challenge and a joy so I made more, lots more... Once I finished this pillow I started making more word blocks, but that is another project that hasn't been mailed off yet so you'll have to wait.

Oh!

Here is a look at the back.

Playing with Pinwheels

The project that I have been working on the last couple days is a Pinwheel Quilt for a baby. I was admiring an absolutely amazing quilt over at Red Pepper Quilts and I realized that Pinwheels are just squares cut in half diagonally to make triangles and then sewn back together with contrasting triangles, easy! Rita is a quilting genius, you should check out her quilts on Etsy. My attempt does not compare...I know... but it's my first try! :O)

I really wasn't sure this color combo was going to work but I actually like it a lot. It reminds me of Juicy Fruit gum.

My next challenge will be finding the right backing and binding fabric. The fabric stash I have is really not adequate although I have a hard time convincing my husband of that! I have so may finished projects I want to show you but I can't... they are gifts that haven't been mailed off yet and I can't spoil the surprise.

I have sent out one that I can show you as soon as it is delivered.I am so excited about it.

Hope you all have a great day.

First snow of the season

The first snow of the season is falling as I write this. We have had to build a fire the last three evenings because the temps have been below freezing. I love the first fires of the season, they add such a warm glow to the room, even the smell makes me feel cozy. I am ready for winter...well... almost ready. We still have a lot of wood to split and stack.

I'll have to put away all my outdoor flower pots now.

It won't be long before my garden will look like this
and my parking lot will look like this!

Let it Snow...Let it Snow... Let it snow

Don't feed the wildlife

I am a firm believer in not feeding the wildlife but we all slip up sometimes...

Yesterday when we finished working and went to leave, this masked bandit crept out of our van. We had left one of the doors open, to easily access our tools and this little guy stole what was left of our lunch. He is enjoying a potato chip in these shots but he had already finished up a turkey sandwich... he tossed the tomatoes on the ground I guess he didn't like them.
We have regular visits from bears around here. I know that sounds scary to some people but we have grown quite used to it. The real problem with bears is people. People leave food out where they can get it and that's what bears live for... eating!

I have been the culprit at times... once I left the metal can I store bird seed in out all night and the next morning a big bear was sitting in the yard shoveling sunflower seeds into his mouth with a massive paw. Kevin shooed him off, it is never a problem they just leave. Last summer I had a bear that would sit and bathe in my tiny pond! On a few occasions I found my pond half empty and reddish brown fur floating in the water. I wished I had a motion sensor camera... that must have been a funny sight.

This Black Bear visited our neighbors house one winter. Our town has a pretty large bear population so we have very tricky dumpsters. That type of dumpster in the photo above is currently being replaced by even trickier ones because the bears have learned they can just lean on the latches till they bend. Here is a photo of this little guy trying to get onto my neighbors deck.He tried hard but couldn't make it.

We have had some recent incidents with people in our bear loving town. A couple of weeks ago a man picnicing at one of our beautiful lakes left food out and a bear strolled on down to have herself a snack. This happens a lot so there are bear proof boxes to store your food in at all of the campsites. This tourist decided the best thing to do was walk to his car and get his handgun. He shot the bear in the head and killed her in front of many other people enjoying the wilderness. He is claiming self defense but the witnesses say he was never threatened and he did go to his car and then back to where the bear was, he could have drove away if he was scared. He may be brought up on charges as he fired a gun within town limits. There was another similar incident last summer with a bow hunter. This summer the police found out that a woman from Southern California was paying a local person to leave 40 pound bags of dog food out to attract bears to her vacation home! So very stupid. These bears don't hurt anyone and all we need to do is keep our distance and stop the food source.
Isn't he sweet? He's just hungry.

We didn't feed these little guys anything, but I thought you might like this shot. Kevin went out one morning and he found these two baby squirrels squeaking and blindly creeping across the parking lot. Two of their siblings were killed by a cat and their mother was nowhere to be seen. We made them a cozy bed and called the rescue shelter. They were so soft and they had amazing "fingers" so long and nimble. Just adorable.

I didn't mean for this post to be so depressing... I guess the bear killings have really been bothering me. There have been more that I didn't mention. So sad.

Let's just keep our picnic baskets from Yogi and BooBoo...OK?

Pet Parade

We did it!
We were able to raise $2000 for abandoned pets at The Northland Pet Pantry150 "Play Strong" scarves were decorated in many clever ways and our sweet pets modeled them so well. Kelee Katillac and her handsome pup Oliver are an inspiration. Here is a photo of the scarf Cosmo and I made.

But we are not done! Head on over to the Katillac Shack and watch the Pet Parade Video ... its fantastic. Leave a comment on Kelee's post and another dollar will be donated. This project has been so much fun, thanks to all of you who helped.