An invitation from this handsome man, Kenyon, an 88 year old, working cowboy, to come down to Christmas Valley for dinner and old time cowboy stories.
Yes! What an honor to be included.
Christmas Valley, a small town in Southern Oregon’s desert country.
To get there, drive south through central Oregon, past Bend to La Pine, then, turn east, onto a winding road through the pine filled Deshutes National Forest.
64 miles later, the Oregon desert.
Sagebrush and big sky.
Keep going, past this amazing structure, Fort Rock, and on to Christmas Valley.
This area was immortalized in the book ‘The Oregon Desert’ by authors Reub Long, a rancher, and E R Jackman, a retired Oregon State University extension agent. It’s full of stories about the ranchers, sheepmen and cowboys and their life in this place.
Reub Long’s many acre ranch included Fort Rock. In 1962 he gave it to the state, it is now a designated national natural landmark.
Reub Long died in 1974, he is buried in the little cemetery next to Fort Rock.
Visitors leave mementos, rocks, pieces of old bottles, horse shoes,
coins, flowers and a pice of wood with a brand on it. [His? “probably”, said the old timers I asked.]
Alfalfa is the main agricultural crop. Irrigated by an underground aquifer, circles of green are scattered in the valley.
After a morning of natural wonders, it was time for the big event.
At the Christmas Valley Lodge, Cowboy Stories.
These folks are the real deal, the hats confirm.
Pot roast and potatoes, $10. Delicious!
Lots of people came by to pay their respect to Kenyon, the man of the hour.
All generations.
After ‘tall tales and lies’, Kenyon ended by calling up a guitarist and sang ‘Blood on the Saddle‘, a Tex Ritter classic.
Thank you Kenyon for an fantastic weekend!
To you, your friends and neighbors and the people of Christmas Valley, you are all amazing.
Want to know more about this part of the country? And see some archival recordings with Reub Long?
Check out this Oregon Public Broadcasting documentary: Reub Long’s Oregon Desert which includes interviews with Kenyon, who knew and worked for Long.
Uncategorized
Here We Go!
OK! It’s for real now.
The sky is bright blue, then minutes later, clouds roll in, the heavens open and the rain falls. Just as quickly, it’s over. The clouds are gone and the sun is shining like nothing even happened.
Flowers are everywhere, in carefully cultivated gardens and in abandoned backyards, up in the trees, underneath in lawns and between the cracks in the sidewalks.
There is no denying. It’s Spring.
My challenge: stay inside with my beautiful silks and sewing machine, [just tuned up and in tip top shape],
or,… head outside to all of this.
Everywhere I look,
early peonies,
Lilacs, they seem to live forever.
Out in the countryside when you see an old lilac all by itself, alone in a field, it’s an indication that there was once farmhouse there, now long gone.
Rhododendrons, just starting to open.
Or in their full glory.
Rhododendron Williamsianum, [no relation…]
It is so beautiful out there!
I cannot resist.
Pick Up Sticks Skirt and Jacket
A beautiful navy kimono silk with scattered silver dots inspired this full skirt and jacket.
I sketched out an idea:
Which wasn’t quite what I was after.
Sketch #2 was closer to what I wanted, little skinny lines scattered along the bottom edge of the skirt.
Kind of like this:
Direction established, I cut and sewed, recut and re-sewed the bits together, cut some more and sewed until there was enough for a full skirt.
The front half.
Final step: Sew into a skirt and make a jacket to match.
And Voila!
