charlie-walker

I met Wendy Hawkins while working in the nursery industry; we have a lot of the same hobbies and she was a painter. One year for my birthday she gave me watercolor classes. I had the best time with a group of women that called themselves “The Wednesday Women”. We all got together and painted at a pizza parlor in Martinez and had a great time. It is one of the most creative things I ever done. The more I was around creative people the more creative I got. I wonder if other artist are like that? I like to also paint in a quiet well lit room.

This painting is of a woman that use to come into the nursery that Wendy worked at. She did this painting and entered it in a juried show. It is one of my all time favorites and will be in my new home in Port townsend. I’m so excited to be getting her. I will be putting a link to her site (Wendy’s) but for now this is “Sweet Potato Pie”

Well if you know me you know I’m a hound for goats. I talked my husband into going along with my sister to Lambtown. Little did I know that there was a also a boat up in the area that I was going to have go by and see. It was a win win cause we had a great time.

Lamb town had a lot of great fiber. They were dyed,raw,and processed. Some of the most beautiful yarns for me were the ones where they had used plants to dye the fiber, so the colors were natural, rich and beautiful.

One of the men that I used to work with at the Ag department is John Veitch, he is a shearer. He was in the shearing competition. I had fun watching him speed through a lamb in six minutes, since it takes me about twenty.

He always has that smile.

They are talking about how you need to sit them on their backside and not on there tail bone because it the most comfortable spot for them to rest on.

John shears here in California locally and may travel.

I work with a lot of different people. Out in our satellite office there are three trappers and several biologists that rotate into the office. One of the biologists is really into bugs and has a couple of boxes of them. He is the one that we all come to when we have a bug we just can’t id.

These are just a few of his bugs. I promise to get better pictures and I really would like to share more about this.
I asked Matt where he found these and he said “Some I have even found here in our county in the Artichoke thistle” which is one of the weeds the biologist have to control in our county.

I started this morning about 6:30 and it’s was already pretty warm. I had my six McPhail Traps which are glass traps that can catch all kinds of bugs. We use a yeast tab and water as the lure. As you might imagine, bug trapping isn’t that glamourous but it’s really interesting if you pay attention. This is my first year as a trapper and I am constantly surprised with how many bugs I drag in to be id’d.

I think my least favorite trap is called the Champ trap. By the time you’re done, you’re a sticky mess. (Come on: just imagine Garrett with a two sided sticky trap and a couple of paper clips and a metal hanger.) The only way to get the sticky stuff off you is to take baby oil or lotion and that gets most of it off.

We also use Jackson Traps and we can set those in trio’s. The Jackson traps are a teepee shaped trap, with different lures for different bugs. I am hunting for Med Fly, Apple Maggot, Oriental Fruit Fly, Mediterrean Fruit Fly, and Sharp Shooter.

These are the Mcphails

Some people don’t even know that such a breed exists, but we have been around long enough now that that term shouldn’t be a mystery. But all the time I still get “what is a pygora goat?”

The Pygora was a purposefully crossbred animal by Katherine Jorgensen of Oregon. In 1978, the Pygora Breeders Association was formed in the United States, and has since then been registering and promoting Pygoras. Today the registered Pygora Goat may not be more than 75% AAGBA registered Angora Goat or 75% NPGA registered Pygmy Goat.

Description of the fiber are from a old pamplets of katherine Jorgensen.

Type “A” has long lustrous ringlets, 5 inches or more. Like very fine Mohair. Has a silky smooth feeling,cool to the touch. Can be as fine as 18 microns. Best shear in spring before it matts and before the kids born. Carded with cotton cards before spinning. Use single ply for crochet, double plied for knitting. Type A also blends well with moreno wool.

Type “B” A fluffy fleece with some lustre, between 3 to 6 inches. Guard hair is apparent, but is soft. This is a medium fine hair fiber, 19 microns or more. Sometimes can described as Cashgora. It is best to shear or comb in spring. Can be spun right out of the bag, washed and set. This is the most common Pygora, especially in F1. Makes a nice yarn, best in woven projects, or outer ware.

Personally this is my favorite fleece type.

Type “C” Extremely fine, less than 16 microns, dull without lustre. Is from 2 to 6 inches. Guard hair very apparent and quite coarse in contrast to the downy fleece. This fleece is often acceptable commerical cashmere. Shear for selling to Cashmere Company. Comb out for using at home,fun to spin, incredibly soft. This is a creamy almost suede feel. There are three grades of cashmere.

They are:

• Code 1 under 16 microns
• Code 2 16-18 microns
• Code 3 over 18 microns

Here is a picture of Gina she has an A/B fleece

Today while trading out my truck I got to look at some Dodder, a plant used for medicinal purposes in Asian cultures. It has taken over some common areas of Antioch and city workers have been maintaining it, not knowing it needs to be eradicated. Our county biologists were out looking for the source. It can grow up to six inches a day and needs a host to survive; it is a parasite that attaches on to another plant because it has no leaves it needs the chorophyll of the other plant. If it doesn’t find a host in six days it will die. It’s seed can live up to sixty years in the ground! Our county has never had viable seed produced. It is very aggressive and a amazing thing to see.

I got a new truck today. It’s actually temporary but it was great. It was about 102 out there in the orchards and the new truck had air conditioning that could have made ice cubes. It was such a relief from my older truck that gets one radio station (conservative talk radio) and has moderatly cool air blowing out of the vents. Speaking of radio, today I listen to India Arie. She really touch something in my spirit. She has a sultry voice and simple thoughts about complicated messages. I think I’ll have to listen to more of her music.

Today’s the day I go to Don and Gail Della Nina’s. They are old customers of Dell’s Nursery (where I used to work) and I have known them a long time. A few weeks ago I had knocked on Don’s door and he stood there in shock, thinking “what are you doing here?” I told him after fourteen years I had changed jobs and I was working for the county as a bug trapper. As all good farmers do, Don told me to “Trap away”. I set the Jackson Trio and I thought about how happy I was to see Don.

Well today when I showed up, Don was out in the field, he was pulling his garlic up. Gail is going to make it in to those really pretty braids that you see. These two are the most unlikely farmers. Both of them are corporate people and to see them work the earth is so amazing it has just made them incredible. I liked them before but I just love them to death now. They decided to grow olives; their soil out there in Byron isn’t the greatest so it’s hard to find a crop that will work. This is really an important part of gardening - not to fight the earth but to work with it. I think Don learned that out in Discovery Bay where he was determined to grow birch trees in Alkaline soil. He was so cute he would have done anything to make those trees grow: put them on mounds of good soil, use chemicals to adjust the ph, etc. They struggled, but they grew.

As Don stood up from his garlic pulling he was tired and hot and he saw me and started engaging me in the most wonderful conversation about Father Joseph blessing his field. At the same time I was changing out my traps (I have about 8 mins on each property so I move pretty quickly while trying not to be rude). He started to well up in tears as he told me about how Father Joseph was really sick but that he still took the time to bless his field. As I looked at his traps I didn’t see one bad bug in them, only the beneficial kind. I decided to mention that to him and then he was really brought to tears. He truly felt that he had been blessed and that his olives were protected and that he owed it to a greater good. To me it was such a personal moment I’m not sure we always get those moments. I’m not sure why but I felt that he had the commitment in his heart to see his project though and I wondered: “is this the passion we need to make something happen?”

So if your looking for international rated olive oil from a small farmer who is passionate check out there site: Belloolio. They are also importing Balsamic vinegar from Italy and they are going to be making red wine vinegar.

Motto for the day: “Always be passionate.”

Hi, this is Garden Lulu, and I am Garrett’s mom. I wanted to start a blog to discuss photography, art, gardening, and my new job as a bug trapper in Contra Costa County, Ca. Garrett said that I should join his BoontDusties community because I have known his group of friends as long as he has, and because I have collected many pictures of them over the years (Charlie-walker is a Boontling word for “a snapshot”). I wanted to help add to his historical collection, and offer my own peculiar interests to the group. Feel free to ask me any questions if you’re looking for some good advice.

This is me. I’m on the left.