08.29.07
Shaniko 2007
Yesterday the family crammed ourselves into my Yaris and made the 1.5 hour drive to Shaniko. I will be vending and teaching at the Shaniko Wool Gathering in 2 weeks and I needed to ‘touch base’ with the town to see where I will be teaching the sock dying classes.
A brief history…I visited Shaniko in June of 2006on the invite of a resident that maintains a weaver’s workshop there. I was kind of an artist in residence for the week. My sock machine meshes nicely with the town and early 1900’s era. Since there is no TV, radio or other distractions, we did alot of talking. I made the comment that they should have a Wool Gathering to celebrate the history of the town. (You see if there were no Shaniko there would be no Pendleton wool factory. Shaniko was the end of the line for the railway. All the sheep ranches brought their wool to Shaniko which was then moved by train to Pendleton.)
The town people (all 23 in the winter) took the idea of a Wool Gathering and ran with it. In two weeks the first Shaniko Wool Gathering will be held. So in a sense, I am a part of the committee…just from a distance.
The good news is I will be using the ground floor of the fire house. This is good because it isn’t outside and if I catch something on fire I’ll be at the right place. Unfortunately I did not get to see inside the wool barn. But after talking with the venue coordinators they decided to put me on the stage (gasp!). Initially when the venue was laid out, we decided to allow vendors a 10 X 12 foot space. But after actually standing inside the barn it was decided that 8 X 12 would allow for a better flow of customers. This created a problem for me as my booth is built around a 10 X 10 easy up frame.
So the kids visited the penny candy store, original jail
and the ice cream store. I sat and talked with Judith and Deborah about the gathering and we left via the town of Antelope. It was an interesting drive for the kids. 
We stopped at the Mountain Indicator and saw lots
of interesting rock formations. Finally back home at 5:30 we were whipped.
The heat and dryness of this area just sucks the life out of us. Check out KT’s hair. It will take weeks to get it back to normal. Both their faces are showing the effects of sun and chlorine pool water.
I am so happy we are going home tomorrow to our damp coastal climate.