Daughter Xenia and I went to an alpaca farm today. Here are some of the pictures:

The two pictures below were taken at the same time. The one on the left by Xenia and the one on the right by me:

They have a variety of colors and some enjoy having their neck scratched (neck scratch photo by Xenia):

They have some very odd (to me) toes:

They are raised primarily for their fiber. It has some interesting characteristics (from Wikipedia):

Alpaca fiber is used for making knitted and woven items, similar to wool. These items include blankets, sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, a wide variety of textiles and ponchos in South America, and sweaters, socks, coats and bedding in other parts of the world. The fiber comes in more than 52 natural colors as classified in Peru, 12 as classified in Australia and 16 as classified in the United States.

…

Alpaca fleece is a lustrous and silky natural fiber. While similar to sheep’s wool, it is warmer, not prickly, and bears no lanolin, which makes it hypoallergenic. Without lanolin, it does not repel water. It is also soft and luxurious. In physical structure, alpaca fiber is somewhat akin to hair, being very glossy. The preparing, carding, spinning, weaving and finishing process of alpaca is very similar to the process used for wool. Alpaca fiber is also flame-resistant, and meets the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s standards.

Flame-resistant? Wow.

We saw people carding, spinning, and weaving the fiber:

Alpacas have been domesticated for thousands of years and I found them to be far more interesting than I expected.

Now that we’ve gotten a little rain, the wild mushrooms are coming out in force. Shaggy Manes aren’t common at my place, but they’re common enough you might want to know about them. They’re another edible mushroom likely to be found on laws and other locations similar to the habitat for the Meadow Mushrooms we’ve been using, or on roadsides in the back country. It’s called the Shaggy Mane for obvious reason. I found this one, solitary, on my lawn about fifteen yards from a nice fruiting of Meadow Mushrooms this afternoon. You’ll find them singularly, or in small groups.

This one is fairly small. They can be twice that size. Note the tall cap hanging down from its attachment point at the top inside of the cap, and the color fringe on the gills, which turn darker with age, and eventually melt into a black liquid. These are fragile mushrooms.

Still edible, but they’re better before the cap has started to turn black at the bottom.

Eventually the cap will turn into a black goo, so use them up right away.

They’re not as good eating as the Meadow Mushrooms, but they’re more than OK, and they’re easy to identify. They don’t store well, so use them up in a day or two. Don’t over-cook or else they become watery.

See if you can find some. They’re not as easy to spot because of their camouflage-like appearance among the fall leaves. Here’s some more information.

About two weeks ago my car was burgled.

Yesterday the police caught someone that could have been involved (see also the police news release):

One of two alleged burglars attempting to rob a home on 123rd Avenue N.E. was tracked down and apprehended by one of the Bellevue Police’s K-9 units early Thursday morning.

The suspect, a 25-year-old Bellevue resident, later admitted to committing a dozen different vehicle prowls in the area overnight.

…

After the suspect refused to surrender, Roc was sent in to apprehend him. The man was later treated for a dog bite received during his arrest.

A dozen in one night! I look forward the police finding the storage unit or wherever they have been stashing the stuff. There were some things I discovered missing after I sent in the insurance claim and the police report. Maybe I will get those back.

This is Roc:

I’d like to give Roc a doggy treat to thank him for chewing on the guy.

I went out to the car (Ford Escape) to go to work this morning and noticed stuff from the console scattered all over the seats, the doors ajar, and a plastic bin I keep “car food” in on the ground behind the car. A quick check in back verified I had lost a bunch of stuff.

I called the police. They said someone would be there within an hour, I sent an email to work, and I sat down to wait.

The police officer was really nice and made a report of the things I had lost and was able to obtain a fingerprint off of the lift gate. It could be mine but there is a chance it was the bad guy. I went to work and was looking at the stuff on the seat. There were several things made of smooth plastic and metal that had been removed from the console. I sent the officer a email asking if he would like to attempt finding fingerprints on those items too. He came to the parking garage where I work and spent another 45 minutes or so with his fingerprint brush and making various things black with the dust. He found another print and took it for his report as well.

He told me that there were three car prowls in my neighborhood last night and eight a short distance away the night before. My hope is that with someone this active they will make a mistake or two and get caught soon. I’m been doing some things to increase the odds of a mistake leading to their apprehension. I want something or someone to trip them up.

My losses include:

• Seven .40 S&W magazines for my STI ($70 each)
• One Black Scorpion Outdoor Gear Storm Magentic Magazine Pouch ($27)
• Three Black Scorpion Outdoor Gear Storm Magazine Pouch ($27 each)
• Aluminator race holster for STI ($282)
• 500 to 700 hundred rounds of .40 S&W handloads (~$0.30 each)
• One Dillon ‘Border Shift’ Ammo Bag ($26)
• One brass bag similar to this one except I got mine for attending the USPSA 1998 Area 1 Championship ($10).
• ESS Safety Glasses ($27)
• My emergency supplies box (wooden military crate given to me by son-in-law John) which contained emergency blankets ($5.00), rain ponchos, packages of 9V, AA, and AAA batteries, gloves, hand cleaner, orange paint, small hunting NRA knife given to me after the I-676 campaign (~$30), tow strap ($17), Shoot-N-C 3 Inch Round Targets ($18), pens, cigarette lighters, road flares, one box .40 S&W 180 grain Winchester Ranger JHP, 12V air compressor, and I don’t know what all else.

There were some other things as well that brings the total loss up to about $1800. I didn’t realize how much stuff I kept in there. The back of the Escape was completely covered with a tarp too.

They didn’t break any windows but it’s possible it wasn’t locked. I always lock it when I leave but from my bedroom with my key in my pocket the remote key will sometimes lock (or unlock) the car when I bend over.

Miscellaneous stuff: The cop was wearing the same Surefire flashlight holster and a nearly identical flashlight to mine. He is part of the bomb squad and we talked about explosives some. I shot at the same match as someone he knows in his department a couple weeks ago in Marysville.

While I was in Idaho weekend before last I helped my brothers just a little bit with the harvest. They were working on the lentils and I took a few pictures:

Want some lentils? How many tons would you like? There are probably about 15 tons in this picture.

This is one of the two nearly identical machines they use to harvest the crops on our land.

On today’s menu;

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Alder wood with Laurel Mountain Forge Cherry stain. The alder sucks up a ton of the stain, darkening it to a deep, deep maroon/black cherry color. The wood also soaks up the Watco Danish oil finish like crazy. The photo is after the first application, and it will take several more to achieve a good seal and a semi-gloss or high satin glow.

Three or four applications of Danish oil to go

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Barb’s nephew, Tyler Brown, is a graduating senior at the University of Washington. As his thesis project he is making a short film about Ted Bundy. I’ve talked to him a couple times about the film. He’s been researching it for a couple years now and had some amazing stuff come together for it.

He was telling some other students about his project and one of them told him (paraphrased), “I live in the house Bundy used to live in. Would you like to film some scenes in it?”

Another person involved in the film has a VW Beetle of the correct color.

He discovered Bundy’s ex-girlfriend, who is extremely secretive, lives about a mile from where he lives. He visited her and gave her a copy of the script.

Bundy spent a lot of time at a bar in the University District and followed at least one victim from the bar. The bar is Dante’s. They still had the booth, in storage for 20 years, that Bundy frequently sat in. Tyler helped them get it out of storage and it is now back in service. Tyler will film part of the video in that booth*.

Tyler is raising money via Kickstarter to finish the film. See the trailer, learn more about the film, and donate.

* Although it was many years later Barb went to school at the U of W and spent time at Dante’s as well. She remembers the large L-shaped booth.