Soapy Days

Thursday and Friday were two soap days in a row for us—60 pounds of River Bars sliced this Sunday morning!  We are replenishing stock after a couple of large orders, a Fourth of July event, and several weekly Wednesday Farmers Market days. Rick says we’ve passed the point of making soap just once a week—and I think he may be right.  I’m thinking quite a few of these summery days will involve soap.

Sandwiched between our soap morning on Thursday and our soap afternoon on Friday, we set out to find a legendary stand of redwoods called the Del Norte Titans.

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At the end of the day on July 4th, we held a drawing for a basket of River Bar Soaps. We asked a young guy who was walking by if he would be so kind as to draw the winning ticket.  He sheepishly consented, was rewarded with a little bar of soap, and then queried, “What’s this?” Funny!

I left a phone message for the winner

Reflections on the 4th

We had a great day at the beachfront in River Bar Soaps’ booth, seeing old friends and meeting some new ones.  We were set up early, long before we heard the first sirens denoting the beginning of the parade.  We could only partially see it from our booth’s vantage point, but we could hear all the sounds of our small town’s parade:

Windy

I checked the weather forecast as is my custom before a Market day, and a Small Craft Advisory was in effect until Thursday afternoon. Being a coastal person, I’ve heard this term all my life, but my vague definition runs thus: the wind is going to blow like crazy, but not as hard as storm-caliber wind.  Probably not the most pleasant day to hunt for agates or plan a picnic on the beach. What it actually means, according to Wikipedia, is that the winds “have reached, or are expected to reach within 12 hours, a speed marginally less than gale force.”  Hmmm . . .

The River Bar

Yesterday after a full day of house, yard and garden chores and 15 pounds of new River Bar Soaps, we  hopped into our little Walker Bay 10 and enjoyed an hour on the river.  Exquisite end to the day and a delightful pleasure we both enjoy so much.  Rick mans the oars up river and I take over on the way back down. Translation: he does all the hard work while I take pictures, then I practice my rowing while the current floats us back to the truck and trailer.

A Bridge to the Past

I’d like to revisit the Memorial Day post where I mentioned that rain was not uncommon for Del Norte County at this time of year.  As Rick and I were driving over the Hiouchi Bridge last weekend, we reminisced about a rainy Memorial Day weekend from the past.

Until 1989, the Hiouchi Bridge was this rare and beautiful cantilever truss bridge that spanned the Smith River along Highway 199.  Built in the 1920s, it was already scheduled for replacement when its demise was abruptly hastened.  On March 31, 1989 this historic structure suffered serious damage when an overheight, overweight truck crane struck two of the cross frames on its south side.

Rainy Day Gardening and Soap Extrusion

Rainy Day Gardening 

It’s a rainy Memorial Day in Redwood National Park country, but we decided to not be wimpy–it’s not uncommon to have some rain here on Memorial Day weekend–so we trudged out in the drizzle to amend the soil in three new garden boxes.