Day: October 10, 2010

The Alien 6 foot spider

BTW, I need to tell a story that has nothing to do with the Jade Festival, except that it happened to me this morning.

My friend and volunteer in the main booth, Rose, came up to my place to spend the night in paradise Saturday night. In the morning, we went out to the Jeep to go down to the festival. The driver’s side door and the driver’s side back door were covered with a huge, silk-string spider web. We are not talking an ordinary spider web here, we are talking about something that looked like an alien spider about 6 ft. tall landed and tried to capture my Jeep, sucking out the good parts, and leaving the rest to become an empty hulk.

Rose and I are a tad freaked. At first, we hypothesized that kids had snuck in during the night, and sprayed the spider web on my Jeep. Nah, the dogs would have freaked out, and how would they get in? Then, we decided it must be the alien spider from hell. I had to brush some away in order to get in my door. It was quite thick, quite strong, very sticky, and a lot like silk. Amazing stuff, actually.

So we get in and start to drive down to the festival. We both feel really creepy, look at each other, then look in the back of the Jeep. I had left the windows down, and we were both convinced the back was occupied by our 6 ft. spider. We notice similar stuff on some of the plants as we head down, and decided that wherever this massive spider-web was, it was blowing all over Plaskett. 16 years. I have never seen this phenomena. Okay, when I get down to the Jade Festival, hopefully John Smiley, the bugologist who was present Saturday will be there, and I can ask him. He isn’t. Squeeky doesn’t know, and Avis swears it is probably a Wolf Spider. (I looked it up, and Wolf Spiders do not weave webs, but carrying their young in an orb on their abdomens.)

Exhausted though I am, I guess I have to at least try to find out what it is. If I do, I will let you know. Now, back to the rest of the Jade Festival.

Here is a link to a HUGE spider web in TX. The one I saw was big, but not this big. The phenomena is a rarity, and they think it is caused by “stretch” spiders working together. Texas Webs

Jade Festival, Day 3

If this link works, here is a video Meade Fischer took today at the Jade Festival posted to youtube: Jade Festival video
Meade, if you object, I will take it down – and nice to meet you!

7;30 pm and the Jade Festival is closed down for the year. It was THE most incredible Festival ever. All of us who have worked them these last ten years agree that Saturday we saw the biggest crowd we have ever witnessed. It was HUGE – basically shoulder-to-shoulder. And? Despite all the people, it was mellow, no emergencies, no problems – a wonderfully peaceful and utterly enjoyable crowd. We were very blessed to have so many wonderful people visit. The vendors all reported a stellar year. We like to keep our vendors happy, as besides the raffle sales and the donations, the fees they pay are the only income our non-profit makes. Thank you all for such a successful Jade Festival. As usual, the weather was completely cooperative and beautiful.

There were some problems Saturday night, mostly from a few very unconscious individuals – one of whom thought it was a great idea to build a campfire in the middle of the school’s garden. One, no campfires outside designated campgrounds, certainly not the school. Two, in the middle of the garden? What planet was this guy from?

We all hope you will join us next year for our 20th Annual Jade Festival.

Here’s one of some incredible jade, that Dan Danbom caught with the light. Yes, it really is that color!

11 am – “She Folk” lead by our own Cat Madama

Here is a photo by Dan Danbom of Mowtowners and the crowd dancing yesterday. You Cambria folk may recognize Lady Tie Di in the crowd.

10 am – Every morning we kicked off the Jade Festival with a drum circle. It is our tradition. Everyone brings their drums and joins in.

And again, our leader, the gorgeous Tracy Morgan.

From yesterday, I was not able to upload the photos of Chad Carvey, the falconer, and his rescue red-tail with the broken wing.