October - nuff said...

Caricature artist Jim Engler drew people
in the park on Saturday, including the folks
at the Sheep to Shawl. Jim will be teaching
caricature at Folk School this March.

October has always been an incredible month at the Ozark Folk Center. I've been teaching food preservation, cheesemaking, and spinning. I've been doing demo's almost everyday on some aspect of saving food or making cloth. Everybody has chipped in, we've cooked sorghum, woven shawls, sheared sheep and braided garlic.


Then, when I've been home, I've been digging drainage ditches on the new shelters, building and tarping new shelters, fencing breeding pens, sorting sheep and goats into breeding groups, planting the fall garden, , spinning yarns, weaving rugs and shawls to take to Christmas Showcase, and touring gift shops working on my Interpretive Resale Best Practices workshop for NAI National in November. Ok, is that enough excuses yet for not writing a blog post since the first?

Carolyn and I visited lots of gift shops, like this one at
Toltec Mounds State Park to learn about their interpretive
resale best practices. Here Park Interpreter Laura Lawrence
tells us about the artist who painted these wonderful
watercolors at the park and gave the park the rights
to reprint them on bookmarks and post cards to sell.

We finished fall shearing today with Fantasia and Gizmo. Fanta's fleece will be a good rug, it's going to be the next one on the loom. Giz... I might spin, but most likely will weave it into a chair cover or handbag fabric. His last fleece is a rug that Linda Odom has and his fleece before is partly a handbag I'm lining now and partly in the current shawl on my studio triloom.



Lena sheared Hagrid yesterday as a demo during the Sheep to Shawl at the Folk Center. She did a great job and I appreciate it. That let me focus on my cheesemaking students. I spent this morning studying why I am having so much trouble with mozzarella. It's the milk - when I looked at the expiration dates they were all about 2-3 weeks out, showing that they were ultrapasturized. That process allows milk to keep longer on the grocers shelf and destroys it for cheesemaking.

So, now that I have that figured out, I need to go finish planting fall chard and kale. I love greens with dinner, and while you can buy them at the store, they are so easy to grow. Here in the Ozarks, they will usually grow all winter.

But first, I need to finish this blog post. Is it attention deficit disorder - or just way too many things on the to-do list disorder?

George loves mooching from and posing with visitors
to the Ozark Folk Center. Hagrid, with his new haircut
is in the back.

While it is still October, with apple butter cooking and soap making and Beanfest yet to come, November is just around the corner. November is going to be another busy, wonderful fun month, in part, because it is full of giveaways. In just a few days, on October 23 to be exact, I'll be starting a Country Outfitter giveaway for a free pair of boots! I'll give you a few more teasers tomorrow and then all the details on Tuesday.

Tillie models the new slicked down style of angora goat.
Fantasia, far right, got her haircut this afternoon.

And then, starting November 1st, we'll be having an elf hunt in the Craft Village with lots of great free prizes. Help us find the pesky little Elf in the Shop and get a chance to win the perfect handcrafted present.

After that, perhaps like my cheesemaking students who kept helping me find my measuring cup yesterday, you could help me find where I left my sanity?

The elf, in the shop...this little guy is starting
to get into all kinds of trouble in the Craft
Village. We just caught him trying to break
into the fried pie case in the Smokehouse.
Come help us catch the elf and we just might
give you a prize!