Win yourself some boots

My old boots are tired!

I still haven't come up with a way to retire my decade-old Ariat Ropers. They are my comfort boots. But they sure are looking worn out. They really don't go with my green velvet dress any longer.


 I know it's silly, they are just an article of clothing, but these boots have protected my feet on trail rides in the Colorado mountains; training colts to run on the racetrack; on our journey across the US looking for a new place to farm; as we broke ground on Foxbriar Farm; and now, they run me through the Craft Village at the Ozark Folk Center everyday.


You can't just throw a pair of boots that anchor all those memories into the trash. And honestly, they are worn out, so I can't pass them on to anyone, either.


So, with the help of Country Outfitter, (an awesome Arkansas company) I'm going to have you all help me figure out an appropriate retirement for my beloved boots. And, along with helping me, out, you have a chance to win your own new pair of boots.

When I find something I like, I tend to stick with it.

Country Outfitter has lots of different types of boots. You don't have to just pick a pair like mine. If you win this giveaway, they will give you up to $150 towards the boots of your choice. And even if you don't win, I bet you'll find something that you want to put on your Christmas list for Santa to bring!










HOW TO ENTER THIS BOOT DRAWING

1. To get a chance to win your very own pair of boots from Country Outfitter, you must click this link to their boots giveaway page
and enter your email address. They may send you some promotional emails.

2. You must leave a comment on this blog post with your suggestion for a proper retirement for my old Ariats.

I am also going to set up a place for ideas on Pinterest, so read on in the next few days for how to share your ideas there, but that in not a requirement for entering. To enter, just click on the link above, enter your email address and then leave a comment here. That's it. That's all the requirements. Of course, I'd appreciate it if you'd share this out on Facebook and with your other social media friends, so that everybody has a chance to win boots and I find a good use/retirement for my old boots.

My boots are made for walking!

We'll be doing the drawing for the winner of this pair of boots and announce the winning retirement idea at noon on Sunday, November 25. You have up until midnight on Saturday, November 24th  (Small Business Saturday) to enter

 Disclosure: Country Outfitter, a retailer of Ariat Boots, gave me these Heritage Lace Ropers to review.

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!

Boot retirement

While I was in the process of preparing for the Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged (#AWBU) conference and shopping Country Outfitter for my boots, my old boots developed a crack in the sidewall. Not a big crack, but a definite crack through the leather. That helped me decide that I wanted to replace them with the same make and model of boot. I love my old boots.

My beloved decade old Ariats have developed a crack
in the side.

I've worn my old boots hard for more than a decade, and I hate to admit, I don't take the best care of them. I've worn them out in the rain and not saddle soaped or oiled them. I wore them when my whole family went trail riding in the snow above Blue Mesa.
When they were almost new, I wore them riding Jahim at Parelli Camp. I galloped Nefisa, Legend, Misata, Ghoti and my beloved Aliya in those boots.

I packed with llamas in the Colorado canyon lands in those boots and had adventures around Taos while wearing them. I built many, many miles of fence in my Ariats.

When we moved to Arkansas, I wore them in self-defense against briars and ticks and copperheads. And when I got my job as Craft Director at the Ozark Folk Center, those boots carried me hundreds of miles on the pavement. I wore a pedometer for a while. One day I did eleven miles on the concrete sidewalks and wooden stairs of the Craft Village. I decided I didn't need the pedometer to tell me I walked a lot. But I did need my boots.

Old meets new - My brand new Heritage Lacers
from Country Outfitter.

I tried to replace them two years ago with a pretty pair of women's Ariat lacers. My feet are too wide for their women's boots, so the pretty new pair stays pretty and I wear them when I need to look a little more refined. On most days, when I need to stride around the village at high speed, I wear my old, faithful, original Ariats.

Thanks to the #AWBU promotion by Country Outfitter, I was at a boot party with a grand new pair of boots. I had decided as I dressed for the party in my green velvet skirt that this was going to be the retirement party for my old boots. In my mind, all these people were gathered to help me send my dear old boots off into the sunset. I wore them to the party.

Old boots went into the box, waiting for retirement.

As the evening progressed, I became aware that this party was something different to every person there. It was a photo shoot and promotion for boots; and adventure for many who had never tried boots; a birthday party; and most especially, an engagement party. It didn't seem right for it to be the retirement party for my boots, too.

I changed into my new boots for the photo shoot and then the jig dancing class with Clancey Ferguson. The new boots are good, they are comfortable. They look very nice and fit very well.
Gently, I tucked my old boots in to the Ariat box. Eventually, I'll find the right way to retire them. They are so much more than boots. Those soles hold a decade of my memories.

If you have an idea for an appropriate retirement for beloved old boots, please share it with me here.

These boots are...

The Arkansas Women Blogger's Unplugged meeting is at the Ozark Folk Center starting tomorrow. I am expecting to learn an incredible amount of useful information from this conference. One of the things I want to learn is about sponsors and sponsored blog posts. This is a sponsored post.

There are many companies sponsoring the conference. Ziplock just delivered 118 cases of really cool storage devices for the foodie bloggers to test and promote. Healthy Families is one sponsor, and that brought up a really good idea with our interpretive team that I'll talk about in a future blog post. Petite Jean meats is providing us with all kinds of treats. And Country Outfitter is giving us boots!

I walk miles in the Ozark Folk Center Craft Village every day in my Ariats.

You all know I live in my boots.
When we first moved to Arkansas, much like any settlers who moved here before us, we learned that boots were indispensable as footwear. They protect you from briars, ticks, chiggers and snakebite. Why would anyone wear anything else?
I lived in boots in Colorado when I trained horses and rode daily. In fact, I bought my first pair of Ariats in 2002 at the Horse Expo in Denver. I spent a pretty penny on them, and they were a wise investment, I still wear them almost every day. For me to get a decade of wear out of a pair of boots is unimaginable. I've tried other types of boots, but the Ariats just wear well, fit well and are comfortable.
The boots in the picture above are my second pair of Ariats. They are my dress boots, to wear with my nice ruffled dress. Boots are not only practical, they are pretty, too. What I discovered though is that with as much clomping around on concrete as I do, the men's boots are more comfortable on my feet. So I'll keep the pretty lady lacers for pretty.
Now I've ordered a third pair of Ariats. I took a picture of my first pair. I didn't realize how sad they were looking until I looked at the picture. When the new ones get here, my old boots will find a place of honor where ever it is that beloved old boots go.

Do you love boots? Well, if so, stay tuned, because Country Outfitter is giving away a pair of boots to one of my wonderful readers. After I learn all these new, wonderful things at the AWBU conference about promotions and giveaways, I'll post the details here and let you know what you have to do to sign up to win your very own pair of brand new boots!

DISCLOSURE: CountryOutfitter, a retailer of Ariat Boots, is giving me my new pair  Ariat Heritage Lacer Roper boots  to review.