Seven sevens

They say, (the ever present communal memory), that our body replaces all of its cells, except brain, every seven years. So every seven years, you have a new you. That seven thing is also present in common thought with the "seven year itch" concept.
So, I'm 49. That's seven sevens. Here I have been, waiting for the great 50, which much of our society thinks of as an achievement and celebrates wholeheartedly (here in the Ozarks I might get to go beyond "young pup" stage when I hit 50) and I almost missed that I was this great and wonderful age of 49!

New Goats

Here's the new buck and two does that are joining our angora flock. We'll wait a week or so to let them settle in and then shear them. They'll be wearing Matilda Fleece covers most of the winter.
Looks like some nice fleece and I'll finally be able to make that white rug!

They had names in the past, and maybe even registration papers.
I've been reading books from the 1800's (courtesy of the Google Library project) about the origins of the angora goats for interpretations and demonstrations that I do. The angora goats originated in Turkey. Books by John Lord Hayes (1882), S. C. Cronwright Schreiner (1898), and the March 1911 Popular Mechanics all have wonderful information about early importations and culture of angora goats in the US.
All of the goats in the antique photos are listed with their names. So, with that as solid precedent (boy I have been reading the stilted language of the 1800's!) I have named the new flock Sultan, and to his left Nasrin (wild rose) and Beyza (very white).
Come visit the Ozark Folk Center through the month of November and meet the new flock.

Sheep sense

Our sheep have a "pen" that is about half-an-acre where they live most of the time. At the top of the pen is a little wooded area that stays about 20 degrees cooler than the rest of the world on sunny summer days. When they are in their pen, the sheep are smart enough to spend their days resting up under the trees, chewing their cud and watching the world drift by below them.

They also have a pasture, that is about an acre. Earlier this year, before it got so hot, we let them out in the pasture for the day and put them in their more secure pen at night. Then it got hot and the pasture grass quit growning, so we kept the sheep penned up. They had their nice routine of socializing and eating hay all night, then resting under the trees in the heat of the day.

Last week, we got a few rains and the pasture grass had a growth spurt. After a few evenings of letting the sheep graze for a couple hours in the evening, I turned them out for the day yesterday morning so they could have the day out to pasture. They have fresh water and salt licks in both the pen and pasture.

When I went home at 2:00 to let the dogs out and check on the sheep. They were out in the sun, in the pasture, trying to graze and panting with open mouths. Gluttony is a powerful force. I tried to herd them in but they ran in all directions. I decided it would be worse to let them run than it would be to leave them out in the pasture. They all survived their foolishness and happily came into their pen for dinner. Funny how they want their dinner after spending the day eating.

This morning, the sheep are in their pen, up on the berm, under the trees, resting. They asked to go out after breakfast, but I told them to be happy they had a shepherd. They can go out this evening when it is a bit cooler and they won't be risking heat stroke while searching for that perfect bite of grass.

Devotional

I was talking with my mom on the phone yesterday. They were camping somewhere in the mountains of Colorado. Cell phones have changed our lives to a depth that I don't think anyone realizes, yet.
She said that my brother and sister-in-law are considering getting chickens. They are big on eating healthy and since we moved to Arkansas are having trouble finding local eggs and milk. Chickens are one big step, but they are manageable for many people. Milk animals, however, are a whole different dimension.

"Milk goats take a lot of devotion," I said, and the word got stuck in my brain. It is the perfect word to describe the relationship between dairy animals and their humans.

From Merriam Webster -

Devotion

Main Entry: de·vo·tion

Pronunciation: \di-ˈvō-shən, dē-\

Function: noun

Date: 13th century

1 a : religious fervor : piety b : an act of prayer or private worship —usually used in plural c : a religious exercise or practice other than the regular corporate worship of a congregation

2 a : the act of devoting b : the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal

If you choose to have a dairy animal, you will devote time daily to milking, feeding and watering them. In order to get milk, the times must be on a regular schedule. Lack of routine creates stress and stressed animals don't milk.

Where other people have their daily devotional of reading, yoga, meditation or breathing - mine is milking. The schedule changes with the seasons, an homage to nature, but it is daily, 365 days a year. Right now I milk at 7 am and 7 pm, with little variation. This is a peaceful, relaxing, routine time for both me and the goats. It is a physical, mind-free routine that is centering and grounding.

Sheep pets

Our sheep have pets. It seems to be a sheeply thing. They have a lively curiousity and an empathy that is unusual in the livestock class of animals.
We first noticed this proclivity when one of Gabby's lambs kept following rabbits around the pasture. She did it a lot. She hung around their burrow and would wander around the pasture with the little bunnies. We named her Alice.
Alice went on to win the Reserve Grand Champion Natural Colored Ewe at the 100th anniversary of the Denver National Western Stock Show in 2006. Talk about falling down the rabbit hole!
We sold Alice in a show flock of Jacob Sheep as a part of the move from Colorado to Arkansas. But her story remains in the history of our flock.
This spring I've noticed the lambs have more pets than I've seen in the past. Filigree has her pet Fat Squirrel. She and Fat Squirrel hang around in the little grove of trees in the center of the sheep paddock. They appear to have games and conversations. Actually, Fat Squirrel seems to be oblivious to this relationship. He's just busy collecting, eating and burying food. But Filigree spends a lot of time with her head down in Fat Squirrel's business. I've got that sort of relationship with my dog.
Several of the lambs seem to enjoy the pair of Mourning Doves that nest in the pasture. The lambs have outgrown chasing the doves to get them to fly and now share their grain with the pair.
Of course, the lambs love the baby bunnies who are growing up in the briar patch behind the sheep. Flora especially likes visiting with them, though First goes and looks for them in the mornings after breakfast. That makes sense, First is Alice's granddaughter.

Scary things

This morning as I was making coffee, I looked out the window just in time to see a flash of a small black animal disappearing into the woods behind the sheep pasture.
I went to get my shoes and headed out the door in time to see all the critters react in alarm.

The angora goats ran to their llama and all gathered under her belly. They stood up big and tall and stared up into the woods. Their posture said, "We have a llama, you can't get us." Of course, I don't think they realized the llama would have a hard time fighting off predators with nine little goats underfoot.

The sheep all ran to the fence nearest the house and began hollering. "Maaaaaam! We're scared! Feed us!" Sheep are the ultimate stress eaters. If there's anything scary going on, they want to eat. I'm not sure that is a very sustainable behaviour for a species that is fairly low on the food chain.

The dairy goats looked at the other critters with disdain and began to tromp up the hill to beat up the scary thing. They have no horns or any other defense mechanisms, but boy do they have attitude!

I fed the sheep and heard the stray dogs in the forest take up the scent of a rabbit. They bayed and howled back and forth through the woods behind the pasture. I caught several glimpses of two small short-haired dogs. Nothing big enough to be a threat to our critters, but their barking sure frayed my nerves. They barked up and down the hill, through the forest. They had now been back there for more than an hour.

While I got dressed for work, I considered trying to catch them, but I really didn't have the time to go up into the woods. I wished I had a few fire crackers to scare them off. Now, three days after July 4th I come up with a use for firecrackers.

As I left for work, the stray dogs were still barking and our critters were beginning to ignore them. I hope the dogs are gone when I get home.

Milk Price

I began selling goat's milk back in 1982, in Colorado. It was (and still is) illegal to sell raw milk from the farm in that state. But people come to you and beg and plead and it really helps to pay the feed bills. And I truly believe it is one of the healthiest, best foods on this planet.
At the time, I sold milk for a dollar a quart. An astronomical price - after all milk at the store was $1.25 a gallon, at the time.
I worked with the group in Colorado who got legislation passed to make it legal to offer goat shares in Colorado. You could sell a share of a goat to someone and they got the milk from "their" goat on your farm. It was fun, but our farm was out in the boonies and we had too many people who wanted milk delivery 150 miles away, and the paperwork was a real pain. So, when we were looking to move someplace where water actually fell from the sky, we also wanted some place it was legal to sell goat milk.
Now I sell a little bit of goat milk from my farm in the Arkansas Ozarks. It is legal. And that is a real mind soother. I've been selling it for $1.00 a quart. That's what I've always sold milk for... after all, that's an outrageous $4.00 a gallon.
Last week, a friend who sells quite a bit more milk than I do and makes fantastic cheeses, called to see if he could buy a bit of milk to tide them over until their does freshen. I love my goat milk so much that I try to stagger my breeding so that I always have at least one doe milking. It doesn't always work as I had planned, but this year (knock on wood and cross my fingers) it is working. Right now Yampa and Bea (in the picture) are still milking a bit. So I said sure.  When he came to get his two quarts, he asked how much?
Dollar a quart, I said.
He was adamant that I should not be selling it that cheap. He gets $2.00 a quart and feels that is very reasonable.
So, I checked milk prices at Walmart. I'm sure you know that cow's milk is now $4.29 a gallon, but that shocked the heck out of me!
And the processed, icky tasting goat's milk in the store is $3.49 a quart!
So I spent 3 days stressing about what to do about my milk price. Part of the recent move to Havencroft was so we could sell more of our products from the farm easily.
And then, I went to get fuel for the truck. Now, when I started selling goat's milk, gas had recently spiked to an outrageous $1.25 a gallon. We didn't know how long these ridiculous prices were going to last, after all, we were used to paying 50-75 cents a gallon.
Last night I paid $2.77 a gallon for gas - and it's been right around that same price for many years.

So, I guess Gus is right - my milk price just went up to $2.00 a quart.

First

Many of you are familiar with our naming system for sheep and goats. When I started out with livestock in the early 1980's,  I just named the new babies whatever came to mind. As the years went on, I started having themes for each year's names - for the cheese year we had Brie, Gouda, Edam... Beatles year was Ruby Tuesday, Rita and Lucy... herbs year was a big one with Pennyroyal, Cowslip, Marjoram still being the grand-dams of our flock. We tried a Lord of the Rings year and discovered there were no where near enough female characters in that series! We had a water year after the drought and still have Yampa and Erie.
But after 20 years of naming 20-30-40 babies a year, the themes dried up. So we started with the alphabet. Now it's pretty easy. We know Bea and Bramble were born in the same year. Abracadabra is a year older than Be-Be and two years older than Cappucino. This year is an "F" year.
We thought we were expecting our first lambs and kids mid-March and figured that would give us enough time to haul shavings, chip wood and make some dry clean places. However, Dapper Dan the ram has amazed us. He only weighs about 75 pounds and is our shortest sheep. He is purebred jacob and very typey - he just never grew. We didn't think there was any way he could reach our bigger crossbred and Icelandic ewes to breed them.
Well.. last Sunday, the gorgeous, sunny day between snowstorms, Cocoa, one of our crossbred jacob/corridale ewes presented us with a beautiful spotted, frosted, big, energetic ewe lamb. I was leaning towards Farli for a name when Lena pointed out that her name was obvious - meet "First."
First is the first lamb Cocoa has ever had, First is Dapper Dan's first progeny. First is the first lamb born on Havencroft and the first lamb of 2010. It's a good thing this is an F year, 'cause I don't think she could be named anything else!

Job description

One of our projects for this winter at the Ozark Folk Center is for each of us to write out our job duties to be compiled in a Job Book, both to let new people get up and running more easily and to be able to justify our jobs to the "higher-ups".

I've been trying to write up my job since November and am finding it to be one of the toughest things I've ever written. Just today, my job ranges from doing budget analysis in Excel; to coordinating with maintenance crews about frozen pipes; to scrubbing the gunk off the floor in the General Store so we can coat it with boiled linseed oil; to finishing a press release about upcoming Folk School classes; to contracting with a cowboy poet for performing on our Cowboy weekend.

My job is to make sure that everything is arranged behind the scenes and to make sure that everybody has what they need so that our visitors can play and have fun... why can't I just write that?

Because my job is the details. sigh :-)

Hard decisions

Small farming is most usually wonderful. Morning and evening chores are wonderful bookends to any day. The little quirks and games of your animal friends are far more entertaining than anything that other people might see on the box in their living room.
The highlights of the year, shearing; lambing; milkers freshening are special in a way that supersedes words. The giddy joy of a lampede just has to be experienced.
But to go along with it are the hard times. Having to haul hay up to the shelters in snow that is over your boots. Loosing a treasured friend to illness is a terrible blow. And then there is the challenge of having to scrape up the money to feed everyone when your pasture situation changes.
Havencroft is much smaller than Foxbriar and smaller than the space we were allotted in Meadow Creek. It is a blessing to be so close to town, to be able to spend more time with friends and to be safer on the roads. But we really have too many animal friends for our current space.
So, we are looking for homes for the following:

Herbal Maid Fiber Farm Cappucino -


Cappy is really much better built than he looks in these pics that I took hanging over the fence. At 3-years-old he still produces a nice, heavy (6 lb.) spinnable fleece twice a year. He is purebred, but I have not gotten him inspected for registry. Out of the 6 angora does I have kept, 3 are his daughters. It really doesn't make sense to keep him.
$125.00


Laffing Horse Dapper Dan -
Dan is an amazing miniature Jacob Sheep ram. He only weighs 75 lbs and he is in good flesh. His fleece is very nice, crimpy and cushiony and soft. His markings are classic Jacob. His horns have a nice curl. He is well behaved and respectful, but he is a ram. His dam Basil is a beautiful, perfect Jacob ewe. His sire, Betelgeuse  was a 4-horned ram, so he carries multi-horns.  With only 5 acres, we don't need to be breeding sheep.
$100.00












Laffing Horse Bebe - Bebe is the last of the Navajo  Angora Goats. She was born in 2006. When we moved from Colorado, I sold most of my angora goat flock, bringing only a few special ones. Most of them were regular colored angora goats, but I had a few Navajo Angora Goats. Again, I never got Bebe inspected for registry. She shears a nice light oatmeal-colored fleece twice a year and is a wonderful mother to her kids, whether singles or twins. She is bigger than the rest of my angora flock and an excellent forager.
She is bred to Cappucino for early April kids.
$100.00

Prices are suggested, all offers considered.

I may have some dairy goats for sale as the winter progresses. Let me know if you are interested.

Shoes - um, boots - a girls best friend

There was an article in the news lately discussing a study that said more women remember their first pair of shoes than their first boyfriend.
Well, I don't know about that, but I do know that my wellies are my current best friend! They keep my feets dry (when they don't get sucked off my foot by the mud!), they hose off easily and they keep the bottoms of my pants clean.
I have a friend who looked at the pretty wellies that are currently popular. She wanted a set, but couldn't see paying the outrageous price for pretty plastic. So, she got a regular pair like these at the Coop for $12.00 and a pack of shower floor stickers and made herself a very pretty pair of deco-wellies, that she doesn't want to get any where near our mud!

Snow!

See, it does snow in Arkansas.

The little weiner dog with Quigley lives somewhere in the neighborhood. He comes over every morning about 7 am to see if our dogs can come out to play.

We also have at least 3 orange cats who like to come help with chores morning and night. Our cats are not allowed outside to play, but the other kitties seem to bring plenty of their own friends with them.

Happy 2010 from Havencroft!

Where reality meets dreams, or Merry Christmas from DogPatch

Merry Christmas!

When Shawn bought Havencroft (just this Nov. 1, only 55 days ago!) we had big plans for a big barn. We have some of the materials and the plans and the space and the animals. We really wanted it to be pretty and we planned it that way.

But the reality is, we are moving around a busy work schedule. Moving, building fences and working all take time. In the last 55 days we have closed on the house, pulled up and moved 5 pastures worth of fencing. We have fenced 5 very large paddocks for the horse and llama, the angora goats, the sheep, the dairy goats and the cow. We have also kept up a busy work schedule and moved much of the household, dye studio, weaving studio and woodworking studio.

The animals need to be kept dry and warm and healty. So... the tent up on the hill is the horse's barn. The tarped plywood sheds belong to the angora goats. For now, our beautiful dream farm with all its fancy matching barns is going to be a dream - no - a goal - for the not to distant future. And the animals are going to be as dry and warm as we can keep them with tents and tarps and plywood.

You do what you can and what you gotta do. Pretty comes later.

I hope you and yours are safe and dry and warm. Merry Christmas and I wish you a happy new year full of dreams fulfilled.

Huzzah and Happy Holidays

Today is the end of extended season at the Ozark Folk Center. It's that bitter-sweet happy-sad that is strangely subdued with extended season. We've got to find ways to spark enthusiasm and cement commitment for next extended season.

We're now closed until Folk School in March. Time to inventory, clean offices, write budgets and plan for next year... shifting gears.
I'm taking two weeks off work. It was going to be to visit Colorado, now it's to wrap up the move. Sometimes you get the feeling that your plans are sort of irrelevant?
Merry Christmas all!!

Uncle!

We moved to Arkansas for water. After the worst drought ever in Colorado, 2.25 inches of rain in the YEAR 2002,  I wanted to find a place where we'd never have to worry about having enough water to keep our animals healthy and to grow a garden. Even in the drought, the Mountain View area still got 34 inches of rain in a year. With water conservation measures and redundancies, I know we could manage on that.
So... I love water, I love rain, I love wet, I love green. I don't complain too much about mold or mildew, they come with the wet. I didn't complain about having 22 days of rain in October, though it wiped the leaves off the trees before they turned color and lowered visitorship to our tourist town.
But now at Haven, we have something we have not had anywhere else in Arkansas - clay soil. Which means we have mud. Muddy dogs, muddy boots, muddy goats, muddy sheep, muddy floors, muddy milk, muddy pants, mud, mud, mud, mud, mud. I can't even shower, get dressed in my office work clothes and get to the car without getting mud somewhere on my clothing.... and it hasn't really rained in weeks.
Mark and Lisa, the next door neighbors say the water comes down from springs on the hill behind us. That's a wonderful blessing in the dry times... but this mud stuff is going to take some different management.
Today we are going up to Foxbriar to borrow Sully the chipper/shreader from Robin and Summer. We have ice storm downed trees. We are going to chip all those and start building dry berms for the animals. Tina suggested getting crushed limestone and building high dry gravel spots. We'll do that as soon as we get a few dollars ahead.
We'll deal with it, work around it and in the end be thankful again for the water that makes the mud. But today - I'm hollering "UNCLE!"

Sheep move to Haven Croft

We moved the sheep up to their new pasture at Haven Croft yesterday. It's about twice as big as their old "home" pen. Thanks to Tina Marie, who loaned us her trailer, Lena and I were able to move the whole flock in two easy loads. The angoras have been living at Haven about a week and they were so happy to see the sheep that the smashed down the fence between the two pens and visited. We fixed that droopy section of fence and got everybody back in their own pens.

Pequena the llama was given the choice of whose pen she wanted to be in and she opted to stay with the angoras. They are brattier, but I do think they are more vulnerable to predators, so I might have made that decision for her anyway.
We do see quite a few loose dogs and hear the coyotes sing, so I like having protection for the lower-on-the-food-chain critters. We plan on moving the dairy goats and cow and the last two dogs tomorrow. I've sold the rabbits, but they haven't been picked up yet, so I guess I need to find a place for them, too. Then all the animals will be moved and we just have the studios and the rest of the household items. We keep moving and feeling like we're about half done...
It got down to 16 degrees last night, but it was dry and still, so everybody did fine. The sheep had trouble finding new places to bed down, but they eventually settled. The bright moonlight helped everyone stay comfortable. At one point when I checked on the sheep, a bright shooting star zipped across the ridge behind the house. It was breath-taking.
This morning, I checked on them about daylight and they were all still bedded down in the pasture. Half and hour later, I looked out and there were no sheep to be seen. I yanked open the back door, getting ready to run out in my wooly slippers and flannel night gown. Cute little white sheep faces peered up at me from the cedar grove at the back of their pen. They had discovered that they have access to a bit of the woods.

My office

How can you not love this view?
This is what I see when I look to my right as I am seated at my computer and trying to work on all these huge winter projects.
Back to work.

The order of things

It's been interesting to observe the order we've been moving things. Some of it is because we're moving to town, and so even if we are eventually going to donate the items to the second hand store, or the library book sale, they still have to come to town with us. However, I still find it interesting that the majority of what we have moved so far is books, book shelves and livestock supplies. And that I'm starting to feel moved in at this point!

This is the kitchen, from the living room at Haven house. I love the open great room. That way I am not isolated when cooking. I started hanging pictures the last few days. We haven't moved much furniture yet, but pictures seemed more important. I was laughing at myself when I shared that with Lena. She responded that of course pictures were important, they cut down on the echo. I must have raised that girl right - to find practical reasons for absurd actions!

Shawn has been busy filling orders, teaching classes and trying to restock his broom shop, so he hasn't had time to help with moving. That also has an effect on what has been moved, thus far. Lena and I will be sharing a studio now in what might have been called the family room. My triloom, her fibers and dyestuffs, all the remaining fleeces and my rigid heddle are all set up in there. All we're missing is the Newcomb and my diamond shelf - and about half a dozen tubs of yarn. Shawn's hoping to get a few of his friends to help him move his workshop this coming week. That's about one truckload of tools and tables and three truck loads of wood.

The one room that is coming together fairly easily is the office. While we need several more book cases in here and we are hoping to get a futon from a friend when they clear out their storage shed, it looks like this is going to be a relaxing, good working room. It has a south facing window and a wonderful view of the sheep pasture. I can see getting back to doing some serious writing in this room.

So that's the current state of moving from Meadowcreek to Haven Croft. Tomorrow, Tina Marie has offered to loan us her horse trailer. With Arjuna's help, we finished fencing the angora run and most of the horse's paddock. I worked a little on the sheep fence this morning. I think maybe, we can get most, if not all, the animals moved in the next two days and finish fencing/shelter after they are here.

I'll let you know how things are progressing.

Are you moved yet?

Are you moved yet?
I keep hearing this question. It's chatty, positive and friendly. The answer is "no". And yes, everybody has offered to help. I just can't figure out how to fit that help into the schedule!

I actually did write up a schedule of loads/packing/fence building and animal moving. And we are pretty much on schedule, with the final clean up in Meadowcreek finishing over the New Year holiday.
The animals are a primary consideration, with comfortable sleeping space for humans coming a close second. As soon as we move the first flock of animals to Haven Croft we have to divide the human forces, because someone will need to be spending the night with the animals at the new place and also with the ones at the old place.

I am wrapping moving around my work schedule. Last week I put in more than 64 hours at work. Then I go home and load the truck with Lena's help. We finish chores, milk and fall into bed. Then in the morning, I fret because the truck isn't full, putter around trying to find more stuff to fill it and head in to work - now running late. After work, I stop by Haven Croft and unload the truck.

Shawn is busy trying to finish filling orders and restocking his broom shop for the upcoming Ozark Holidays craft show at the Ozark Folk Center. He's having trouble with the local hardware store not getting him the right parts and his workshop is still a hard hour's drive from town. We really need to take the time to put walls on the carport at Haven so he can move his workshop down to town.

Today, Arjuna is down for a visit and to help. As soon as he and Lena get chores done in Meadowcreek and get Lena's car loaded (probably with more books!) they are going to come into Mountain View and I'll take a long lunch to work on finishing the angora goat pen and shed. Even though it's a cold and dreary day, I'll try to take some pictures.

We're looking at being moved enough to invite everyone for a potluck gather on Dec. 19. I'll keep you updated on how it's all going.

Thanks to everyone for your best wishes and positive thoughts. Now - I've got to get back to work!

Candle shop

We're working on Holiday Season planning here at the Ozark Folk Center. We'll be open Thurdsay-Saturday through Dec. 19. One shop that's always in the spirit is the Candle Shop. Owned by Jeff and Traci Glover, they specialize in hand-dipped bees wax tapers. They take special orders and ship anywhere. They are in the process of building a web site, but for now, if you want to get in touch with them, give me a holler.

Postable momments

So often as I work through my day and my various lives, I think "This would make a great blog post."

Sometimes it's simple things, like the little Scrappy dog conning the new puppy out of his chewy toy and hiding it in a chair that is too high for him to reach.

Other times it is an indepth commentary on pricing craft items and energy flow or the importance of place to the development of any complete theme, that I work out in my head as I'm weaving.

But so many of those are lost, because I don't take the time to sit down at the computer.

Chronicling life has always been an interest of mine. A friend pointed out that it is hard though to both live a life that is interesting enough to be worth recording, while also having the time to write it down!

--------------------

We are in the process of getting ready for Off The Beaten Path Studio Tour. The tour is tomorrow through Sunday. In spite of the rain, and in large part thanks to the efforts of Sage Holland, beadmaker, whose picture is here, I think we are fairly ready. Sage has put a lot of effort into getting the studio and the area around it looking good. Sage and Tom will have their beads on display, Rosemary will have her chain maille, Lena will have her dyed rovings and yarns and Shawn will be working on some trilooms.

I'll be warping my Newcomb and weaving on the tri and rigid heddle. Hopefully you all can make it down to visit. Drive careful and we'll see you soon.

Another day gone

There was something I was going to do yesterday. I didn't get it done. Yesterday is gone, I can't make it up. Now today is almost over.
That's been my life lately. Deadlines snowball, I think of projects in terms of the ones that aren't complete. I watch unfinished projects fall into the oblivion of too late to be useful.
I'm at a wonderful retreat/seminar and not relaxing because I keep checking my email and finding complaints about deadlines missed, projects behind schedule or people needing information that is on my desk.
How sick is that?
And how can I even complain when I'm going to type up this latest project and then go soak in the hot tub.
I have no solutions.
Life and its complexities....

Fast Fruit

Lena and I went up to Foxbriar today to work in the garden. Lena picked three watermelons from her wild watermelon plants. They are still blooming like mad and threatening to take over the strawberry patch, again.
There is a muscadine grape outside the garden. Currently it grows up a tree, but we want to move it to the kitchen gazebo this fall. It is loaded with fruit this year. Today, there were 3 purple grapes on the vines. Muscadines grow singly, not in bunches. I picked them. They were still pucker-up tart.
I hope the rest are ripe and still there next weekend when I get back up to the garden.
That's been a problem all summer. The cherry trees were full of fruit this spring. It was almost ripe one weekend, and gone the next. Last year we picked cherries for weeks.
The blueberries were the same story, though we knew they were a bit scarce this year. The bushes had fruit, but not a lot. Last year we frozen 15 lbs of berries, sold several gallons and ate them to our heart's content. This year, we ate a pint - and then they were all gone.
We picked black berries two weekends, before there were none to be found. Last summer my arms were scarred well into August from the brambles.
I've been waiting all summer for the fabulous white peaches at the Ozark Folk Center. Every couple days, I'd go by and give them a gentle squeeze to see if they were ripe. They were rock hard when they started rotting at the stem end and falling off the trees. The potter's said they got a few good ones, but I didn't even get one.
The turkey brown figs all ripened quickly and are done. Now we're waiting on the big juicy Texas reds.
The weather this summer has been cool, with regular rains. It has been great for the humans, we feel very blessed, but we've had to be fast to catch the fruit.

Fall?

The air today is warm, but with a crispy cool edge. I'd swear it feels a bit like fall...
Fall - on August 22 in Arkansas?
And then I heard people walking by my office door.
"Just need a little more color in the leaves," said a man's voice.

Yup, it feels like fall. Climate change?
Speaking of change.
We all know, the only thing that remains the same is change.
We are house looking, shopping, searching. Spending way too many hours when I should be working driving. Taking time when I ought to be weaving before Studio Tour looking at houses.
But the daily drive to Meadow Creek has just gotten to be too much and too long. And one of the Meadow Creek board members told me that they are thinking that farming and a wildlife refuge are not a good mix. We have a farm.
So we are looking at houses and looking at options. One option is to move some house trailers we've found up on to Foxbrair - but it is still 24 miles to the Folk Center, which is really where I live right now and hopefully for many years to come.
We have four possibilities on our plates at the moment -
4 acres off Meisenheimer Rd., 8 miles from the Folk Center and between the Center and Foxbriar.
2 house trailers we could move up to Foxbriar for less than $3,000.
A friend's house in Alco where she wants us to house sit indefinitely.
And to keep our eyes open while we get back to work and work on stock for Studio Tour and Artisan's Market.
So, we'll see what the fates have in store for us now.
Prayers, thoughts, calls and good energy are more than welcome.
hugs to all, Jen

Summer arrives

Spring arrived right on time. On a drive to Memphis on March 21, we watched the trees begin to leaf out during a soothing soaking rain. The dogwoods bloomed and the daffodillies danced. Mom Nature followed the calendar.
Just two weeks ago I took a vacation to shear sheep and plant the garden. The whole week the weather was blustery, it was much colder than I wanted to make sheep naked. It was too cold to make playing in the dirt sound like fun. It was still spring.
I did get lots done. We cleared up lots of downed trees and limbs from the ice storm, spent time with friends and family, wove a beautiful handbag that sold right away and 4 of the nicest rugs I've woven this year.
So I headed back to work. Opening weekend at the Ozark Folk Center was a great fun event. Lots of people came and visited with the musicians and crafters. Sales were good at the Center and down on the Square. We had a few big thunderstorms that were a challenge for vendors on the Square, but the visitors seemed content to ride out the weather and stay in town through the festival.
Then, on April 22, Summer Arrived. All of a sudden, the green went from neon spring to lush. I heard my first whipporwill that night and saw the fire flies dancing in the trees. We put away the wool blanket, found the window fan and moved into summer.
It's a good thing that Lena's home to shear all those sheep!

My commute

We played a new game the other night at game night at Joy's Cafe in Mountain View. The game is call Apples to Apples and it is an incredible amount of fun. It's fairly non-competitive and gets you paying attention to the people you are playing with.
The game involves matching words and making decisions. Every player is dealt a handful of red word cards. Then a green word card is play openly on the table. You have to look at your words and match the one on the table.
So the word in the middle of the table might be "Disgusting" and the players decide to throw "Chickens" "Hairballs" "John Travolta" "the Far Left" and what ever they have in their hand that might fit with the first card. Then the person who dealt that hand gets to decide which word fits the best. They may use opposites, a weird sense of humor and their own experiences to decide. So, you learn quite a bit about the people you are playing with.
At one point on my deal, I threw out the word "Relaxing". There were several responses that were good, but the one I chose amazed me. When I thought of my current life and it's circumstances - the most relaxing concept on the table was "my commute".
When I took the job at the Ozark Folk Center, I worried about the hour commute each direction. I get car sick and our roads make some roller coasters look tame. But as the year has gone along, I have come to enjoy that time on the road. When Shawn and I go together we talk and sing and connect with each other in a way we don't during our busy days. And when I travel alone, it is quiet and meditative. I can think and plan and relax. That funny word, relaxing. My two hours a day on the road to work are relaxing.
And I wouldn't have realized it if it wasn't for game night.

Game night

Yesterday was so much fun - it might put New Year's eve right up there on my list of favorite holidays.
I'm still sorting files at work. I'm half way through the C's. I've read interesting contract labor decisions, country kitchen aquisitions and lots of history on the blacksmith shop. It's a good thing I have most of a month for this project, it's gonna take it.
Amy, I think I found the instrument templates you wanted. They were filed under "Art" - not Leather, Instruments, Music or Design, where I had looked for them!
At two o'clock, Shawn and I went to a wonderful reception at Wright and Jo's house. Wright is the Executive Director of the Arkansas Craft School, as well as an uber-talented woodturner and an all around wonderful, visionary person. Jo is a warm, beautiful person and a fantastic cook! We had a very nice, short visit with lots of friends that we hadn't seen much recently. Topics ranged from photography, to shops at the Folk Center, the Holiday weekend in town, Dexter cattle, air filtration units, travel, Charleston and lots more. Our visit was short because I had to be back to answer the phones.
Most of the calls we are getting right now are from people wanting to come to the Folk Center and being very disappointed we are closed. I think we're averaging about 12-15 a day. After the holidays, I'll at least be able to let people know that some of our crafters are out working in their studios.
After work we went to game night at Joy's Cafe. It's hard to explain how much fun this is. We went planning to play for a bit and be home before midnight, but after a couple of rounds of Train, a domino's game and then some wild hands of Apples to Apples, a card game, Joy grabbed the sparkling grape juice and we all toasted the new year.
May your days be bright and the rains be frequent and gentle.
Hugs to all, Jen

Link chasing

Back to work today...
I'm still trying to get all the listings, all the photos and all the copy correct for the upcoming Folk School in March. It's almost all there, and all correct. Now if the web gremlins will just stay away.

Take a look and see if there are any classes you want to take this year. If you see any typos, or have any questions, holler. I really, really, really want to take the Cold Mountain class with Sara Grey, but I'm purty shure I'm gonna be way to busy facilitating to get to take a class... this year.

I had some great conversations with several crafters who are interested in joining our craft community at the Ozark Folk Center. We have several shops available for rent for the 2009 season and I've put out adds in many places. One of the people I emailed our "crafter's wanted" ad to called me to make sure it was ok if she changed the word "crafter" in the ad to crafts person or craft people. She said the word crafter is a slur in her part of the country. I responded that she was welcome to change it to craft people, or artisan if that would go over better. She laughed and said that people get artisan and artesian confused to easily and who knows what either one is, anyway!

When looking for calendars to list our Folk School and places to put our crafter ad, I found many place where we should be listed and aren't - I fixed that. I also found many, many places that had terribly old information about the Ozark Folk Center. That's not so easy to fix. And then I found information for fixing the sock knitting machine that we have in the spinning and weaving shop. (Do you know what a fork weight is?) and a good recipe and layout for my cheese making class (and mozarella kits are on sale through the 31st) and did you know that chainsaws were invented in the 1830's and the early 1900 ones were so big they had wheels and... I can justify every last bit of that diversion as work.

I do so love my job!

Sweet cream butter

Nobody in the family has felt much like cooking since the electric stove went out. It seems to be a lot of trouble to either cook on the wood stove or dig out the electric skillet or the roasting pan.

But, that's really not a problem, because thanks to the sweet little Dexter cow in the picture, we have lots of butter! Buttered potatoes, buttered sweet potatoes, buttered vegetables... mmm, yumm!

On our farm, we each have the type of milk we prefer for cereal, coffee, hot cocoa, yogurt, pudding and cheese. In fact, our fridge is often about half-full of milk. When someone asked if we milked our sheep and I said that it wasn't worth the trouble, she must have thought I was nuts. I really should have explained that we already milk one cow and four goats. And it is hard enough keeping those two types of milk straight.

Lena's been out of town for a few days, so I've been milking everybody. It's not really that hard to keep track of - the cow gets milked into a plastic ice cream pail (I know plastic is not good, but Sweetie (the cow) hates the sound of milk squirting into metal) and the goats get milked into a proper stainless steel milk pail.

When the milk comes into the house, it gets strained and goes into containers to cool. The goat's milk is all mine, so it goes into plastic pitchers. The cow's milk goes into glass jars, which are easy to scoop cream out of. Lots of cream, sweet cream.

And about every three days Lena makes a batch of sweet, creamy butter. Life is good!

Hmm, this post started out to be about the irony of raising our own milk, making our own butter by hand and yet cooking all of our food in the microwave... that thread got lost somewhere, didn't it?

Back to life, back to Ebay

When I started my job at the Ozark Folk Center
I closed our ebay store and sold or gave away many parts of our business. There were many reasons, a big one was that I needed to focus on my new direction.

But lately, Lena and I have been talking about getting the Common Threads ebay store going again. She already does all the shipping for Shawn's Laffing Horse Crafts and our farm. And she is dyeing lots of wool and spinning beautiful yarns. I am still weaving some rugs and shawls and making Spirit Bells, along with the occasional hat and scarf. And Shawn still makes trilooms, ties brooms and carves even more incredible than ever crochet hooks. He sells most of his at his shop at the Folk Center and online at his own store, but he could let Lena sell a few.

So, this week, while I had five glorious days off from work, I sat back down to ebay. Lena's going to do most of the work and eventually take over the store, but I wanted to get it restarted.
It felt good to take the pictures, do the edits and write listings. I am writing much clearer and simpler than I used to. Just the facts. But it was comfortable and good to be back in the listing groove.

Some things have changed. Ebay now only allow you to accept Paypal, you can't take checks or money orders any more and they'll pull your listings if you say you do. I have a few auctions that may disappear because I didn't know that.
You get higher search rankings for free shipping, so of course we now need to figure shipping into our costs.
And the fees that you pay when your item sells have gone way up - 12% on our items - up from 8% when I closed the store in March. Ouch!
So you'll find our prices are a bit higher than they used to be. Lena's better than I am at making sure things are priced fairly, for us and for the customer. I tend to give things away and then wonder why we can't afford supplies.

It was good to be back at it. And I haven't even advertised on any of the lists yet that we are back (I thought I'd wait until Lena gets the hang of listing things) but already we are selling spindles and Spirit Bells.

Funny, I told the kids for years that online relationships are not real and online communities are no substitute for actually doing things with people, but, it sure feels good to be back on the computer, here at my blog, checking email more than monthly and now listing on ebay. Computers are not a substitute for anything, but they can be a real part of a real life.

Winter forest treasures

We took advantage of the beautiful weather on Christmas eve to hike up the creek. This senntinel with his rather droopy face is not too far up the Bear Pen (creek) from the house. We tried introducing ourselves, but I guess he's kinda hibernating.

It it fascinating to look a the woods in its pared-down winter visage. Things that you don't even catch a glimpse of when the leaves are out and the trees are in their full glory stand out and catch your attention. I know I've touched this tree before, but I've never seen his face before.



This rock was another treasure. The colors were at least this bright. This is not photoshop - except as mother nature plays it.


Winter is certainly not dull or drab here in the Ozarks. The intense greens of these mosses and ferns shines out like jewels against the dead leaves.

Where ever you are today, get outside and take a look at your world with a new perspective. Find those beautiful and unique pieces that you haven't seen before.

Elves and other presents

A friend came to me a few weeks ago with a request. Seems he had a copy of his granddaughter's letter to Santa and he wanted to help the old guy out.
The little apple of his eye wanted one thing for Christmas, a simple, wee, little thing.

"Dear Santa," she had written. "I only want on thing for Christmas. I want a baby elf. I want one with round ears, not pointy ears. Pointy ears are scary.
I promise I will feed it and care for it and love it very, very much."

Well, it was obvious that a baby elf needed to be found. It was the only thing in the whole world that this little girl wanted. But her grandpa was on exactly the right track.

"Do you have any baby angora rabbits?" he wanted to know. "I thought about it a long time, and it was the round ears that gave it away. She needs a wee bitty fluffy baby rabbit!"

I totally agreed with him. It was obvious. But I didn't have any baby rabbits. However, I knew someone who did have some. I gave him their phone number and we said our goodbyes and happy holidays.

All day today, I've wanted to give him a call and find out how the baby elf is doing. I guess I'll just have to wait until after the holiday season to find out.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope all your wishes were granted.

Folk School, phones and Studio Tour

Most of my friends know that I took a job this year and it is keeping me focused and very busy.
This morning I am working on finalizing the booklet and information for our Make it a Handmade Christmas Folk School, Nov. 13-15. I have 32 teachers on contract for these classes - teaching everything from advanced blacksmithing to making a cornshuck nativity.
I'm trying to get the class descriptions and information together for each class and separate for the classes from our other two Folk Schools in March. All the while I have been picking up the overflow incoming phone calls. I am third in line on the phone tree, so I probably get 1/6 of the calls. So far today I have talked a gentleman through our website to a registration form for the October Herb Fest; helped a woman find a vet for her pet rabbit; found the price on homeschool daycamp; arranged lodging for the broom making teacher; explained numerous times that our website is in transition and some information is still missing; checked the price on cat litter in town; found out where a woman could pick up her Doc Watson Tickets; let the tour director know his group was on the way; and transfered numerous calls to their appropriate offices.
That's all in the line of "Other duties as required."
When I'm not at work, I've been getting ready for Studio Tour. This weekend, I took 9 nice rugs off the loom and started felting them, wound a new warp for the Newcomb, warped the rigid heddle with a mohair warp (what was I thinking!), wove a nice sampler on the mohair, felted the sample and began organizing fleeces. There is still way too much to do - but my folks are coming out to help with the final push for Studio Tour.
If you can make it - I'll see you there and we can catch up a bit.
Hugs, Jeanette

Father's day blueberry muffin bread

Shawn said he was craving blueberry muffins.
Since it was Father's Day and rather cool this morning, I decided to make him some for breakfast. We had a good 10 lbs in the fridge. Good, fresh, organic Meadowcreek blueberries that Lena had picked out by the workshop that needed something done with them.
I found a recipe and modified it, creating -

Father's day blueberry muffin pudding
2 cups biscuit mix
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 butter
1 egg
2/3 cup goat's milk
1/2 cup goat cheese, crumbled
Lots of blueberries

Mix ingredients together in that order. Fold the blueberries in at the end. Make sure there is enough batter to cover the blueberries.
Search all over for a muffin pan. I know we had one, maybe it's still packed.
Grease a loaf pan and spoon batter into pan. Bake at 300 for an hour and a half.

It was pudding-y and rich and wonderful. Shawn said he liked it... just about all of it in one sitting!

Happy Father's day!

Pictures and histories

A picture is worth a thousand words, says the old saying.
And they are - but pictures with the words and the story behind them preserved are beyond value.

In part of my moving into my new office at the Ozark Folk Center, I went down to the storage/archives to look for office furniture. While looking for comfortable chairs, I found stacks and stacks of old photographs.

There were pictures of Folk Center crafters from the 1970's, 80' and 90's. There are many wall-sized mounted black and white photos of broom makers, weavers and coopers. A few dozen labeled and framed photos of current crafters. Several color photos with names, or just a craft, some of those mis-labeled, a weaver is labeled "Quilter".
And there are 4 nice water color paintings of crafters - 3 in a series and one unique and beautiful one.

A box contains about 30 small, oak framed black and white photos from the late 1800's to the mid-1900's. These are labeled with information - stuck to the frames with scotch tape.

These pictures drew me, called to me, fascinated me. I had to bring them up out of the archives. They needed to be seen, shared and labeled - while the people who knew these people, crafts and events are still at the Folk Center. The stories behind the photos needs telling, keeping, sharing.

I lined the pictures up in the office hallway Friday afternoon. The hallway is a blank slate, empty walls needing focus. The few people in the office flipped through them, sharing bits of tales. The pictures looked a bit tattered, edges loose, dusty, faded in places. I stacked them in an order and left them to sort themselves out.

The box of little pics I took into my office. Some of the hard-faced people from the early 1900's were almost frightening in their scowling seriousness - and yet - one picture from that time showed a family that was round and soft. City folk, I decided.

I sorted several of the old black and whites that I thought might fit in my office and set them next to my worktable. I also found 3 colored photos from the 1980's of women fiber artists at the Folk Center. They would make an artistic display next to my 7-foot triloom, which already takes up a big chunk of one wall.

But suddenly, it didn't seem right. These pictures weren't part of my story, they aren't my history. They didn't belong in my office. I felt like an outsider. I don't know the stories behind these pictures, the people, the lives, the hopes and the dreams. I don't know where they fit, how I fit in, how it all goes together.

So I took them all out into the hall. I lined them up and left them all sitting together, a century of history of the people of this land. I hope, over the next week, people will help me sort these photos, hang them up, tell their stories. And in the sharing, we can write a new chapter of the history together.

DDDDudders

Finally, after waiting "for-eeeeever!" we had our first kid today.
Dudley - called Dudders - is much cuter than his name would make you think. He is a purebred black angora, so he will be a fiber wether. His mum, Bramble is a first time mommy, but she obviously studied the book very well and is doing great. He is the cleanest baby goat on the planet.

In other news - my human kid - who is now 23-years-old (how did that happen?) was here visiting last week from Albuquerque. We had a great visit through the record flood. Even with houses floating down the river and bridges washing out. On the back page of our county newspaper, a small headline said "Governor Beebee Declares Stone County Disaster Area" I think they left off the word "Again". If I hadn't lived through the tornado/blizzard/flood I would have a hard time believing it.

Growing through testing

The weather here is such a drama queen - all tantrums and flowers!

My parents arrived for a visit from Colorado last week - just in time to be snowed under by a tree and record breaking blizzard. Fourteen inches in Fox and maybe just a wee bit less here in Meadowcreek Valley. Trees down everywhere and power out again, for two days this time. A friend said, "It would have been romantic, if we'd had time to put the generators away from the six-day power outage after the tornado!"
There's still a spotting of snow in the dark sections of the hills, but it is mostly all water now. Lots of glistening, gurgling, rolling, sweet water. I just love it.

It was such a busy week, Monday we juried in the the Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour. The whole jury committee came out to our studios. It was intense - but we passed muster. I'm really excited. Such a wonderful opportunity to connect with people.
Then, with my parents help, we fenced a horse pastured, screened in the porch, cleaned workshop and so much more...
Finally, on Friday, I had my final interview for the job of my dreams. It was another intense interview - I'll find out next week how well I did. During the interview I was asked if I was a good leader. I replied, "Yes." Then he asked if my employees would say that I am. They do, have and hopefully will.

I almost got teary-eyed at that one though. Earlier this week, a long-awaited book had arrived. During the week, everybody in the family read it and loved it. It was written by the best writer I have the privilege to call a friend, one of the best writers I have ever read and one of my nearest and dearest friends. And my name was listed in the dedications.

Sherry Lynn Allen was a talented young writer when she began working for me at the Ag Journal. A bit rough around the edges - but that's where a lot of her humor comes from! I'm not sure who mentored or nurtured who more. I am grateful to her for the things she has taught me, too. And I would highly recommend her book to anyone - those living the country life to realize that others share your ups and downs or those living in the city and wanting a humorous picture of the trials and travails of living outside the mainstream.

The book is "Life out Here, the best of Riding Fence" and it is full of more laughs, smiles and points to provoke thought than any book I've read in a long time. Sherry isn't just a great writer, she is a talented business woman, too. Visit her Cheraw Publishing site to find out about other writers she is working with.

Seed swap & Lena's new heifer

The biggest news today, is that Lena finally got her cow!
She's wanted her own cow since she was big enough to hold up a calf bottle. She was about 15 when her grandma told her that if she could find a good cow, she would buy it for her.
Well it took 6 years and a cross country move - but Lena and my mom now have their cow. This little sweetie doesn't have a name yet.
She is a two-year-old Dexter heifer, due to freshen with her first calf in May.
She's not tame yet, but Lena will have her settled very soon. She has a good, confident attitude. She and Muppet, the goat's guard llama are not sure what to think of each other. They are both sure they rank above the other. The heifer is a bit afraid of the horses, but she'll get used to them.

In other news, I went to the most wonderful event yesterday - a seed swap. It was the perfect day for it. The sun gods smiled on the day and the daffy dills were open and just about jumping as they turned their faces to the sun.
The seed swap was open to anyone. It was held at the Ozark Folk Center and sponsored by the University of Central Arkansas Sociology Department and Humanities and World Cultures Institute (that's a mouthful!). The swap was scheduled to begin at noon and go to three. People began showing up for the swap about 10:30. The mix of people was astounding. There were college kids, working folks, retirees, elders and wee tykes toddling around. Musical instruments were as evident as baskets of seed. It was disorganized, delightful chaos.

Some people were giving away seed, others were trying to deal to get the special thing they wanted. Everybody wanted to trade. Many people brought things other than seed to trade. One glowing young man gave me a crystal he had harvested near Hot Springs.
Nobody wanted to miss out on getting the seeds they needed to complete their garden, or the rare heritage plant that was only passed from hand to hand. Soon the conference room was so jammed with people you couldn't move. Everybody was talking seeds and plants and heritage. The stories were flowing. It was like being at a party where everyone wants to be in the kitchen.
When I left at 3:30, people were still sharing ideas and history and bits of nature.