Countdown to Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour

Boot party at Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged,
thanks to Country Outfitter

I took today off, mostly.

I did clean out the fridge. And I did the dishes, both from the second Yarnell's ice cream social at the Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged (AWBU) and from not being home for a week. And I unpacked and did my laundry from two conventions, and Shawn's from being home on the farm.

I am making a really good vegetable soup with garlic bread for dinner.

But mostly, today, I read a book.

Need to wind a warp that I have skeined and dyed. Six hours winding
16 hours warping, two hours weaving. 24 hours before being ready for
Studio tour on this loom.

Lisa Brochu and Tim Merriman, who I had the pleasure to take an interpreter training workshop from last August, have written several books. At the class, I got a copy of their book, "The Leopard Tree." I started reading it then, but the workshop was intense. One of the other attendees was headed out of country and she really wanted to read the book, so I gave it to her. But I didn't forget it.

This past weekend, while I was caught up in the whirlwind of the AWBU, I saw that Lisa and Tim had their book for free download on Amazon, just for the weekend. So, I joined the thousands of people who added it to their kindle lists. It's not a long book, only 185 pages of adventure. I can see Lisa shining through the story. In between everything else today I read up through chapter 10. I might finish it yet tonight.

But I have a few things I need to catch up on, before I finish the book. I need to haul grain around from the car, and finish retarping the hay stack. I need to get some paperwork organized for work tomorrow. I need to put clean sheets on the bed. I need to figure out how many days I have until to finish what projects before Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour and I haven't written today's blog post yet. So, I'll combine the two.
These are the items I really need to finish before tour. There are some other things I want to work on, but finishing these comes first.

Studio Tour is Sept. 14-16. Today is August 27. Good thing August has 31 days. Four, plus 13 equals 17 days or 408 hours. I'll be at work for at least 100 of those hours and I should sleep 136. I'll do farm chores a minimum of 34 hours in those 17 days.

Handspun, woven and felted Gizmo mohair purse,
edged with recycled sari silk yarn. Two hours to
sew in lining to finish.

408-270=138 hours left to eat, brush my teeth and weave. There's only 43 hours worth of projects on this page, I have plenty of time left.

Wait... I've committed to write a blog post daily, too. It's gonna be a busy two weeks.

And looking at the pictures on this page, I did learn how to improve my photography with my Iphone in the AWBU workshop. But, I don't think the "focusing on the point of your blog" workshop helped at all.

Oh, and if you ever think I should add something or want to request something, or just want to say "Hi", feel free to leave a comment here on my blog. I do moderate them, but I'll see it and get it published within a day or so.

On to eat vegi soup.

Green handpainted wool shawl with recycled sari silk
highlighted. Six hours weaving left, 1 hour finishing
with no fringe. Seven hours before Tour.

Wool shawl suggested/requested by Colleen. About half woven, another 8-10
hours to finish, before tour.

7 ways to prevent conference fatigue

I'm at the end of two back-to-back, intense three-day conferences. I am tired. Just one more day left and I can relax, or do laundry and dishes before heading back to work on Tuesday. I do quite a few conferences every year, and present at many of them. I've developed some strategies to stay alert and keep my strength up and stay healthy.

1. Figure out what time of day your best business is done at the conference, and be there, but forego times that don't work for you. For example, I am a morning person. I can visit with people over coffee in the morning and shine at the morning sessions. I do good business during morning breaks and at lunch. But except for obligatory evening events, I go back to my room at night, to organize, unwind and relax.

2. Take what you need with you to sleep. If it's your own pillow, a scent you spray on the hotel pillows, melatonin or an eye cover. Good sleep is a priority to staying alert the next day and coming home healthy.

3. Eat as best you can. Request whole grains and green lettuces. Look for fresh fruit for breakfast. You know what keeps your body happy at home. Do your best to eat it at conferences.

4. Bring your own tea or coffee. Then you'll have the morning wake-up you are accustomed to and your whole day will be easier.

5. Take an mid-day break to refresh and regroup. If you can, go for a walk, go swim or go to the hotel workout room. Then take a quick shower and get back to networking.

6. Wear good shoes. Nothing will wear you out faster than sore feet.

7. Take your vitamins. I double up on mine at a conference, especially the vitamin B. I used to not even take them with me, but now I rely on them to support me while I am pushing physical boundaries at a conference.

These are the things I've learned to do to get the most out of conferences. Then I can come home and organized all the good things I've learned and get back to the business of making my world a better place.

A tale of two stories or Mary's Lunker

Tonight, Mary Gillihan did a program connecting the the stories of the past and the present for the Arkansas Women Blogger's Unplugged (#AWBU) conference. This conference is an amazing blend of urban and rural - yesterday, today and tomorrow. These women from all over Arkansas have come together in the Ozark hills. They traveled the winding roads to Mountain View and had adventures with deer, ground hogs and possums getting here. And now, these women - usually linked by modern technology - are sharing ideas and energy and friendship - face to face. It's the best of the old and the new, here at the Ozark Folk Center.

Mary Gillihan is an incredible performer, interpreter, musician, friend and fisherwoman. In addition to being the interpreter at the Ozark Folk Center since 1974, she is also part of the folk music trio Harmony; she and her husband perform their music together; and she shares programs that tell stories of her life here in the Ozarks. Some of the stories she shares were written by Charley Sandage and others come out of her life here in the hills.

Mary Gillihan, the ballad singer

Now, Mary is a serious fisherwoman. The great majority of her Thursday's are spent at HER spot on Mirror Lake. If you're really nice to her, she might show you where the Lake is, but her spot is sacred. Like all fisherpeople, Mary has some great stories. She gets the usual teasing, "Just how big was that fish?"

But we all watch her eating fish for lunch everyday at work, so, we know she is mostly telling the truth.

One of the things I am passionate about is the living traditions of these Ozark Hills. The stories, craftsmanship, values and beliefs of these hills are as unique now as they were 100 years ago. Mary's stories of her life today are as fascinating and unique as those she shares from Almeda Riddle, Jean Jennings and other women ballad singers of the Ozark past.

Mary and her Lunker

Mary wove her storytelling magic as the Ballad Singer of times past. Then, right before our eyes, she changed into the modern Mary, complete with fishing sneakers and a tackle vest. The Mary Gillihan of today told her wild fishing stories. These were stories of a women enjoying the waters, hills and resources of this little slice of heaven called Stone County, Arkansas. She told stories of fishing and the biggest fish she ever caught - the story of "Mary's Lunker."

 In case you're searching for the answers to the quiz - Mary's Lunker was 2 1/2 pounds, 5 ounces. It was 17 3/4 - inches long and 7 3/8 - inches wide.

I wonder, did it taste good?

Communication and mirroring

I gave a "talk" yesterday morning to the interpreter workshop. The first two minutes of the "talk" were silent and yet, everybody was attentive, engaged and alert. They responded to my queries and followed my directions. We yawned, waved, clapped and followed each other around the room - with out a word being spoken.
Human beings have an amazing ability to mirror the actions of other humans. This innate tendency allows us to make connections with each other, that go way beyond what we say.
I first became aware of "Mirroring" when I was demonstrating spinning. I would watch the people who were very interested in what I was doing and as they connected with me, their fingers would start to fiddle and fidget. Unconsciously, they were beginning to mirror the movements of my hands. Then, I learned, I could ask them if they wanted to try spinning themselves. They frequently would and as they learned and it connected, sometimes, just sometimes, I would see that spark of amazement in their eyes as spinning became part of them.
I began researching this mirroring and discovered that like with many of my discoveries, lots of people have been there before me. In fact, there is all kinds of research out there about it. You can follow many paths from this concept, and if you have interesting stories to share about mirroring, I'd love to hear them.

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.

The art of writing

"Writing is my real art," I've been know to tell people, "It's where I am the flaky artist."

Weaving, spinning, shepherding, those are what I do. I do them daily, I do them naturally. I don't think of them as an art, they are what I do, I do them beautifully, and I do them well.

Ah, but writing. There I suffer the angst of the artist. I struggle to find the right words and to string them together into sentences that share the visions and emotions of my heart. I write passionately for a time and then I swear I will never write another word. I get headaches from writing as I feel I'm trying to physically drag the words out of my head. My head gets congested from trying to make the words flow. Some days I swear I can't write my way out of a paper bag.

When I was learning to spin, I asked Sarah Natani how to become better. "Do it every day," she told me. It became a sort of mantra for me. Sometimes what I spun looked more like a potato peel than thread, but I kept at it. I finally got good at spinning, not only when I did it every day, but when I demonstrated spinning every day for a whole summer. At some point, I quit thinking about it, quit stressing over the art and trying to make it be something. At some point, it just became something that I do, and I did it well.

So now, I want to become good at writing. I want to move my writing from the "art" catagory, where I have to worry about muses and inspiration and temperament and the weather - and put writing in the "craft" category, where it is just something that I do, and I do it well.

To that end, I am bringing out my old directive - "Do it every day." I'm going to write here, publicly, kinda like demonstrating spinning. Feel free to comment on things you like, constructive criticism is always welcome. And if what I've written doesn't make any more sense than an potato peeling, well, I'm still writing every day.

Coupons, Pinterest and more social media

As Cynthia says on her card,
"Weavings are heirlooms, too!"

Arkansas Women Bloggers are having their Unplugged conference at the Ozark Folk Center later this week. We've been planning and working on making it a great three days.

I asked any crafts people who were interested to offer coupons or at least business cards to put in the ladies swag bags. Of course, that led to a whole discussion in craft meeting about what a blog was... at least I didn't have to explain the internet to anyone, though there are many of our crafts people who still don't do email.

So, I've got coupons from several shops, and I want to put them out so that the ladies can see what is available and start planning how to spend the little bit of free time they'll have. I also want them to be out there so that they don't have to have the physical coupon with them to use it, they can just show the coupon on their smart phone. But what is the best way to do that?

Look at your coupon envelope carefully.
It's a coupon from the Old Time Print Shop!

This might not be the right way, but I think I can figure out how to post them here, and then share them to Pinterest, so that they can access them there.

This coupon covers lots of different styles
of Pottery from  John Perry and Judi Munn,
 including some fired in the wood-fired kiln
 and some fired in the vegetable oil kiln that
 uses waste oil from our Ozark Folk Center
restaurants.

Of course, one of the main things to realize about computer programs, web constructs and social media is that as soon as you figure out how to work it, they will change it. So learning to be adaptable is good.

Lots of pretty choices at the Doll shop.

Original art from the Leather shop

You can order a custom broom in the Broom
Shop or pick from the fine selection. Make
sure you read this coupon for a chance to
earn an extra broom!

Great soap made in Aunt Linda's Apothecary
Shop. Buy some to take home and/or
sign up to take a class to learn to
make your own!

Kids of all ages love to spin Shernan's
hand turned tops.

I don't know if I'll have time to write this week, but look for some new ideas to show up when I do!

Venturing into social media

America is the land of advertising. We are constantly being told we need to do this, learn that, use x or buy y. Our family tries to be educated consumers, in what we do, use and buy.

We haven't had access to broadcast television since the big antenna blew off our farm house in La Junta. Firefly had just gone off the air and we couldn't see any reason to spend the money to replace the antenna. Besides, who needs tv when you have the internet? We research anything we are interested in there. Can you spin chinchilla fur? How do you make green curry? I've loved the internet for a long time.

Shawn is a tech guy and he likes to test and work with any new technologies that come out. He beta tests software and always seems to have some new gadget he is trying out. I get a few of them tried out on me, so he can experiment on how non-techies can relate to the item before recommending it to his web clients. The droid phone and tablet were disappointing. Iphones and Ipads rock. Netflix and Pandora radio fit well into my active farm life. My digital cameras enabled me to chronicle my days and share them with friends and family who live far away, before they got too plugged up with hay and dust to work. The Minolta Dimage worked for more than seven years, the little Samsung, only one. Now I have my iphone camera, not really happy with it, but better than nothing to keep family and friends up-to-date here in my blog.

Online sales and marketing have worked well for our farmstead craft business in the past. We had a very active ebay store for many years, and I have had good success with etsy for what little I've tried it. These marketing avenues take a lot more time and consistent effort than you would ever imagine. But they are effective and work into some time periods and for some businesses.

So, we aren't total luddites, nor are we afraid of trying tech, but... I get told from various angles that I need to learn to navigate social media - Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google plus, LinkedIn, new-flavor-of-the-week  and use it. Why? What use is it? What do I need it for? And, I can see where it could take all the time that I currently spend making things and caring for the farm.

Because of the lack of time, I don't see where it can help my own small craft business, but for any group of craft businesses, I can see where having many individuals liking, tweeting and connecting with pictures and links, it could really draw people physically to an area. So, with that in mind, I am attending the Arkansas Women Blogger's Unplugged conference this week. It will be a whole new forum for how to "get connected."

Now off to read how to effectively use pinterest (jenonthefarm) and find something interesting to tweet (@jlonthefarm) that I haven't already shared on facebook (Jeanette Larson) ...

The old ones

The recent Jacob Sheep Breeders Association newsletter posed the question in their monthly poll, "What do you do with your old ewes?" It's a good question. I can't wait to read the answers.  I have a friend who sells all his does and ewes when they are 6 or 7 and he keeps replacement daughters for the ones he really likes. Very sensible shepherding practice.

Right now, 18-year-old Halfie cat is trying to push the computer off my lap. She's fairly toothless and needs daily combing, because she doesn't wash herself anymore, but she's purring happily and is my early morning helper and companion. My black-brindle-gone-gray Scrapie dog is at my feet. No telling her age. She was in her early middlin years when she hopped into my van in 2005.

Durfria, Lena's Arabian mare just turned 30. Her feet are good and her coat looks good. Her teeth are actually great. She has tummy troubles though, and gets a special feed with supplements now. The vet is worried and wants to do tests. We said, "She's 30," and he gave us a shot to give her when she's hurting.

Thyme is our original Jacob ewe.  She's 4-horned and ma or
great-grandma to much of the flock through her grandson
Dapper Dan.
She's at least 12 and more likely 13 or 14.

Old Thyme is our oldest and eldest Jacob ewe. She was our first Jacob sheep. We bought her with lamb at side in 2001. She's now toothless, but oddly enough, with our new high-grain drought feeding regimen, I've never seen her this fat. She actually has weight on her bones.

In the last few years, we've lost most of our foundation flock to age. Marjoram and Pennyroyal were dearly loved and missed when they passed. My grizzled old ranch vet was compassionate when he helped Marj on her way. We have several more sheep and goats in the 9-year-old bracket.

What do we do with our old ewes? We just keep loving them.

It takes a Village - Aunt Linda's Apothecary Shop

So I'm sitting at my desk, in my perfectly modern, air-conditioned office, trying to write a press release and I realize that I am distracted by scratching some new rash on my arm. Who knows from what? I'm outside a lot, hauling hay, feeding critters, working in the garden, gathering wood, so who knows?
But, it's itchy and very distracting and spreading down my arm.

"I need jewelweed vinegar," I actually said out loud to the empty room and went running out the back door.

Linda Odom, the amazing lady who keeps us all
sweet smelling, shiny clean and itch-free.

I am so very blessed, because out the back door of my office is the most amazing village. A unique blend of modern and antique, the Craft Village at the Ozark Folk Center is hard to describe. It is a living tradition of Ozark ingenuity and craftsmanship. The architecture is so 1970's. The little hexagonal studio buildings each house a different independent craft business. My destination was Aunt Linda's Apothecary Shop.

Created, researched, developed, decorated, stocked and run by Linda Odom, with the help of her sweet husband Troy and the occasional very helpful apprentices (thanks Vicki Morgan and Leesa Thompson to name two), Linda makes soaps of many types from scratch. She does both the old-fashioned kettle-cooked lye soaps and the more modern, but still labor intensive and chemically intricate, cold-processed soaps. She also makes lotions, salves, creams, lip balms, blends teas and mixes a variety of cures from herbs in our Heritage Herb Gardens.

If you look around my desk, you'll find that I use many of her products. I have a lotion bar that I use not only to soothe scaly skin, I also use it to polish and maintain my boots. I have peppermint essential oil that warms aching muscles. I use her "Think" spray, a hydrosol of many oils, almost every time I sit down at my computer. And her coconut ginger tea is one of my favorite afternoon treats.

I burst through Linda's shop door saying, "I need jewelweed vinegar," showing her the rash on my arm. Much to her credit, she just smiled sympathetically, instead of saying, "Ooo, gross!"

Aunt Linda's kettle-cooked jewelweed soap. A sure cure
for poison ivy or any other itchies.

At that moment, she only had jewelweed vinegar packaged in quarts. I didn't need a quart, and I only had $5 in my pocket. But she does compound the most amazing anti-itch lotion. We use it at home for humans, dogs and angora goats. We've treated the scaly patches on Gizmo-goat's legs with this potion very successfully. Linda showed me where the tiny bottles of the anti-itch lotion were and I bought one to keep at my desk. While still in her shop, I slathered some on my arm, dropped the bottle in my apron pocket and then I went off into the village to check on some other park issues.

When I got back to my desk, I found this little bag with a little end cut bar of precious jewel weed soap. After a week, my itchies are all gone. Thanks again Linda!

Drought and consequences

"Grieve it and leave it" seems to be my mantra for this dustbowl summer.

We are down from 20+ goats and cheesemaking to two milkers and milk for my coffee. We are down from 50+ sheep grazing pastorally in our yard to 21 and counting down. I've sold animals that I counted as friends because with no pasture, hay at $8  a square bale and corn at $22 a hundred weight, they needed to go to somebody who could afford to feed them. I have friends in their 80's who are lifetime cattlemen who've just sold out.

For me, drought is the most devastating of the types of catastrophic weather. Other weather events are  more violent, but they are generally over quickly and what's left is to bury the dead and clean up the mess. Drought goes on and on, sucking the life out of your pastures, your garden and your dreams.

We are blessed to live in a big, bountiful country. Usually, it's big enough that areas of crop surplus balance areas of crop deficit. This year, the drought is so severe and so wide spread, I'm worried. How far are we away from real famine? I'm thinking maybe three years... this year the cattle herds sell down, and beef is cheap. But next year, there are few calves. Corn doesn't grow this year, and price supports send our surplus to fuel... three years of drought and we'll all be a whole lot leaner (meaner? that's a scary thought).

Maybe so, maybe not - but how long will the drought continue and what will the consequences of this extreme weather really be?

Geek shepherds

Our Higgs particle in front of her triplet sister
Hodge Podge

If you're reading this post looking for apps to improve your flock, you might be disappointed - though I can tell you that we've been using FlockFiler for our pedigrees for many years and love it. The Jacob Sheep Breeders Association has an awesome pedigree database, too and I enjoy researching our sheep ancestry on it. But actually, that's not what I'm talking about here.

I grew up in a family where things like tectonic plate movement was a perfectly normal dinner conversation. After all, my daddy is a rocket scientist. So my children were raised in a household where discussions of Bram Stoker's writings could lead to studies of fly genus and species. It was natural then, when I named Elizabeth's littlest afterthought triplet Higgledy Piggeldy that she instantly became Higgs Boson particle. After all, she is the littlest particle of a sheep in our flock.

And when it was announced on July 4 of this year that they had found the Higgs Boson particle, we just looked at each other and said, "Wow, google earth is now good enough that they can see Higgs."

At least we got hay...

Modern abilities meet old-fashioned realities

So we're driving down the road, the drought forcing us to go more miles and depend on friends to get hay. I'm trying to finish a professional journal article about interpretive resale. I've been so busy this summer learning to work with a new boss, new expectations and just regular work... still trying to work at the guild gallery and having everything on the farm take so much more time with the incessant need to water everything trying to keep it cooler and alive in this more than 100 degree heat that I have a jumble of ideas, not an article – and the firm deadline is today...

So, I have my trusty laptop, and Shawn is bouncing great ideas off me and I'm sitting here, just now remembering that I get car sick on Arkansas roads.

My September garden

Tomato, basil and night blooming jasmine cuttings rooting on the
kitchen window sill. The blue bottle just makes me happy,
I've always thought cobalt blue glass was one of the prettiest things
in the whole world.

With temperatures consistently hitting 100 and no rain to speak of, I've moved what I can of my garden In to my kitchen. I'm still watering the blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, jerusalem artichokes and fig... and I hope they make it. This morning, in the light of the full moon, I planted Black Prince tomato cuttings that I'd rooted and both sweet and Thai basil. I also have more cuttings started. I'll be traveling a lot in August, so this will make it easier to take care of things when I'm home and less to leave with Shawn and Lena.In September, I plan to plant chard, like I did last year, kale and other winter greens, as well as my rooted cuttings. Maybe some beets and... it'll be like having a second spring, I hope. I'll let you know how it goes.

These Black Prince tomato cuttings are rooted and now
planted so that I can feed them.

Fleecyful Wool and Mohair Rugs - FAQ

Laffing Horse Farm ewe flock guarded by Pequena llama.

Q. Where did you get the name for your rugs?
A. The name for the rugs that I weave and then felt from our critters fleeces happened about 2 o'clock one morning as we were prepping for a show. I had been standing and walking on the concrete floor of the workshop, when I walked on one of my rugs.
"Wow, that's like walking on a cloud," were the words my tired brain said. Blending fleecy, fanciful, fluffy and many other wooly cloudy words, I suddenly said, "It's Fleecyful!" And that's what they've been every since.

LHF Basil looks at her winter wooly coat as she gets
her spring hair cut.

Q. Where do you get the wool and mohair for your rugs?
A. I weave my Fleecyful Rugs from fleeces grown by our sheep and angora goats here on our farm. Each rug is one entire fleece. Some of our critters grow a lot of fiber, others grow less. We shear some of them once a year, others get a spring and fall hair cut. So, some rugs are fairly big, others make a nice seat cover for ladderback chair. The rugs have all the benefits of a sheepskin - they are durable, breathable, washable and cushiony - with one HUGE added benefit - my sheep get to live long, healthy, happy lives and give me fleeces year-after-year. While I wouldn't call my sheep pets, I am terribly attached to them

I weave my rugs on the 1929 Newcomb rug loom that
my aunt Jeannie gave to me many years ago. It takes
me 16 hours to warp this loom, and then about 2-4 hours
per rug weaving time. I can weave 5-8 rugs per warp.

Q. Do you shear your own sheep?
A. Every year Lena and I shear all the sheep and goats, one at a time on a stand. As we use the hand shears, I get to know the fleece and when I put it in the pillow case for storage, I write on it the name of the sheep, the year, and the word "Spin, rug or if it is a particularly nice fleece it gets the designation "Me spin!" I figure for all the work I put in, I deserve the pleasure of spinning the best fleeces.

Q. How do you weave your rugs?

LHF Demi's fleece more than fills a storage pillow case.
Demi's fleeces make some of my fastest selling rugs.
Luckily, she grows so much wool, we shear her twice a year.

A. I weave the rugs either on my 1929 Newcomb rug loom or on my Ashford rigid heddle. I've been weaving rugs since about 1994. I developed my technique and my rugs through years of doing. I also credit Carol Lee's Fleece Weaving; The Ashford Book of Rigid Heddle Weaving; Pam Dyer's Locker Hooking Basics and a whole collection of books and magazines over the years. I learned that only wool warp will do what I want it to do on my rugs. I developed my method of weaving them will raw fleeces and then washing them to both clean them and felt them down into tight, durable, washable rugs.

Q. What does the felting process do to the rugs?

A stack of Fleecyful Rugs currently for sale at the
Arkansas Craft Guild Gallery.

A. Each rug shrinks 1/3 to 1/2 half  of its original woven size in the washing and felting process. I've recently learned/decided that a front load washer is a vital part of my rugs working and looking the way I want them too, after spending a year without a front load and trying every other felting process known to wo-man, including dancing on the rugs in the driveway with soap and the hose!

Q. How do you care for a Fleecyful Rug?
A. Fleecyful Rugs can be washed on a regular basis in a front load washer on a gentle or permanent press cycle. Dry your rug over a porch rail, over the shower curtain rod or anywhere you hand your laundry to dry.

Lisa personally inspects every mohair Fleecyful Rug.

Q. Are these rugs safe for pets?
A. Our house critters (dogs and cats) like them a lot. Lisa-cat personally inspects every mohair rug and Ziffer-cat helps with the felting process on most rugs. Gibbs-puppy has his own personal Demi-rug. That's not to say that a determined dog can't tear one up, but they are durable and make great pet beds.

Where can you find my Fleecyful Rugs?

A Sultan Mohair Rug woven on a green warp
currently for sale at the
Arkansas Craft Guild Gallery

Cowslip Fleecyful Wool Rug at home.

I've been posting the new rugs I'm finishing on facebook and I've been getting questions about where people can find my rugs.

Currently, as of July 2012, most of my Fleecyful Rugs are for sale at the Arkansas Craft Guild Gallery at 104 Main Street in Mountain View, Arkansas.

I do have some finished rugs at home, you can call, email or leave me a message here and we can arrange to get together.

I will be at the World Sheep and Fiber Festival in Bethel, Missouri on September 1 & 2, 2012.

We will be welcoming visitors to the farm and studios during Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour on September 14 thru 16, 2012. I'll have many rugs, shawls, felt dryer balls and hopefully quite a few of my new handbags ready for Studio Tour.

We'll have our same booth at the Christmas Showcase in Little Rock on December 6-9, 2012.

If I have any rugs left after Showcase, I'll put them up in our Common Threads Etsy Store in December and January.

If you have any rug questions, just give me a holler.

Keeping cool, llama-style

Pequena soaking her feet

Llamas like water. They like to stand out in the rain, they like to stand in ponds and if you don't have either, than the water trough will do just fine. Pequena-llama has been banned from the sheep pen for the summer because she wants to stand in their water trough. The best way to help sheep handle the heat is to make sure they have lots of fresh, cool, clean water. Stinky llama feet kinda sully that up.

Llamas are smart, too. We finally got smart enough to give Pequena two water barrels. She soaks her feet in the same one every time, leaving the other fresh and clean for drinking. That's when she has her own water pans. When she is in with the sheep, she'll soak in both troughs. 

Right now we are scrubbing troughs and giving everybody fresh, clean water twice a day. It takes a while, but it is helping them handle the heat. I just hope we don't have to start rationing water.

Potato harvest

Dinner - new potatoes and onions from our garden, boiled in
milk from our goats. Best served cold the second day when
it happens to be 106 outside.

When I wrote about making my potato hoops, I warned everybody not to try it until we saw if it worked. Well, it's been a hard summer, and yet I am very happy with what the first hoop harvested. I wiggled about a dozen potatoes up earlier this week for a quick dinner of potatoes boiled in milk with onions and peas. Then Lena harvested the rest of the bed last night. We have a good 10+ pounds of red potatoes from the first of three beds. 

Washed and ready to store, and make potato salad for
dinner tomorrow night!

Right now we are working in the garden in the late evening, starting about 9:00 after chores and working for about an hour, wrapping up in the light of a flashlight. I also go work a bit in the mornings about 5:30 before I go do chores. It really is too hot to be out in the sun during the day. And it's still June!

Task Cloud

I had the last four days mostly off work. I had a huge list of things I wanted to get done. I also wanted to relax and not be frustrated.

Task Cloud 6-22 to 6-26

So, I decided to try a new method of remembering, planning and scheduling tasks. I created a Task Cloud.

You all know tag clouds, right? They are the little boxes that show up on web sites with clickable words in fancy fonts. They're a sort of pretty way to put out information.

I took my big planning sketch pad and started writing everything I could think of that I needed to do. Every time I though of something else, I added it to the Task Cloud. If I did something that wasn't on there, I added it. (Thanks for the suggestion Dad!). I crossed out things as I did them and doodled as I looked over the tasks. I also wrote some of the outcomes I wanted. Like, I don't really want to clean the bedroom, I just want a peaceful, good smelling place to sleep. Then I wrote some of the steps needed to achieve the outcomes.

I'm not sure what I think of my Task Cloud.
It's certainly an interesting experiment. I may repeat it.

Hoop garden harvest

Chard, basil, goat cheese quiche, with whole wheat crust.
Note the fancy Ozark quiche pan.

I'm really liking my little garden circles. The fresh produce right next to the house makes the minimal work well worth the time. The only things that the bugs are currently eating is the rhubarb. I'm not sure it's going to survive. But everything else is doing great.

 I'm getting chard, tomatoes, potatoes, beets and onions right now. Somehow, I forgot to plant pole beans this spring and it's way too hot now. It is taking me about an hour a day, three days a week to water everything. But that's fun harvesting and weeding time, too.

This week we've had new potatoes and onions creamed with our own goat's milk and peas. Last night I made goat cheese with pesto and sliced tomatoes over whole wheat pasta. The night before, we had an awesome goat cheese quiche.

I made a whole wheat crust with whole basil leaves from our garden. I used a dozen eggs from my friend Kathy Jensen, as our little chickie girls aren't laying yet. I served it with sliced Black Prince tomatoes, warm from the vine. The cheese was a crumbly unsalted farmers cheese, out of the freezer as the goats are not milking much in this heat. I decided to make it in the cast iron skillet  and it worked great. It's my new favorite quiche pan!

Rainbow chard and goat cheese quiche

Crust
Heat oven to 475.
In a 15-inch cast iron skillet, melt 1 stick butter.
Add two cups whole wheat flour to butter in pan.
Add 1/2 tsp salt
stir well, will be crumbly
add 1 egg and stir in well.
blend in one large handful of fresh basil leaves and one clove chopped garlic.
Pat around bottom and up sides of skillet. Prick with fork and bake for 10 minutes.

Farm fresh quiche served with tomatoes sliced fresh from
the garden.

Filling
2 cups soft goat's cheese
10 washed and shredded rainbow chard leaves, dice stems
12 farm fresh eggs
1 tsp corriander
1 tsp marjoram
1 clove garlic, diced
1 tsp salt

Blend this all together in a bowl and pour into crust in skillet. Bake at 475 for 10 minutes, then lower oven temp to 250 and bake for 1 hour.
let sit for 10 minutes in oven before slicing.

Serve with fresh sun-ripened sliced tomatoes.

Sure makes watering the garden worth it!





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