Why so long between posts?

I see that time has most assuredly gotten away from me again and another post is in order to "prove" that we are still alive and well.....well....ALIVE anyway! The summer has come to an end and fall is finally starting to arrive. We have had some MUCH needed rain and I am glad to report that all of the bad storms and flooding that Tennessee experienced went either to the West or East of us here in the hollar and we got nothing more than some badly needed rain to water what was left of the garden and refill the spring. While I love not having a water bill, I must say that the spring water setup we have leaves me stressed out about 11 months of the year. When I'm not dealing with the lines getting plugged with silt or leaves, I'm praying that the lines won't freeze while the rest of the time I pray that the lines won't go dry. (In case you wonder, we do a LOT of praying around here!)

Susie and I will be traveling to Corydon Indiana in 2 weeks to attend our 1st fiber festival of the year! We have already purchased an alpaca fleece that we will pick up while there. Susie is also taking a class on working with Icelandic fleece. We purchased a number of very nice fleeces at Greencastle in 2008 and want to make sure we process them to their fullest potential. I for one am looking forward to the trip since work has....how shall I say this.....been a "challenge"! While we have chosen not to participate in the current recession, I unfortunately work for two companies that are doing their best to fail on a daily basis. This kind of working environment has caused me to age about 20 years the past year or so. To me, a day at the festival is going to be a Godsend!


I had posted earlier about making our own English wool combs using Peter Teals book. I am happy to report that I HAVE in fact started work on them, albeit they are going to be Viking combs instead since Susie needs them for her class. I had wanted to post pictures of the progress but let's just say that it wouldn't have been pretty! While my God given gifting is in printing, I seem to loose a fair amount of blood while working in the wood shop! I can say that so far they are looking really nice and I HOPE to have them done in a week and will then post pictures of them. I have used some old growth black walnut that we had salvaged from a barn and also some from a tree that we cut up last fall for firewood. All I can say is they had better work very, very well and Susie had better be up to date on her tetanus shots! These babies look like something off of Lord Of The Rings! They would make great weapons! Stay tuned to see my attempt at combs!