A Much Needed Time To Reflect!

I know from talking to the few people that I actually have a chance to talk to that "life" has apparently gotten increasingly difficult. In our life there are times when the struggle to simply "survive" becomes seemingly overwhelming and I get discouraged and feel like giving up! Then there are those other times like last night....the weather finally cools down and the man eating bugs decide to dine elsewhere rather than ingest us and we get one of our rare opportunities to just sit down, have a fire, and relax!

We NEED nights like this! Total quiet, a small fire, and a chance to just sit and be quiet and think! (Actually I took a nap as well!) There is no noise out here....no traffic sounds, no dogs barking, no neighbors yelling...just tree frogs, crickets, night bugs, and a plethora of owls. One can almost be lulled into the delusion that all is right with the world and that the daily insanity our lives seem to have become is nothing but a thing of the past! The struggle to make ends meet seems to vanish as we watch the moon break over the ridge top and shine through the trees with such illumination that you can actually read a book in the middle of the night. Other than the occasional jet passing over from Nashville to who knows where, you almost get the sense that there's nobody left on earth but us. Sometimes this is a good feeling...sometimes it isn't.

For hours we sit with hardly a word being spoken. None really are needed at times like these...especially after all the years we've spent together. In between napping, I rehearse in my mind the day before and dwell on images of Susie turning the print shop I work into a "fiber studio" while I ply my craft on the press, churning out printing of no relevance, doing work that pays the bills but I consider "mindless". I LONG to print things of beauty and meaning but for now, this is my lot.

I worked Saturday in town which is something I rarely do and rather than stay at home, Susie spent the day there with me working on her fiber projects. She finished filling her first bobbin on the Country Spinner which is so huge it seems comical compared to the bobbins on her other wheels. Once filled, she skeined it off and did her calculations on yardage, then weighed various fibers on the ink scale, measured dyed roving, made COPIOUS notes, and took pictures of everything she did! I'm very proud of her and her work and truly stand in awe of her talents!

So....as the clock approached midnight, we folded up the chairs, put out the fire and made our way to the house....my head still swimming with the visions and sensations of wool and dyed roving...of Merino and Gotland....of Jacob and Stansborough...of yarn and roving...and I think about the fact that we DO have a roof over our heads and we DO have plenty of food....I AM employed and the house IS full of fiber! I also realize that tomorrow IS another day and that GOD IS ON THE THRONE and life IS in fact good! Yes....we NEED days like this!

Long Time, No Post!

I see that it's been MONTHS since I have posted on here! It reminds me of the admonition I had growing up, "If you don't have something nice to say, then don't say anything at all!"....thus a large reason for the silence. Besides the non stop problems that we have faced this entire year, it seems that "mother nature" (that comments for all my LL friends!) is bent on killing us off! We survived through the floods in May....have been dealing with UNBELIEVABLE heat and humidity...dealt with a tornado that tore the farm up and now this last week dealt with more flooding. It's beyond bizarre especially since our families up in Illinois have been largely dealing with drought! The mowing has been a non stop challenge since Susie hurt her foot chasing the grand kids and couldn't mow and every time I try to mow, I am either rained out or have to mow so carefully due to the heat index, I barely get it done before it's time to start again! As I type this posting, we are without water, which in itself is rather ironic due to all the rain we've had. Something is amiss with the pump and so we are waiting for a plumber to come out in the morning to check things out and see if he can get it going again. He thinks it may only be a pressure switch which would be an answer to prayer due to not really wanting to replace the pump at this time. My second job has come to an end with the company filing bankruptcy for protection so we are down to just a single income that hasn't seen an increase in over 5 years....not to mention no over time in over 2 years! All in all life has been a real challenge this year!

On a positive note, we are the proud owners of our 8th spinning wheel....an Ashford Country Spinner! We had wanted one for a LONG time and found one back at the beginning of the year from a gal in Alaska. It was shipped to us fully assembled but was broken during shipping down here. Since I had to take it apart to fix the wheel, we decided to take it ALL the way apart and sand and finish each piece individually which took longer than I expected but the end result was worth the wait! Our cat Mithril is seen modeling with it and the picture doesn't do the wheel justice! Seeing the finished piece, we wish now we had taken this much time and effort with several of our other wheels! Once we get the water running again and the weather cools down some (Like maybe DECEMBER!) I want to get all 8 wheels out and get a "group shot" of them all...Id like to see them all together in a "family" photo!

New combs are done at last!

Nothing like taking FOREVER to accomplish something! I had no earthly idea that these were going to take this much time to finish but now that they are done, I do have to admit that they turned out very nice for a pile of welding rod and some barn boards and firewood! When I started this project, my intentions were to make a 2 pitch set of Viking combs but mid construction, we signed Susie up for a class on working with Icelandic fleece. Once she was signed up, we found out that for this particular type of fleece, single pitch combs were better suited so I set aside the wood for the double pitch and grabbed some nice black walnut logs that we had salvaged from a down tree that I couldn't bring myself to burn. I turned the comb handles and the threaded "lock down" on the comb holder and ground another 38 tines! All in all the grinding process was a bigger pain in the.....well....lets just say that unless I figure out a more efficient method of grinding and polishing tines, I probably will not be making too many more of these "implements"! As far as the combs go, they are rather larger than most that we have seen but from what we had heard from others, a larger working load seems to be something that most folks wished they had. I haven't spent a massive amount of time using these since at present I'm still working on the mountain of gray fleeces for our matching sweaters but from what little I have, they seem to work very well. (At least the teacher at the Icelandic class was VERY impressed with them, so that's at least something!) My next set will be the originally planned double pitch set made from some absolutely "drop dead" flame Birch I've had for years! Stay tuned for pictures of them....maybe I can manage to get them done sometime before I RETIRE!

Fairy Stocking!

Well, even though we have been in the death grip of the "killer blizzard" of 2010, we still managed to not only get our daughter Emily's miniature Fairy Stocking completed, but we also managed to get out in the snow and use it as a backdrop to take pictures of it! I will never cease to be amazed at Susie's patience (AND her eyesight!) when working on small projects like this. She took embroidery floss and unraveled it so she could use just 2 STRANDS of green and 1 of silver, then knitted the stocking with #0000 needles. The picture doesn't really show the small size but the overall length from the angora trim...which Susie spun from our angora rabbit Buttons.....to the toe is just 2.375"! The length from heel to toe is a little under 1". What can I say? Susie's talent with fiber and knitting always humbles my attempts on the wheel or with needles!

Winter With An Attitude!

Now I will be the first to admit that in comparison to the weather that our family has been subjected to "up North", what we have been dealing with can't really compare! BUT....for us folks in Tennessee, this cold snap is rather out of the norm, especially after the past few winters that we've had. I mean, I kinda liked not wearing a coat all winter! But not this year! We have been in the freezer now since before Christmas and it's taking it's toll on me. We have worked on our "interesting" water system 3 of the past 4 weekends and haven't been able to get out into the woods to cut firewood yet. So far, the water is running very well....hasn't frozen (well....just once but that was MY fault!)....and even though the wood pile is getting rather sparse, the stove has kept us warm. In my own defense, I know that I've gotten rather "soft" after 21 years down here, but I do remember being the one that walked everywhere in Champaign regardless of the weather or the temperature. Shoot, I can remember sitting in a snowbank outside Baskin Robbins eating a banana split and enjoying an ice cold Mountain Dew while watching the "cold people" walk by at the mall. Sometimes I wonder if I was tougher back in those days, or just not as bright as I am now!

Happy New Year and Good Ridance to 2009!

As the new year starts, I for one PRAY that 2010 turns out to be a more "peaceful" year than 2009. We seemed to run from one catastrophe to another the whole year with the past couple months being the "icing on the cake". As we start the new year, we are dealing with a car that has a bad engine due to "routine maintenance" and wondering where the money is going to come from to either rebuild a car that's technically not worth rebuilding or purchasing another vehicle. Several years ago we got turned on to Dave Ramsey and after following his advise, we are living completely debt free other than the farm....which will be paid off in less than 4 years. Getting out of debt is a wonderful feeling so even the THOUGHT of going back INTO debt stinks and ISN'T going to happen! Stay tuned for the continuing saga of the KIA!

On a fiber note, Susie finished a pair of socks for our daughter that we have owed her for a long time. They are handspun out of Finn wool in both white and gray. (Trust me, it is gray even though my photography makes them look brown!) We gave them to Emily on New Years Day when we had the family out to celebrate our Christmas. Emily took them from Susie's hands and put them on and LEFT them on! She said it was nice to FINALLY have warm feet! Now that this project is off the needles, I need to make sure Susie finishes a miniature Tinker Bell stocking that's also for Emily. I'm looking forward to posting that project.....it was knit using embroidery thread that she unplied so it could be knit with just 2 strands! (I'm always amazed at her patience!)


We also recently purchased another spinning wheel for our "arsenal"! I took my Christmas bonus from one of my jobs and bought an Ashford Country Spinner....which we have been after for a number of years! It is being shipped from Alaska so we are waiting with baited breath for a call from our local post office telling us it's there and ready to be picked up. I can hardly wait!


I guess in retrospect, the last few weeks have been "tolerable" but I kid you not when I say I'm praying for a year without some of the issues we have had to walk through in the past year! Here's to a Blessed 2010 and Susie and I pray that your barns are full and your animals warm and happy and may your drive band never break and you never drop a stitch!

Stupidity is PAINFUL!

Ever done something that in retrospect you wonder just WHY in the world you did that? I had one of those all too common moments again yesterday. I managed to get off my first job early and since I didn't have to work my second job, decided to make several errands after going to the bank then head for home and clean the waterline. You have to understand that we live in the back hills of Tennessee where "water supply" can mean anything and everything from city water to hauling water in jugs from miles away. Our farm has spring water and while we thoroughly love the fact that our water is very very clean (not to mention FREE!), getting water from the spring (which happens to be down the road) to our house can very often be a MAJOR source of stress for me! Usually after we have had a lot of rain, which here as of late means about every few days, we have to go down to the spring and clean off leaves and silt from the end of the water line and break the line at the bridge to "flush" it out. The weather here has been well below normal temperature wise (so much for stupid global warming!) but I thought nothing about it when we went down and started to work. What I FAILED to take into account was that when the hose is broken at the bridge, there is no water running through the last 300+ feet of line which means that the water that's stuck in that section freezes in very short order! So......I broke the line, flushed the hose, Susie cleaned off the end then we reconnected it, just to find out that we now had NO water at the house! PANIC! With the temperatures falling and light disappearing quickly, I started frantically looking to see what the problem was. I may need to add that I do NOT handle this kind of problem well.....just ask Susie! When I finally realized that the line was frozen and that we were facing being without again, my mood took a turn for the worse. Past experience has shown me that without water flowing, the line needs to be re- broken at the bridge otherwise the larger main line freezes as well, then there are even bigger problems. I went back down the road for what seemed like the millionth time and found that it was already in the process of freezing there as well as I opened it up. I managed to bang the main hose around and free the ice from inside but that still left us without water to the house and 300+ feet of line full of ice. Let me also explain the spring house and pump setup here. It can be describes in one word....hodgepodge! Our water reservoir is very small....it must hold only about 80 to 100 gallons....and the water is pumped from there to a pressure tank then into the house. The problem in that there is no cutoff switch on the pump so without sufficient water coming into the tank, the pump sucks air and doesn't shut off till it overheats and trips the breaker or one of us RUNS out and shuts it off. Not wanting the pump, tank, or lines to the house to freeze, we spent the night hauling water in 5 gallon buckets from the main line at the bridge and pouring it into the reservoir, then turning the pump on till it fills the tank, then shutting it off again.....EVERY couple hours....ALL NIGHT LONG! (Yes Gracie, we are both sore and tired!)

This morning we were going to start pouring boiling water down the waterline in hopes of melting enough ice to get the flow restored but since it was still below freezing, we drove 40 miles to town and bought a 400 foot coil of larger diameter water line, in the outside chance that we couldn't get the one we have unblocked. (Not to mention that we have NEEDED a new water line for 16 years but Hey!......it's working so why hurry?) Once we got back from town, we hauled another 60 gallons of water in buckets and started heating water on the stove. I went out and started hacking a path through the overgrown field so we could dribble the hot water on the line when Susie noticed that the line was already apparently thawing so we slapped the hose around, pitching 3/4" ice pieces all over the yard. Then we went to the other end of the line to try to just reconnect the hose and thanks be to God, water started flowing through! I am not ashamed to say that I for one, utter more prayers and intercession over the water here than about anything else! How ANYONE can take their water for granted is beyond me. Around here it seems to be my most stressful part of "hollar" living.....when it's not blocked with stuff on the end of the hose, it's running dry due to lack of rain, or freezing from being exposed the way it is. And even when it's working, I have to worry about the pump working properly and not loosing it's prime.

Yep.....I pray a lot around here for water, and as usual, GOD is more than faithful. As I type this, the water is flowing, the pump is working, we are able to flush, and we do NOT have to spend the night outside hauling water! OH YES! ....Life is good when your water works! Now if you will pardon me, I think I will go take a nap!