In Between Seasons

September 12, 2013September 12, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 5 Comments

The past two days have been hot and humid, the cicadas buzzing away. I brought the dogs out at 6:30 this morning and this is what the sky looked like. Something you normally see as the clouds build on a humid summer afternoon as the thunderstorms roll in. It feels like July.

This kind of weather does something to my brain – I can’t quite comprehend the garden being done (yes, other than digging potatoes and rutabagas it’s done). My mind has moved onto Fall jobs. Bringing in and stacking wood, that’s what I should be doing but not it this heat.

Then I look out over my newest garden, still ablaze with color, everything taking on the ochre colors of autumn and my mind knows that winter is coming.

Mr. Photobomb

September 10, 2013September 10, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 1 Comment

I just had to take a photo or two of the pear tree. It is loaded with fruit this year and I am always amazed at how the branches bow down to the ground without breaking. The light was harsh but it was a beautiful evening. And guess who just happened to be in the shot. One of many that he was in. You’d think he was waiting to see the results.

A Recap of Fiber College and Maine

September 8, 2013September 8, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 3 Comments

What a whirlwind this trip has been. I drove home to Rowe last night, leaving at 6:30 after class (and picking up lobster and clams). I arrived about 11:30.

This was my first foray into the “fiber” world and all I can really say is it was interesting. I find it amusing the style of dress “creative” people wear.

My first day (Thursday) I took a book binding class with Anna Low of Purplebean Bindery. We made Buttonhole bound books. They are brilliant in their simplicity.

Anna was a great teacher and we each made two beautiful books that lie flat when they are open (always a plus for me). There were 10 of us in the class and it’s always such a joy to spend time with other creative people.

The class got out early – around 3:30 so I decided to take a drive up Route 1 and see more of Maine. I rounded a corner coming into the Penobscot River crossing and saw the new bridge. It defies description really. Beautiful to look at, creepy to drive across (that could just be my own bridge phobia talking). I went into Bucksport and all I could think about was that bridge. I looked it up when I got back to my room and decided to spend my free Friday morning at Fort Knox State Park and ride to the observatory at the top. That, my friends, will have to be another post.

Friday afternoon I had a class on making scarf pins with Cindy Kilgore. The class was a couple of hours and was crowded, hot and sooooo much fun! Did I mention it was loud? Picture 7 women at a plastic banquet table pounding 12 gauge brass wire with a ball peen hammer on small square metal bench anvils. Yeah, loud.

Cindy was a fun, patient teacher. She explained things really well and by the time I was done I felt really comfortable with the design possibilities and was pleased with my pins. Not the best photograph but you get the idea.

Saturday I had two classes, one in the morning, one later in the afternoon.

The first class was with Tom Cote, a wood carver from northern Maine. What an amazing guy.

Tom was an art teacher for 30 years teaching grades K-12. You could tell, he was talented and could tell a story and keep you interested all while you were sanding little pieces of wood. This class was all about making buttons and closures out of found objects. The closures I made were out of a stick picked up off of the ground in the campground, a wooden bobbin from a weaving mill and a chunk of wood cut from scraps in his wood shop. It was really all about seeing things around you in a different way. Almost everything was done with a coping saw, sandpaper and a drill. A little oil and you have yourself a button.

This photo doesn’t do these buttons justice – but I took it on my fleece jacket on the ground outside of the tent so it is what it is. They are beautiful.

My last class was with Jennifer Carson. I’ve been following Jennifer for quite a while now, I love her art and especially her creature creations. I’ve made stuffed bears and dolls for years but decided to take her class because it had to do with design. It was great fun with a lot of very funny women. I have found over the years that doll makers are one of the best groups to hang out with. We all make up back stories for our dolls as they are created – great fun.

This was an exercise in creating from scratch. We started with a pencil and piece of paper and everyone ended up with a head. I love doll making for this reason, you really don’t know what you’re going to end up with – it evolves. A lot of techniques were used in this and the wool felt it the perfect medium – very forgiving.

This half week getaway was a lot of fun. I met a lot of great people from all over the U.S. (yes, people travel all over just to go to these things). Each and every one was creative with a need to learn and share. The location was amazing, right on the shore. If you needed a quiet spot it was only a few hundred yards away. This is the kind of event that sends participants home re-energized and ready to create something new and unexpected. It takes away the fear of the unknown. You learn that anything taken in small simple steps can be accomplished.

Farmher

August 30, 2013August 30, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 5 Comments

In reading a blog I read daily called Sheepy Hollow Farm I was taken to a site called Farmher. This is a website documenting women farmers in the U.S. and the photographs are stunning. It got me to thinking about last weekend.

My sister had a pile of wood in her driveway that needed to be split so last Sunday Bill filled the splitter with gas, hooked it up to the tractor and sent me on my way. I have to admit I love driving the tractor – especially to other people’s houses. I love the open feeling as you are driving down the road, the way the tractor sounds.

On the way I passed the home of a classmate of mine (there were only 4 of us total until high school). He was mowing his lawn and I could see on his face that look of bewilderment – “What is she doing towing a splitter down the road with a tractor?”

When I got to Sue’s we unhooked the splitter leaving it near the pile of wood. We then proceeded across the field to pick up three large pieces of an apple tree trunk. They filled the bucket. After dumping them in the pile of wood we started splitting, each taking a turn at running the splitter or bringing the wood over to be split – both throwing the wood into the pile needing to be stacked. We were about halfway through the pile when my classmate, his wife and daughter walked by with their dog. We gave a wave but continued on our quest to finish before we ran out of gas (both us and the splitter). I said they must be wondering about those crazy sisters doing that kind of work.

That’s what I was thinking as I perused the photography of Farmher. I saw a woman tilling her garden, out with a chainsaw. I saw them milking goats, feeding chickens, tending gardens and thought this has been me for a good part of my life in one way or another. In centuries past the woman did a very large part of the farming along with her husband. They were a team. The men did the heavy work, the women made sure they were fed and warm. They all worked hard. I come from a line of small farmers, it seems to me that this is the way life really should be. Bringing forth your sustenance from the land that is yours, tending your field and flock. Knowing that the work you put in keeps your family happy and whole.

Tomato Thief

August 27, 2013August 27, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

I have a few combination pots of herbs that have (had) cherry tomato plants in them. I have had tomato blight this year in a big way so the tomatoes are on some very sad looking vines.

Years ago, when I had only one dog, it was a little schnauzer named Holly. She was completely food obsessed. Each year I planted a pot of cherry tomatoes in my back yard in Enfield so I would pick one for her every time we went out. She loved it and her first stop in the yard was that pot. Buddy came along and she showed him the trick. Years have gone by and I no longer have tomatoes in Enfield.

Buddy is getting on in years and we think he has a little dementia (which dogs actually do get). This is what we saw him doing Sunday night. He was picking the tomatoes off of the vines in the pots in the yard. He’s hard of hearing so was unaware of me being behind him with the camera, he was totally concentrating on eating tomatoes.

We all had a little chuckle about this finding it interesting that so many years have passed since he actually did this.

The day was beautiful and we cooked and ate outdoors. As we were sitting down to eat Bill looked over to the garden where Buddy was showing Chester the ropes in tomato eating in my tomato patch. One yell and Chester made a beeline out of the place he knows he’s not supposed to be. Buddy? He had to have at least one more before he left.

Garden Economics

August 26, 2013August 26, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 3 Comments

This is my garlic harvest for this year. A year ago about this time I was thinking I really needed to grow some of my own but when I went onto the High Mowing Seed website with the intention of ordering some and they were sold out. Bummer I thought – then figured I’d order it for this year. Garlic is planted in the fall, like tulips and daffodils, it needs that fall and winter time to set out its roots. It then blossoms in June or so and is ready to harvest in July (at least here it is). The seed companies send out their garlic for planting the first week in October.

I moved on completely forgetting about the garlic. A couple of weeks later I received a package in the mail – a pound of garlic for planting from High Mowing. I had forgotten that I had ordered it with my spring seeds back in February. It felt like pennies from heaven because I’d paid for it back in February as well.

The garlic I had ordered is called Music. It’s a hardneck variety which I know seems to do pretty well around here. I dug a nice bed for them in a sunny, well-drained sight and placed each clove about 3 to 4 inches deep, covered it and walked away. When spring arrived it was the first plant out of the ground. In June the blossoms, called scapes, emerge. I pick all of them off – doing this puts the plants energy in forming bulbs. The scapes are delicious – I chop them and cook them in eggs for breakfast but they are great in all kinds of things. Two harvests from one plant.

Towards the middle of July the stalks of the garlic begin to turn brown from the ground up. I’ve heard that timing is everything with garlic. You don’t want to dig it up too soon- you want those bulbs as big as you can get them. If you wait too long the bulb will no longer be tight, the cloves will have splayed out – ready to continue growing for another year. I had to guess. I waited until the plants were brown half of the way up the stalk and then I dug one out to see. It was a thing of beauty. I dug the rest.

Curing the garlic takes another 3 to 4 weeks. The skins dry to that thin paper we are all familiar with. I just laid the whole plant on paper in the house and waited (of course a couple of bulbs were sampled along the way). This weekend I cleaned and trimmed the crop. What you see in the photo is what I grew. This was a pound of garlic cloves. The cloves are very large on this garlic so it doesn’t take many to get to a pound. For every clove you plant you get a bulb.

This garlic is so good I vowed to plant 3 times as much next year – the problem? It would probably cost over $60 for the seed.

Bill and I gazed at these beautiful bulbs and decided that I would use most of what I grew this year as seed for next year. It made me a little sad to think about not eating most of what was in the basket but I could quadruple the number of bulbs next year just by planting what was in front of me. It was sort of a no brainer, but all I want to do right now is eat garlic mashed potatoes from the garden.

Dusk on Pelham Lake

August 22, 2013August 22, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

Percy’s Point on Pelham Lake has become one of my favorite places to bring Chester. The lake is such a calm, quiet place. This particular spot boasts a few picnic tables and a couple of benches. I was leaning against one of the tables the other day and realized my father had made all of them a few years ago.

We started visiting this spot out of necessity. Chester likes to be in water when he gets hot but the only water on our property now is a slimy, muddy little brook that is trickling water from the beaver pond above it. There is no other word to describe it other than gross – and stinky. When he’s hot he will go into the reeds around it and lies down so he comes out covered with this rust colored goo, yuck. We’ve tried hosing him off but it’s pretty ineffective and he won’t get into the pool we have for the dogs. Usually I hose most of the mud off and then bring him to the lake and make him swim for a while until he’s clean. He thinks this is quite a treat and we are now wondering if he goes into that muck just so I’ll take him to the lake. Hmmmmm.

There are times that are particularly nice to bring him there. Last night I was canning and didn’t get to go until almost dusk. On the way a coyote crossed the road in front of my car. They elicit fear in many and if there is a pack of them near your yard at night I can understand that – they are loud and talkative. I’m thinking they are probably the reason I haven’t seen a rabbit since winter as well as every other critter that usually makes its home around the property. I have to tell you though, they are a magnificently beautiful animal. They have the most intense yellow eyes, they stare right through you.

As I was tossing the ball into the pond a couple walked by with their little dog on a leash. I told them about seeing a coyote not too far from there. Anyone here that has small animals knows that letting them loose this time of day always runs the risk of losing them. As beautiful as they are being aware is always the best idea. Meanwhile Chester kept swimming after his ball paying no attention to the couple or their little dog. There’s is nothing that keeps him from his game.

And The Reward

August 21, 2013August 21, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 1 Comment

I’m the type of person that needs some sort of motivator when I have to do work that I don’t find particularly enjoyable. I reward myself with things I enjoy doing, like weaving or hooking or knitting. If I vacuum the entire downstairs I let myself enjoy a couple of hours of guilt free crafting. Honestly, if I didn’t do that nothing would get done.

We have been taking long weekends for the month of August. We didn’t really have a vacation this year and found a true need to get away from the shop even if it is for only an extra day a week. In doing so we have tried to designate Mondays as a day to do something we enjoy and is relaxing. With everyone helping us split wood on Sunday we promised a trip to the lake (we would probably have gone rain or shine).

We took one of the islands for our beach for the day and brought Chester and Malcolm. It was overcast but warm and humid, not enough to go swimming but very comfortable sitting on the beach.

When Bill wasn’t on the boat this is what he was doing. Chester’s new favorite game – swimming to fetch. He’s a little obsessed.

It works out well for us in the long run – he does nothing but sleep for two days after a weekend event like this. It’s a win for everyone.

Family Affair

August 20, 2013August 20, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 6 Comments

The wood still needs to be cut and split and we had some help on Sunday. Daughter Amanda, her boyfriend Yusuf and sister Sue all were all there. I can’t tell you how much you can get done with helping hands. The saying “many hands make light work” really rang true.

Each person had their own job, depending upon their skill level with pieces of equipment. Well, everyone can use the splitter but not everyone can wield a chainsaw (that’s the piece of equipment I stay away from).

Chester just likes to be in the thick of things. He’s not afraid of the noise of the equipment or tractor (although he stays away from the chainsaw as well). The splitter is a real godsend to people our age or anyone for that matter. The pieces of wood that were dispatched were large, some 25 to 30 inches across. If they weren’t full of knots they were spit with ease.

The wood we split Sunday was ash and cherry. I love splitting ash, it’s beautiful and splits easily. Cherry on the other hand . . .

By the time we were done we had a wall of wood over 25 feet long and 5 feet high. All in all a great days work.

Of course this was happening all day with anyone that was near him. Chester had a good day too.

Day Off

August 5, 2013August 5, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

There are days you have to leave everything behind and relax. No canning, no splitting wood, no lawn mowing or weed whacking.

It was a perfect day. When I loaded this photograph my first reaction was wow, is that blue. You know, it really WAS that blue.

And there is nothing the dogs love more than us spending the entire day throwing a tennis ball.

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