Needle Night

Tuesday nights, 7 pm, Hilltop House, Heifer Ranch. Be there. As I found out yesternight, Needle Night is every craftsman's dream: older women workin' their stuff. Knittin' what God give 'em, if you know what I mean.
At this point, you're probably wondering what exactly I'm doing at Needle Night. Well, feast your eyes on the pictures, and you'll see that I, my good friends, am constructing the most immaculate pair of (genuine leather indian) mocassins to ever lay foot on this green earth. The kit (fig. 1) was a recent gift from my friend Kayla, who only felt it appropriate to supply some mocassins to complement my Rocky Mountain Vest that I adorned in Colorado a few weeks back. I had the weekend to concoct a strategy for making these mocassins the Cadillac of Native American footwear, and my imagination ran wild. I also had to befriend the resident seamstress on the Ranch...
...JoAnn (fig. 2). JoAnn, as I learned last night at Needle Night is not only a gifted and tender mender, she is also a family woman from Indiana with two children, a nice retirement package from 25 years as a middle school math teacher, and a pretty good grip on her Medicare/Social Security situation. She also is my mentor in this undertaking - at least until next week when she and her husband (my competition) leave next week.
JoAnn oversaw my progress last night, and wisely advised me not to try my biggest and best idea - lining. I was thinking freshly-shorn lambs wool and she was thinking polysynthetic fleece or used mattress pad insulation...that is, until we realized that the size "large" kit is made to fit a foot of 10.5. Mine is a 12.5. Problem? Oh no...nothing a little rinsing of the leather won't take care of. But the lining just had to go, and I have only JoAnn to thank for wisely preventing me from shearing a sheep in the cover of darkness.
This (fig. 3) is the unfinished product of one Needle Night of hard work and toil. Beautiful, huh? And you'll be relived to know that despite the size limitations suggested by the kit manufacturers, it's a nice fit on my foot. It even has an insole for comfort.
Don't worry, though. This project is far from over. My interior additions might have been thwarted due to unforseen circumstances, but the exterior possibilities remain limitless. Check back next Needle Night for updates on my progress, and feel free to leave your own suggestions for mocassin upgrade. 

tillin' and chillin'

that about sums up my day. cale and i stripped down into our skibbies this morning and walked through our fields spreading sulfur and chicken litter. (the sulfur stays in your clothes, so we had as little on as we could stand in the cold wind. i'll let your imagniation take it from there.) after tha, me and the ol' john deere 1520...yeah, we got tight. we tilled about 30 rows today in preparation for a confluence of lambing ladies / indentured servants. these lovely ladies (about 50 total...we'll have 5 at a time) are generally middle-aged, pay a lot of money to come watch lambs be born, and in return have to/get to do some chores around the Ranch. they'll be here the rest of the week, and we're going to put them to work a'plantin' our veggies. should be good fun - nothing better than older women.

Smoky the Mountain(s)

Feel free to refer to my freind Ellen's blog (linked below and to the right) for a better more prompt update on our recent trip to he lovely and majestic Great Smoky Mountains. The pictures below don't even begin to do the mountains justice, as none of them are really pictures of the mountains and most have me doing something goofy in them. Someone once told me that I'm never serious in pictures, and I got mildly offended. I always considered myself pretty photogenic. Until now. Apologies to whomever offended me by offering up their correct observation.
Trip was good...yadayada. Oreos, s'mores, campfires, sleeping bags, mac n' cheese, sore legs, Miller High life, I-40, Wilco, bluegrass, Appal"atchuns" not "Appal"ayshins", and such things...oh and Nick stopping us every 5 steps for 20 miles to idendify some obscure plant that if we had come just a couple of days later we'd see blooming. They all looked like little green leaves to me. Dern the botanist...dern 'em ta heck.

me and my ridiculously better-looking friend and amateur botanist, nick. and a waterfall. 

[insert caption here] 

the appalachain trail...not for the weak. 

...that big-ass poplar.  

check out... 

always good to double check. 

that's a rocky mountain vest if ever i've seen one.  

next

well, children, march is turning into something crazy for me. just back from a wild week in colorado and now off to tennessee/north carolina on thursday. i'm living the good life of a travelin' fool, but will soon be settled down at the good ol' heifer ranch. i'll be moving out there on monday when i get back from the east, and will be there through the end of august. i just found out that i'll have good access to DSL out ther (currently using dial-up) , so you can expect my blog entries to be lengthier, more frequent, and in much more detail. hopefully you haven't given up on this silly little blurb of a blog, 'cause it' s only getting better. tell all your friends. tell your parents and grandparents - they always like me, even if you don't. i'm going to be a farmer, and i'm going to tell you all about it. for the few of you who know the extent of my farming abilities (i.e. recently confused trellissing with trowing...while teaching an organic gardening class no less), it should get really entertaining around here. i might even figure out how to put up some pictures, too. but let's not get ahead of ourselves here...

sunny, beautiful colorado

well, ladies and gents, i made it. my ski bum soul is content and complete. i'm here in boulder and and going and going and going. been on the mountain 3 days this week, and will be on 2 more before heading back to the southland. much to say about the conference i just went to in kansas city, and much more to say about colorado, but i've got to catch the bus to denver in about 15 minutes, so i gotta run. hope all is well wherever this finds you.