Community Wherever You Go

The person after me in the print shop area was a man who introduced himself to the clerk by saying he was ninety-four years old, and then described what he was looking for.

I pay attention when I hear someone who gives an elder’s age.  That person has lived a long time, and I know there is wisdom there.  He was by himself, and was active and engaged in his business.

After I finished getting my printing done, he walked past me out to his car, which was a mini-van.

I thanked him for being here and he came over and shared some of his story after saying he was one “of those World War Two guys”.

I loved learning that he had gone to Washington D.C. when he was eighteen and worked as a messenger for the FBI before being transferred to the fingerprint analysis department.  After watching airplanes fly overhead for several months, he decided “he had to have some of that”!

He flew B-17’s from Great Britain to Berlin and other places all over Europe.  He has a signed document by J. Edgar Hoover acknowledging his work for the FBI.

His wife of 67 years died in 2012.  He was married five years before I was born.  He says, if you live a good life, you can expect good in your life.

He was parked a little close to my car and he backed up to let me out.

I don’t know his name, but he is part of my community.

Now, he is part of your community, too.

I am so grateful to meet interesting people who have simply lived their lives.  They have done all the little things that you and I do, and this man showed how he contributed to our world in many ways.

I am making my way through this same world, and I hope I can speak of it with as much peace and quiet conviction as this ninety-four year old man did.

© 2017 Kathryn Hardage

www.transitiontownskills.blogspot.com 

"Pop"Goes the Weasel

I bought an antique “weasel” to wind my yarn from the spinning wheel into skeins.

The weasel sets up an incredible efficiency in measuring my warp thread for my looms as well.

After measuring around the arms of the weasel, I determined that it was two yards around.

I am preparing to warp my rug loom and I may need as much as 45 inches width of rug warp, depending on how wide I want to make my rugs.

I will wind ten yards per skein; that is five rounds of the weasel.

Here is the weasel mechanism, with the tip of the weasel broken off.  

It can be repaired by extending the tip, and then when I wind and the gear mechanism works its way all the way across, the weasel will “pop”, just like the song.

© 2017 Kathryn Hardage

Gardening in Straw

About six weeks ago, placed a layer of straw across my yard in a way line, edging an area where I had planted flowers.

I placed seed potatoes on it at about 6-10 inch intervals.  Then I covered them with another layer of straw.

About a third of them came up.  I have been adding more straw around them as the stalks get higher.

 

About a week ago, I placed a longer wavy layer of straw across the other side of my yard.  I planted alternating sections with veggies and flowers.

 Some of them are coming up now.  It is so much fun to see all the new growing things.

© 2017 Kathryn Hardage

New Weaving Project Using the 6th Draft

I am working my way through the projects which were introduced at my first weaving retreat in September of 2017.  This is the 6th draft and it is the first one I have been able to figure out on my own.  It is so wonderful when the new terminology, notation, materials and technology all finally make sense.

My tangled warp.

I am saved by the sections which were tied before it came off the warping board.

The warp divided into ten-thread sections.

Canning Corn

Hurray!  I did it!

My husband cooked a bunch of corn right away to eat, but we still had plenty to can!

It takes three cobs per pint and I canned eighteen pints.

Two batches of eight pints, plus two which will become part of a canned stew.

First, my husband shucked all the corn and put it in a large box to carry out to the compost pile.

Then I cut the corn off the cobs using a new madoline.

We sterilized the lids, heated the pressure canner, packed the corn into pint jars and placed them in the canner.

Thirty minutes at pressure later, we had our finished pint jars of corn.

© 2017 Kathryn Hardage

More Practice

I enjoy my fiber and sewing activities with my groups so very much.

This week was such a treat.

On Tuesday, I went to Stitch Night with my knitting friends.  My husband made a chocolate cake with maraschino cherries for us to enjoy.

On Thursday night, I went to Sewing Sisters at Heavenly Notions in Granby and worked on my challenge quilt for the Newtonia Quilt Guild.

On Friday night, I completed my challenge quilt at Heavenly Notions, during part of my regular get-together at the quilt shop.

On Saturday, I met with my occasional sewing group to celebrate a member’s birthday, and I worked on my hand-quilting project.

On Sunday, I went to my Fiber Folks meeting in Joplin, for a program teaching members to knit and crochet.

This week, my husband is helping me do canning, cherries and sweet corn, separately, that is.

I am enjoying my new life practicing homesteading skills.

© 2017 Kathryn Hardage

Our Community

We are not here for ourselves, alone.

We are here to connect with others and to raise our communities.

Our collective knowledge, skills and abilities, reaching out in compassion can educate the whole community so it supports itself.

Unified little villages and neighborhoods possess all the resources that are necessary to build happy lives.

Originally, small communities knew the capabilities of all their members.

The knew who could give help and when it was needed.

There was a kind of co-operation which took care of everyone.

Now, with the corporate distraction revealed so boldly, we are desperate for that feeling community.

What shared skills would enable your neighborhood, your community to be able to support itself.?

How would yo go about learning new skills that interest you that would also help support your community?

© 2017 Kathryn Hardage
www.transitiontownskills.blogspot.com