Challenges

Though I don’t generally post about my crafting, July is one of the months that my online spindle group, all Jenkins Turkish spindle owners, have a very fun challenge. Each month there is something, such as which style spindle spins the most; spin your favorite color or the Pantone color of the year, etc. In July, to coincide with the Tour de France, we do a Tour de Fleece scavenger hunt. You may choose any Jenkins spindle and the fiber of your choice and each day, the moderator posts an object that you need to find and post a photograph of that item with your spindle which must have more spun fiber on it than the day before. Sometimes the items are easily found in your home such as a mug or a broom. Some require seeking the object from elsewhere, such as a fire hydrant. As the spinners are from all over the world, Netherlands, Israel, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Spain, UK, USA, etc. some of the items become quite interesting such as the fire hydrant.

The challenge runs every day of the Tour and if you fulfill the requirements for 21 of the 23 days, you are eligible for the prize drawing. Many of the participants donate gift cards, fiber, and the maker of the spindles donates several spindles. Of course there is chatter so in the first 11 days there are already more than 3500 posts in the thread. It is such a fun way to see other countries, other folks spindles, and spinning.

There have been other challenges. We are in an area that has been in some level of drought for several years. However, the month of July has tried to make up for that in one month. The rain has been relentless, often dumping an inch and a half in less than an hour, other days light rain and mist. The forecase would say it would end in an hour, then two hours, then all day. Today we finally have a clear sunny day that until late this afternoon remained very pleasant, but the heat dome is again decending on us, reaching near 90 today and over 90 for the next few days. By Friday, the rain returns.

This morning, for the third time in a couple weeks, with the tractor and blade, I regraded the driveway and attempted to cut run off channels to a depression that runs down one side of the driveway and to a culvert that goes under the driveway and down the hill beyond the house. Hopefully, the next few dry, hot days with us driving up and down the drive, we will compact it enough that when the rain resumes, it will not cause ruts and gullies down the length of the drive.

Over the July 4th weekend, eldest and his two sons cut down a dead pear tree in the orchard and tossed the branches into the upper unused portion of the garden where the burn barrel is located. I need to get out there and burn it as the rain has encouraged the weeds to try to overwhelm the garden. The currently used portion with the raised beds need a good weeding as well.

I need to hire the local grandson and a couple of his friends to come help me redo the fencing situation around the chicken coop and garden. As much of the garden is unused now, I may wait until the paltry harvest is done and move the raised beds near the asparagus and fence off that area. It may mean moving the healthy blueberries that produced almost no berries this year, giving them a good dose of compost and using them as a wind break outside the fence. There are two old wooden boxes that need to be taken apart and disposed of in the dump. If the help is forthcoming this fall, the area that will be gardened will be covered with cardboard before the boxes are moved and wood chips layed deeply in the paths. The boxes are too close together now so even the line trimmer can’t get between them.

So, fun challenges, weather challenges, and chores challenges. Such is life. Next week, my challenge will be two days at the museum’s summer camp with about 10 kiddos between 6 and 12 teaching herbal medicine one day and spinning/fiber production/use on the frontier the second day. That should fit the fun challenge category.