Cabin Crafted

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  • Facebook Rant – 11/6/2019

    For those of you who follow this blog on Facebook, you should take advantage of the subscription link on this page. As you know, I have a small from home craft shop with the registered name Cabin Crafted. This shop can be found on Etsy by going here Cabincraftedshop.com. In order to promote the shop, I decided to start a page on Facebook. I went through the entire process and when it posted, it posted with the name “1947.” I did not choose that,but I don’t know why Facebook came up with it. I had requested Cabin Crafted, obviously. I submitted a page name change and they instantly denied it. I appealed the request with the explanation that I did not choose that name, that my friends and customers knew Cabin Crafted, and the appeal was denied. I have tried one more time. If they again deny the name change, that page and my profile from Facebook will be deleted and you will only be able to get to my shop through this blog or Etsy or in person at events. You will only be able to read my blog by subscribing to it. You will still be able to reach me by commenting on the blog, by email, phone or text if you are a phone friend.

    I am about done with Facebook. I know that they have rules, many of which seem arbitrary or fueled by interest groups, but too many of my shepherd friends have be blocked from selling their fleeces because of the rules. A young relative posted a rant because she was not allowed to post a link to a legitimate medical site because of the rules. Yet offensive posts, political or otherwise pop up constantly.

    This may be the last post from this blog that appears on Facebook. I know I have said it before, but I think I can do without them in my life.

  • The Chair redux

    Those of you who have read my blog from the beginning may remember a post called “The Chair.” Because of the loss of the archives, I can’t provide a link to it for you to read, so here is a brief summary. Many, many years ago, maybe 20, hubby fell in love with a huge chair in Sams Club. Every time we went to shop, he looked to see if it was still there and sat in it for a bit. Near Christmas, daughter and I set out to buy that chair and bring it home, hide it, and put it in the house for his Christmas present. It didn’t fit in my car in the box, so daughter and I unboxed it, loaded part of it in my mini van, I left her standing in the parking lot with the rest and the box while I took it home and returned to get her and the remainder of the chair and the box. We hid the chair in a neighbor’s garage until closer to Christmas, recycled the box and got it in the house as his gift. That chair moved when we sold our house to build this home to the rental we were in for a year. Then I moved here to a new job, into an apartment, and “the chair” moved to an apartment until hubby retired to move here. He and our youngest son lived in that apartment for 2 years then moved to a better apartment for 1 more, then hubby and “the chair” moved to the mountains to sit in our loft in front of the TV. His chair.

    Eight years ago this December, our mastiff was born, 8 weeks later, we drove to Pennsylvania to get him. As he grew, as mastiffs are prone to do, he would back up to “the chair” when hubby was sitting in it and sit on the edge, eventually getting big enough that he would manage to curl up in hubby’s lap.

    That chair as you can see from the arm, was failing and shortly after this photo was taken, it gave up and we bought a “new chair.” The “new chair” as we discovered was pleather, and not very good quality pleather. Where “the chair” lasted about 15 years and 4 moves, the “new chair” failed after about 4 year and the “new chair” wasn’t big enough for the beast and his master to share. Now understand, our dogs do not get on furniture, except the beast and his master’s chair. Because Ranger couldn’t get on the chair with hubby, he would try to sit on the edge, finally pawing at hubby’s leg to get him to come down on the floor with him. This is another mastiff trait. By this morning, there was no pleather on the seat, the back of the cushion had come unstitched and the stuffing was coming out, the chair has been covered with a fitted sheet for a month and hubby showed signs of allergy every time he sat in it.

    He has been promised a better chair for Christmas, but the old one needed to go now, and the loft thoroughly cleaned of the pleather dust, stuffing, dog hair bunnies, spill stains under furniture. The loft also contains my chair, various spinning and weaving tools, a desk, a file cabinet, a love seat, and two small tables. It was decided that the “new chair” now old and decrepit was headed to the dump and he would use the love seat until Christmas. With much effort, it was gotten down the steps, into the back of the SUV and hauled away. The loft has been vacuumed, dusted, floor hand washed, and rearranged as the love seat was not where he could see the TV.

    It isn’t the best arrangement, making it difficult to get behind the seating to the desk and printer, but it will do for a few weeks.

  • Podcasts – 10/30/2019

    I am a recent listener of Podcasts. The first one I heard was an edition of 99% Invisible while riding in the backseat of eldest son’s car on the way from their house to the Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA to see my first play there. I am not a daily listener, I don’t follow but a few and I don’t listen to all the episodes, I pick and choose. I follow 99% Invisible, The Moth, The Way I Heard it, and some of the Ted Talks episodes. I also follow a local sustainable farmer’s podcast, Can Your Beans Do That?

    Some daily/weekly tasks around the house I enjoy and find meditative, cooking and the prep is one. Some I find very onerous, laundry being one. Some get neglected until I can’t stand the dust or dog hair bunnies and then pull out the dust cloth or vacuum. That task is one that is neutral. To get through the more onerous tasks, I often listen to a Podcast. Folding T-shirts and socks seems to go more quickly if my mind is otherwise occupied.

    On morning when I am up a couple hours before my spouse, and have finished the daily animal tasks, I will sometimes sit and listen to a cast or two through headphones so as to keep the house quiet until we are both moving about. When I am home alone, the television never is turned on, instead music or podcasts provide my entertainment and sometimes a level of education.

    On a visit to son’s house, I asked how he downloads them to listen offline as in the car. When traveling I listen to NPR until I lose the station and then switch to downloaded music. I thought listening to a few of my favorite Podcasts might make the trips seem shorter. He gave me a lesson, I thought I had it and prior to my last trip up to help them, I downloaded 5 podcasts to help pass the 3 1/2 hours it takes to reach them. Alas, as I stopped for an iced tea to travel with, I turned on my Podcasts to play through my tiny Bluetooth speaker, the only way I can hear downloads from my phone (my car is 14 years old and the sound system lacks Bluetooth, the cassette play no longer works, the CD player is intermittent) . There were no downloads there. I must not have learned the lesson well. I guess I will get him to try again next time we are in the same location together. It would have been nice this morning as I cleaned the chicken coop. My WiFi doesn’t reach that far, so the one I was listening to while folding laundry was suspended until I was back in the house.

    When time comes to replace one of our ancient vehicles, it will come equipped with technology that far exceeds our current knowledge and a new learning curve will be presented.

  • Between Gigs – 10/29/2019

    Last weekend was the start of the season. As a volunteer at the Wilderness Road Regional Museum, I am usually the spinner. Sometimes events stack and I have to be elsewhere. Sometimes, my role is different. The last weekend of October, they plan a Spirits Along the Wilderness Road event. It isn’t a scary event, instead a Percheron pulled wagon travels a path through local history with stops for the “Spirits” of actual historical figures from the region to share their moment in history.

    Photo credit April Martin, Wilderness Road Regional Museum

    There were many spirits, Colonels, soldiers, gamblers, slaves, Seminole indians, founders, shop keepers, Politicians, a tiny Werewolf, and more. I portrayed an older Mary Draper Ingles displaying her angst at being away from the ferry and her home as dark descended.

    Photo credit April Martin, Wilderness Road Regional Museum

    In all there were 9 wagon loads of visitors, one every half hour and we could have filled more if there had been space and time. Last year the event was rain delayed to a week night and was less successful, but this year was especially great. The period depicted for my part was just after the Revolutionary War, so I wore that period clothing. As folks could wander the museum before or after their ride, I also was able to share some fiber history and demonstrate spinning on one of the old Walking Wheels that I helped restore to use.

    The upcoming weekend, I will be with a friend demonstrating wool and spinning at the Booker T. Washington National Monument again in costume, but this time closer to the Civil War so a bit of change up to the clothing items. It will also be outdoors and a chilly weekend, so there may be some hidden woolen layers under the two piece dress, and my Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em huge shawl and fingerless mitts to help try to stay warm. At this event, my friend and I can also vend, so yarn, knits, soaps, and salves will accompany my spinning wheel and baskets. When demonstrating in costume, I have a canvas seated wooden folding chair (a period camp reproduction) and a Jacob sheep pelt that I sit on. If I get too cold, the pelt can be in my lap.

    After this weekend, there are a couple of weeks off, then the craft shows for the holidays begin in earnest with Catawba Valley Farmers Market Holiday event on November 23rd. The Blacksburg Farmers Market Holiday markets the first 3 Saturday’s in December. The first two Saturday’s and Sunday’s in December, I will also be back at Wilderness Road Regional Museum in period clothing, demonstrating spinning and vending at their Christmas Bazaar in the old German Barn during the Wassailing and tours of the museum in Christmas greens and candles.

    This is such a fun time of year, never knowing what the weather may bring or the crowds that may show up.

  • Old Dog, New Trick – 10/26/2019

    Depending on the trick, this old dog can be taught a new one. About 2 years ago, ads for the Instant Pot or it’s other brand variations were prevalent. I suggested to hubby that it would be a good birthday or Christmas gift (those events are only a month apart). He didn’t know what one was and I had a coupon for Bed, Bath, and Beyond that was about to expire, so we went looking. They had a different brand that I didn’t like all the features on it, and we had to go over to Target for something else and they did have two sizes of Instant Pot brand on sale. I didn’t get it for my birthday or Christmas, he told me to go on and get it right then as it wasn’t very expensive. It has totally changed the way I cook. To be able to cook dry beans in 40 minutes, stew, or brown rice in about the same amount of time was luxury. I have used it for making yogurt, but that is as easy in a cooler. I cooked a dozen eggs for deviled eggs, but a steamer works just as well. The Instant Pot gets used about 5 times each week. Now that I know it’s features and how long it takes to make a recipe, I have begun to experiment with other recipes.

    One that I used to make for the family is Greek Stew. It takes hours to prepare, but is delicious and even better as left overs. The farmers market had green bell peppers and the last of the season’s eggplants today, both are ingredients necessary for the stew.

    Because I needed the kitchen for one last soap session, but because I wanted to prepare the stew while the ingredients were fresh, I set about altering the recipe for the Instant Pot. The recipe starts by sauteing onion quarters until golden. It has a feature for that. Once the onions are spooned out, stew beef dredged in flour and cinnamon is browned, again the saute feature. The browned beef and onions are added back together with tomato sauce and beef broth and simmered for several hours to tenderize and cook the meat. Instead of hours, 40 minutes on the pressure setting will handle it. Then you add raw rice and cook til the rice is tender, the Instant Pot has a rice setting. Then you add cubed eggplant and cook for 20-30 minutes which can be done on the low saute setting and finally 10 minutes with large chunks of green bell peppers. Instead of more than 4-5 hours, this stew will be ready in just a little over an hour.

    The beautiful pottery bowls are from a local pottery and friend, Dashing Dog Studio, the wooden ladle is from Chester P. Basil’s Wood, purchased at a craft fair at least a dozen years ago.

    Sometimes, I don’t know how I cooked without it, but if necessary, I can still cook on the stove top, the top of the woodstove, or the gas grill when Mother Nature takes out our power.

  • Jack Frost’s visit – 10/25/2019

    Jack Frost made his arrival 14 days after the average frost date for our area in the mountains. And he returned the next night too. Though neither frost was a “killing” frost, it did burn the leaves on the pumpkin vines, revealing the 4 dozen fruits hidden in their midst. Most are still green, but Google says they can be set on a sunny patio and will ripen. There are no more frost dates in the forecast for about 10 days (of course that can change in a blink), so they will sit and cure or ripen until it looks like the weather requires they be brought in to the root cellar.

    These are Seminole pumpkins. They remain small and turn tan when ripe. Being a moschata variety, they are resistant to vine borers. I feared there wouldn’t be any as the vines took so long to take hold and grow, but in spite of the frost, there are still a few flowers blooming.

    The frost wasn’t enough to totally kill off the remaining peppers, but to make sure they weren’t wasted, the last of them were picked, along with a handful of sheltered Calendula flowers.

    The Calendula still has many buds and because of it’s sheltered position along a south facing stone wall, I may be able to continue harvesting them to dry for salves for another month or so. The peppers were all cut in half lengthwise and for the next couple of days, the house will be piquant with the scent of capsaicin as the oven is used as a dehydrator to reduce the moisture in them for storage.

    My longterm to do list includes an arbor for the grape vine and a solar dehydrator. Short term, I need to clean up the mess that was my garden this summer. A few handfuls of weeds and spent beans were tossed to the chickens to pick through.

    The asparagus tops need to be cut back and their bed mulched with hay. The spent sunflowers need to be cut or pulled and the bed nearest the compost turned and fed with shovels of compost in preparation for the garlic and onions in about a month. The beds that had the tomatoes and the overgrown mint bed are full of mint and weeds and need serious clean up and mulching. The bed that was peas last spring, that I planted oats, field peas, and vetch in as cover crop and then the chickens scratched up has a few of the cover crop plants in it, but is mostly weeds, so it too needs to be pulled up and covered with hay. I tried to control the mint with a tarp which failed miserably. Maybe the weed wacker will bring it down and I can cover it with a thick layer of newspaper and cardboard, a thicker layer of hay and let it sit dormant for a year. The mint that has escaped the bed is growing over the top of cardboard in the aisles and is fairly easy to pull up.

    Each year in April, the University has a Saturday where you can sign up to have students come help you with projects. I am going to try to catch that date and see if some students can help me rebuild my boxes and reset my fence so that it doesn’t look like a drunk erected it. If I can get the posts set where I want them prior to the student’s arrival, perhaps we can get a tight run of 4 foot welded wire around the garden, the gate hanging hardware put in the wooden post that has the solar charger on it, and the gate moved. Both of my solar chargers need new batteries, perhaps that can get done this winter so it will fully charge and once the fence is repaired, new electric can be strung along the top to discourage the deer. There is a lot to be done, but the weather is cool now and not so onerous to be outside working. A couple hours a day over a few days should get the garden put to bed for the winter.

  • Preparedness- 10/22/2019

    One Fingerless Mitt was finished and the second is well underway. The decision to make them mitts not mittens was made.

    Last night, a new label was created for the soaps, generic so that I can write in the variety on the front, and the ingredients printed on the back. White Glassine bags were purchased for use when doing historical events. Clear cello bags are used at Holiday Markets.

    Today it was too wet to be outdoors, so a new yarn band was designed and printed on craft brown cardstock and the skeins were banded and priced for the first vending event.

    All of the knits and woven goods were checked and retagged if the tags were worn or folded and the prices checked to make sure they agree on my payment site. The knits and skeins then sealed in container to get them to the event.

    More knitting needs to be done, to finish the mitts and make at least a couple more pair in different sizes and colors.

    The weather is cooling into real autumn like weather and we have gotten some much needed rain. Still no frost has occurred and none is the forecast that I can see. The first historical event on my schedule is the Spirit Trail at Wilderness Road Regional Museum on Sunday, October 27, from 4 to 8 p.m. This is a fun event with a wagon ride through Newbern history. The next is the following Saturday, November 2, and I go from Revolutionary War to around Civil War era at the Harvest Time event at Booker T. Washington National Monument. This is a vending event as well as historical demonstration as a spinner and will be with a friend. It is supposed to be chilly that day and so I’m hoping to sell some of the hats, mitts, and scarves in my inventory. The weekend after that I return to Revolutionary War and will demonstrate fiber prep and spinning at the History Museum of Western Virginia in Roanoke, November 9 and 10.

    After that I have a weekend off before the winter craft events begin. On November 23, I will be at the Catawba Farmers Market at their annual Holiday Craft show, and the first 3 Saturdays of December, at the Blacksburg Farmers Market Holiday Markets. A busy time ahead.

  • Stiff – 10/20/2019

    Since my return last week from helping eldest and family finish moving their household, I have done almost no knitting and no spinning. The weather finally broke and has been much cooler and we have had some rain.

    The rain revealed that the vent through the metal roof that has been resealed twice since installation a dozen years ago is again leaking. The leak ruined the drywall soffit in the finished basement within a year or two if it being finished, and several years ago at Christmas, eldest tore down all the drywall and rebuilt that soffit using paneling that allows me to unscrew a few screws and lift out a piece of the panel to put a drip pan in the ceiling whilst awaiting another repair.

    The leaky vent is one of the two toward the left side top, I sure can’t get up there.

    The cool and the rain also bring in the winter stiffness in my hands and lower back that are caused by arthritis, thus the lack of knitting and spinning. The arthritis and trigger finger in 4 of my fingers is always worse in the winter.

    With the various historical demonstration and craft events looming, some knitting must be done. One of the projects that went with me and never left my bag is a triangular scarf. This morning I picked it back up to work on. It is about 1/3 done and is a smooth fine fingering weight merino.

    Another reason knitting isn’t happening much is that prior to my leaving, hubby gouged a good bit of flesh out of his back (I will spare you the gory pictures) and as I wasn’t here to keep it bandaged and antibiotic on it, it didn’t heal whilst I was away. If we keep antibiotic ointment and a thick pad over it and he doesn’t stretch or twist too much, he stays fairly comfortable, but he can’t reach the spot to care for it. Now that I am home, it is getting treated, covered, and I am doing all the driving so he can sit still. Riding passenger is always knitting time. The wound is healing now and hopefully will cease causing him discomfort soon.

    I have some worsted handspun yarn skeins that I would like to get knit up into fingerless mitts before the craft shows. I never know how much to price my handspun handknits for so I went on an etsy adventure looking them up. It was not helpful at all. The prices are all over the place, the styles equally scattered. I saw short “wristlets” for way more than my much longer mitts. Plain bulky weight ones for double my fingering weight cabled ones. But then I saw handspun handknit lace shawls priced so low that the cost would hardly cover the fiber, much less the time to spin and knit it. I have several hats, a couple of scarves or mini shawls, a couple of large shawls, 1 pair of fingerless mitts with gusseted thumb. There may not be a lot more to sell if I don’t get busy.

    I need to figure out how to raise this rack enough to use top 3 or 4 rungs without setting it on a table top. The rack is 5 feet high and at one of the events, I am limited to an 8 foot table they provide. Still pondering how to do this safely and securely.

    Well, back to knitting, or they surely won’t get done.

  • Away and Back again, 10/15/2019

    Almost another week away helping family. Eldest son and his wife purchased their first home and it required some serious upgrades some of which needed to be done before they put anything in the house. The first two trips by me were to help out by getting their young teen to and/or from his new High School as the bus transportation for this school did not go to where they had been living for several years, and to help pack boxes of books, extra linens, and items they could do without for a few weeks. By the second trip, some items could be moved, but had to be secured in the largest bedroom with the door closed.

    This trip was to help finish moving the last of the household goods and items from the shed, get the move out house cleaned up, help start unpacking the books and kitchen items, and help them get floor leveling applied to two of the 4 rooms that needed it done in order to lay laminate flooring and ceramic tile. A couple of the days, I worked on house stuff while they were at work and school, over the weekend, I was working with them.

    Soon they will have their house in order. Now they can walk to local restaurants, the library, the parks, instead of a 15-20 minute drive, and they have plenty of space to have a separate library, music room, guest room and home office. On the flip side, they no longer are in the woods with a creek in their front yard.

    I took knitting and drop spindles with me and they never left my bag. I did read some, but was so tired by bedtime, that I didn’t even do much of that.

    My garden is a mess, idle beds are weedy, beds that had stuff still growing are dead or dying and the pumpkins are taking over. I can see a few in the bed, but still don’t know how many. I pulled a few weeds when I got home this morning, picked a few remaining peppers and beans. After a day or two of resting up, I will tackle the dead and dying plants, remove more weeds, continue my fight with Creeping Charlie and Mint, put more cardboard down and cover it and the idle beds with a thick layer of hay, and get the bed ready for garlic and potato onions to be planted in about a month. The forecast is for rain tomorrow. There is still no frost in the forecast for the next 2 weeks.

    For the rest of this day, I am going to sit, maybe nap, and fix dinner.

  • Crafty week – 10/8/2019

    The past few days have been busy with craftiness. Eleven batches of soap have been made, Woodlands, Peppermint/Cocoa, Lavender, Tea Tree, Vanilla, Pumice, and Calendula.

    Unless that guest room is needed in the next month, the soap will sit there and cure for hardness. It only takes 24 hours for it to go from caustic solution to saponify to soap. Once it is hard, another day or so will be used to package it for the various markets. The holiday shapes, you can’t see all of them because of the picture angle, but there are snowmen heads, trees, snowflakes, flowers, and sheep, will be bagged in glassine bags with tags for the holiday markets. Plain round, square, or rectangular ones for the Harvest Market at Booker T. Washington Park will be banded with craft paper bands.

    After long afternoons of 2 or 3 batches of soap being made, I have continued to knit on my Free your Fade shawl, a pattern by Andrea Mowry using Only the Finest yarn by Louise Nuttle. I really pushed the limits with some of the yarns.

    I am on the last color and there is plenty of it. I will decide how many color repeats of it I want as I finish each section. The picot bind off can be done after any 10 row garter section. It is warm, soft, and very generous in size.

    I continue knitting on the Hitchhiker scarf and have slightly more than half of the points done in it. It is small enough to carry around in my purse to knit on when a passenger or sitting in a waiting room.