My husband and I were able to schedule a quick getaway this past week all made possible by Peggy's availability to come and feed the animals. We drove over to Fredricksburg for a couple of days and had a lovely time. We walked back and forth along Main Street, ate at great restaurants and managed to find some wonderful Christmas presents for family and friends. It rained on Wednesday for our drive out there but was crisp and cold and sunny on Thursday - a glorious day. We came home on Friday in the sun. It was wonderful. The burn ban here in Colorado County was lifted last week so Ron decided it was time to burn his little burn piles. ...
The word "Fall" reflects what the leaves do this time of year. They fall off the trees and shrubs onto the ground. Here in the upper Gulf Coast of Texas we have lots of trees with leaves that don't fall. Our evergreens are just that - ever green with leaves or needles that don't fall. And we have live oaks that hold their leaves all winter long only to drop them in the spring when they are getting ready for new growth. Our pecan trees, however, really do fall in the fall. They start to lose their leaves this time of year and also lose small limbs. We don't rake leaves but we do spend lots of time picking up...
We appreciate when our customers remind us of what we forget. Thank you MaryLynn for reminding me that we needed more BFL/Silk dyed. Yesterday was the dye day. We have five functioning burners on our 6 burner set-up so we can do five different colors at once. Yesterday we did five colors of BFL/Silk and five colors of Polwarth/Silk. It was a great dye day! The temperature started out downright chilly and ended in the afternoon at very comfortable. The rinse tubs were full of water and we were ready to go. Our approach to dyeing fiber is sort of "seat of the pants." We make no attempt at reproducibility so each dye pot is one of a kind. Of...
Our summers are long and hot. Lots of accomodations need to be made in order to function reasonably well in this climate. The biggest accomodation is air conditioning. Everything is air conditioned. As in everything. Cars, hotels, homes, businesses, shopping centers, even the ballpark. Everything is air conditioned. But what about our cars? They are air conditioned while we are in them driving around but what about when they are parked? I grew up wanting a garage. We never had one. We lived in duplexes or in single family homes but in the north where protection from snow and the cold are much more important than protection from heat. Nevertheless, we never had a garage. My husband and I bought...
I was out and about this past week and realized the cotton fields are bare. I'm usually more in tune with this season but somehow it slipped past me. It may be because I didn't plant cotton this year but more likely it's simply that I haven't been driving past cotton fields. We grow a lot of cotton in this part of Texas. Most of the big cotton fields are south of us. I checked in with my county extension agent when I first started growing colored cotton to be sure there weren't any issues. My 7' garden bins hardly grow much cotton compared with the huge farms but you should always check in if you want to grow cotton. ...
