Tom and Dom: year of Santa Barbara: March 26 - We never said we had good form

Tom and Dom: year of Santa Barbara: March 26 - We never said we had good form

Back in the saddle

Gosh it feels good to be weaving again!  So many things seemed to pop up to delay my getting back to my looms.

There was the surgery: 8 weeks gone.

There was helping out with the grandkids (my joy): 2 more weeks gone.

We bought a fixer house on an online auction: 5 more weeks disappear.

Did I mention Thanksgiving, and getting together with family in another city?

1 more week for a total of almost FOUR MONTHS. It just kinda slipped away.


Here are a few photos of some of the 840 square feet of laminate flooring that I installed in the new house.

It turned out looking pretty darn good if I may say so myself.

Now it's time to start thinking about Christmas. I'm donating a rug to a charity auction, which I have to deliver tomorrow. Then I've promised three rugs to my daughter-in-law's bagpiping band for a fundraiser. Better get crackin'.

Happy Holidays to everyone celebrating the season. We will be in Albuquerque, NM for our Christmas celebration, and the whole fan damily will be there. Four kids, three in-laws, and two grandkids. It doesn't get much better than that. Everyone is healthy and happy and we count our blessings.

Peace to All

So much is going on, the least of which was my getting a hysterectomy and a bunch of other 'procedures' in the same general area. It was a non-event, but did slow me down a bit.

Life is getting back to normal. Yesterday I started cleaning up my 'new' 2 harness Newcomb Studio Loom.  I love, love, love, Newcomb Looms!

It is being squeezed into the little room that already holds my 4 harness Newcomb Studio Art Loom. I call them my twins.

Still have a little work to do on the new addition. Poor loom had sat in an inadequate shed for many years. Animals chewed on the wood, and cats did what cats do on other parts of it. It still has a nice long warp on it that seems to be dusty, but in good shape. I'll salvage as much of it as I can. After buying some new cords she should be ready to weave. It is so exciting to see these old looms come to life again. This one even came with the original spool rack - a little red (and rusty) piece of history.

There is actually a story that goes with this loom. I bought it from the granddaughter of the original owner. She could remember weaving on it as a child when her family visited her grandmother. When the grandmother passed away, the family gave the loom to the granddaughter. As life often goes, as much as she wanted to learn to weave, small children, and other obligations kept her from getting to the loom. She felt badly that it was just sitting in the shed, starting to rust, and so sold it. She also gave me bins, and bins of her grandmother's prepared strips of rags. I cherish these balls of vintage fabric. They weave up into classic, thin, rag rugs that will wash in a domestic washing machine very well.

 When I went to look at the loom I was devastated to see that the breast beam was missing. The woman selling the loom was mystified, too, and said maybe it had been missing when she got the loom. We negotiated a new price, and I sadly tried to think how in the world I would come up with a sturdy enough breast beam without spending a fortune. I spoke with a local woodworker. I went to the lumber yard and bought a 'test' piece of spruce. The very next day after buying the spruce, the seller of the loom called me to say that she had found the beam in another shed! She actually came to drop it off at my house, and I gave her the rug that her grandmother had last woven on the loom. The rug was still on the loom when I bought it, but had been badly damaged by cats' claws.  I had washed it, taken it apart, and re-wove it for her son. There had been two other rugs on the loom, too, protected by the last one - these she took for her daughter, and herself/husband. So everyone got a 'new' rug from their deceased grandmother/great grandmother.  I also told the lady that she could come and weave on her grandmother's loom anytime after I got it set up.

I have been restricted from weaving rugs since my surgery - only one more week to go, and I will be back at my looms. I have tried to be good about not lifting over ten pounds, but that all went to hades in a hand-basket about a week ago when we bought a new refrigerator.  Looms aren't too light to move around, either, but I've been pretty careful - don't want to go through that again : )

Now I am off to help out with the grand kids for two weeks. Enjoy FALL!!!! Time to get the lettuce in the ground. Salad! Yummm.

Life can be so amazing; so interconnected


I needed a 'new' car.


My son needed a newer car.


I had a lovely couchsurfer stay with me.


I found the perfect Prius on craigslist in Eugene, Oregon - 7 hours up the road from me.


Now the couchsurfer, who was headed south when she stayed overnight with me, is returning north, and will overnight with me again. Only this time when she leaves in the morning, I will be in the passenger seat. She will drop me off in Eugene, and I will drive my 'new' car home.


How cool is that!?!


And we will get a great 7-hour visit to boot.


Now to get my old Prius to Albuquerque, NM...

              Happy  Father's  Day


Two hens have been sitting. Six chicks hatched out a few days ago. The mothers seem quite content to share the babies. One problem. There are two roosters, and we don't know if they 'shared' responsibility, too. I guess we will just wish them both a Happy Father's Day.


My hope for all fathers around the world is that they are gentle with their children, and that they listen to their children. My children were blessed with such a father.


It reminds me of the story of the little boy who helped his grandpa wash the car. The little boy's father walked by and said, "I hope grandpa is paying you well to help wash the car."


To which the little guy promptly replied, "Grandpa pays me attention!"




One is truly rich, who possesses what money cannot buy. 

Need to rant

Yesterday I had a bad experience with Camilla Valley Farm in Canada. I had ordered a $46 weaving temple from them, but they didn't give shipping charges on their online ordering form - just the promise that they would email the shipping amount for approval before shipping.

Yesterday a package arrived with the temple in it, and an invoice saying they had charged $70 to my credit card! I was in a state of shock. No way would I have approved that much for shipping when I could have ordered the same temple from another company for less money.

I definitely won't be doing business with Camilla in the future. Nina Manners, of Camilla Valley Farm actually had the gall to say it was pretty much my fault for not asking. Excuse me?

OK, enough whining. Had a good day today working in the garden, baking bread, and even got a little weaving done. It's hot, though, and that kinda sucks the energy right out of you.

Today is Sunday. Another great day of working in the garden, and staying out of automobiles. Of coarse, since my 2001 Prius is in the shop having it's main batteries replaced, I have a wonderful excuse to avoid going anywhere. On top of that, it did not get blisteringly hot today, and that won't last long so I want to get as much done outside as possible before we hit the triple digits that Redding, CA is so famous for. By the way, I have almost 200,000 miles on my Prius, so it deserves some new batteries. I have been driving it since October of 2000 - eleven and a half years. That car has saved me so much money, and the environment so much yuck. I love it.


Have a good week,        Pat