Wicked Wind

Just as predicted the winter storm arrived in the wee hours of Wednesday. It was the wind that woke us up, it shook the house - shook the bed - and howled through the walls. The strong steady oak trees swayed crazily against the night sky.

Our weather station with it's whirly gizmo on the roof recorded sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph and gusts between 50 and 60 mph. It was a wild and woolly two days of wicked wind. The rain fell steadily at a sideways slant.

At first light we were able to assess the damage. A large oak on the adjacent ranch had dropped it's huge heavy limbs. Unfortunately those limbs crashed down on our side of the property and crushed a section of our fence.

 

 

We lost a couple of our own trees but they fell without damaging any structures. It pains me to see old oaks fall.

The most astounding sight is the amount of debris that litters the property. Gnarly pieces of oak, branches and twigs, and leaves everywhere.

 

All hands on deck. The clean up has begun.

 

 

 

Winter Prep

It was 29° this morning when I headed out the door to let the animals out of the pen. Brrrrrr

The rest of the day was sunny, cold, and bright. The calm before the storm.

We're bracing for a large winter storm, predicted to arrive in the wee hours of the night bringing with it strong winds and many (many) inches of rain. It sounds like it's going to be a doozy.

The Man and I spent the day getting ready. The Man added more firewood to the stack in the garage, tested the generator, and did other manly emergency preparations.  

In the pen I covered the chickens' coop door and the goats' chain-link door with plastic feed bags to keep out the rain and especially the wind.

 

On the outside of the pen I noticed that the Acorn Woodpeckers were using the pen as their granary and storing acorns for their own winter prep.

 

At the end of the day The Man parked my car outside and parked the tractor inside the garage. The tractor has proven itself invaluable after a storm.

 

 

I think we're ready. 

The Repair Man

Another day spent dressing the loom. Yup, "dressing the loom" is doing all the preliminary steps before being able to weave on a floor loom. I guess it's a good thing that I really enjoy the process.

Today's task was sleying the reed. All in all it went pretty well. There was just one hiccup early on.

I found a mistake.

Even though I thought I was being excruciatingly careful yesterday I found a threading error. Two heddles were found sitting cozily side by side. Psst, they should not have been together.

 

 

Luckily, I had only sleyed about 3 inches of the reed.  But, still, I wasn't too keen to pull all the threads out and have to start all over.

 

I told my story of woe to The Man and mentioned that sometimes people make their own DIY repair heddles. He asked me to bring him a heddle. He looked at it, went into the garage for a tool, and simply snipped both ends. We went into the Loom Room and The Man slid his repair heddle onto the heddle bar.

I fixed my threading error and finished sleying the rest of the warp without further incident.

 

 

 

It was the end of a good day.

 

 

Palindrome Days

Did you notice Wednesday's date? 1/20/21 it reads the same backward or forward.

Did you notice yesterday's date? 1/21/21.

How about today's date? 1/22/21, cool beans, right?

Speaking of today, continuing the process of dressing the loom, today's task was threading the heddles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 . . . and Bob's your uncle. 

Bob's Your Uncle

Yesterday's blog post inspired me to keep the Weaving Mojo going. As luck would have it I was home alone for the entire day which allowed me to take my time warping the loom and winding on the two warp chains.

I've only warped the Lil' Gem once before and since that was several months ago I needed to review my written notes and rewatch videos from Jane Stafford's Online Guild.

In order to warp alone I used a stack of books and a diver's weight belt to maintain even tension on the 7-yard warp chains as I sat in the back of the loom winding on.

Front of the loom ~

 

 

Back of the loom ~

 

I finished winding on the warp just as The Man pulled into the driveway.

 

As Jane likes to say, " . . . and Bob's your uncle."

 

New Beginnings

 

 

A Week Plus Two

Here we are 2021, a new year. How did we get here so quickly, so slowly?

Last month I took a photo every morning for a week.

Standing in the chilled air I welcomed the quiet stillness.  (deep breath)

When the sky lightened it was time to let the animals out, another day begins.

 

Friday

 

 

 

Saturday

 

 

Sunday

 

 

Monday

 

 

Tuesday

 

 

Wednesday

Thursday

Thursday, the last day of 2020

 

Friday, the first day of 2021

 

Wishing All a Happy and Better New Year, 2021