Hello.... Is this thing on?

It seems like forever since I've been here.  I can't believe my last post was as recent as August 12.  It feels like it has been at least 2 months instead of a couple weeks.  As usual, I spent the dog days of August getting read for the Race for the Rivers.  It was a good event but TOO hot.  The heat index was 114 degrees (F)!!!!  That was crazy.  It was a good event for the folks who were there but, understandably,  few others came out to check things out. 

I spent the rest of my time making.  I made soap.  I made candles.  I made backpacks.  I made lanyards and key chains.  I upcycled napkins.  I pieced some quilt tops.  I made market bags. I made pennants.  I made prayer flags and DIY prayer flag kits.  I made earrings.  I made a crazy amount of stuff.  I was a one person craft mall without the fake flowers!

I did a lot of work figuring out my booth and display items.  I came up with some fun things I will share when I catch my breath. 

Today I received an upcyler's dream:  Grain bags from a microbrewery!  How cool is that?  I'll be making more bags. Anybody know the dimensions of a growler?
 

Trimming

The holly and the ivy got out of hand this past year.  They needed to be trimmed.  Trim them we did.

I love having a double door.  However that means a double wreath.  But with plenty of holly and ivy I made them myself.  How very cheap Martha of me!  And I had a good case of poison ivy to go with it.  (There must have been something extra in one of the trimming spots because I am very careful around the poison ivy and I didn't see any anywhere.)

There were even a few wee wreaths to be made.  Hope your holiday trimming is going well.   In case you want to be Martha too, you can follow my wee sketch tutorial over on craftster. 

Oh My (Random Thoughts)

I have no idea where this week has gone.  Nor am I exactly sure where the summer has gone.  Here is one last look at the lake (admittedly from a couple years ago.) 

The weather has certainly turned colder around here.  When I went to the Post Office at 4 pm,  (to send out Christmas Coal...) it was 82 degrees.  When I got in the car to take Spud 3 to scouts it was 48 degrees. 

It has been so warm around here for so long that I am right out of the habit of cooking.  Sandwiches and salad don't heat up the kitchen much.  Nor do they create much in the way of dishes.  However, I think I am about ready for some variety.

The annual chili cook-off and pumpkin carving is at our church this weekend.  The cold weather is making the idea of cooking chili much more appealing than it was a couple days ago. I have to decide if I'm going traditional this year or if I continue my streak of entering odd-ball chili recipes.  

We don't have any pumpkins yet.  I'll have to see if the spud wants to carve one or if he just wants to hang out help the younger ones.  I haven't even managed to decorate for Halloween.  I think that at this point decorations are highly unlikely.

I had the opportunity to join with a group of people from around the country at the Mississippi River Network meetings this week.  It is so exciting to meet them and to learn all about the amazing things they are doing to protect the Mississippi River Watershed, otherwise known as the Louisiana Purchase.  The first thing we did, by way of introduction was to tell of our first experience with the river; to answer the question, what draws you to the river.  Let's just say there was an awful lot of wading, swimming, caving, climbing, catching and general mucking about when mom wasn't looking going on.  It certainly renewed my belief in the need to bring as many people as possible to the river. 

The meeting was also another opportunity to catch up with the Quapaw Canoe Compay crew.  While I have still not met John Ruskey in person (I'm beginning to think he is an imaginary, no legendary figure!) I did get a chance to catch up with some of the guys.  Here is a picture of the mighty Quapaw in the Junebug, a canoe they built, taking some folks out on the river at the Race for the Rivers Festival this summer.  You really should check out the fine work they are doing down in Clarksville on the river and in their community.

I am making my last few preparations for a craft show on Saturday.  This is the first time I've actually set up my booth space ahead of the show.  I've taken some time to not only map out the space but to physically place the items and displays on the tables.  I've chosen to go with black tablecloths as they won't stain and they won't compete with the bright colors of the sunpaint fabrics.  I even managed to make a banner this time.  I still have to make some signs and either find or re-print my cards so I need to get busy.  I'll try to remember to take pictures and post them when I get a chance. 

Paddling

Bohemiannie! asked me to tell more about the Race for the Rivers.  For the first time, I didn't even manage to take my camera.  I personally have no pictures other than a few I took on my phone.   I'll start by sharing a few that have been sent to me.  These were taken by M Garvey.  They are very low resolution but they will give you an impression of the day on the river.  He was on one of the support boats that went along with the paddlers. 

Maybe I should start at the beginning... at 9 am we launched paddlers in canoes, kayaks and stand up paddle boards from 20 miles out and from 41 miles out.  There were 97 boats registered.  We send support boats with them.  The image above was taken after one of the heart-stopping moments during the day.  Shortly after launch I looked out at the river and saw this barge going up river toward our paddlers.  I am in touch with the barge folks.  They didn't have this one on the roster.  Paddlers in small boats have to respect the barges.  The barge cannot react.  With the water as low as it is, there is less room for everyone to maneuver.  Our wonderful radio communications crew got word out as quickly as possible to the support boats to warn the paddlers.  Fortunately, there was only one close call and that was with a well trained crew who knew how to paddle through the wake. 

The paddlers go through some amazing scenery, natural and man-made as well as some naturally altered man-made... those are full size trees on the bridge support.  They are left from the extreme flooding of last summer.   

We track the paddlers all along the route.  We get reports of their progress.  They faced a stiff wind for much of the day.  We had it in the park.  It was problematic for the tents, but made the 90+ degree day tolerable. 

Eventually they cross under the last bridge and are within sight of the park and sound of the music. 

 That is where there were helpers to get them on shore.  Fans to cheer them on.  The sweet sound of the airhorn signalling their finish and documenting their time. 

Day two saw some of our intrepid adventurers off on another 24 mile stretch of the river.  

  The crew on one of the support boats along with the radio operator.  All smiles as they keep track of our paddlers.  What a great way to spend a morning!

Still smiling.

 These six guys in five boats completed 65 miles on the Big Muddy.  Awesome paddlers.  Awesome guys.  And a great day. 

As I collect more pictures and have more time to reflect, I will share some adventures at the Race for the Rivers.

Lists

I always thought I was a list maker and list crosser-offer.  I always figured I relied on my lists and could find whatever was necessary from my lists.  I have also, always known that I am organizationally challenged.  Finding my list, filing my list, remembering which pad I wrote my list on was a challenge.  Heaven only knows how many clip boards that say C's STUFF have floated from booth to booth, table to table, finally found and retrieved by whichever spud is driving the golf cart this year.  It is truly a challenge.

Over the past few months I have been working hard to learn to delegate.  What I have learned is that the lists are all in my head.  Writing them is really just a means to cement them into my brain.  The paper is pretty much irrelevant to the final memory. 

Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, the folks to whom I am delegating have discovered this as well.  That the paper lists aren't really the real list.  There is always more.  Some detail or relationship that needs to be attended to.

The long suffering Mr D has finally decided that he is going to extract all of the lists from my head and put them into electronic documents that can be sorted, prioritized and understood by any who access them. His lists are a thing of beauty.  No really,  there is nothing so beautiful (at least today) as an excel spreadsheet that has all the relevant information laid out in order.  No random notes.  No bizarre columns off to the side with weird shorthand and unidentified calculations.  Yes, I am trying my best to help him.  But it is infinitely clear to anyone who looks which ones are mine. 

The thing is, I am greatly afraid that once Mr D extracts the last little bit of information from my brain, categorizes, sorts it and commits it to electrons the vacuum left behind will cause my head to implode. 

Well, we'll see next week.  Pray for good weather and safe passage for all of our racers and riders and festival attendees.  And perhaps a wee one for my poor head, soon to be empty of all but the most trivial of details. 

What Happened Here?

We throw a lot of parties around here and have the snack prep and post party clean up down to a science.  But after the guests left last night we were left with a different kind of carnage.  The floor was covered in shreds of blue and white t-shirts.

The table around which everyone sat looked like this.  Sharp objects and one lone caramel zucchini cupcake.  (Totally awesome cupcakes baked by one of the guests.  I'll see if I can get her to share the recipe.)

The result of 3 hours of cutting and snipping and pulling and tying?  Two bags of worms!

Actually it is two bags of wrist bands for the Race for the Rivers bike rides.  We decided to go green and skip buying the plastic wrist bands to identify our riders.  These upcycled bands are more comfortable and will come in handy for wiping sweat!  Even better they are washable and re-usable so our riders can take them home and proudly wear them in the future. 

Big Canoes

Yay!  We have big canoes at our festival this year. Plus the team has arranged for some fabulous local media attention!  You won't see much of me around here until I get all those details worked out. 

Rocks

While looking for pictures for documentation purposes, I found lots of pictures of rocks.  Seems some one always grabs my camera while I'm 'resting my eyes' and takes pictures of rocks.  Very nice pictures of rocks, I have to admit, but rocks never the less. 

Fire Story

We anxiously watch the fires out west and keep our fingers crossed as they move closer to friends and family. We tell ourselves that the things don't matter.  That the lives of the firefighters come first.  That we will rebuild and it will be better.  Still we hope for the best and wonder how we came to be in this situation. 

When I was a kid, Smokey Bear was all the rage.  Only I could prevent forest fires.  I have the badge and doll to prove it!  We put out fires.  We manned fire watch towers, looking for the first wisp of smoke.  We papered the forest with reminders to not smoke and to put out fires completely. 

The National Park System (and probably the Forest Service) had a Let Fall policy.  All the trees that died and fell stayed in place.  In the sixties, the Yellowstone campground was a playground of fallen logs, stacked into mini cabins and teeter totters.  It seemed like a grand plan.  Keep Nature the way Nature was meant to be.

Unfortunately, Nature is not static.  In the high and dry Western forests it doesn't decay or rot into soil with any speed.  It dries and becomes highly flammable.  More importantly, many of the diseases that caused all of those trees to die are things that are susceptible to fire or smoke.  Stop the fires and the insects and parasites start to thrive and spread.

By the late seventies, you could see in many places in the West great swaths of dead pines killed by bud worm and bark beetle.  Entire mountainsides and canyons first with brown needles and then silent.  More fuel.  Some areas started to log out the dead and diseased trees.  They worked to contain the pests and salvage the forests.  Many of those sites now stand today lush and green.  Yet they continue to be threatened by the renewed spread of bud worm, bark beetle and dwarf mistletoe. 

What we saw in the eighties with the great fires in Yellowstone and today with the wildfires in Colorado and Utah is the burn off of all of that fuel. 

In the normal course of events, lightening would start a fire.  The wind would whip that fire through the forest, flaring off dead needles and dead trees, but not lingering long enough to do real damage to the trees.  The trunks might be scarred on one side but the other side would be find and the tree would survive. In some cases, germination of seeds requires or is aided by fire.  The brush  would be cleared, new seed would sprout and the forest would be renewed.  The ecosystem evolved with fire and fire is a significant part of it. 

But remember, we stopped the fires for years.  We effectively built up a huge stockpile of firewood in our forests.  Now when the fire starts it stays to burn up the fuel.  When the fire lingers it gets hot enough to burn the live trees.  The forest is leveled and the rejuvenation takes place in a much longer time frame. All of the reasons the wood doesn't decay (dry and cold) are the same reasons things grow slowly.  Recovery is astounding, but slow.

Add in the vastly increased number of homes, structures and lives that are now contained in those forests, to that fuel and we have a very big set of challenges.  While the natural ecology says we should let the fires burn, the human presence demands that we fight them.  It is a complicated issue and it isn't going away any time soon. 

So we pray for the safety of those putting their lives at risk fighting the wild fires, we hope for the best for those whose personal belongings are in the path of those fires and we look for ways to help those whose homes and businesses have already been destroyed. 

Mission: Clean Stream 2012

 

 Saturday was a beautiful day.  It was sunny until about 2pm.  The weather was comfortably warm.  The flowers were in bloom and we had a trash clean up.  Mission: Clean Stream is an annual event, coordinated by my little organization.  We were scheduled to clean on April 14 this year.  There were 1138 people pre-registered to help out.  That would have set a record for us.  Unfortunately, we had severe weather that morning and had to postpone until this past weekend.  Turnout was very light as you might expect.  Trying to cram one more thing into already jam-packed Spring schedules was just too much.  But we did have somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 people scattered across several dates and locations.  And they did manage to pick up a BUNCH of trash.  

 

Here is part of a load of metal being scoured for useable parts by our Stream Trash ARTists.  START is the brainchild of the gentleman in the yellow shirt.  He arranges to bring in sculptors to the event and they use the trash pulled from the stream to create lasting sculptures.  The sculptures, along with appropriate signage, are displayed across the county to remind folks to not litter. 

All in all, it was a very rewarding experience for the participants and a great day for our rivers and streams. 

And now that it is May and Earth Month is over, I might just be able to get back to some "want to" as opposed to "have to" sewing projects.  But I do it with a renewed sense of my place in the environment and an even stronger desire to find ways to use what I have and what I can upcycle in my projects.