Meet Pearl

Meet Pearl, the new addition to our house of cards, she is a 3-1/2 month old rescue kitten we recently adopted. It has been 12 long years since I had a kitten in the house.... I had forgotten all the trouble they can get into. LOL!

Here she is getting between me and work on the computer. Its hard to get a good photo of a moving target, she has already moved into our hearts and into the family. She sleeps all night long, only getting up to go find the potty and then she quietly goes back to bed with Josh. She does not like to be left alone and will cry until you go find her, I think she is beginning to make a game out of it. I hope everyone else has a cluttered computer desk like mine....LOL!

We have a bridge!!

Yes, we finally have a bridge, the side rails and hand rails aren't up yet but it is usable. We will get them up over time and I am going to place some solar lights on the post so I can see at night, so it still has a few minor things to be done. Here is a photo of the creek before.....now that doesn't look like much does it!?








When they say flash floods in Creek County you better believe it looks like something. It can get from 5 foot to 20 feet across and you do not want to wade across it with tree limbs as big as you leg flashing through there. That water is moving.......we built the bridge at the narrowest point of the water flow. This is what it looks like now...

We also had a grass fire in the upper left of this photo so that is why the water hose is drug across and up the hill. Sorry about the messy yard....... that's Dale's wood barn way up on top of the hill in the back. The smaller barn to the right was his little barn but now it's the Angora goats, Angora rabbits, and chicken house. It's in 3 sections you just can't see it for the shade and trees.
Anyway, so we are back to work in the big barn working on floor inkles, wool pickers, and turkish spindles. Please be patient with us while we get caught up again! Sometimes life just gets in the way of playing.......

Best laid plans and all that...

Well we had planned on taking a week off from the etsy store to work on a few things around the house and hopefully find time to make items for the store. You know what they say the best laid plans......
We did get the yard mowed and trimmed....the trimming part was way past due... I don't think the two cottontail bunnies are very happy with us trimming all of their hiding places down.
Our main goal was to build a bridge across the creek so that when we have a flash flood we can get back home. The wood barn is on one side of the creek and the house is on the other. When we are working out in the barn (no windows) and it begins to rain we don't know it until we open the door to a big surprise. Anyway we were going to build a bridge.....we got the cement part done and then Dale had to go back to the Lowe's..... He came home telling me all about the sale they were having and I maybe we should go have a little look. What the heck it was too hot to work outside so off we went to Lowe's.
The little item he was telling me about was already sold so we looked at the others that were on sale. We came home with a new washer and dryer on order to be delivered in a week. Now my 15 year old patched up several times washer and dryer needed to be moved out so we could get the new ones set up when they were delivered in a week. The walls hadn't been painted in a while so we painted the walls, then we decided to check on the plumbing and found a leaky pipe so of course we had to fix the plumbing. Then the cabinets looked a bit dingy so we decided to replace them after ALL the building supply store was having a sale. Then we decided a new kitchen table would be nice after all our 20 year old one was beginning to split a bit at the base. Sooooo a week later I have a nice freshly painted and plumbed laundry room with a brand new washer and dryer. The kitchen has a new dining table and the bridge...well the cements dry now. Unfortunately we didn't have a chance to work on items for the etsy store so things will be a little sparse for awhile..........

Patches 1996-2010

I lost a good friend this week....... Patches was born May 10th, 1996 and died of bone cancer August 4th, 2010. What can I say ...... I can't even find words......... Patches was always a heathy cat I never had to worry about her getting sick. She suddenly went from 16 pounds down to 6 pounds, I never even thpought about cancer....... if your reading this and your an animal lover....give those pets a hug for me and Patches.

Spindles in the making

Dale is working on more spindles out in the barn. We usually work on them together but it s raining and I decided to stay in the house and get a few things done.

Here is a photo taken the other day when he brought a few to the house so we could decide what color shafts they should get.

I will be adding more things to etsy as I can, I have a walnut Kromski Fantasia I need to get listed. I also have a Sonata in the clear finish I need to list. There always seems to be something to do and the days are just too short to get them all done in...

Joshua is now making spinning tools

Joshua (our son) has recently began making spinning tools out in the wood shop, his most popular is the 3 in 1 tool sold on our etsy site. I thought I would give a little more back ground on Joshua.
Josh began spinning when he was 13 years old, which is when I also began spinning. I became frustrated with the wheel and put it in the corner for a couple of weeks before trying again. I noticed my spinning seemed to be improving at times. This is when I discovered it wasn't my spinning, Josh was using the wheel when I wasn't looking. I soon was sharing my wheel with him and his spinning was much better then mine.
At some of the spinning meetings other parents were bringing their kids, soon the kids were getting together in a corner and spinning or weaving. Another lady suggested they should form a kids guild so they did, they went to 4-h demos and craft shows where they gave spinning demos. One of the old Spin-Offs has some photos of some of the fiber spun by the kids from Oklahoma.
Joshua liked to spin on a drop spindle because when we went to demos....no one knew what a drop spindle was, they had a faint idea what a spinning wheel was but no idea about drop spindles. Josh eventually after about 2-3 years of spinning moved on to other things....
He has recently discovered making spindles and nostepinnes in his dad's woodshop so now the business is a family affair. Look for Joshua's items in our ThreadsthruTime etsy shop...

Where DID the time go!!??

I am going to try to do better and get this thing caught up. Where to begin, I think I'll go back and then forward a bit.
Back in January of 2009, Dale had a torn rotator cuff and had to have surgery. While he was healing he could not work on his wool pickers or tri-looms, doctors orders. To keep himself occupied he poured over his magazines on wood working and then when the doc said it was ok, he began playing with his wood lathe. He had been playing with it some but really never had the time to play on it a lot. He began making nostepinnes, orifice hooks, drop spindles, and other things to get his arm back in shape. Once the doctor released him he began in ernest making things on the wood lathe and finally went back to making the wool pickers and tri-looms.
Now flash ahead a year and his arm is bothering him again so we have made the decision to stop taking orders on the Tri-Looms and Wool Pickers and concentrate on the smaller items that don't irritate his shoulder. We still have 2 orders for Wool Pickers and 2 for Tri-Looms to get finished and then we are done with them. He is taking his time working on them to keep from aggravating his shoulder. We are also making Turkish spindles and other small items to sell in between working on getting these orders out for the bigger items.
So we are as usual behind on both things.....the spindles are selling well but we are also working on the woolpickers and looms trying to get them finished and out the door. We also have day jobs, Dale at the refinery in Tulsa and me here at the house taking care of emails, orders, critters, the house, and whatever else that falls into my lap. We are extremely busy....... please be patient with us while we get these pickers and looms out the door so we can concentrate on the other items.
Now Joshua, our son, has decided to finally try his hand at making items on the lathe to sell so it has truly become a family business. Joshua makes wrist distaffs, nostepinnes, and his 3 in 1 tool, which is a nostepinne, wpi gauge, and wrist distaff all in one. He is thinking of trying his hand at making spindles so stay tuned...