Winter Woolen Workshop - Day 1

Yesterday morning I quickly checked a couple of blogs before leaving for the Winter Woolen Workshop. I didn't have much time, but I saw a drop spindle on http://suburbansettler.blogspot.com/
so I went to her blog. I commented for her to pack that baby up and head to Kokomo. She did!


I was actually in the other mansion talking to someone that I know who is in my spinning group, and this lady was coming down the stairs (you get a full tour of the mansion while you visit the WWW) and she said, "Are you Cindy?" I looked at her and said, "yes, how did you know that?" She said, "I heard you say drop spindle to that man......." so she finishes her tour and she came over to the building I was spinning at, but first she had to shop.


She's on the left, I'm on the right.
The funny thing is, neither one of us knew each others real name. She said she was going to ask for Cindy Bee and see if anyone knew me by that name, and when I went to introduce her I called her The Suburban Settler!


So she was doing the drop spindle a completely different way than I had ever seen. It all works, but I think my way is faster....maybe not. In any case, we both learned a new way to drop spindle. Here she is practicing my way .....happy as can be....


And this is why they call it a DROP spindle. It looks like she was posing for this picture, but she wasn't. I caught her completely off guard.
I was going to set up my spinning wheel, but the room we were in is so full of stuff for sale I didn't really have a place to set it up. After reading her post yesterday morning, I thought, that's it! I'll take my drop spindle. No one is using a drop spindle anyway. Blogging is fun folks and what great ideas we get from each other.

I took a few more pictures.

of things for sale.

I gotta tell you, I like dulcimer music....but in the same room as I'm in alllllllll daaaaaaay loooonnngggggg........

Barb and Kathy were bobbing their heads to the music.....

Conversations during the day.....

yarn

wool

patterns

"Hmmm, I wonder if I already have this book at home..."

"Oh I love that box..wish I would have seen it first...."

"can't you use cheap burlap to rug punch..."

"Oh I love this necklace..."

"oh I love that little suitcase..."

"ouch, that's a little steep for a book...but all those patterns..."

"they're going to tow that car parked in front of the driveway..."

"I love the colors of this fiber....but I have a basement full...what's one more..."

"shelf butt..."

"shelf butt, back fat, and flab around the middle..."

"blogs..."

"You can't fix stupid..."

"you can't fix common sense either..."

"will you show her how to punch needle"

"I'm hot..."

"I'm cold..."

"I'm both..."

"I made peri-menopausal pj's..."

"will you show her how to felt"

"what's a cop doing here"

"I need chocolate..."

More to come, today's hours 11-5

Cindy Bee

Winter Woolen Preview!

(For the Verde Farm hookup post on honey bees see the post below this one. I'm posting twice in one day - Thanks, Cindy Bee)

Here's a sampling of some of the items for sale at the Winter Woolen Workshop.

(No synthetics at this place!)

Cindy Bee

Flowers for Bees...

http://www.verdefarm.com/
I'm hooking up with Verde Farm today for Farm Friend Friday.

I've been asked what is the best flower(s) to plant for honey bees. First of all, it depends on the zone you live in. I live in Zone 5. So the best thing you can do is research 'nectar' plants or 'honey bee' plants in your own area.

I would like to take the opportunity to talk about weeds. Yes weeds. Remember when you were a child, running through the grass, and you'd get stung by a bee on the bottom of your foot? You'd run in the slammy screen door, crying, because you got stung by a bee! That is, if you are around 45 years of age or older. Well, you weren't actually running through the grass, what you were running through was clover. Remember all the white clover you used to see on lawns? Somewhere along the way, people started having totally manicured lawns. Nothing but grass. And to make their lawn full of grass, they would kill any "weeds" with chemicals. And clover is considered a weed.

Since I've become a beekeeper, I've asked my Shug to stop using chemicals of any kind on our lawn. We replaced the grass in the front yard with Ivy. We have large trees in our front yard and grass wouldn't grow there anyway because there was too much shade. Now we see little bunny families in the ivy, we see honey bees all over the clover, and out at our land in the country we see this.....


Look closely and you'll see honeybees all over these plants.


I don't know what they are but they bloom the same time that goldenrod blooms.

And honey bees love goldenrod, but they'll pick this plant over goldenrod.
This grows like a weed. It's everywhere in the fall.

And one year our entire acerage was covered in Queen Anne's Lace. I told my Shug do NOT bush hog this down. He's a good Shug :) Besides the fact that it's beautiful...

and looks lovely in a blue ball jar on the table,

the honey bees love it.

Sorry about the blurry photo, the camera actually focused on the plants surrounding the one with the honey bee on it.

I want you to think about something this week. What bird, animal, or insect do you see benefitting from grass? And how healthy is it for us, to have perfectly manicured lawns? Do you ever notice after someone has their lawn done professionally, there will be little signs in the yard telling you not to walk in the yard. And keep your pets & children out of the yard too. (you have no idea how hard it is for me not to do an entire post about this...so I'll stop here!)

I would like to mention, however, that if you spray your yard or lawn with chemicals to get rid of pests, you kill good bugs and bad bugs. Chemicals don't distinguish between the the good, the bad, or the ugly! They kill them all, including honey bees :-(

Cindy Bee

Come one, Come all!

Hey Blogettes...I want to let you know about a great event in Kokomo this weekend.

It's called the

WINTER WOOLEN WORKSHOP

and if you like crafty stuff of any kind, you need to find a way to get to

Kokomo, IN.

It's held in two of our mansions,

which happen to be side by side, so you can walk back and forth.

So here is the Who, What, When, Where, and Why of it all.

Who - There will be groups, organizations, associations, guilds, whatever you want to call them. If they sew, knit, crochet, spin, weave, paint, quilt, etc., then those people will be there just doing their thing. You can join them, chat with them, ask questions or learn their craft. There were also be vendors selling items to do these crafts, such as wool, yarn, material. Or if you want to purchase an item already done, those vendors will be there too.

There will be classes you can sign up to take as well.

What - Winter Woolen Workshop - I already told you that!

When - Saturday, February 26, 9 - 6 and

Sunday, February 27, 11-5

Where - Elliot House and Seiberling Mansion,

both on West Sycamore Street in Kokomo, IN

Why - Because women like to get together, share, and bond.

There is a $10.00 entry fee which will get you in for both days,

and that money is donated to the Historical Society.

And if you want to, you can bring a project from home and sit and work on it.

See Beth's picture trail for more information

http://www.picturetrail.com/bethsmainstreetfolkart

Cindy Bee

YEEAAA!!! Sarah's HOME!

Hey everyone, thank you so much for your prayers over Sarah. Her Mom just called me, My Mom just called me, we're all happy, she's home. I'm so glad. It's been a long four - six days for my Brother and his family, and we're all just happy Sarah is feeling better. Thanks again, so much.

Cindy Bee

Let's talk about Indiana weather...

As many of you know, I watch two boys. I've watched them since they were very young. They are now 11 & 13 and need transportation more than they need watched. They are good kids. The youngest one went outside a couple of weeks ago and took these icicles off of our house.
He laid them out on the picnic table and there they stayed, for several days, because it was so freezing cold outside.

(excuse the dirt please, it's hard to reach up there!)
Then a warm up came last week, and they melted....very quickly....aaahhhhhhh.....warm sunshine.

But, with all of the snow we've had...everything became a mud bog.

These are a couple of pictures from our house site. To read the story of me getting my Shug's truck stuck in the mud, visit our construction story.

Then SURPRISE!!! I woke up Sunday morning and told my Shug, "it's been raining most of the night." Well folks, that wasn't rain, that was ice...little itty bitty ice pellets.

But there are signs of spring. On Sunday when I went to our house site, I was driving up the drive way very s l o w l y. Then I got out of the car but didn't go inside for awhile. My Shug was already inside wondering what I was doing.

You HAVE to click on this picture and make it bigger. You have to. You will see the most beautiful bluebird, not to be confused with a blue jay. A real bluebird. SOOOOO very blue. Soooo very beautiful. There were several of them playing around. I told my Shug I wasn't surprised, that spring is going to be here March 15. I said so, that's why. And...the whole groundhog thing.....

See the blue dot? Right in the middle of the picture.

So, yesterday the boys are out of school, it's 43 degrees outside and I decide to take them to see the Gnome movie in 3D. It's in Noblesville, about 40 minutes away. We went out to eat, then to a bookstore. My Sister and my niece Taylor join us. (Who are also all very worried about Sarah, btw) Afterwards we went out to eat to a fun little burger joint called Johnny Rockets where the waiters dance to the music. The little 'jukebox' things are on our tables and we can play music for an nickle a song. Then we went to Borders. I'm very sad they are closing several stores. I love bookstores. I love books. I love feeling the paper, and turning the pages, and looking at the pictures, and getting them autographed, and buying them at garage sales and trading with friends. I just can't See Spot, Dick or Jane on a kindle, can you? So, we went to Borders and I get a phone call. My Shug. Now, it was raining buckets all day long in Noblesville, but in Kokomo, apparently it was raining ice.

He wanted me to get home right away, and call him when I got in. I tried to get some pictures...it changed from ice to snow to ice to snow all the way home. It took about 20 minutes longer than usual to get home, but the weirdest part....I've never in my life seen snowflakes so big. Can you see them? Look at this picture closely! Some of the snowflakes were the size of the palm of my hand.

This was taken through the window of the car. Look how big...

snow again.....and I hear we're going to have another storm on Thursday night. Not to worry, March 15 is right around the corner.

Other news.

Did you hear about the earthquake in New Zealand? I don't always know where my blogger friends live. Sometimes it's not listed, and sometimes I miss it, but I can't remember if one of you live in NZ or if I just notice little dots on the map at the bottom of my blog. Let us know if you're ok.

Sarah update - nothing new yet. It's 9:15 Tuesday morning and I haven't heard anything yet. Thank you so much, all of you, for keeping her in your thoughts and prayers. It means more than you know.

Winston update - sigh...he's still here. Today he is driving me crazy. He wants out. So I let him out. Then he wants in. So I let him in. When he comes in he paces through three rooms crying. Then he looks at me and is crying, then he barks. So I let him out. He goes out and wants in....will someone please tell me what is going on in his dog brain?

Cindy

Sarah

Monday night update - Sarah has pneumonia. She is still in the hospital and they still cannot get the fever to come down. They keep giving her tylenol for the fever every few hours, but I'm concerned because she has had a fever since Thursday evening.

Cindy Bee

Monday morning update - She is not getting better. I'm sad for her. I'm just sad.

I was talking to her Dad last night, my Brother....and I said, "don't you just want her to get on your last nerve again?" He said, "yes." Sarah talks ALL THE TIME. He said she is just laying there not saying anything, not doing anything, and she still has a fever.

Cindy Bee


Hey you guys, you know how much in love I am with my nieces. Well please keep Sarah in your prayers. She is in the hospital right now. She's had a fever of 105 and she hasn't kept anything down since Thursday. They think she might have a bacterial infection, but they aren't sure. They've done blood work and have her on an IV so she will not dehydrate any more. My Shug does not want me to go see her. I've been coughing since Thursday night and he's afraid I'm going to get sick again. I just want to put my arms around her and hold her.


Cindy Bee

Retro Campers & Funny Video

I want one of these retro campers. I've wanted one for years. And now I have the perfect place to park one.......Check out this blog.....

http://wanda1011.blogspot.com/

Then, scroll down to Jeanne Robertson and watch her video of how you should never send a man to the grocery store. It is hilarious!

Cindy Bee

Some hives are alive!

I'm hooking up with Verde Farm for Farm Friend Friday

http://www.verdefarm.com/

I was reading some weather information from last year. I wrote "I'd be surprised if any of my hives made it through this winter." That's exactly how I feel about this year. This winter has been the worst we've had since the famous blizzard of 1978.

If you look closely you'll see a few bees flying around this hive. That does NOT mean this hive is alive. It could mean that another hive is alive, and they are robbing food from this hive, because it's dead.

One sign that bees are alive are these brown spots in the snow. You've heard the saying, "Don't eat yellow snow." Well, don't eat brown-spotted snow either!

Honey bees will not poop in their hives. Yes, I'm serious. And as you know, it's been a few weeks....so you can tell from the looks of this hive they barely made it outside. In the spring, my husband and I have to clean our cars because there is always bee poop all over the windshield! I know, you didn't know you'd be getting a bee poop education today, did you. Well, it is a sign that there is activity in a hive.

Some of my hives are definitely dead. NO bee poop, no activity, nothing. So they didn't all make it through the winter. I didn't expect all of them to make it. I'd like it, but that has never happened for me. I'm always happy if some of them make it.

This, is a better sign a hive made it. A lot of bees flying in and out of the hive.

I was sooo excited to see this hive! I didn't have anyone to take pictures of me doing the happy dance, but I was happy! When you see a lot of bees flying in and out of a hive, like this, then you can be pretty certain it's alive. The only way to be 100% sure it's alive is to open it. I am not opening my hives right now because I think it's going to get cold again. If you open the hive, you break the 'seal' they made to keep the hive warm, and I don't want to break that seal. I did take some sugar water out for them, and it didn't take long for them to find it. So they are hungry.

This is the time of year a lot of honey bees will die because they starve to death. They've made it through the worst part of the year, but it's possible they could have eaten all of their winter food they stored. So, it's imperative to feed, feed, feed, the bees. I'll be checking on them again today. They just changed the weather forecast to warm and sunny!!!! It's happy bee dance time!

Note: For the people that live in my town, crafters, fooders, farmers, etc. There is a Farmer's Market open house for people interested in having a booth. It's today, Friday, from 12-6 at Ivy Tech in Alumni Hall. I'm going to go just to visit!

Cindy Bee