Rug Hooking /Fraktur Class

 

Fraktur is a folk art form practiced by Pennsylvania Germans principally from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. The name derives from that of a distinctive German script marked by "fractured" pen strokes and the form has clear roots in European folk culture. Frakturs were used to document events such as weddings, births, deaths etc...Today was the first of my three day rug hooking fraktur class. There were 16 signed up and many had stopped into the shop to purchase wool.

 All of the beautiful wool Susan brought to sell.

 Margo trying to look like a sexy (rug) hooker!

 Here is Susan Feller from Ruckman Mill Farm showing some of her rugs.

Sir Rudolph

 Our little boy is doing great. We have been feeding him with these blue pails that have nipples. The nipples have a ball valve inside. They work great. They were more expensive than the hand held bottles but work much better. He still needs to bulk up, but he is super active and always alert. We are still looking for a friend for him. We went back to the auction but didnt see any calves that we were comfortable buying. We have also been looking at ads from local farms....the search is on!

Is there, any better place than.......

being surrounded by thousands and thousands of books. Okay, maybe I could think of one or two places but since I was a child I have always loved our local library. Until I recently found the website pinterest, there was no other place that inspired me more. It was a place that could open my mind up to so many different worlds. A way to escape and see something new without leaving the comfort of my home. Just within a few minutes of reading, my mind was whirled to another place or time...landing myself into a romance or murder mystery. I am so fortunate that almost everyday I get to enter this wonderful world of Victor Hugo, Tom Clancy, Nora Roberts, Barbara Park and Danielle Steele. Working at the library can be very dangerous for me, they give their workers a NO FINE library card. When they first told me this, I was like.."No Way?? For Real??" My library privilege was now promoted to a No Fine card. So as i am discharging books for customers, I have a little "Jill pile" (books I am taking home to read). Sometimes it seems as if i have my own mini library at my house. Needless to say, i love my job! Our county library is being torn down and being replaced with a shiny brand new "state of the art" Library. So our main branch is divided into two temporary locations. Here a re a few pics of our old library being torn down.

 Here is the new library being framed. Here is the front of the building... They say it will be another year until we will be in the new library, I'm sure it will be super! If you are a Mary Higgins Clark fan or a Mary Jane Clark fan, they both have new books out. I have to admit lately, I have been into the cheesy historical fiction romance books by Linda Lael Miller, romance with just  a little smut (not alot of smut)...just a little ;-) Tip of the day: if you hold a  romance book up in the air and drop it, it will always fall open to the smut section, BUTTTT why in the world would anyone want to purposely drop a book on the ground???

Update On Baby Cows

We are so sad to post that our second baby cow has died. We believe that one of the cows had a parasite that passed to the other. within hours from any signs of illness she was dead. We know taking bottle fed calves home from the livestock auction often results in death, but in the past, we never had problems. This is one of the hardest things with raising your own meat for self sufficiency, is seeing your animals die, get hurt or worse the failure with all your hard work. The last calf we have is doing great, so great that he will be released out of his holding pin into a bigger holding pin out in the field. We don't name our calves until we know they have a good chance of surviving. So this little guy was named by Isaac. He holds the grand title of Sir Rudolph!! My first thought was...shewwww i can eat a RUDOLPH!! I'm so glad he didn't pick my best friends name or family member!! LOL Now we need to find a friend for Rudolph. Cattle are herd animals and he would be so lonely in a field by his lonesome!