Studio Warning: May contain scenes of creative messiness.

Weeeeeell, as promised, I am posting the little blurb from the show I was in at the library that was a promotion of the Rocky Studio Tour. *sigh* yes, I wanted to do a little blog promo for the Studio Tour as well but it happened last weekend, sooooooo, I'll do a extended follow-up to make up for my bloglessness. :)


"The heart of my farm is the studio. My favourite symbol is that of an interlocking spiral, at the center for me is creative ambition, and from that, everything else radiates.

For example, if it wasn't for my obsession with fibre arts, we probably never would have become farmers. In turn, my fibre arts studio gives me the peace and energy I need when dealing with the adventures of farm life.

My artistic philosophy is that it is much better to create than to clean. A superficial sense of chaos and disarray continually surrounds me, however, underneath it all, there is a rhythm. Create!


I renovated an old, historical log cabin to become my studio. The cabin was the farm's original homestead, built by a man who wanted to escape the world and live in the wilderness. The quality of workmanship surrounding the cabin speaks for itself, the cabin has survived almost a century of use and abuse and stills stands strong and true.

I find the cabin is a source of inspiration for me, the quality, the history, the escape, and the wilderness are all aspects that reoccur in my artwork in various ways.

When I imagine an ideal studio, I think of great, big windows, wide open spaces, and maybe an indoor waterfall. Moving to such a space (if possible) would greatly redirect my creative flow, so I am in no rush to get there, yet. The fired-log cabin studio is my complex sanctuary and I am grateful for the opportunity to be it's tenant."

The photos above are of my studio tour outdoor hand-weaving display (can you see my chicken tractor in the background!) and the studio cabin with all the flowers in bloom. I also had to include my typical lunch/dinner plate, home-made naan bread made using freshly milled grains, salad greens from the garden, olive oil with herbs, and home-made goat cheese. So good!

I have taken a break for the last couple weeks from being a wwoof host and enjoyed messying up the house and having lots of ME time (my darling boys are also away with their grandma in Sweden and I am alone in the house and its so weird!) But now the goats are starting to get MY goat like only goats can and I am ready for more helpers/woofers/farm workers. And the wheel is turning and you can't slow down, can't get off and you can't stand still...

Articles

I've been so busy writing for everyone else, I haven't really had time to blog. The latest studio news is that I am part of an "Studio" exhibit at the Rocky Public Library. I'll try to post my little blurb from that later.

I also did my first "formal" interview for the local newspaper and I am so tickled to have an article in this weeks paper thats all about ME and my artwork. Small towns can be so awesome that way, everyone can feel like somebody.

Trying to find the link, this might be it here on page 4c:
https://canada.arcasearch.com/abc/nIgolresu/blank3.asp?stCode=ab&siteID=caabroc

Other than that, life has been busy with spring planting. Can't believe it SNOWED two days ago. My tomatoes had already been long gone from previous frosts so I wasn't too mad about the snow, but still??!! My new herbs that i special ordered from ontario are going to have to survive in planters outside the front door, with all this ridiculous weather, I don't dare put them out in the garden. I also managed to plan Grams deck building weekend to correspond with the Rocky Rodeo weekend. I swear, that rodeo puts a jinx on the town, some awful weather always happens for rodeo weekend. Good thing for being hard-core (and now sore because of it), pounding nails through the sleet and snow. It felt great to get muddy with a good work-out and learn some more carpentry skills.

May Long Weekend Campout

The May long weekend campout is a treasured tradition for many families that I grew up with. Soon we will be having our Reinstated, 3rd Annual campout at the Bone Tree and for the benefit of campers who do not use Facebook I am posting this blog with pics and mealtime info.

We hiked out to the campsite today and I think the trail into the campsite is relatively dry. There is still snow, as can be expected on the 3rd of May but the mud pits look passable.


We bumped into other campers who were also scoping out the site, they looked suspiciously at us, making me think that we may have some competition claiming the site this year. Anyone who wants to come early and spend Wed and Thurs night claiming the site, let me know!

The creek looks quite shallow, I don't know if floating on it will be an option. Upstream looked fairly clear, needs some work , but look at the size of the log jam down stream!

Food arrangements are as follows:

Gram Hazel is essentially providing and preparing the two main means for 4PM on Saturday and Sunday. We are to pick them up at the house and return CLEAN pots and dishes. Gram was very clear, she doesn’t want “people in the house/her kitchen.”

Anyone who wants to bring ‘something’ should bring a dessert cake or square for Sunday OR prepared veggies (washed, chopped before hand) for a veggie tray. If you have a preference and email/comment/facebook me, otherwise I will delegate a task to those who has already said they wish to help.

Everybody is to bring their own drinks, snacks and whatever they want for breakfast/brunch/lunch. Their own dishes and utensils. There is no dishwashing ‘service.’ Everyone is to clean up after themselves and do their own dishes. A dish washing station will be provided.

I need a volunteer to haul out the garbage this year. I need a volunteer to bring heavy duty garbage bags. I need at least 5 people to bring big water jugs to contribute to the communal water container. I need volunteers to chainsaw and chop firewood for the campfire and the wood-fired stove. I need two people to bring either a propane bottle for a campstove or both items to be set up for communal use (breakfast, coffee, tea, etc)

David will not be around to help me out this year so I need lots of VOLUNTEERS! If you are planning to help out, let me know by commenting on this blog, OR, facebooking me, OR call me! 403-845-3575

Summer Fun Article Ideas

I've been asked to write an article for Edmonton Child magazine, the theme for the issue is Summer Fun and they want an article that talks about farm life. Sooooo, I'm feeling around for some ideas. There are many topics I could expound upon and I'm not totally sure which would be the most interesting.

Some ideas:
-daily chores for my kids: collecting eggs, helping mom make bread
-international workers living and working with us
-baby goats, llamas, bunnies, and chicks
-wide open spaces to run, roll, and play
-campfires in our front yard
-local creek, lake, forest, tobogganning hill

If you have more ideas about what would make a really fun, interesting article involving summer fun, please comment!

Rooster Roast How to Butcher a Chicken

We butchered our first farm chickens this morning. It's something I've been wanting to learn for so long, and not really something that I've wanted to experiment with a whole lot. We selected 2 roosters who have been getting "hen-pecked" and decided to put them in the pot.

Brave Tim, woofer extrordinaire, agreed to do the nasty deed of chopping the heads off. I thought he did a great job of it. We decided at first to try wringing the neck, then chopping it off. With all the flopping around it seemed a little gruesome, so the second bird I held on the block while he found the neck and the head was off with two quick strokes. I wasn't quite prepared however for all the flapping around after the fact, the bird was so calm before the head came off. We all got sprayed in blood and I've learned to keep a better grip on those powerful wings for next time. We dipped the birds in a big pot of boiling water then hung them on the clothesline to pluck out all the feathers.

So many things I learned! For one thing, it's not necessary to pluck the difficult wing tip feathers cause you cut the wing off at the first joint later anyway. Also, that dead chicken smell really hangs around, I'm so thankful I don't work in a chicken factory. We brought the plucked birds over to Grams house and begged her instruction, she was so hilarious. Of course, we didn't know to singe the hairs off the body with a bit of burning newspaper first. Then, the first cut went above the asshole ("it's not a vent, it's an asshole!") and the breast bone had to be lifted to make room for digging in and pulling the guts out. Unpleasent indeed! I was super paranoind about busting the bile sac open, small green bean shaped thing. It would wreck the whole bird if I did. Tim and I managed to pull all the guts out, after Grams showing us how on the first bird. Then the asshole was cut out, the neck trimmed, the esophagus and other tubing removed, the lungs scraped off the back bone (paper towel in hand is great for the really slippery parts), the oil gland on the top of the tail removed, the big crop taken out up by the neck. Oh yeah, that's another things I learned, to starve the chicken before killing it so the crop isn't so full of food. Grams said she's the best gizzard cleaner in all of Alberta and showed us her expertice. It was truely educational.

The whole experience confirmed in my mind that you should throw out the book and beg, plead, or badger someone into showing you how. It really is the only way. That's why I love being a woof host. There are so many things we've had to learn the hard way, it is such a joy for me to show other people the shortcuts we've learned and share the wonderful farming life that we live. I wish I had been smart enough to do some woofing myself before starting my farm adventure. It's something I still hope to do someday.