More artisans, more neat stuff.

Fall Festival at the John C. Campbell Folk School was well attended, albeit rather warm and sunny this year.  We'll take the sunny, but the "rather warm" is getting old.

As you can see below, artistic talent abounds in western North Carolina.

 Hand spun, hand dyed yarn by Good Fibrations.

 Beautiful leaf imprinted pottery by Travis Berning.

 Life-like, hand sculpted dolls by Ann Hord-Heatherley.

 My favorite hand woven scarves by Ann Eastabrooks.

 Hand forged kitchenware by Elmer Roush.

Hand blown glass by David Goldhagen.

I have a few more photos to share so stay tuned.

Until then, keep stitchin' . . .

Hello there . . . .

Nice to "see" you all again.

Here's a quick recap of this weekend's Fall Festival at the Folk School.  More to come!

 Basket quilt by Pat Meineke.

 Flower quilt by talented designer.

 The Morris dancers.

 Garland dancers.

 High stepping dancers having too much fun!

 Rob Withrow's bowl.

 Elmer Roush's forge work.

A very special rescued pup named Storm.

Until then, keep stitchin' . . .

Groovin' in the grove.

This poor pine tree has been ignored for years.

The short branches form, but few give out leaves. 

As 'Father Tim' says, "It was definitely time for a trim."

So I removed a vast array of short branches, then went back with my trusty hand saw and did the long ones as far as I could reach without a ladder.  Took out the small sapling and trimmed the nearby dogwood too.  Cleaned out all the underbrush, leaves, and debris.

The tiny grove is looking much better.  Soon there will be azaleas to create a bright array of color.

 The burn pile is stacking up in the old briar patch.

 Here's the southwest corner which still needs to be burned.  Briars are creeping in everywhere.

 I was outside yesterday for 4 hours trying to burn one leaf pile.  It's simply too wet still.

The dogwood blossom, a sure sign of spring in the south.

Until then, keep stitchin' . . .

All hands on deck, full steam ahead.

Yes, 40 degrees is a good temperature to burn briar piles.

 Unfortunately, the ground was very wet from yesterday's rain.  So only 3/4 got done.

 This is the final section to be cleared, briars in the right hand corner, on the other side of the fence, and the tall grass in the southwest corner.

Despite today's cold temps and intermittent bouts of snow/rain, the peonies have buds.

Dolly's coat is no longer furry.  She was getting hot spots already, so I took the big scissors, removed the long hair, and turned her into a walking chenille rug.  She's feeling somewhat better, and a porch bath is next on the list when it warms up a bit.

This has been the coldest, dampest spring in quite some time.  Perhaps we'll have a cool summer.  Has anyone checked the Farmer's Almanac?

Until then, keep stitchin' . . .

Goliath

Taken from the front porch a few weeks ago, this photo shows most of the front briar patch. 

 Last year, it grew higher than the fence.

 Recent rain, cold, and damp days allowed safe burning.

 I began by placing damp, flattened cardboard boxes on top to bend the briar stems over, pouring on 4 big bins of leaves. 

 Leaves burn very hot igniting the cardboard.   

 And an oven-like incinerating tunnel formed under the cardboard.

 Which took out a large percentage of the dry and green brush. 

 Thankfully, there was a lot more dry than green.

 This patch originally measured about 60 feet long and maybe 15 feet wide at the largest portion.  For safety's sake, I worked in segments burning 4-5 boxes at a time.

After the section cooled a bit, I used clippers to remove remaining stem segments which got burned in a separate pile.  I've read that new briar patches will form if there is stem residue left over.

One more full day should see completion of this project, then I can put my greenhouse up.

 After that, the apple trees will finally be planted.

See how fast the peonies are shooting up.  Spring is coming!

Until then keep stitchin' . . .