Time Warp II: Mr Moose

All those wildlife photos of moose made me long to see a moose, a real moose not just Mr. Moose from Captain Kangaroo who used to like to bounce ping pong balls much to the annoyance of the Captain, but a real moose. I saw a stuffed moose at LL Bean in Freeport and a dead moose on the median of I-93 in New Hampshire while on my way to the 5th anniversary memorial service for the Old Man of the Mountain. (I still miss my Old Man).

For several years now I have been finding moose scat in the yard but never got to see the moose. Just moose manure... Until this July. It was my lunch break, 1:15pm and I came into the living room and looked out the slider and saw a very large land mammal way in the back yard. At first I was wondering what Buffy the horse was doing out there but then remembered Buffy was dead, so what was dead Buffy doing in the yard, wait a minute, wrong color. Must be a large deer I thought, but there was no big black nose just a big round brown nose, round ears and a swishing tail... Well, Mr Moose saw me move in the door and disappeared off into the swamp. I still find vegitation eaten down to knee height unlike the deer who eat it to the ground but have not seen him again. Maybe he'll be back when I can get a photo of him.

Time Warp-What I should have posted in July

I have been quite lax about posting here so now I'm going to try to catch up...

For the past couple of years I've spent the 4th of July with the Island Pond Spinners at Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth NH http://www.strawberybanke.org/ The program on the 4th is great fun, a really great place to spend the 4th. They start out with a naturalization ceremony, gives you a warm feeling to see people become Americans on our country's birthday. Could have sworn I had a photo of the other spinners but guess I missed that one.

I did get a photo, unflattering though it may be, of one of the costumed interpreters portraying the 1940s. Other's in costume were a Rosie the Riveter look alike and kids in 50's garb playing hula hoop.

And of course my friends Dot and Lee Fisher, AKA Dr and Mrs Jackson and "daughter".

Always fun to meet up with is my favorite basket

maker, Fred Lawson of Wicker'd Good Baskets http://www.wickerdgoodbaskets.com/contact.php

I got home around 6 and as promised my wonderful neighbor Lisa had saved me a dish from their cookout. The concert preceding the fireworks looked lame so instead I parked by the golf course and watched the fireworks from there. All in all a great 4th.

Sam Whiskers

Sam and his sister Josette came to me in December 1994 when they were about 3 months old, their previous owner didn't want them anymore. Josette was diminutive, friendly and cuddly. Sam hid behind the sofa for 2 days. When I would feed them Josette would push Sam away until she was done, they had come with a double sided dish and I tried splitting their food so each had a side of the dish, Josette would put her paw on Sam's head to he couldn't eat. Sam was the quiet one but so you didn't notice that he had just shredded the multipack of toilet paper until it was just a pile of confetti. Or when he sliced open the bag of birdseed so he could play "hockey" with the sunflower seeds. Sam was afraid of his own shadow, if the neighbors slammed the car door he headed for the basement. For years I tried to get him to sleep on the bed with me and finally last year I found him curled up by my feet in the morning. Cats always start to do something new just before it's time for them to leave us. Sam traveled to the Rainbow Bridge early Monday morning. I will miss him very much.

Spinning Bee Inspiration

To inspire us all to spin...

Boston News-Letter and New-England Chronicle February 16, 1769

NEW-LONDON January 7.
On the 16th Instant; the Wife of Mr. John Vaughan of Lebanon, agreed upon a spinning Match with a neighboring young Woman; they began their Work three quarters of an Hour after Sunrise, and left off at Nine o’Clock in the Evening of the same Day; in which Time Mrs. Vaughan spun seven Skeins and two Knots of fine Linnen Yarn, each Skein containing 15 Knots; The other Person spun 6 Skeins and 10 Knots, the Skeins of equal Bigness with the first mentioned.—[Would the Sex in general apply their Hands to the Distaff, instead of the idle Apparatus of the Tea-Table, perhaps we need not always be beholden to Asia for our Food, or Europe for our Cloathing.]

How much is that? A thread of linen is 2.25 yards and a knot is 40 threads. A skein may contain any number of knots just like a modern skein may contain any number of ounces. So a skein containing 15 knots has 1350 yards (I think-math isn't my strong point even with a calculator)

We may not get that much spun on Sunday since the spinning matches of the 1760s lasted from dawn to dusk and we'll only be spinning from 1-5.

Spinning Bee Buzz

The New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival was this past weekend and I again had a booth to promote the Colonial Spinning Bee. Quite a few people expressed interest so here's hoping they will join us. The long range weather says it should be in the 70s. Here's hoping for a good event.

Pot luck lunch starts at 11:30, spinning follows, stash reduction sale and swap all day.

For details see
http://home.earthlink.net/~judycat/id2.html

from The Boston Post Boy April 22, 1765

It is with the greatest Pleasure we hear of so many of the principal and other inhabitants of this Town refusing to purchase what little Lamb is brought to our Market. We cannot but hope they will continue in this good Resolution, not only as there is such a Plenty of other Provisions, but take into Confidensideration the many Advantages which must naturally arise on having a large Quantity of Wool among us, the Produce of which for one Season only, will be so great as to carry on a considerable Manufacture, at least of necessary Wearin Apparel for ourselves and Children: and we hop(e) in a few Years it will be accounted a Virtue in the Ladies to wear a Garment of their own Spinning.

Starting Late Again

The Colonial Spinning Bee is a little less than 3 weeks away and I have done very little to advertise it. So, today I will send out emails to all the appropriate lists and beg you all to forward the info to you chat groups and generally talk it up. It really is a fun event with a pot luck lunch and a beautiful site with lots of parking. As of last year there are flush toilets available instead of the out house which is a really great addition! We should have a general fiber vendor and we might get Wicker'd Good baskets this year.

I would like to promise that I will post a bit of historical info and updates on a daily basis but that may not happen but I will post more regularly with info on the spinning matches of the 1760s that the Colonial Spinning Bee is based on.