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July 02, 2009
 The longer I farm, the less I like to leave my little homestead. I don't even like running errands much. But when I hear about a fabulous bargain on spinning equipment, I can be enticed out of my zip code. Today I trekked over to southwest Arlington, which felt like leaving my time zone. But I must stop whining, because at the end of the day, I had made a bona fide haul.
The Indian Head spinning wheel is basic - rustic, even - but it spins just fine, and has the potential to be painted or decorated, and given some real character in addition to being nicely functional. The gal who was selling it turned out to be helping a gentleman liquidate his late mother's collection of spinning and weaving equipment. She had a large jack loom, table looms, Navajo and tapestry looms, two other spinning wheels, and lots of accessories. I pawed through a box of various wooden tools (drool) and extracted a beautiful old wooden swift and a LeClerc niddy noddy. At first she suggested a ridiculously low price for them, and in the end, threw them in with the wheel at no extra charge. Sha-zam! Sold!
Next, since I was in the neighborhood, I dropped by my aunt's condo in Grand Prairie to see how her house reorganization was going. She and her good friend, also retired from Wycliffe Bible Translators, will be combining households, and they each have to sift through years of stuff and choose which stuff will make the move and which will be tossed. I think they have some fun ideas about how they will decorate their new digs, even though the process of sorting, organizing and evaluating everything they own is an arduous task. Been there, done that, doing more of it as we speak. It's always a good idea to be standing around when stuff starts getting pitched. You know how sentimental I am about old family stuff. (Keeping firmly in mind that stuff is really just stuff.) My aunt parted with my great grandmother's stainless flatware, a really sweet sheep picture, and my wrapped birthday present! Her friend gave me a pretty pottery bowl that I put to use immediately at dinner tonight. Got a soft spot in my heart for handmade pottery, I do.
So even though I feel like I was dragged down I-35 today, the end result was worth it. I won't have any lack of fun stuff to play with over this holiday weekend. "Holiday weekend" means that Ted has an extra day off. Not much else changes here on the farm day to day. All the critters still insist on eating and being cleaned up after. Good thing I love my woolly kids.
Ah - and I cannot neglect to mention: Zacchaeus will go to his new home tomorrow evening. Suzy and I have nailed down the plan that she'll stop by here on her way home from New Orleans and load Zach in a big dog crate for the ride to his new home in Norman, OK. We will really, really miss him around here (even Ted), but he must move on to fulfill his destiny--making darling baby lambs for Ms. SuzyQ. (Sniff) Make us proud, Zach!!