Resurrection Day

Buried in bookwork and tax forms most of the week meant not a whole lot of fibery happenings. The checks were written and forms mailed off on Friday. Huge relie to have that monkey off my back. Most of the afternoon was spent determindedly concentrating on violin music for ensemble practice later that afternoon.I did squeeze in bits of time here and there to finish my sample weaving. Since I hadn't woven in a year I did half the piece in a twill, the half other plain weave to get the feel for weaving again. Switching to the tapestry bobbin for the black cormo (I was not able to capture the true bright blue, or the black) made that part go much quicker. It still needs to be cut off the loom and finished. Meanwhile I'll leave the remaining warp threads on the loom to tie the new warp threads to. This is "junk yarn" that I don't mind using for what is know as loom waste which usually takes about 24" of each warp thread needed in anchoring a piece to the loom.


Wednesday evening the mens prayer group hosted a memorial supper. One of the guys had marinated the beef and lamb roasts then slow cooked them on the barbeque all afternoon. Otherwise it was a very simple meal with raw vegetables, dates, raisins, and quick flat bread. At the end they served honey bread signifying when God gave Ezekiel, and later John in Revelation, His Word, it was sweet as honey in their mouths. We were asked to observe silence as we ate of the bread. The silence settled over the room like a heavy mantle but soon it was as a comforter; peaceful, warm, and oh so right. The flavors in the bread came alive in my mouth as I focused fully on each bite. Hazelnut, dates, a bit of chocolate, wrapped in flour and honey. The impact that this is how we are supposed to eat struck home. And so too it is how we're to partake of God's Word; focused and mentally engaged.


Thursday and Friday were days of almost 80 degree weather! The nights were cold with frosty grass and windshield in the morning but the days were bright and precious as jewels. Everything is growing so fast it's almost impossible to keep up, especially when one is buried in paperwork. Then early Saturday morning the sound of rain woke me up with astonishment. Heavy dark skies with clouds sitting low on the mountains drenching everything. At Saturday's spin and knit-in at the LYS people somberly entered, slowly gathering. Almost everyone put down their gear and headed straight upstairs to Not Yo Mama's Coffee shop for a much needed java pick-me-up. I was pleasantly surprised to see my cousin Tim later that morning when he popped in, he's working on the website for the shop.


Friday our Hairpin Lace Frame was used on DIY's Knitty Gritty! Stitch Diva used it to teach the technique of hairpin lace. That's something I've played around with but haven't yet made anything.


Birdsong woke me up at 5:45am. Early dawn light seeped into the room and I jumped out of bed. Less than 20 minutes to get ready and head out the door for the Sunrise service at the Scout Ranch where Crooked Finger was providingp the music. Such a beautiful drive but no time to stop and take pictures. It may only be five miles away but the road is narrow and windy as it follows Butte Creek. We had a wonderful service with some new pieces of music that surprisingly came together in two practices (and no written score, just words and chords). Afterwards was a huge breakfast. It's been a good time for reflecting on the tremendous incomprehensible love of Jesus.


The scene from the side deck of the lodge looking south. All of you experiencing snow and cold rains, please don't be envious. The clouds and rain have moved back in this afternoon. A ham is slowly roasting in the oven and the kids will all be joining us for dinner later today.

Butte Creek Narrows right below the Scout Ranch. This picture does not do justice to the torrential depths of the creek! It is much wider than it appears. Salmon and steelhead are running, as well as the kayakers. We saw several cars with kayaks lashed on top going up the road as we came back home. The Narrows is a class five cataract. Most kayakers put in just below then dash downstream ending at the Scotts Mills Falls.

Spring Break

The loom is dressed and a sample is being woven.Right now I'm just playing around with hand manipulating the warp a bit along the lines of tapestry weaving. I dream of having a tapestry loom and returning to my roots in weaving. I need to dig through a box that's buried in the storage closet for proper tapestry bobbins that Ed made years ago. They'd be more efficient than using the stick shuttle for the dark yarn.

This isn't a true sample in that I'm not using the yarn to be used in the project, and there most likely won't be any wandering yarn.

This was Spring Break week in Oregon. Which mean kids who depend on eating at school were possibly going hungry. The Marion Polk Food Share set up a lunch program throughout the Marion and Polk counties. Daily coolers loaded with ice, partially bagged lunches, sandwiches and milk were delivered to schools. Volunteers bagged the meat and cheese sandwiches, and milk, as kids came in the doors.

Ed and I agreed to help out a couple months ago. We're home all week and live only .5 mile from the school. It made for a very pleasant daily walk. We averaged 65 kids a day. We didn't ask any questions, the main point was to make sure anyone who wanted food would get it. Every day there were a few lunches left which were delivered to kids who weren't able to get to the school and to some of the needy elderly people in town. There was always a meat and cheese sandwich, raw vegetables, a fruit which was different every single day. Kiwi fruit today!

The door was open from 11am to 1pm giving kids plenty of time to pick up lunches. Ed was the counting man, I helped stuff bags. There was lots of time between kids for spinning and talking with the other people who were helping.

We were all bummed that the school only allowed us access to the gym rather than the cafeteria. But you see, the school district doesn't care about the kids of Scotts Mills.

Until 12 years ago the school was owned and operated by the people of this community. We had a very strong, solid school board with people who knew how to make good use of tax and timber monies. There were 11 full time teachers for this K - 8th grade school with 185 students, including a special ed teacher, and an excelerated teacher/counselor. Three teacher's aids helped in the classrooms, lunch room and playgrounds. There was a full time librarian, full time cook with a part time assistant (Mrs D was a fantastic cook who believed with all her heart in cooking from scratch. She was written up a couple of times in The Oregonian for her wizardry in the kitchen.) And we had a part time PhD (agriculture and mathematics) from Chile who helped with ESL and math. Oscar was a compassionate gentleman who was retired but wanted to make a difference. Rounding out the staff was the Principal/Superintendent, Janitor, and Secretary. Staff loved working here, and the school had very adequete funding to meet the needs.

In the early 1990s state legislature decided that small schools would be better served if they were consolidated into bigger school districts operated from the closest town.What a joke. We had no choice, most small schools were merged kicking and screaming into the consolidations. There went our ability to manage our community school. The new district does not care about Scotts Mills Elementary and they seem intent on shutting it down by downsizing and cutting back. They cut the librarian, counselor, ESL teacher and made the special ed a part time position. Grades have been combined so there are now only six full time teachers. And one of the worst moves was to take away our principal/superintendent. Now we have a part time principal who also oversees another small school about 7 miles away. It's the pits. Newer families to the area are encouraged by the district to send their kids to other larger schools. The irony is that our community has grown with many more families but there are only 125 students attending SM school. It is very sad to see what was once a proud vital part of our community ripped out of our hands and treated like a despised stepchild.

I had planned to write about the hungry among us. But it seems there have been enough words pouring from my thoughts. Hungry people are all around, feeding takes care of an immediate need but it is not the solution. The problem is systemic of a deeper, graver problem.

As we walked home Wednesday (Ha, you'd thought I'd forgotten!) we spotted kids in the city park eating their bagged lunches under the oak and fir trees.