Now that I am back from teaching Hand Quilting at the Estes Park Fiber Festival (which was enormously gratifying) and I now have one graduate class, instead of three, on my plate, hopefully, I can get back to smocking, knitting, sewing….etc. It felt really good to get back into the teaching mode at the festival. I really love it when I can see students actually understanding and improving their skills throughout the duration of the class. Thanks to my minor afternoon contribution, I can say that there are 20 more people out there who have a better understanding of the art of hand quilting. Fabulous!

Now, on to the dresses. I have the fabric in the stash for an Alabama Roll Tide dress, but have yet to put a needle to it. Also in the works is an Auburn toddler bubble outfit that is just adorable, complete with paw prints. So, if you haven’t yet visited my Etsy site, please, please, please do. I would really appreciate it!

As always, comments are welcome and appreciated!

Fair Winds

Here in Alabama, forestry is the number one industry.  Here are a few interesting facts that I found through the Alabama Forest Owner’s Guide.

Facts about Alabama’s Forests and Forest Industry

• Alabama’s forests cover more than 22 million acres, or 67% of the total land
• Alabama currently has about 23 billion cubic feet of timber "in the bank"
• There are twice as many trees in Alabama today as there were 50 years ago
• For every tree harvested in Alabama, 5 are planted
• Alabama’s forest are: 35% pine, 45% hardwood, and 20% mixed pine and hardwood
• There are over 700 species of birds living in Alabama’s forests
• Private, non-industrial landowners own 71% of Alabama’s forests
• There are over 1,100 forest products manufacturing operations in Alabama
• Forestry is Alabama’s No. 1 industry
• About 170,000 people are employed directly or indirectly by Alabama’s forest industry

Many landowners in Alabama, whose property consists of large plots of timber, frequently sell their timber to the forest industry here.  This "sale" of the timber gives the company the ability to come onto the property and basically clear cut and haul away all the timber they desire.  Depending on the company, they may require hardwood or softwood, like pine. 

In our area, it is most often the paper mill who gathers the timber and they are only interested in the pine.  This leaves behind a huge bounty of hardwoods that have been literally plucked from the ground by massive machines.  The pines are picked and loaded on trucks.  The hardwoods are sometimes, but not always, piled off to the side as biomass

The property owner next to us sold his pine timber this summer and now we have a plethora of hardwood to collect and haul home, with his blessing.  Thus, clearing the property for the next generation of timber.  So, if you try to reach me on chat, twitter, or Skype and I don’t answer, you can make a safe bet that I am out splitting and stacking wood.

One thing you can pretty much grow, year round, in the Southern United States, are tomatoes.  We have always been able to produce these.  Apparently, Lettuce, Onions, and Broccoli require way more attention and cooler temperatures than we are able to provide.  So the lettuce is growing in pots inside the house and every once in a while Mr. K picks a few leaves for a salad.  The onions were a flop.  Same with the broccoli and the Brussels sprouts. 

We determined that the pumpkins and winter squashes would have done better if planted where they would get more sun.  Since we have only been in the house 2 years and this is our first (feeble) attempt at a garden, we at least were able to learn more about where the sun is shining throughout the day and which plants would do better where.

The one surprise in this experiment was the bush beans.  They are growing like wildfire.  So, perhaps over the next few years we can figure out what works in a Southern garden and what does not.  For now, I am going outside to carve the $4 pumpkins I just purchased from Wal-Mart…

Although the hummers are gone for the season, we still have a lot of Eastern Bluebirds hanging around and it is quite possible that they will be here throughout the winter.  Next year we are hoping to place nest boxes in various spots on the property for the Bluebirds as well.

Now is the time we prepare for the deer sightings.  Every year we put out piles of deer corn and at night we watch, under moonlight, for the deer to come through and feast.  We don’t hunt them on this property, but there are hunters properties on either side of ours and so, the deer are constantly migrating through.  Every year, when they realize that the corn is out consistently, they come to eat on a nightly basis.

So, goodbye hummers and hello deer…