keeping warm

i love my little jotul stove. it's swedish. it is small, and will be perfect for a one room cabin, or a good sized wall tent. when i am in the house, this is what i look at all day. i sleep, cook, eat, write, and surf the net in this little corner of the house.

i have an excellent chimney, only needs cleaning once a year. but my stovepipe and the flue that runs through the wall to the chimney build up creosote something fierce. i have to shut down the stove once a week to clean it out really well. last week i had to shut it down over night. i couldn't stay warm even with a good sleeping bag and a dog, so i was up at 4:30 in the morning ripping it apart and cleaning it in the dark. what a pain that was. couldn't find my headlamp, and couldn't see down the pipe, so i stuck my arm down the pipe to clean it by feel. had to make a laundromat run that week....weren't no scrub board gonna clean the sleeve of that jacket :-)

it's pretty warm here today, but damp. the stove is drafting poorly today, so i'm gonna shut it down, and hope it cools before dark so i can restart it tonight. mutt got really muddy on our trek today, so no way he's getting in the sleeping bag tonight....it'll be the stove, or the shivers. :-)

evidence of twinship grows

so this couldn't get any freakier.

i am up before 5, woodstove needs stoking, and i've slept enough for now. dog out, and fed, and soon the stove is hot enough to make my tea. i contemplate my blog, but sign off the internet, wordless at the moment.

the phone rings, and it's my friend richard. i haven't spoken to him in a few years. we make plans to meet and catch up. i am a little freaked, because my phone rarely rings, let alone before sunrise. and the universe is popping out people all over the place at a time when i need them most.

the phone rings again. the caller id shows my maiden name with the letter "s" in front of it. that is weird. my maiden name is an uncommon name, you don't see it often. but my neice is named sarah, and i think that my sister must have changed her name back to our maiden name, and for some reason, sarah is using it. i answer the phone.

"hey, sarah, what's up? " i ask, still a little befuddled by the name thing. i don't remember what she answers, and we exchange a few words, until i say "this is sarah, isn't it?"

silence for a second, and she says "no, this is tara". i'm a lot befuddled by now, but absolutely thrilled to hear her voice. my mind goes back to my maiden name on caller id. i have never in my life met anyone with that name outside of my family. i'm becoming flummoxed at this point. and i say "but what's your name?" well, get this.....we are connected by the same family name. can you imagine that? what are the odds of that?

we talk for awhile and it's like i've known her forever. it is the best start to the day that i could never have imagined. i'm going to dig out the geneology stuff my mom left me, and do some research.

maybe twins, after all. or some blood relation at the very least.

imagine that......

so i get questions

so i get questions. i love them. someone wanted to know if i owned any other shoes besides mukluks. so here are my favorite summer boots. actually, they are woodland indian 18th century era high topped center-seam moccasins. i love footwear that molds to your foot. they are light, they breathe, and you can move nimbly and quickly. these are great for bushwhacking, they protect your legs. when the soles wear out, it's easy to sew new ones on. the downside? they are as slippery as shit. i don't know how the indians stayed upright on wet grass.....

another recent question....."do you have a foot fetish?" haha! no. if i have a fetish, it's kindness. kindness is the sexiest thing going. try it.

in the upper left corner of the pic is some roving. i was thinking of spinning the yarn for tara's socks, but changed my mind. i'm gonna use the canadian polworth/ kid mohair so i can get them going quicker. can't have my girl with cold feet.

2/3/08

there's no paying the piper
when you cannot sing his tune
he sang completely different lyrics
when he first proffered the spoon
you danced, you sang, you laughed aloud
but dawn came all too soon.....
then small, concave, you went again
to hear the piper croon.
~kate~

border crossings, or How Tara Came to Be My Hero

this blog post is gonna happen tonight thanks to johnny, and his nice comment about my poem. thank-you johnny, for the inspiration. i hadn't been able to find all the words before tonight.


i have recently resurrected a bunch of my writings that have long been hidden. putting them in my blog has been an act of defiance, and of hope.


it's not just my writings that have been resurrected, either. a whole big chunk of my spirit feels like it's breaking out all over. it feels good. it feels bad. it's confusing. my nerve endings are literally raw. but i am ready to let what happens, happen.



over the last couple years, i've "met" a few folks on the internet that i've had this instant, intense connection with. kindred spirits, they are. they always seem to pop out of the universe just when i need them, like daffodils after a dreary winter.


tara is one of them. at first she seemed like a most unlikely one....in some ways, she's the antithesis of me. but in other ways, she is like my heart. she is the woman i want to grow up to be, the child i once was, the

NEWSFLASH: i hate my computer. last night i wrote this really long blog entry about border crossings. only, the draft autosave only worked for the first few paragraphs, so when i published, this is all the remained.

after a small meltdown, i am calmer. but i despair of ever recreating the post. i decided to stick this on the blog as a reminder, a teaser, a memorial. let's see what i can do to resurrect the thoughts.....

new old jeans and the joy of socks

just a pic of the jeans i found in my closet, and the sock i just finished.....you can see the beginning of the second sock on the needles. this is a labor of love. i was so burnt out by production knitting for the shows over the fall, that i thought i'd die if i cast on another hat. so i decided to get me a pair of socks done. for me, this time. i haven't had a handknit pair of socks since catherine made me a blue pair some time ago.....which i still wear, i might add :-) i wear her love this minute, in the form of a shawl she spend countless hours spinning and then knitting. thanks, catherine!

catherine is my best friend. she is one of the very few people who truly knows me, and accepts me as i am, and makes me a better person for it. she is one part of a collaboration we call tribalfyber. she does magic with her colors and dyepots, and i aspire to learn the craft as well as she knows it.

so, socks. oh, the joy of socks. these are being knit from a canadian yarn-- part polworth wool, part kid mohair. soft and strong, they will make the perfect mukluk socks.

i think i should knit tara a pair for cold nights in her van, so she could be warmed at once by the lofty yarn, and the knitting love.