Daily Updates
Mending Second-hand Sweaters and Wittling Mushrooms
Day in the Life at ‘The Living Workshop’
We’re going to try having the photos up top this time. Please look below for the writing.
Lots done the last couple days at ‘The Living Workshop’. We got the new chicks set up all decked up. Jenn took some old pool noodles we bought originally for different purposes to fashion a jungle gym of sorts for the chicks to hang out on. Owlsey comes to hang out and comes running anytime they make a distressed chirp. They mostly just hang out on the pool noodles now and above the cage. It really is a sight to see.
And as such, we started a live stream for them. It’s the button up above there that hopefully works. It’s also nice to be able to see what they’re up to when were away. And also just putting some wholesome content into the world. It will also be nice to be able to see some videos of them once they get older and are fully outside.
I know that some people may be grossed out by the idea of the chicks out and about in the house. It’s a fair take but here’s the thing— We like it. I like the fact that they are living with us. That we are letting them into our house— even if it’s only for a short period of time. Soon they will be too large and it will be time to go live outside all the time—to live in the coop full time. So why not enjoy the time.
Whats the big issue?
That they will poop on the floor? It comes right up. And we put down the wood to catch most all of it anyways.
That they will make a mess? We humans make a mess. At least theirs is contained to this small area.
The fun and novelty of having them hanging out inside with us, allowing us to bond with them over takes any of that other stuff.
I took a sewing class at a makerspace called MakersMill in Wolfboro, NH last week to learn how to use the sewing machine we have. I kept tangling the bobbin and thread on the machine before. Tends to happen when one has no idea how a sewing machine actually works at all. Turns out I was turning the knob on the side of the machine the wrong way all those previous trials. Big no no apparently.
The sewing class was quite helpful. Learned how the machine worked, all the different steps involved in sewing, and even made myself a tote bag for using when I went to the sauna haus.
There is something I find so satisfying about being able to use tools to make things. To fix things. To create with all the different modes of materials. Fabric was one that always seemed just outside my reach. Now it is within reach. It opens up my mind to projects to do and abilities that were once not possible. All from a 1 hour class at a makerspace. Taught by some nice retired women.
And now I could sew up a sweater I purchased this past weekend at the thrift store. I didn’t use the sewing machine, but because I learned how to use the sewing pins to fold and then hold the fabrics together, I felt empowered to fix it up. And because of that – it came out better than it would have before the class.
I like the idea of being able to fix my own clothes. Not as some necessity or because I am living the life of a pauper, but because there is already so much used clothes out there. To not give it more use seems silly and wasteful. Do I care if it doesn’t look like the newest fashion? Not in the slightest. Quite honestly I would rather someone notice that I had fixed up an old peice of clothing and given it new life.
Seems much more something I would like to be known for or associated with than wearing the newest freshest clothes. Those ususally aren’t made to last anyways.
But the clothes that are made of real materials. Real fabics, made from living things- cotton, linen, wool ect- those tend to be made to last. They simply need a little bit of tending to. As we all do. And who are we to just throw away a piece of clothing when it shows the slightest bit of wear? Disposable culture in a disposable world. If that’s the world you want to live in, then don’t get upset when the culture decides to dispose of you at your slightest sign of wear and tear.
Me, I like the wear and tear. Like us, it shows and gives character. And instead of hiding away from it, I would rather embrace it. Lean into it.
Because these clothes, just like us—- have many phases of life and development over the years. And how we mend and fix them, and ourselves— is part of this life we live. What makes it meaningful.
Or at least that’s how I tend to feel.
And maybe if we could get ourselves more into that mode of being with our culture, and dispose of the disposable culture, we would find more meaning and character embedded in it.
Or at least save a few bucks.
And bring some new life to come clothes worth giving a second chance.
Awen