I am excited to announce Flax to Linen: the movie.  A small documentary film I got to make with a few members of the local Flax to Linen group.

It's been a rough year and not being able to do public demonstrations hit us pretty hard.  When the Victoria Handweavers and Spinners Guild asked us to do a virtual presentation on how linen fabric is made from tiny little flaxseeds, we said "Sure!"

Knowing almost nothing about making a video, we dived in.  Had fun.  Did a little dance (stay tuned to the end to see the dancing) and devised a COVID-19 safety plan to keep everyone safe.

I'm very happy with how it turned out.  I learned a lot about video editing.  I learned that I have a lot more to learn and with what I know now, I would have done everything differently.  But you got to start somewhere.

If you enjoy the video and would like to see more like this, pop over to our video on YouTube and clicked the thumbs up.  Or better yet, leave a comment.  I've got some nifty ideas for 2021 and your encouragement helps keeps the momentum going.  

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Now that the grass has turned a disgusting shade of brown and summer has arrived with a vengeance, we're entering the next stage of water conservation on the farm.  No water on the garden unless it is reclaimed water. 

Most of the year, I've been using reclaimed water from washing wool or dying.  However, at this time of year, it's no longer sustainable to be using water in crafting every week.  We need to reserve water for human and livestock needs first.  Although I am expecting to get an indigo vat going this year as it doesn't require as much water as regular dyeing.  

Usually, I let the garden die, but this year, I'm feeling food insecure, so I want to get some winter crops planted to see us through the cold months.  For this, I'll need to find water.  What necessary household activities can I reclaim water from?  

That's where this vintage washing machine comes in!  

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A quick series of images to show the process of transforming a cotton boll into a puni ready to spin.

first published on my old blog Trampled by Geese in 2015
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Leave a comment if you want me to make a video or more in-depth tutorial on working with cotton.

​We have two little greenhouses; old cracked glass things just tall enough to have to stoop and a footprint of 8 foot by 10.  They are cute as buttons and really, for the amount of hot stuff we eat, it should be enough.

Some years I plant my seedlings in the soil, and they grow like stink.  Other years, like this year, I do everything right - I amend the soil with various manner, let the chickens in over winter to eat all the bugs, do all the thing - and everything fails.  This year's peppers were planted with care after the last risk of frost, on a cloudy day.  The next day the sun came out and scorched the poor little seedlings.  The day after, it was nearly frost.  

But that's the way our weather goes - hot during the day, cold during the night.  And these tropical plants (mostly hot peppers) don't seem to thrive in these conditions.  

Some years it works, but this year, it's been a dismal failure!

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• Avoid all humans.
• If one must interact with a human, stay at least 2-meters away from the strange human.
• I'm the owner and only worker here.  I'm going to keep on working alone. If I need to import extra labour like feeding The Guard Llama, I will source that labour from within my household.  
• When outside help comes to the farm, like for sheering the sheep, we implement a 6-yard policy: no one is to go within 6-yards of the non-household-human.  It is essential to keep the people who care for our animals healthy and not endanger them in any way even if we probably don't have the virus.
• I panic bought handsoap, disinfectant, and even hand-sanitizer from a local company made from locally distilled alcohol.  And now I have to use it up so I'm doing far more cleaning than I ever wanted to.
• I am now ordering our beer online from the local brewery (and if you ever want to purchase some for me, ESB is my favourite!  Just say it's for Raven, they know who I am.). 
• I am no longer doing pickup and drop off orders until further notice.  Mail order only.
• To that end, I have released Tommy, the Attack Llama and his supporting troops, The Geese, to prevent unscheduled visitors from entering the property.  
• Reduced trips to the post office to no more than twice a week. 
• Sanitize my hands before and after being in the post office and after going anywhere humans might go.  Who am I kidding?  I'm washing my hands every half hour during the day because it gives me some measure of comfort and the illusion that I have control over the situation.

In every handful of soil, sleeps thousands of enemies; The seeds of weeds that, given the slightest moment of inattention, will gleefully smother all your hard work.  But what if there was a way to turn your enemies superpower against them?

A weed is just a plant that is growing unrequested.  And the thing about weeds is that they are just so good at growing.  They outgrow and smother just about any domestic plant.  The weeds have the advantage, they have been growing and reproducing in this garden for generations.  Through natural selection, the weeds have adapted to thrive in these conditions — clever little fellas.

​As the weeds grow and reproduce, they create a seed bank in the soil.   This is like a savings account of weed seeds that they can draw upon for future generations.  Some seeds will stay dormant for over 100 years, waiting for their moment.  No matter how many weeds we kill this year, there are always more seeds in the savings account.

We can fight this seed bank with chickens, chemicals, fire, heat, cold, all sorts of things - but weeds are tricky and have evolved over the years to survive all of these torments.  Let's face it, weeds are smarter than us and always will be.

It's time to start playing the weeds' game - And Win!​

I want to know the best way to ship carded wool batts so that the fibres stay lofty and easy to draft.  So I did some experiments.

A batt is the result of preparing the fibre on a drum carder.  It can be a giant drum carder like they have in a fibre mill, or a tiny one like mine.  Not that I mind tiny.  To me, it's just the right amount for what I'm doing now and I'm hoping my carding adventures will earn my way towards a bigger, better, bolder machine.