Bits & Pieces January

Bits & Pieces of our Lives
January, 2007

It is fitting that I take time to update this site today: it's the start of a new year, and another year of marriage is celebrated today. Twenty-nine years ago today we were married in Flagstaff, Arizona. What started off to be a Christmas trip to visit Wanda's parents and for Ed to ask her dad for her hand in marriage, ended up with a wedding. We officially became engaged on my 21st birthday. (Yah, I just turned 50!) While joking about getting married since we were already there, my folks said it sounded like a plan to them! In one week's time we threw together a wedding - borrowed dress, flowers, cake and all. My closest friend made it from Texas, another dear friend drove 3 hours to play the piano, my sister flew from Portland, Ore to sing select songs and we had a simple but very meaningful service all-in-all. The only thing we regretted was that Ed's folks were not able to make the trip on such a short notice.

We're not big on going out to eat but our daughter bought us a gift certificate to a great steak house which we'll happily use one of these days when we are in the mood for the 40 mile drive north and maybe will work it in with visiting old friends who live that direction. We both enjoy being at home pursuing quiet activities. Not very exciting, I know!

Watching Faith grow these past two months has been a different experience than what we'd expected. It's a wonder to watch her grow, and yet not be involved in the round the clock care. We're very thankful the kids live close enough that hardly a few days go by that we don't see them. We shared Christmas dinner with them. As we finished eating Ed took Faith on his shoulder.

Faith grabbed his sweater and nestled her face right into his beard.

Ed recently tried his hand at working with bamboo, making spindles. I think these will be great sellers. The three test spindles each weigh .9 oz which will give people a lightweight spindle to choose from. Last spring I was given some cashmere to spin but I hadn't gotten around to spinning any after de-hairing it. The bamboo spindle seemed like a good one to use. First I tried carding the stuff, and proceeded to turn the barely brown cashmere into a grey mass. As I spun it my fingers and the shaft turned grey. Mr Struach, maker of the hand cards, came to my rescue after I sent an email by personally calling me. He was extremely helpful in not only directing me to the care and handling of hand cards, but in carding cashmere. I'm so grateful for his time and help, especially the fact that he called and helped me figure out what I was doing wrong. I was meshing the cards together instead of allowing them to lightly float across the top of the cashmere. Mistake number two: I didn't realize that cashmere doesn't like being fussed with, the less handling/carding the better. My second try carding and spinning cashmere the next day was much more successful. I will be posting pictures with more details in a day or two. (See Wanda's Blog , click on January 2007 and scroll down to January 8th)

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Phone: 503-873-1246 or PO Box 159 Scotts Mills, OR 97375
Copyright 2003
Author Wanda Jenkins
All content on the JenkinsWoodworking website is owned by Ed & Wanda Jenkins, No duplications, reproductions,
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Updated January 2, 2007

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