Dear Log Cabin friends;

Dear Log Cabin friends;

It’s the Merry Month of May, 2007, the Flower Moon month. I always look forward to May as the weather is nicer and to being outside in the garden and yard preparing to put the annuals, perennials, and vegetables in the ground to grow. This year we will plant a peach, apricot and pear tree and in the vegetable garden a new asparagus bed will be started. I’ll be using the Ruth Stout method of gardening by mulching with hay (not straw). The title of this old book is called “Gardening without Work”. That’s my kind of gardening – no weeding or watering!

After everything was leafed out & blooming early this spring, the hard 4- day freeze came along and knocked everything out with its cold “punch.” The plants are all slow in getting back “on their feet” with a new set of leaves & we are hoping everything survived. When we heard the freeze forecast, I covered the rhubarb with rugs. The Japanese peony was well budded so I found a tall cardboard box to protect it & now it has rewarded us with four pretty deep rose blooms & more to come. The rhubarb is ready to eat but we’ll wait until Mother’s Day weekend when my mom comes to visit to pull, cut & freeze it and have enough fresh for my aunt’s rhubarb dessert (several times). Harvesting the rhubarb, preparing, making & eating the dessert with my mom, will certainly be a simple country pleasure.

School will be out 3rd week of May, and the 2 little grandsons from Kansas (age 6 & 4) will be visiting. I bought 3 large paper mache’ eggs around Easter time. The eggs are about 9 inches long & I’ll paint them , then splotch with more paint, & lay them in a very large twig wreath on the ground by the tree house. We’ll call them “dinosaur eggs”. J Perfect for spring – and little boys, don’t you think? They’ll be using their little imaginations for sure, “wondering about THOSE dinosaurs”. (We’ll also plan a wiener/marshmallow roast sitting on bales of hay in the evening after the winds go down). Simple country pleasures with little boys.

Do you remember making May baskets – in school or with your children? We made them from construction paper, bits of lace & paper flowers glued on. Inside the May basket we would add a petunia & some candy to each one and give to a friend. . I was reminded of it again, when friend Sue mentioned she & her sister are making May baskets for the nurses at the hospice center where their father was. Making May baskets is a lovely old custom that needs reviving in the hectic & busy world we live in.

Three years ago, my niece was married on May lst. My family (brothers & sisters) were all staying in a hotel in Ks. City and my sister Linda made May baskets. She delivered them early in the morning surprising us with a knock on our hotel door. The May basket was made from an old small square thin wood strawberry basket, the kind that fresh strawberries USED to come in. She glued ribbon around it, created a handle, & inside the May basket was a pretty pansy plant & individually wrapped candies. These are the memories that stay with us. May baskets are truly a simple country pleasure whether they are given to someone in the city or in the country.

Birds in springtime are another simple country pleasure out here at the Log Cabin. Papa & mama Bluebird, with their gorgeous blue color, have camped out in an old green painted birdhouse attached to the top end of the log swing, no more than 6 ft. from our door of the screened- in porch. We have a good view of them as mama nests and papa rests nearby watching over it all. The silver lace vine practically covered the birdhouse last year, but right now the vines are bare after the last freeze. I am hoping the vine will leaf out again to give them added protection in their little home. The wrens, with their happy spring song, have chosen a birdhouse by our shop to call home. (We won’t be selling that birdhouse). House finches, with the male having a red head, have decided to nest near the eave of the screened- in porch. Their nest sits precariously on some dried vines by the eave. They have chosen a fine spot, shaded & out of the path of wind & rain, and haven’t seemed to mind us at all.

Simple country pleasures – bird watching & sipping a glass of ice tea, with a mint leaf added, on a wonderful May Day. Have merry days in the month of May! Twila, Cabin Keeper

WHERE FLOWERS BLOOM, SO DOES HOPE. - Lady Bird Johnson

CALENDAR FOR MAY

May 4 – Friday, 9 – 5
May 5 – Closed
May 7 – Old Glory Rug Club meets 6:30 – 8 p.m.
May 8 – Postponed – Primitive wool appliqué class
May 10- Thursday, 1-5 p.m.
May 10 – PLANT SOMETHING! This is the frost free date for Nebraska.

----The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies – Gertrude Jekyll

May 12 –Saturday – 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. only
May 13- Happy Mother’s Day!
May 15- Herb Study group, afternoon group & an evening group,(pre-register)
May 18- Friday 9-5
May 19- Saturday 9-4
May 21- Woolkeepers 6:30 – 9 p.m. (Log Cabins students)
May 22-30 Log Cabin is closed – grandsons visiting
June 2 – SHED SALE at Log Cabin 8-4
June 7 – Thurs. 9-5

SPEAK TO THE EARTH AND IT SHALL TEACH THEE – JOB 12:8

Think “re-cycling” to save the earth. An antiques shop recycles old furniture and neat old things:-) Hope everyone is watching (or will watch reruns) of PLANET EARTH on Discovery channel Sunday evenings. Fantastic!!

HUMANKIND HAS NOT WOVEN THE WEB OF LIFE. WE ARE BUT ONE THREAD WITH IT. WHATEVER WE DO TO THE WEB OF LIFE, WE DO OURSELVES. ALL THINGS ARE BOUND TOGETHER. ALL THINGS CONNECT. – CHIEF SEATTLE, 1855

HOW WONDERFUL IT IS THAT NOBODY NEEDS WAIT A SINGLE MOMENT BEFORE STARTING TO IMPROVE THE WORLD – ANNE FRANK

NOTES:

OUR email address has changed from 2 months ago. This is the current one: logcabin-cabinkeeper@windstream.net Be sure it is changed on your computer in case you wish to email us. Thank you.
PRIMITIVE WOOL APPLIQUE CLASS has been postponed until early fall. A busy time right now so we WILL have it later.

JUST IN -Another shipment of the wonderful flower pots shown on Martha S. program have come into the shop. I Love the look of these pots. Not only are they great for herbs, annuals, etc. but I am putting one of the low wide pots next to my bathroom sink to hold hairbrush, comb, makeup. There are so many ideas for these. We have quite a few shapes and sizes in that wonderful earthy and primitive look.

HERB STUDY GROUP meets for the first time on May lst at The Log Cabin. There is a lot of interest in this group forming and we will have an afternoon as well as an evening group (same study). If interested call me to register. 792-3178

There will be some pictures at the end of this newsletter. If they don’t come through you can always go to our website to see the current newsletter with pictures: www.prairiewoolworks.com

LET US BE GRATEFUL TO PEOPLE WHO MAKE US HAPPY, THEY ARE THE CHARMING GARDENERS WHO MAKE OUR SOULS BLOSSOM – Marcel Proust

New arrival of cupboards and a dry sink. ( More not pictured.)

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