The two years of the pandemic necessitated staying close to home. We are fortunate; we have space to wander and Howard’s work kept three family members modestly employed. Our new forward will include their partnership on the farm activities in hopes of securing another generation of makers and doers.

I got some pandemic money, purchased a loom, and learned how to weave hand towels. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon produced some great content, and I am grateful for being able to escape into both fictional and documentary programming. I am still laughing over the rice pudding episode “After Life”. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 the shuttle moves across with the weft threads. The hand towels match the jiggered mixing bowls which my son Asa helped set up the year before. Outpacing anxiety thru industry, thats the trick!

McGown Teachers Workshop rug hooking camp has been canceled for two years, but I managed to complete several projects from 2019 that were on the periphery of the studio. Our local Buckeye Rug Hooking Guild met for the first time in a year; we had a great Magdalena Briner presentation from Kathy Wright from Sauder Village. My mother and my daughter in law hooked the same pattern so it was fun to compare the rugs which we had been hooking separately from each other.

Magdalena Briner Rugs (T to B)
Maddy, Nat, and Lauren

I turned 65 in July of 2021, my sister and my 95-year-old mum drove out from Vermont and we had our own week of rug camp here at the farm. My two daughter-in-law’s helped celebrate and we all ate cake.

In the fall we inherited a day lily collection from our good friend Patricia Santelli. Henry, Lauren and I planted them in the back yard underneath my studio deck. I am looking forward to the open house in July when they will all be in bloom. Lots of weeding, pinching and tending between now and then, honoring Patricia’s decades long investment in toil and soil.

We lost two very special and long lived animal friends in 2021. In the fall we rescued Ms. Sally cat and two sisters pups, Faye and Raye. They are almost civilized at the time of this writing! Willow, our older shepherd, has made peace with the three new whipper snappers.

Howard built a pole barn for the expanding willow business. We had a topping out ceremony with Howards first baskets and a bundle of willow from the fall harvest.

2022 underway, we are creatively challenging ourselves with wood, clay, willow and fiber. I have plans to print again, but hopefully not in pink. I am saving that color for more cake!