Tuesday turned out to be exciting

I had decided not to go to the knitting group because it was very hot and my surgeon had reminded me to be careful. I was out very little Monday other than crossing a parking lot and chatting a few minutes, but it still knocked me down a bit.

Anyway I figured reading, making cordage, reporting on Textiles and Tea,  would be about it. Then the phone rang. The contractor was planning to start work Wednesday at 8 am. This meant finishing emptying the kitchen. 

So that was the afternoon committed, before Textiles and Tea, see further on.

Some of this entailed climbing up to retrieve porcelain and art pottery pieces from open shelving,just as well I got Hippolyta signed off.

Then Textiles and Tea, a wonderful presentation by Navajo (Dine) shepherd and weaver Nikyle Begay. They spoke on location from the big wool buy event on the Navajo reservation. 

Nikyle's weaving, a saddle blanket, the pompoms being a kind of code between mothers indicating their son or daughter was eligible!

Navajo Churro sheep, showing their range of colors

A saddle cinch, in the belief that horses also like to look good, so they should have beautiful accessories.

 

The horned toad, revered animal, whose patterning is seen in weavings

Wedge weaving, made by imprisoned Navajo, saving precious wool, as an economical weaving style

Here's the background of the wool buy, in  90°plus weather, long lines of trucks stretching back up the mountain, arriving to get their wool sorted and graded and sold.

The buying event had been postponed because of wildfires, Nikyle not having planned to do the interview in the middle of the extremely busy massive wool buy. But they bravely said let's go ahead and you'll see the lines and lines of trucks bringing in Navajo Churro wool.

There's a long terrible history of the US government oppressing the indigenous people, killing their sheep, and burning their homes, to eliminate the Churro in favor of other breeds. But the Dine persisted, hid flocks of Churro in the mountains and ended up reviving the breed. As you see, from the quantities of Churro wool arriving.

Nikyle breeds all the natural colors of the sheep rather than dye them, then shears, processes, spins and weaves their wool. 

They founded the Rainbow Fiber Coop, named for the rainbow of gods in their belief system as much as the orientation meaning of the symbol. But tariffs have bitten into their ability to send wool to Canada for scouring, and they have suspended coop activities for now.  

Nikyle has an IG account where people can buy wool and yarn in small quantities, not the larger amounts processed by mills and scourers.

This was a significant afternoon in the presence of a person with generations of knowledge of the sheep and Dine  history. 

Their umbilical cord was buried, by their shepherd grandmother, in the sheep compound, as a wish that they'd make a life as a shepherd. It's a Dine observance, as a hope of directing the developing baby toward one kind of life or another. It seems to have been effective on Nikyle.

Definitely check on Nikyle Begay for an education in the wool life as well as great Navajo weaving.

Then, before the program was finished, Gary called to say my car was to be ready Wednesday, as well . Everything happening at once. So he was going to get Handsome Son or another neighbor to help retrieve it, depending on who's available.

The cleaners also wanted to come in the next couple of days, but once again I postponed them. They wouldn't be able to get in the kitchen and the living room is packed with kitchen stuff, hard to navigate let alone clean.

Never a dull moment. Again. I did in fact read a bit and make some cordage, though that wasn't as central as I'd expected.

Happy day everyone. Help me breathe!

Meanwhile there's trivia

The current state of play: the car's in the shop, no word yet on insurance approval of the estimate, the holiday holding everything up. 

The house is awaiting the estimate of the contractor sent by the insurance company, who visited a couple of days ago. Much more work than I'd thought.  

The way it works now, he submits his estimate to third party, who conveys it to the insurer for approval. Could be days or more. After the approval, wait for contractor, then the work itself is about five days. 

This looks like most of July, and I have questions about who does what still, so shocky that I didn't take it all in. Gary and the other neighbor were there for support.

The contractor  found the source of the ant problem we've been plagued with, a nest behind the stucco, and neighbors are getting an exterminator to address it for all three houses, all with the same problem.

Then there's the HOA situation, where after multiple attempts to get a ruling on whose responsibility the exterior wall is, finally the manager says he can't recommend a contractor, which we think means the HOA isn't involved.  That's one less complication.

Meanwhile there's nothing else to do but wait, something I'm not very good at.

Also in the condo, my rental, the ac is not working well, suddenly needs service. This was what finally knocked me down. 

It may be expensive, and I'm here with no car. Tenant HS says he will call and arrange service and we'll go from there.  But it just seems too much right now. On top of the current political situation, which is there for me like everyone else, a dragging worry. 

So, on to coping. Thank you all for lovely support and it helps a lot. I'm enjoying reading the series of Pargeter murders, saves me from running amok. Well maybe running is beyond me. Walking briskly amok.

We've had large storms, winds and rainfall. It must have been bad, because HS started out to a concert and turned back! 

Here's our main development road Friday 

I've been out walking, now doing the circuit of the development on sidewalks, too much mud for getting to the pond just now.

And I've been doing a yes2next video each evening, April and mom Aiko, different one each time. I'm happy with the stamina I'm building. I need it.

Yesterday I spent time with the teenager from next door, with her Gold Award girl scout project. It's about computer literacy for seniors and protection from scams. 

I'm not really her target audience. In fact she was amazed at my online activity, and said I'd been blogging since she was born! And was also amazed I'm a founding member of an online platform.  

I did point out gently that my generation has been working with computers at work since the early 60s. Then it was DOS and supplying information to mainframe operators. Now it's trying to keep up with rapid advances.

Then Gary visited later, saying he was running away from ironing, and we got caught up on his family doings. 

Good news there: when he moves out, a family member who's a friend of mine, is to become his tenant. This will be great, and I told him to let her know she'll be on my baking roster, the bonus for living next door.

I also had a great lunch, depressed or not, figuring I'm worth it.

Potato salad with oil and vinegar, fresh picked celery greens, scallions, chives and lemon balm, sardines and watermelon. Dessert was yogurt, strawberries and Freecycled brown sugar.

Lovely weather, 80s and sunny, afternoon on the deck reading, listening to a lot of birdsong, and several visits from Gary on plant-related issues. I ended up giving him the current coleus growing in water with well developed roots, to plant in a pot.

One of the bird songs I was listening to I thought might be a catbird. I've seen a pair around, lovely tune. So I checked on YouTube and played a catbird video, yes, same song. Whereupon the real bird went silent. Eventually he started up again, I suppose realizing there was no rival for his site. 

I think there are also young mourning doves locally, judging from the incessant flybys of parents past my fence, probably feeding them. Cardinals too.

Handsome Son picked up DVDs from the library for me, since I was waiting for the contractor and didn't like to be out. So I've got Pie in the Sky and Brokenwood for evening entertainment. 

And a funny Freecycle happening. A few weeks ago I offered a batch of paperback novels, no takers. The other day I offered various things including a crate. No takers for the crate.

Then yesterday I offered a crate of books 

Same crate, same books, but in five minutes I had a taker. Accidental marketing. Too funny. I'd had a quick taker for the folding wooden bookcase from the kitchen, now empty because I'd passed the contents out to various destinations.  

All in all, things could be worse. Everyone keeps reminding me that the people are fine.

Happy day everyone, keep on keepin on, sez

Ted and co.