Tools of the Trade

Made for Riding

                Two pairs of them sit side by side. One is shorter and a light tan on the top with a darker underside; great for hiding dirt. Many take them for hiking boot, except for the re-enforced toe area. They are well worn, and much loved. The other, their counterpart, is made for long hours spent in a stirrup. They are black and look like they belong to a different discipline altogether. They extend up and over the ankle of the wearer to protect and support the wearer. They are covered in a light film of dust and dirt that makes their color more black than brown. They both sit near the door leading to the garage. They have been banned from the carpeted areas.

Snug

                The long black protectors hang from the banister leading to the basement. They are sewn from the best and softest leather. No longer coated in the dirt and dust, it can be seen that they are well worn, but well cared for. They keep the riders lower leg warm in the fall and winter riding and keep the leg in close to the saddle all year. Even in the most extreme of heat waves, they are there, strapped sung to the riders leg. They have spent many an hour on the trail, protecting the vulnerable legs from brush, bugs and supporting the delicate lower leg of the wearer.

Julie Fowlis - Hùg Air A' Bhonaid Mhòir

DIY

   I like DIY ideas. Over the years I have picked up many skill from DIY projects:
       I have learned how to crochet a different stitch for making a scarf for loved one by watching a youtube video. 
       I learned how to care for a few odd plants that I now possess.
       I learned how to lay tiles in a bath room or kitchen.
       I learned, from doing, how to dig and fill in a trench for a drainage pipe properly.
       I've learned the "Measure twice, Cut once" philosophy. (I still have a bad habit of not though)
       I've learned how lay out and tamp down a brick patio.
       I learned how to train horses (Mostly from books/videos etc, but some from people too)
       I've learned how to lay down a faux-wood flooring system. 
   These are but a few of the many things that I have picked up over the years from books, TV, magazines, and of course, everyone's favorite: youtube!
   I really like the idea of Zines and self publishing. Self publishing was something that I was going to start looking into in December when I graduate. Not necessarily for Zines, but for my novels and short stories. I am hoping that the knowledge that I can glean from working with and even producing Zines of my own can transfer over nicely to self publication of slightly larger works. 
    I really enjoy the DIY attitude, it's more of a "can do" than just needing to "call in the professionals". It can save time (and money), and it's empowering to the person who is trying to give themselves some new knowledge or skill set. This attitude is what I feel the early settlers had. The attitude of learning and working on things themselves. I feel as a culture and society that we have gotten lazy, and that DIY culture/projects can help alleviate that ambivalence towards tasks and new projects.

"Just get it down, edit later"-the theme of my writing for the day

              “No! I won’t let you!” She yelled at the man in front of her. The man her father had told her to trust was trying to break up her and her brother James. He claimed that because he was sick that he should either be sent back on the next ship leaving, or be kept in town while she went out to the place they were promised to.

                “Come now Miss Tealby, you must see the sense in this?” The man towered over her, he had a black beard that had gone streaked with iron as he had aged. She turned towards him, fire blazing in her blue eyes.

                “No, I do not. He is my brother. If he goes back on that ship he will die. And I am not leaving him behind.” She looked over at her brother lying on a cot nearby. They had been brought off of the ship and right to this man’s home. Looking back at the tall man, Adelaide wasn’t sure her father would have told her to trust him if he had known the man would want to split up his children.

                The man in charge shuffled some papers on his desk. Adelaide could tell that she had presented him with a problem that he didn’t want to deal with.

                “Miss Tealby, if you insist on staying with your brother you can’t go to the same house that your contract is for.” He looked up to meet her eyes. “The family only wanted a girl to help with the children and housework. Your brother was going to go off to a. . .” he shuffled more papers, “ah here tis, a Mr. Wreke.”

                “Fine, I’m not leaving my brother.” She crossed the distance to where her brother was lying, “I will go with him to this Wreke’s place.”

                “Miss, I don’t know that he will want the both of ye. He only signed the papers for your brother. . .” she looked back over at the man, her intense stare enough to quiet him.

                “I am going where my brother goes.” She turned back and smoothed the light brown hair over his forehead, his eyes flicked open revealing a darker blue than his sisters. “I will not leave him to get sicker, he needs me.”  She smoothed the thin blanket over him and stood again.

                “Well I suppose we can try to go see Mr. Wreke.” The large man looked at the two young people in front of him, “Maybe he can make use of ye both somehow.”

               

Last Item-Can you guess what it is?

Description 5:

                It sits upright in the garage at the moment. Later it will be moved into the house and onto its stand. It smells of sweat and long hours outside. The leather is worn, but has been taken care of for more than 20 years. The silver is dull, but is easily polished to a bright shine. The underside is now worn down, but was once as fluffy as a rabbit. In some spots the dark leather is smooth as butter from constant contact. The once tooled surface is now smooth, the design still detectable. Another piece of equipment rests on top. The leather pieces attached to the metal bars dangle over the side. The long white cotton ropes affixed to the metal parts are not so white, and need to be cleaned again.

Two Descriptions-Everday Objects

Description 1:

                It's small, a teal color with silver parts on the inside. Little metal parts come out of it when the upper and lower sections are pushed together. Usually they are only pushed together when a piece of paper is put between them. The little metal bits hold the paper together.  It sits on the highest shelf on the plain wooden desk in a little metal drawer.

Description 2:

                The long black object sits on the computer desk, sitting near the laptop computer. It has little scratching on it and a few white looking stickers. On the top edge there are little grooves, like it fits into something. On the opposite side there are little rubber nubs. It is pretty heavy, and smooth on its one side that wraps most of the way around.

New Piece of the New World

               The ship swayed gently on the deep blue waters that it rode upon. The door to the stairway that opened up to the rough stairway to the hold, and a small figure emerged out into the sunlight. She was in a dress made of plain cloth with a small white bonnet fastened around her blonde hair. The wind took the two ends of the bonnet and sent them dancing through the air.

                She was slightly pale from being on the ship for almost three months. Under that paleness there was the faint shadow of golden skin gained from working outside glimmering. Her sky blue eyes took in her surroundings, and fixated on the men aloft. The men in the rigging looked like spiders climbing on their different webs. The men were stitching up the sails that had been ripped in the last storm.

                 “ ‘Scuse me Miss Addy.” She moved out of the way of a rough sailor dressed only in trousers and a vest of leather. The men had gotten so used to her being on deck that she had become almost a mascot to them; a reason for heading to the new world. She headed over to her favorite spot on the whole of the ship: the prow.

                When she stood in the prow she could look out across the blue expanse of water. Sometimes she could see the shadows of fish darting around the wooden hull. But what she loved the most about the prow was the sea spray that would come across if the day had a breeze. The smell of the salt on the water made her think of the times her father took her down to the beach in search for good driftwood for his carpentry work.

                Being up on deck was also a reprieve from the death pall that hung over the people in the hold. Many were sick. There hadn’t been enough fresh water and food. Both had gotten contaminated by rats on the trip, and more than a few had passed away.