Okay, I will be able to key in the word “fall” (not say it at this time) with that wonderful cooler weather last week and the fact that the local apples are coming out for eating and baking. Nobody saw me, but I did wear a sweater a few times but I was the only one that did not wear a jacket when the rug hooking girls went out to lunch. I also offered to change places with the person sitting near the cool air coming around her ankles! And the hot chocolate before several bed times was just to help to get to sleep faster. However, I am like a mama bear; I don’t like it too hot or too cold. You will be seeing some weather reports in future seasons.

I see that road construction and deconstruction is still going on in lots of parts of the city. In fact, it seems that in some parts they have just started. Sure hoping they will get everything all pulled together and ready for full traffic before the you know what flies. It will be very nice to drive on these newly surfaced roads and not get your teeth and car parts trashed.

Of course I probably should not be the one whining about length of construction. The project of turning the former girls outhouse from the Hastings High School into my She Shed/ Girl Cave/Studio is a very long story.

We were told that it all started about 1935 or so when the high school got indoor plumbing. Ted Chamberlain was a very practical do-it-yourself person. Not sure if they put out bids for the boys and girls outhouses but Ted ended up getting and moving the multi-hole outhouses to his farm which is at the corner of 140th East and Jacob. (Location is now about ½ mile from the NEW high school). One became the chicken coop (girls = hens) and the other became a shop which now has an attached 2 car garage.

We became the first non-family to own one of the first farms west of the Mississippi in 1986. The chicken coop had become a well stocked place to put things, lots and lots of things, and the shop still was used for shop like things. The story now jumps ahead lots of years to us being privileged to inherit a family loom that Larry’s great grandmother brought over from Sweden in the 1880’s. In 2012 Larry broke his wrist around loom pickup time and Terry Flower was good enough to drive him up to Little Fork to pick up the loom. It was in the custody of his Dad’s oldest brother for many years and then to his daughter Irene whose children were not interested in it. Unfortunately, our daughter may not be able to continue family ownership. We can wish.

I already had a modern loom on the second floor of our home and along with a sewing machine and supplies it did a good job of filling up that space.

At first I thought I would set up the Swedish loom in the barn loft but then decided it would be only very seasonally that I could work in there plus being dusty. Space was not an issue as we had cleaned out all the hay and it became a cool space for entertaining if the weather was right but I just could not see myself in that space for hours and days at a time. The barn loft had been a much used space in the past when Ted and Margaret ran the Pony Farm business and hosted young people from around the world. They spent a few weeks up to the whole summer living and working in a farm setting. School groups came from the all around the area for day trips, especially Minneapolis and St. Paul on bus tours of the farm and the animals. They had perhaps 250,000 kids visit over the years, with space for bus parking at the end of the first straight part of the driveway. It turns out it is really a long story to be continued.