Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Katie Wright!!!
Katie Wright (#5600) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning a Beginner Level Knitting Merit Badge!
“Because I have knitted for many years, actually 54 (since being 12 years old), I decided to give patterns to others for charity knitting and help them with the projects if they needed help. There are many charities that you can use your knitting, quilting, and crocheting skills for.
My family worked on hats at different times, on a loom for knitting. It is an old wooden loom that I had made by an elderly man in my hometown of Wausau, Wisconsin, probably 45 years ago. It works like a larger form of the spoon and nails … or like the plastic looms that hobby places now sell. I also had one person make hats for the hospital for the newborns. It is a fun way to teach someone to knit in the round on three or four needles, which will prepare them for knitting socks later. It is a simple project and can be finished in a few hours. I usually make a bag full (30-50) before taking them to the hospital. I also helped a friend start a scarf, casting on and such as she just simply had not knit for years and had forgot it all.
Teaching others to knit and hopefully enjoy the craft makes me so pleased. I like to share my passion for knitting, and it is a passion, as I have knitted for 54 years now. Wow, to think of all the projects and yarns I have used!
My friend continues knitting her scarf. Another friend had me help her untangle her yarn and scarf and start again. Hats are piling up with great joy and it is a wonderful way to use ends of balls and skeins of yarn, which an avid knitter has in plenty. My granddaughter is still practicing casting on and is “the master of casting,” but not knitting yet. My daughter-in-love has learned to knit and made a scarf, then a baby hat for a friend, and now some doll clothing. My hope is that they will all enjoy and knit for many years. However, my daughter-in-love says she likes to crochet better. My grandson learned to knit and made some potholders and a dishcloth while I taught him and others in a 4H volunteer program.”
Did you know that a milkmaid, a cow, and an observant doctor are to thank for the eradication of smallpox from the developed world?
In 1796, English physician and scientist Edward Jenner developed our first modern-day vaccine after treating a milkmaid for blisters on her hands. The blisters were from a mild disease called cowpox, which was often transmitted from cows to milkmaids. During treatment, Jenner noticed that milkmaids who recovered from cowpox never contracted smallpox, the most virulent and deadly disease of the time, killing 400,000 people a year in Europe alone during the 1700s and an estimated 300–500 million people worldwide during the 20th century (smallpox was only declared eradicated in 1979).
From that astute observation, Jenner went on to develop the world’s first vaccine, and his discovery is said to have saved more lives than the work of any other person in history.
The milkmaid had contracted cowpox from a cow named Blossom, and Jenner used fluids from that cow’s blisters to develop his vaccine. Blossom’s hide now hangs in a place of honor at St George’s medical school library in Tooting, England.
Who doesn’t love a tulip in bloom this time of year? And a pink one at that?!
Right by the front door at my local Walgreens, I spied these pink beauties in the beginning stages of their spring sprout, so I brought two of them home for $7.99 each. All you do to continue forcing their bloom is to add a titch of water to the bottom compartment of their oh-so-clever glass vase that has a plastic screen just beneath the bulbs.
The roots seek the water, the tulips start to grow, and then, voilà … tulips! What I like about this idea is the fact that I also purchased a container for forcing blooms again this time next year and five pink tulips bulbs that I’ll plant in my garden (x2). The company that thought up this brilliant idea is Bloomaker.com.
We’d like to welcome to Rebekah Alexander’s Kai Tea into our lineup of Project F.A.R.M. (First-class American Rural Made) businesses.
Rebekah is from Deary, Idaho, a tiny north-Idaho town close to my farm. She and her husband live on a small farm with chickens and cows. Rebekah recently joined her brother in making beautifully-packaged, organic, loose-leaf tea with flavors like Moroccan Mint Green Tea, Cream Earl Grey, Orchard Mango, Raspberry Rose White Tea, Red Hibiscus Berry, and Peach Assam Black. Visit Rebekah online at DrinkKai.com.
Steve Wescott has been on the road for three years, traveling across the U.S.—on foot—with a goat named LeeRoy Brown. Steve and LeeRoy started the 2,800-mile journey at Seattle’s Space Needle and intend to end up in Times Square in New York City. He calls his project Needle2Square.
Why, you might ask? And why a goat?
Steve is trying to raise awareness and funds for Uzima Outreach and Intervention, a Kenya-based ministry for substance-addicted adults and neglected and orphaned children. When Steve set out, he intended to walk 10 miles a day, which would have put him in NYC in just a year. But Steve and LeeRoy have been on the road now for three years, due to injuries and the myriad of people who stop them to find out the story behind the unusual pair. The extended time has put the duo in the public eye, only helping Steve’s cause. Now, a documentary and reality TV show are in the works. Say hello to LeeRoy Brown, the baddest goat in the whole dang town, and the first-ever reality-TV goat star.
Follow Steve and LeeRoy at Needle2Square.com.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
