Farming in the shade

The end of September we borrowed a camper, loaded it full, and headed for West Branch. It was gorgeous weather, and we both felt like we should be home harvesting beans. But sometimes you just have to go. And we had committed to vending at the Northern Michigan Lamb & Wool Festival.  We enjoyed wonderful weather and were surrounded by great people. I've taken pictures of our booth, for those of you who only know us as "the bean guy" and "the bean lady".  The Farmer took his sock machine along and demonstrated sock knitting. We often had a crowd at the edge of our booth. For these pictures, I tried to wait until there was no one in the booth. We were in a steel pole barn. For some reason, in our booth only, there was a barn board backdrop. Very unique! The rugs seemed to be the hit of the show this time. We never know what will sell--which makes preparing and packing a bit of a challenge. We end up taking too much of most things, as we ju...

Last Saturday we kicked off the Kerstmarkt with a busy day. It was warm enough for The Farmer to demonstrate his knitting, which usually attracts a crowd. Here you can see a newspaper reporter quizzing The Farmer for his article . The last question was "How old are you?" The Farmer snorted and asked why the reporter needed to know that information. The reporter replied, "I usually just keep asking questions until the person shuts me down." I guess that was the question that ended this interview. It's a busy time, the Kerstmarkt--a time we look forward to as well as dread. The forecast for this weekend is much colder, and it will be interesting to see how we fare. Friday's hours are from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.--an exhausting day even without the cold. Does this look inviting? If you're in the area, make sure you come out and see us. Hours and details are here .

This is the second year we've been involved in this neat holiday home tour. It's a fundraiser for a couple of area churches and has exploded in popularity (suffering a few growing pains along the way). We've been busy getting our items ready for sale at house #9. If you're in our area, consider grabbing a friend and checking out at least part of this holiday home tour. Almost 120 area artisans have their wares for sale in 11 homes. Click on above photo to make it large enough to read. For more detailed info, click here.

I finally took the plunge earlier in the year and signed up for a big art/craft show. It's this weekend. Signing up to be a vendor at a show is a bit of a leap of faith. You have faith that those who look over the applications will like your items enough to allow you to be a vendor. (It's called the jurying process--some shows are juried, some are not.) You have faith that you'll have a display figured out by then, and enough items to fill a booth. Abundance sells at shows--having 2 or 3 of 100 different items does not go as well as having 100 each of 2 or 3 items. You have faith that the weather's going to be good. So far, for this weekend, it looks good. Of course the saying around here is: "If you don't like the weather in Michigan, just wait 15 minutes." You have faith that nothing will conflict with the date. Often, decisions about shows are made months in advance. Things come up. With many things an answer like, "Nope. Can't do it. I'm b...

Yesterday's weather, on the opening day of Kerstmarkt, was brisk. The wind kept us on the edge of uncomfortable. And it was a LONG day, from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. But today was simply wonderful weather! We couldn't have asked for anything nicer... The sun shone for much of the day, and people lingered. Perfect shopping weather. Despite the decent weather, our big seller was mittens. We had a lovely day, visiting with old friends and new. Hoping for continued good weather (though the forecasts don't give me much reason to hope)...

Scroll down for new posts--I'm leaving this one at the top this week. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Boy, there's nothing like trying to post notices about craft shows to take the wind out of my bloggy sails. I've struggled far too long with these graphics, and I'm gonna cry "uncle" and leave it as good enough. Next week starts our craft show season. The first one is a unique holiday home tour in Byron Center, Michigan. Each home has for sale the work of several artisans and craftsmen. The $5 (for the whole tour) admission fee, and part of our sales goes to charity. Held Friday and Saturday, November 20-21, it's a perfect way to get some holiday shopping, quality "friend" time and ideas for decorating all in one. We will not actually be in attendance at this show, but our goodies can be found at home #1. Click here for more details. Then the following Friday, November 27 starts our outdoor Kerstmarkt in downtown Holland. This open-a...

Here's the obligatory photo: This is Shady Side Farm chunky 100% wool yarn that was hand dyed. We sold this grouping of yarn to another etsy seller for her to make things with. This photo should make you think about Christmas, as all the major Christmas colors are present. :) I've been thinking about Christmas, lately. We celebrated Christmas with the snowbird half of the extended family last weekend. We will celebrate Christmas with the other half of the extended family sometime during Thanksgiving week, when out of town family is here anyway. So we've been busy thinking about gifts, and schedules and such. That's also the week that we are doing a craft show/home tour and the week that we start our big craft show--the Kerstmarkt in Holland, Michigan. So you can see why I've got Christmas on the brain. If you are local, please come and visit us at these shows. We love to visit with friendly faces. I'll try to figure out how to make a cute little button for th...

Well the final day of Kerstmarkt is over, and we are just now getting our feet back under us. The Farmer has been moving out chickens. They are now living at a egg laying farm--we raise them from Day 2 of their lives to about 16 weeks of age. He has also started taking down the wooden booths of Kerstmarkt, but the weather does not look cooperative over the next few days for him to finish that job.  We took time to set up the Christmas tree here at home. The kids decorated our workshop for Christmas. So many people are still interested in our products that I think we'll open the shop for a few hours on Saturday, weather permitting. The TV weather people are predicting over a foot of snow from late Thursday to Friday morning. Sometimes they're right.  More info later about the Saturday hours. Work is calling me...

We did indeed have bad weather over the weekend, as forecasted. Friday night out at the marketplace was like being in a deep freeze. The diehard parade-goers came out anyway to see Sinterklaas  and we had a fairly good night. Our sheepy display (you can see him in the photos here ) was blown over and broke a leg. We took him home with us and The Farmer splinted his leg late Friday evening. Saturday we felt as though we were in a wind tunnel, with swirling snow everywhere. The roads were pretty treacherous, and I would have stayed home, given half a chance. Again, the diehard Michiganders did not let a little weather spoil their fun. We put very little of our product out on tables and racks, due to the weather, instead choosing to display it inside the booth. Our big sellers were mittens and wool socks. Go figure. After church on Sunday, I spent the entire afternoon catching up on entering the sales in the computer. The Farmer is feeling quite a bit of pressure to keep ahead of the buye...

We had tolerable weather on Friday, our first day at Kerstmarkt. The wind was bitter, but the thermometer read well above freezing. Our heaters kept our blood from freezing, and the best part: no precipitation of any kind! Saturday's weather was even better. It got so warm mid-day that we turned the heaters off! The lovely weather brought out a steady stream of shoppers who were inclined to linger, chat and buy. The Farmer's new toy was a hit with the shoppers. The weather has turned ugly, and the forecast for this coming week has  me shaking in my boots already. Let's hope they're wrong...

A few new pair of socks, ready to roll. Kerstmarkt starts this Friday, 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. It is WINTER-like, and we are taking donations for a propane heater for The Farmer to use as he sits outside, cranking socks. (Just kidding.)

Last Saturday we braved the weather and headed to the nearest big city to join the other vendors at a small craft show at a school. The Farmer brought his circular sock knitting machine (csm for short), and demonstrated all day long. We had so much product (I typed "stuff" first, but that didn't seem respectful of all the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into making this stuff, so I changed the wording) that we had to rent two booths. Which was okay, as this show wasn't full. Our new rack (seen off to the right in the above photo) gave up the ghost 15 minutes before the show began. A kind fellow-vendor loaned us two nylon straps, and we made do for the day. A bit too much weight, I think. Black tablecloths sound good in theory--they show off the product well. Unfortunately, they also show off every fuzzer and stray bit of fluff well. And when you're working with wool products, there's a lot of stray fluff.  We did fairly well for the size of the sale. But...

Before our last show, we did a "dry run" in our workshop. We carefully set everything up, took some photos, and then never looked at the photos when we were setting up at the show. Lotta good that did. Going through the set-up process must have been enough to cement it in our minds. Of course there were some changes... This Saturday, November 8, we'll be at another Western Michigan show. Come and visit us at the Eastside Christian School at 2792 Michigan, NE in Grand Rapids. We'll be there from 9-2, and The Farmer will have his sock machine along. If  you mention that you read our blog, we'll give you 10% off one item--your choice. I bought a new calculator just today so that I don't have to do the figuring on scratch paper, like at the last show.