Reason for Living Here

It is so nice to look around our woods and see wildlife around. To see deer happy and healthy in the lush tall Indian grass. This is why we chose to move into the middle of the Ozarks. To be free and to live with wildlife.

Pumpkin Festival

This Saturday was busy with our town's Pumpkin Festival. There were baskets, mums, canned treats, homemade goods, pony rides, raffles and live bluegrass music. It was a nice cool day to visit with friends and share the festivities in town. I was only there for a few hours but I had so much fun. I got to judge the baked goods and the pumpkin cheesecake was the best I ever had. Our mill group raffled off a handmade oak chest with funds going to restore the old mill. We also promoted our Haunted Mill happening this Halloween.

Haunted Mill Spooktacular

Here is the banner for our haunted house in the old mill here in Summersville. We are kicking things off at the Pumpkin Festival on Saturday. The following October Fridays and Saturdays starting on the 14th begin our haunted house until Halloween. This is my first time helping set up a haunted house inside an old mill. So much fun in the fall!

On Cotton, On Fleece, On Knit...

We went back to the sewing factory that was going out of business to buy racks. These are pallet racks made for storing heavy things. And we also bought several yards of nylon, poly and knit to use as draping for the Haunted Mill in our town for Halloween. You can see how handy it is to have a heavy duty farm truck for tasks like these. We got it all home in safe without losing the any part of the load.

Ruby Red

Here is a 1935 Ford 3 window antique car a friend purchased to restore. The car is in good shape and looks pretty, just needs some proper restoration work done. The paint has bubbles and the radio is missing. All things my friend will take the time to fix. I think the front windshield that opens for air conditioning is neat.

New Machine, Sad Story

This past Saturday we went to a going out of business sale at the local sewing factory. It was a bittersweet purchase we made. We found out the sewing factory had 180 American jobs for the small town of Mountain View. This factory was open since 1991 and doing a booming business. Then manufacturers decided clothing contracts from China and South America were too cheap to pass up. And all the clothing contracts went outside the USA. This means Missouri families lost income, security, health care, their futures; all out the window in less than two weeks time.

The owner/friend was very saddened the loss of the jobs for so many in his town. I saw jackets from Bass Pro shop, LL bean, Lands End and more, sitting unfinished on racks. All these clothing companies decided made in USA was not good enough for their bottom line.

So I walked around the warehouse looking at threads, clothes, sewing machines, coffee makers, computers, shelving. I saw workers showing off their industrial machines, sewn items, threads, so proud of a lifetime of work. These industrial sewing machines, buttoners, sergers, embroiderers were all run on special plugs and compress air. Luckily, I have a neighbor who can rewire my machine for home use. I bought a Pfaff, with a walking foot for high speed quilting. The owners father sat with me for an hour showing me how to operate this great machine in the warehouse. He knew how to service all these machines. That knowledge was worth more than the machine. I took notes and photos and even got a well used copy of the manual.

I paid more for my machine that what a liquidator will be paying; .20 cents on the dollar. All these machines will be sold off for a song and end up sold for scrap metal. They are worth more as scrap. At least I saved one machine. Wish I could have saved the jobs instead.