A really good day

This morning a power crew truck came into the yard and I asked them if that meant we were close to getting power back. They said they were hoping to have us back on today, but couldn't make any promises. It was cold and windy and miserable out. Those guys sure do earn their money. Since we still didn't have power at noon, I gathered up all the empty gas cans to take then in to fill up again.

Before I left I made a call to Jan Schoonover. I haven't talked to him since early last summer. In Sheridan last year, he called me over to his booth because he wanted to talk to me about something. He told me that he wasn't getting any younger and had been having some health problems. He said that while he still could, he'd like to show someone how he created his grizzly bear that is embossed 6 inches off the leather and he'd like it to be me that he shows. WOW! I love that piece and I'd love to know how he did it. Well, it didn't work out for us to get together any time last year. Last week my boss told me that he was going to take a vacation in March for 8-10 days. Right away I thought I needed to call Jan and see if that would work out for him. When I called him today he said "I've been trying to call you all week". Our phones were out for almost as long as the power was. When I asked what he was calling about, he said " we're moved into our new house now and Alice is recovering from her surgeries and I thought maybe we could get together in March to do that bear". It's kind of amazing how all these things are coming together. I am pretty excited. I really want to do this and now it looks like it is going to happen!

After talking to Jan I went into town and filled up the gas cans. Stacy decided we should go someplace to get something good to eat. We ended up going to Applebees and having a good steak. After that we headed for home. First thing I do when I got home is go to start the generator to get some heat in the house. Right away I see a red light shining in the meter on the pole. I haven't seen that in a while so I flipped up the switch and the yard light came on. We have power again!!!! Things are looking up around here.

9 Days and still counting

Well, we've passed 9 days now without power in January and we're surviving. We did get phone service back today. The oil wells are pumping a half mile east of us, so they are getting some of the power back on, but they are on different sub station than we are. I heard that the sub station that our power comes from was one that was having the biggest problems so it could still be awhile till we get ours back. We turn on the generator in the morning and in the evening for a few hours to warm up the house. It's been getting down to zero or a few degrees below zero at night so heat is a good thing. We can also get water to take showers, and to water the cows. We've gotten used to cooking on a camp stove or the grill. We use kerosene lanterns, candles and flashlights to find our way around in the dark. The generator wont run everything all at the same time, but it's sure made a difference.

I had a flat tire on my tractor on Thursday while pushing snow, got that fixed and back on today. Was pushing more snow today and the grapple fork fell off the tractor. Got that fixed without too much trouble. It's been an interesting couple of weeks for sure! Maybe tomorrow I can work on some leather for an hour or two. I'm close to finishing up the carving on the mountain lion picture. Kate Dubiel has accepted my offer to let her do the coloring on it. I know what ever she does to it will be great! I've still got the tiny pattern from Silva to finish, and a couple other projects in the planning stages. That's it for now, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

We're back onboard

Today was a good day. We spent last night in town in a motel. This morning I went into Dickinson and had a cord made up that will connect my welder/generator to the power pole. Got some groceries and some other supplies. I wasn't sure if I'd get back into the yard since it blew all night long, but the biggest drift was only about 3 feet deep and I plowed through it. Once home, I got the generator hooked up to the pole and got some heat going in the house and got the water pumping again. It's now close to 60 in here and it feels pretty good! We lost some food in one of the freezers, but the big ones are still good. Got the rest of the snow cleaned off the road and out of the yard so we're good to go for awhile!

Abondoning ship!

This morning we woke up to 10 foot deep snow drifts on the road leaving the yard. It was down to 40 degrees in the house. They are predicting temps below zero later this week and the wind is still blowing 40 mph. We decided to head into town for a shower and a warm place to sleep. It took quite a while to dig out of the yard with the tractor. The rest of the roads weren't too bad but the visibility was not good. Jake ended up in the ditch trying to avoid a huge drift and ran a tire off the rim of his car. But we're in a motel for the night. Tomorrow I'll try and get what I need to hook up my welder/generator up to the power pole so we can get some heat into the house and maybe even some water. Thanks everyone for the well wishes and prayers!!

January in ND

This past week started out with fog, fog and more fog. It was really pretty as the frost stuck to everything. The trees had frost hanging off of them several inches long. But frost on power lines isn't so pretty. By Wednesday when I left for work, the lines we coated with frost and ice about 2 inches thick. The lines were starting to sag a LOT. Some looked like they were just 10 feet off the ground. One of the lines in our corral broke as did some other lines and the power to the house was off for about 6 hours. They got it back on but said the didn't know how long it would last. It lasted until about 6 pm on Thursday. Then lines and poles were snapping all over ND. We have been out of power ever since. No heat, lights, water. The phones went out on Friday around noon. On Saturday afternoon I brought my welder over to the house. With it's generator, we can run a little electricity, keep the freezers cold, and even watch a couple hours of TV. It's been staying between 45-50 degrees in the house which is bearable but the temps are supposed to drop a bunch the next couple days to below 0 at night. Not sure if we'll be able to stay here if that happens. They say it could take a week to 10 days to get power back up and running to everyone. That was before the storm finally hit last night. Today we got several inches new snow and winds around 40 mph. There are 4 foot or deeper snow drifts where we go out of the yard, and I don't know what the roads are like. I guess I'll find out tomorrow when the wind is supposed to quiet down. It could be a really interesting week!!!

Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program

I received an email this week from Troyd Geist, Folklorist for the North Dakota Council for the Arts. It's time once again to get in applications for the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. This program provides grants to people interested in learning what are considered "traditional arts". Here in ND these include Dakotah storytelling, Vietnamese embroidery, Czech Easter egg decorating, Armenian copper bas relief work, blacksmithing, saddle construction, German-Russian willow basketry, Hidatsa quillwork, Sudanese music, Norwegian Hardanger embroidery, etc. Grants from this program provide up to $2500, part for materials for the apprentice and part goes to the master who is passing on his knowledge.

I've participated in this program twice in the past as an apprentice saddle maker with Rex Cook from Dickinson as the master. You can see pictures of how we made the first saddle here

and the second saddle here.

This year I am thinking about applying for the program to teach my son how to build a saddle.
Several states have similar programs like this one. Check them out by doing a search for Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program or your state's council for the arts.

Teeny Tiny Tools from George Gross

I was talking to Kathy Flanagan one day about the tiny carving pattern that I got from Silva Fox and Kathy said maybe I needed the tiny tools that George Gross makes. I had not heard of these tools before so I had to find out about them. Kathy said that Ira Cooper of QED usually had them in his booth in Sheridan. That's funny, I usually stop by Ira's booth, but I don't remember seeing them there. Kathy said it's because they are that tiny! Well, I got a hold of Ira through Facebook and he sent me a link to a website that about George's tools, Cow Creaser The tools George makes are tiny modeling tools for the detailed kind of carving that he does. You can see some of the work George does on the website. Ira told me that George has been making 4 sizes of modeling tools but he is thinking of going to just one size. Now for the tough part, what size do I need. Ira helped me out there too. He said he could send me all 4 and I could keep the ones I wanted and send the others back. I knew right away that once I had all four sizes in my hand I wouldn't want to send them back and Ira admitted that was his devious little plan. I received these tools earlier this week in the mail and I haven't had a chance to play with them much but I am looking forward to it. As soon as I get the mountain lion done, I want to get back to work on the tiny horses and I think these are going to really help with that project. The sizes of these tools are 3/32 (small) .066 (smaller) .039 (teeny tiny) and .024 (microscopic).

Last week I was going through some old leather craft magazines and I happened across a couple articles by George Gross. They were in the March/April and the May/June 1992 issues of the Leather Crafters Journal. There is also an article in there where George tells you how he makes his tiny modeling tools if you are into doing it yourself. If you would rather just buy them ready made like I did they have their contact info at the bottom of the Cow Creaser website.