Lehman's Country Life

North America and many other places have been diluged with weather emergencies. It has been happening since there was life on earth but now with cell phone cameras, TV and Internet we get close up views of what is going on. Some upset weather is worse than others.

Where we live we can predict with certainty the power will go off  in the winter and  some times spring. With North West winds off the Atlantic  and salt spray from the ocean  we can be plunged into darkness easily. A few years ago we had a lot of snow and fierce winds. The power was off for four days and other places much longer. By preparing ahead your life doesn’t have to become a disaster when the weather turns bad.

Here is a list of things you can do to prepare for this type of emergency ahead of time.
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                If you have started making changes you are on your way to having a rainy day savings account.  There is another area to consider. That is food. Groceries are a big expense for most people. Here are some ways to change the way you eat and save money.

First, start cooking from scratch instead of eating out or bringing dinners in. If you live where you can have a garden please do so. Besides saving money you will gain health benefits from eating better food. If you can’t have a garden look for local farm markets in the area where you live. Organic  foods are more expensive and better for your health. But some people can not afford the extra cost. In that case buy what is freshest at the farm market and wash the fruit and vegetables thoroughly to remove any pesticide residue before storing or eating them. Buying more than you need and canning or freezing will save you money too.
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        It was inevitable, a certainty through my life or just fate  but it was bound to happen sooner or later. It has been the pattern ever since I started working when I was thirteen. I would get a job, work for less pay than anyone else doing the same work, knock myself out trying to please my employer and wham bang I get fired if I ask for equal pay! So it came as no surprise when I was let go from my employment.

I earned $5 an hour going out to a home to take care of  two pre-school children. I also washed clothes, swept floors and cooked meals. A day’s work varied from nine to ten hours, two to four days a week. It wasn’t a lot of money but was located close to home so I could walk to work.
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Local resident, Holly Frantz, of Two Sister’s Wool couldn’t even finishing setting up her display early this Sat. morning before visitors to Lehman’s were asking her question about the old time craft of wool rug hooking.  Holly had examples of beautiful wall hangings, table runners, pillows and rugs she made using strips of recycled wool.  The style she uses in her rugs can be described as primitive although the same rug hooking techniques lend themselves to many different styles and tastes since the wool can be dyed and the patterns varied.

Holly brought her portable equipment which fits on a small table or a lap to give people in the store a chance to try the methods themselves.  One of the things that is apparent during Lehman’s Ohio Arts and Crafts Guild demos is how much Lehman’s customers appreciate seeing people working with their hands and making good use of what is on hand.  Wool rug hooking is just one example of doing just that.  Creativity, practicality and resourcefulness come together to create something lovely and interesting.

Two Wool Sister’s will be back again at various times this fall and winter so be sure to look at Lehman’s events calendar to check dates.   Also browse through the calendar to see what other treats are planned for the upcoming months.

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We’ve gathered together a group of talented Ohio Arts and Crafts Guild members to do demonstrations in the Buggy Barn for the remainder of the year.  This past Saturday Kidron oil painter Dennis Lipp treated folks to some of his beautiful rural landscapes featuring local farm scenes.  Dennis has a knack for capturing the scenery in exquisite detail.  His next demo will feature fall foliage.  A bonus to the trip to Lehman’s are the lovely farms along the way as the leaves begin to turn!

For the next couple Saturdays, back by popular demand, Two Sister’s Wool will demonstrate wool rug hooking.  Hooked rugs made in this fashion date back to colonial times.  You will get a chance to try your hand at it as well as learn the rich history surrounding this old craft.  Two Sister’s Wool will have on display some lovely primitive style rugs and wall hangings.  The added attraction to this craft is not just the beauty but the practicality and durability of the finished product.  Repurposing and recycling were not buzz words but a necessity for many as they used the wool they had on hand.  See how the same techniques can be used today to create something beautiful!

I am back to add to the farm animal murals and am scheduled most Thursdays until the end of the year.   My most recent mural is of a young colt.  He is there to bring some youth and friskiness to the buggy barn scene which already features a life sized hitching post with stately Amish work horses and a wall of busy body chickens!  Stop in for a photograph at the hitching post next time you are out.  In addition to the mural painting I will bring with me more equine and farm animal art.   Work in progress pics are posted here to see the mural take shape.

You can see what is happening on the Lehman’s Events Calendar .  It is possible to subscribe to the calendar so you can be notified of upcoming events to help plan your trip to Amish country.

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Greetings from Land`s End in Nova Scotia,

Haying is behind us for this year and the mower  is still not repaired. It seems in the middle where it broke is not going to be easy to get at  it to weld we were told. Dismantling the mower would be a huge undertaking also as it has probably not been apart in a hundred years. So Bill is still working on solving this problem.

In the mean time he used some foggy  days to put up new fences and make the hay field smaller by almost a half. The fenced part was on a steep hill and hard to mow.  His intention is to buy a bull calf to raise for meat to sell. Right now we have more pasture than the goats and horse can ever eat.   Sheep fences rust and split in the middle because of our damp climate. Myda and the other goats walk through them like a swinging door! Molly has great fun putting the goats back in. For now though the fun is over because Bill  finished putting  up new fences.
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That’s how we felt on Sunday evening. And we were powerless (as in, electricity-free), for about 15 hours, as the remains of “Ike” careened through Ohio. We’re a lot luckier than some! Everyone here at Lehman’s has a story to tell – some are still without power, schools are closed and there is ample firewood to be had just about everywhere. (The photos here are of my own yard – blessedly, we had no damage to our house).

After the power went out about 5pm, we lit every scented candle we had and dug around in dark drawers and closets for batteries, then ended up removing half-dead ones from our remote controls to place in flashlights and a small pink lantern that belongs to my 2-year-old. All those batteries were dead in about 2 hours and we had headaches from the very disturbing mixture of midnight jasmine/french vanilla/springtime dreams/pine needle candles. Caught unprepared? You BET we were!
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Bezaleel means “under the shadow of God” and is the name of a school in Guatemala where Galen Lehman did volunteer work in July, 2008. #6 and final posting in a series of posts on what he learned there.

Every day on the job site in Guatemala, we followed a routine.  And the routine was never more constant than at meals.  Every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner, featured the same basic ingredients:

- Corn tortillas
- Black beans
- Lukewarm and weak, sugary coffee

If it was a good day, there was a small piece of dry cheese.  On three occasions, we had unsalted scrambled eggs (but never for breakfast).

Eating that same flavorless food every day for the span of two weeks at first seemed manageable.  After all, our hosts ate it every day for their whole life, right?  How bad could it be?

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High oil prices this winter mean families using propane or heating oil, both petroleum-based products, could face a pricey winter. In the Midwest, the average heating winter bill will run more than $2,100 — 26 percent above last winter, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The hurricanes battering the Gulf Coast may also lead to higher fuel costs, as Hurricane Katrina did in 2005. The Gulf’s offshore crude oil production accounts for about a quarter of total U.S. production. The region also produces a substantial portion of the nation’s natural gas. So, if you are thinking about buying or upgrading your wood heating stove, now is the time to do it!
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I was reminded, as I brought in yet another box of books and other belongings that have been in storage for several years, of an old Gary Larsen “Far Side” cartoon. A frowsy, bespectacled woman in a housedress is pushing an upright vacuum cleaner along a path through a thick jungle, and the caption reads something to the effect that she is wary because “Nature abhors a vacuum.” Perhaps my front room presented too tempting a void for the laws of physics. Is it possible, I wondered, that this is the same room where just a few days previous, I had actually taken the front panel off the piano and vacuumed its long-silent wires? where I moved a reading chair and floor lamp into position as the only other pieces of furniture and measured the window bay, envisioning actually being able to have a Christmas tree this year?
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