Lehman's Country Life

In 2004, Kristin Lorson was commissioned to design and create a mural that would depict the 50 year history of Lehman’s. Kristin, having a big appreciation of local history, was honored to take on such a unique project. “Gathering all the information in my research took half as long as painting the entire mural!” Kristin said. The total project was a nine month long stint, that Kristin was able to accomplish right in her own family’s dining room. The 4′ x 10′ piece of Luan board she painted was propped up in the busiest room in her home. “Our dining room is like Grande Central Station! There I would be in the middle of everything painting, while my husband, three kids, a dog and a cat, all ran around me. Although it was busy, it was great for me to have a project like that to work on at home. My kids were a lot younger then.”
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I met today with Peter Heath of Amish Country TV to talk about our upcoming Art Festival at Lehman’s on July 12th. Peter makes videos of events of special interest in Amish Country and then shows them on his web site as well as in hotels as a courtesy to people coming into the area. I talked to him about the wide variety of local artists who will be at Lehman’s Local Artisan Festival doing demonstrations in the store. We are fortunate to have a wealth of talented, accomplished artists from the Kidron area who are looking forward to sharing with the people at Lehman’s how they take their raw materials to create their own unique finished product. In this high tech world the value of using your hands to create and the satisfaction of the creative process is to be appreciated more than ever. Many of these crafts and skills have a long rich history which we want to preserve and share. I think you will find this event to be fun, educational and inspiring for all ages. To add to the festive atmosphere there will be special music, food and hands on activities for kids.

To read Artists Profiles of artists participating in this event go to www.kidronarts.com Stop by soon to see the video made from this interview. We will post it on Lehman’s Youtube station as it becomes available!

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As part of Lehman’s Local Artisan Festival on July 12th, Sue Steiner will be at the store doing a painting demonstration and offering artwork for sale. Sue’s farm animal murals can be seen at Lehman’s in the Buggy Barn as well as in the outside eating area of the cafe. You can have your picture taken by Sue’s most recent mural, Rex and Roy, the life sized team of Amish work horses that was painted this winter. She’ll also have on hand more ‘Rex and Roy’ equine art as well as an assortment of Amish, farm and farm animal art. For more information on Sue go to www.suesteiner.com as well as www.kidronarts.com to read about the other local artists who will be participating in the art festival.

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At Lehman’s Local Artisan Festival on July 12th you will get an opportunity to meet local woodturners Tom Smucker and Bob Schloneger of Can Do Woodworking. They will bring a lathe similar to what you see in the pictures and demonstrate taking a natural log, green and wet, mount it on to the lathe, shape the outside, and hollow out the inside of the bowl. While turning the bowls, Tom or Bob will answer questions from people watching. Another demonstration will be turning a hollow form which is a more difficult level of turning. An example of hollow forms is a vase where a small hole is at the top and the inside is completely hollowed out. Turning these hollow forms is difficult because you cannot see inside the vessel as you cut away the wood. At Can Do Woodworking we teach students of all ages the art of turning bowls and finishing them. You can find more information about our three-day school on our website http://www.candowoodworking.com/ We will have a selection of bowls and hollow forms that may be purchased the day of the festival. To read more artist profiles of local artisans who will be participating in demonstrations at the art festival go to www.kidronarts.com

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Mosaic art has a rich and varied history that goes back thousands of years. In today’s culture it is appealing on several different levels. Often the mosaic pieces are made from recycled materials such as broken glass or tiles and can be made into sturdy, decorative and functional art. On July 12 Lehman’s will be hosting an art festival featuring local artists and craftsman sharing their wares and doing demonstrations. Artist Melody Kirby will bring her beautiful mosaic crosses to show and sell. Other artists who will be in attendance at the festival include potters, painters, woodturners, wool rug hookers, fiber artist, gourd artist, mural artists in addition to musicians, special food and kids activities! To read artist profiles on Melody Kirby and other local artists go to www.kidronarts.com

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You can meet Deby Welty, a local artist, at Lehman’s Local Artisans Festival on July 12th. Deby will be at the art festival with her home grown gourds giving lessons on how to paint your very own decorative gourd birdhouse. To see samples of Deby’s work and read artists profiles of other people you can meet at the festival go to www.kidronarts.com In addition to the artists there will be live music, special food and live demonstrations. Be sure to mark your calendar and spend the day with us!

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Well that didn’t take long! Sheesh.

Barely a few hours old and Mom has the ducklings up and at ‘em.

Went out to the nest about 5 minutes ago to check on the hatching progress, it was empty! Quickly snapped a picture and got up to find them. I didn’t think the little tikes would get far. Ended up chasing them down toward the water. Mom had them half way to the water before I caught up with them. By the photograph there are definitely eleven of the little ones.
They leave the nest sooo early these days!

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BIG NEWS!

The Mother Mallard that I reported about earlier has ducklings!!

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An Updated post>>

It has been a long wait, both for us at Lehman’s office and warehouse and the Mother Mallard.

She is a bit standoffish with me photographing them, but just a few minutes ago, she picked up her body enough to get a nice shot of one of the faces. We are not sure the count, but there are egg shells laying all over. I do not believe that the eggs are done hatching.

I will post updates as I find out more, hopefully the Mother Mallard will bring the little ones out for pictures.

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In the earlier post you may have read about the duck outside Lehman’s office and warehouse here in Dalton, Ohio. A Mallard duck has set up residence under a bush near the building. I am glad to report that she is doing fine, and she was even nice enough today to show me her eggs, we count either ten or eleven. She didn’t seem to mind me taking pictures of them until I got too close. Then she started quacking and waddling toward the nest from the opposite direction.

Saw the male duck recently, too.  He is a bit more camera shy and wouldn’t let me get very close to him. I did get some nice shots of him in flight. The male does hang around but seems to stay away from the nest. (Sorry for the poor quality pictures.)

We are still working on naming these two ducks, some ideas that have been thrown around are Donald and Daffy, Luke and Leia, and Ward and June. Anybody have more ideas?

According to some research it will take about 28 days for the eggs to hatch. We assume the eggs were laid over this past weekend, so that would make hatching day on or about May 17th.

We also discovered a robin’s nest in one of the bushes iright outside our front office door. Seems nearly every time somebody walks out the door, a bird flies furiously away and takes a year off the startled person’s life. Spring has definitely sprung around northeast Ohio – and the birds certainly seem to love our building!

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This morning Lu Ann (one of our accounting gurus) comes in asking, “Did you see the duck?”

“No,” I replied, “where?”

We went outside Lehman’s office and warehouse on the north side among some of the bushes in the mulch, and there she was. This Mallard decided to nest right outside the door of the business that shares our building. Somebody put out a small container of water to keep Mom comfortable.

Seems our building is a popular nesting location for some of our local flying friends. Just last year we had some Killdeer nesting in the rocks at the edge of our parking lot. I know there are some more out there this spring, as one was trying to scare me off the other morning.

The Mallard did eyeball me as I snapped these photos, but didn’t seem to mind posing. She did get a bit more excited as I got closer, and settled back down as I moved away.
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