Posted on 11/22/2004 10:03:14 AM PST by TexasCowboy
I'll need advice from them on several issues.
Some of those are repeats and some aren't.
I hadn't thought of potato sack races, and the idea that milk goats would be easier and safer than milk cows is a great idea.
I'd love to have a swing rope going out over the lake, but the kids won't be able to swim in the lake. They'll fish from the dock, but there will be snakes in the lake. Lakes in the country in Texas always attract water snakes.
The horticulturist friend of mine wants to instuct the kids on how to plant various plants, including gardens and trees. Each time they come back they can check on their plants and see the growth.
There will be tons of flowers! I'll encourage the kids to pick bouquets for their mothers to take home.
I want to add a couple more. I remember using a hand pump at state parks as a kid. It was so much fun. Also along with a butter churn, an ice cream maker would be a blast.
When you're ready to put up those bunkhouses, you need to announce it here. Have an old fashioned barn raising. Make it a Freeper event. I'd be there.
The bunkhouses, along with my house, will be log cabins from Satterwhite's in Longview. They'll design the bunkhouses and bath facilities.
When I get ready to put them up, I'll announce it. We can have an old fashioned barn raisin'!
Thanks!
Regarding a parent accompanying the child, that might rule a lot of your target kids right out. Think about contacting a Big Brothers/Sisters club or some older Boy Scouts to see if they would be willing to act as stand-ins for parents who can't make it.
I know you do. I know you weave, do you spin your own yarn? Maybe you can give TC some tips about spinning?
Nope, I don't spin (yet) but there's probably a Fiber-crafts guild in his area with plenty of people who would love to teach children to spin and weave. Try the Community Center or Senior Citizen's Center.
Spinning is actually quite relaxing. Carding wool is a bear, though.
You mean like with a spinning wheel?
I've done a lot of crafts, but I've never spun or knew anyone that did.
It sounds interesting, though.
One thing I got into one time that was very enjoyable, and might be for the kids, too, was quilting.
Some of those are very elaborate, and it's a vanishing art.
Yes, however spinning wheels are pretty fragile and hard to find. Are their any Amish or Mennonite craftsmen around you? There are tons of them in Pennsylvania and many of them have middlemen with websites.
Quilting is good, too. You could have the kids make nine-patch squares and then join them into a quilt and keep the quilts at the retreat with a date on them and the names of the kids that made them.
If you can find some one who knows how to do embroidery, girls like that. But it is not cheap. You need fabric, embroidery floss, hoops, needles and transfers. Maybe just having someone do a demonstration would be good.
Excellent idea about the quilt with the names and dates!
The Mennonite ladies still do a lot of quilting, too.
Embroidery, needle point, tatting or any other kind of needle work is very relaxing, but then I'm speaking from an old man's perspective. Kids don't usually like to be relaxed.
That's great! Maybe you can get them to explain their way of living to the kids. The Amish, when we lived in PA, have cottage industies where they sell quilts, jam and handicrafts. They are fine people, but very modest so I don't know if you could find a speaker.
You could have the kids sew the quilt blocks and then have a seamstress make them into quilts.
LOL I haven't tatted anything since I was a kid, but I knit and lurk on FR all the time!
"An Old Man's Ramblings:
I was thinking about how a status symbol of today is those cell phones that everyone has clipped onto their belt or purse.
I can't afford one.
So, I'm wearing my garage door opener.
You know, I spent a fortune on deodorant before I realized that people didn't like me anyway.
I was thinking that women should put pictures of missing husbands on beer cans!
I was thinking about old age and decided that old age is when you still have something on the ball, but you are just too tired to bounce it.
I thought about making a fitness movie, for folks my age, and call it "Pumping Rust."
I have gotten that dreaded furniture disease.
That's when your chest is falling into your drawers!
I know when people see a cat's litter box, they always say, "Oh, have you got a cat?"
Just once I want to say, "No, it's for company!"
Employment application blanks always ask 'who is to be notified in case of an emergency.'
I think you should write, "A Good Doctor!"
Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office?
What are we supposed to do -- write to these men?
Why don't they just put their pictures on the postage stamps so the mailmen could look for them while they deliver the mail?
Or better yet, arrest them while they are taking their pictures!
I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older.
Then, it dawned on me, they were cramming for their finals.
As for me, I'm just hoping God grades on the curve."
I beg to differ with you my FRiend regarding quilting....the very last thing it is, is a vanishing art - if anything it is now more popular than ever.
Spinning and weaving I would agree are vanishing arts, but not quilting....I've even done some!!! :)
I'm at work and haven't had a chance to read all of the replies so this may be repeat information.
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/ will ship day old chicks (or ducks, geese, etc) and I have always had very good luck with them.
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/product/light_brahmas.html light brahmas are a large chicken but very gentle, the roosters are the only ones I'll have because they are not aggressive and will not spur.
Araucanas (under rainbow layers) lay green to bluish green eggs which fascinates children.
Non Profit Guides for writing grant proposals
http://www.npguides.org/
Government information on grants, non-profits, etc.
http://www.firstgov.gov/Business/Nonprofit.shtml
Some places to contact for information and/or animals
http://www.stillpointesanctuary.org/
http://hiddenoaksllamaranch.com/links/
http://www.azequinerescue.org/
http://www.bitshorseadopt.org/
More later as I think of them.
By the way, my city has a group of retired businessmen who provide free technical information and advice to people wanting to start up a business or organization. Your area may have the same.
I made a beautiful applique quilt for my middle son. The theme is the West and has cowboys on horseback waving lariats interespersed with nine-patch blocks. It has blanket stitch embroidery around the cowboys and the horses. Sheriff's badges, cattle and cactus in the connecting blocks and snakes on the borders.
I remembered about halfway through it why I stopped quilting! ;)
So have I, but let's keep that a secret!
I'm glad you corrected me on that. I just haven't seen anyone doing homemade quilts in a long time, except in the small farming communities.
I'll make use of them.
Thanks!
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