Altivo

Signs of the end:

Getting dark by 6:15 pm, even with Daylight Saving still in effect.

Forecast for the next eight days: "Cloudy with a chance of showers, cool temperatures..."

Fall color was spotty, but the leaves are already dropping.

The last load of hay is in the arena waiting to be unloaded.

Hummingbirds have vanished. Cardinals are reappearing at the feeders.

The apple orchards are shutting down one by one.

Piles of pumpkins dot the roadsides, some with signs that say "Self service, honor system" and an arrow pointing to a tin can or other container for payment.

Gasoline prices are dropping fast, at about two cents a day for the past couple of weeks.


Odd contraindication:

The duck we rescued a month or so ago is laying eggs. Today was the fourth day in a row. Obviously she's much happier here than she was living with a flock of chickens. She has a drake boyfriend, and they stick close together, and now, eggs. Good ones. I used two in the muffins yesterday and they were grade AA good. Late in the year for her to be laying, but she's an egg producing breed and must be quite young. Let's see how long she keeps it up.

In other news, the flax I've had in water since Wednesday is done. I drained off the water this evening and left it to drip dry balanced on two plastic milk crates. We'll have to get it hanging in the garage before all this rain begins to fall. I say it's done because I could easily pull out fibers from the stems with my fingers. Remains to be seen how much yield there will be when we hackle, break, and scutch.

Object: Starting with three bundles of dried flax plants, end up with clean linen fiber ready to spin.

The whole plants are pulled up, roots and all, and hung in bundles until they become perfectly dry. Then the round seed pods are removed, in a process called "rippling." A handful at a time, the flax stems are pulled through a coarse comb that pops the seedheads off so they fall into a tub or other container. I didn't have a rippling comb, and suspect that seeds would fly all over. Instead I just used my hands. It worked adequately.

The linen fiber is the phloem tubules found under the outer bark of the flax plant. To separate these tiny capillary fibers from the rest of the bark and pith, we immerse the dried plant in water for a few days. Bacterial action does the separation for us. That's as far as I got with the process today. The plants are under water now. Tomorrow I have t4o drain the pool entirely and refill it. After that, half the water is replaced each day as needed. ending when the bark peels easily and the fibers separate to some extent on their own.

That's what is in progress here. The middle bundle still needs to be weighted down so that all the stems are under water.



While I sat out on the deck cross-legged, pulling seed pods off and collecting them, it occurred to me that anyone watching me would probably assume that I was cleaning marijuana. I assure you, this stuff is flax. And what I did with it probably proves that it is not some illegal drug.