For whatever reason, the Northbury homeowners association has left the aerator on in the little pond on Argonne this winter. During the summer, the HOA leaves it in fountain mode, for the enjoyment of passersby and birds. The pond is fenced, so birds are about the only critters that can get at it. But this winter, the aerator’s on low, which maintains a circle of open water in the center of the pond.
When the dog and I walked past, the other day, the open water was ringed round with robins, standing in the snow and drinking. The whole picture looked like a clockwork mechanism, such as might be created for an extravagant present.
We were the recipients of true extravagance at the hands of our neighbors after the recent snow. When I looked out in the morning to see how many inches of new snow needed shoveling, what I saw was our neighbors Cory and Tanya shoveling our walk. When the dog and I left the house, our neighbors were still shoveling. Only, having finished with our driveway and sidewalk, as well as their own, they’d moved one house further around the court and were now clearing the drive and walk at Anne and Todd’s.
Furthermore, while Cory and Tanya worked on the walkways, young Noah plowed out the court. Noah grew up across the court and started his own snow-removal business when he was still in high school. He’s a young adult now and still hard at work. His mom still lives on the court, and he has at least one customer here. Out of the goodness of his heart, after the big snow this week, he drove his truck around the court until he’d made it not only the most thoroughly plowed street in town but the only street without walls of snow at the bottom of everyone’s driveways. Noah was always a nifty kid, and he’s grown into a generous man.
Last Sunday, the downtown branch of Ann Arbor’s library hosted this year’s Fiber Arts Expo. Vendors filled the lobby event space with offerings of unspun fiber, yarn, and products woven, knitted, embroidered, sewn, felted, and otherwise manipulated into objects lovely and useful. The two vendors I’d most hoped to see weren’t there this year, but other vendors took their places and business was brisk.
Fiber-related demos and presentations took place in other locations around the building. My friend Loris and I attended one on the Michigan Flax Fibershed. A fibershed, like a watershed or a foodshed, is a geographic region. It links all the steps of growing a fiber—in this case, flax—to harvesting it, processing it, turning it into garments, and, eventually, composting it back into the soil.
Before the talk began, the presenters spread a large tarp over the floor at the front of the room. Then they moved several pieces of what looked like homemade equipment onto it, along with what turned out to be a fair amount of harvested flax. A man situated himself at a piece of equipment that had a treadle, furnished himself with a supply of flax, and spun it diligently as the program progressed.
Melissa Duhaime, an associate professor at the University of Michigan, narrated the fibershed presentation. A fibershed approach to the manufacture of garments is clearly easier on the planet than the hodgepodge we have now, which can involve several crossings of international borders, establishing one is quite the undertaking. Duhaime believes that, sooner or later, fibersheds will be the only way to go, however, so she is working to establish one for linen.
Unfortunately, this country does not have the benefit of a long history of flax farming and linen manufacture. Equipment and supplies, thus far, come from countries such as Belgium. And Duhaime says that even linen fiber grown and processed in a US fibershed may need to be shipped overseas for milling, as we just don’t have the capacity here.
A fascinating portion of Dumaime’s presentation was all the steps involved in processing flax. A machine called a breaker, whammed flax plants between boards. Scutching further separated the desired fibers from the rest of the plant. Drawing fibers through increasingly fine hackles refined them and helped line them up in the same direction. At the end of the process, provided the flax was expertly retted and dried at the outset, you end up with fibers as long as the plant, ready for spinning. Such a lot of labor!
People around the country are setting up flax fibersheds and working to make them viable. Thank goodness for people of goodwill working in community.
14 February 2025
Another fine story from my fine sister! Well done.