A Labor of Love

The days and even weeks flew by as we worked diligently to get the facility ready. The landlord had recently bought the building and was prepared to make changes, too. 

The carpeting, which would have been horrible to keep clean with wool processing taking place, came up and was replaced with linoleum tiles. 

 

The wallpaper was removed, the paneling was painted, lights were moved, ceiling tiles replaced, doors widened, etc., etc.   

Some changes were big, while others were quite small; however, every change brought us that much closer to opening. 

 

I knew I would be busy with the wool processing orders, although I also realized that the hand machines would be definitely slower going than the big industrial machines would have been! 

              

But, I wanted to create a retail part of the mill, too. 

A place where we would display items we had made from the sheep wool or llama fiber. 

 

My daughters and I found ourselves knitting, crocheting, spinning, weaving, and felting at a mad pace in order to stock the shelves. 

I have three looms and they were always in motion!

  

 As we grew closer to opening day, my older daughter left to hike the Pacific Crest Trail to raise money for and awareness of Lyme disease. 

She had been planning the hike long before I had gotten the crazy idea to open a wool processing facility! I was supportive of her leaving, but knew I had just lost an employee (or should I say, volunteer)!  

 

My younger daughter graduated from college and was leaving shortly thereafter to do her graduate degree in Europe.   

So, by default, my new business partner became the family dog! She accompanied me to the mill each day as we continued to prepare for the grand opening!

"Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood...."

She finally made it!

On this bleak winter's evening, I thought I would write something inspirational, although I'm going to take a winding road to get to that inspiration!

In 2010, my older daughter did a science research summer internship in New Hampshire and fell in love with hiking. So, during her senior year at the university, she began making plans to hike the Appalachian Trail as soon as she graduated. 

That entire spring semester, she was consumed with planning the daily mileage to be hiked, researching gear, and trying to convince me everything would be fine. (Years before, when she was just 12 years old, we'd been planning to go out on the Trail for a few hundred miles, as a mother/daughter bonding journey. But, life's circumstances had made that impossible and now she was heading out there without me.) One of her male friends from school decided he thought it may be fun to attempt, so he made plans to accompany her. 

They were going to begin at Harper's Ferry in Virginia and hike to Mount Katahdin in Maine.  I was a bit happier that she was hiking with a friend; so, even though I had some reservation, I tried to be supportive.

The few trains that pass through our town don't stop to pick up passengers, but in a small town just about an hour north of us, they do.  The train that they needed to catch came through at 3:00 am.  We had left the house around midnight in order to get there and get checked in. 

McAfee Knob -  AT, Virginia

As the train emerged through the darkness and pulled into that deserted station, not a person was in sight.  After a hasty good-bye, the train was off again as quickly as it had come, and I was left wondering why I'd agreed to the whole plan.

To summarize this quickly, - her friend lasted only 8 days before returning home.  My daughter hiked on for almost 500 miles alone.  One morning around 6:00 am, I got a phone call asking if I'd help her get home....I was on the road north 15 minutes later.

She was very unhappy that she hadn't completed what she had set out to do, and began planning her hike for the next summer.  But, this time she planned to hike the whole thing ---Georgia to Maine.  April 14th, we drove her to Georgia and dropped her at the trail head of the AT the next morning.

And....she did hike the whole thing --- 2180+ miles.  She had a wonderful time. I had a nerve-racking time; however, I knew she was doing something that she'd had her heart set on doing. It took her several months and she met many wonderful people along the way.

My younger daughter joined her for a short time and they hiked together for about a week or so. My role during the whole hike was SUPPLIER. I spent the summer dehydrating food, packing supply boxes, and mailing them to her pre-arranged postal stops/drops.

Somewhere along the way, she got Lyme Disease and even though she wasn't bothered by it at the time, she was soon after......but that is another Post by itself.

This spring she begins her hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) from Mexico to Canada to raise money for Lyme Research.  To learn more about her hike, click     http://www.hikefor.com/Rainbow_Dash/PCT/2015

AT View 

What had started for her as an interest, rapidly developed as a passion, and now is impacting the lives of others.  I am proud of her for making a difference.

".....somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, -and I

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

               

                          - Robert Frost