Archive for August 2016
At Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in Alaska, wild rivers meander through glacier-carved valleys, caribou migrate along age-old trails and endless summer light fades into aurora-lit night skies of winter. It remains virtually unchanged except by the forces of nature. With no roads, getting here is a challenge, but the reward is a lifetime of amazing memories. Photo by Carl Johnson, National Park Service. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 8/30/16.
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The stuff dreams are made of: A brilliant, fog-free sunrise at Golden Gate National Monument. Photo by Jeff Lewis. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 7/22/16.
Rising nearly 5,000 feet above Yosemite Valley and 8,800 feet above sea level, Half Dome is a Yosemite National Park icon and a great challenge to many hikers. At least a 14-mile round trip through wilderness with an elevation gain of over 4,800 feet, this hike is not for the unprepared. Permits are required to reduce crowding – protect natural and cultural resources, and improve safety. But for those who make to the top, the view is indescribable. Photo by National Park Service. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 7/25/16.
Photo by Tom Hamilton. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 7/4/16.
An alternative, foggy view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Photo by Dave Gordon. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 8/23/16.
On August 24, 2016, President Obama designated Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument – our nation’s newest national monument and the 413th site in the national park system. Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument will permanently protect north-central Maine’s awe-inspiring mountains, forests and waters for current and future generations. The approximately 87,500 acres that make up the new national monument is rich in biodiversity and known for its outstanding opportunities to hike, canoe, hunt, fish, snowmobile, snowshoe and cross-country ski. Photo by Scott Miller. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 8/24/16.
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Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. Photo by Michelle Olmstead. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 6/13/16.
Car headlights, Excelsior Geyser & starry skies create an otherworldly image in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 8/5/16.
Wyoming’s National Elk Refuge. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 8/11/16.
Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. Photo by Nikhil Nachappa. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 8/22/16.
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A brilliant summer sun rises over Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, shining golden light through the limbs of an old burl oak and burning away the morning fog. The refuge runs for almost 70 miles along the Minnesota River, providing visitors a unique opportunity to enjoy wildlife observation and recreation in the shadows of skyscrapers, grain elevators and towering trees. Photo by Erik Fremstad. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 8/19/16.
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Found on western public lands like Glacier National Park in Montana, mountain goats like this young one thrill visitors with their acrobatic feats. Often seen on steep, rocky slopes, they easily balance on rocks and scramble down cliffs in search of tasty grasses, mosses and lichens. Photo by Steve Muller. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 8/5/16.
A seldom-seen Wolverine. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 8/12/16.
Once thought extinct – and then to be found as the rarest of mammals still living in the wild – the black footed ferret has grown from living at only one site in Wyoming to 28 different locations thanks to a captive breeding program. Shown are 3 black-footed ferrets in the wild. Photo by Kimberly Fraser, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Posted on the US Department of the Interior blog.
A Desert Tortoise in Joshua Tree National Park. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 8/4/16.
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Getting into the backcountry yields rewards that are worth the effort. Montana’s Glacier National Park. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 8/11/16.
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Glacier National Park
Grinnell Formation
Grinnell Lake
Haystack Falls
Ninaistako
St Mary Falls
Two Medicine Lake
Which Is Prettier?
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Nothing says spring like the colorful wildflowers of Handies Peak Wilderness Study Area in Colorado. More than beautiful springtime displays, this secluded landscape offers alpine lakes, large canyons and 13 peaks over 13,000 feet. Make the most of this season by hiking, backpacking, camping or mountain climbing in this remarkable wilderness. Photo by Bob Wick. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 4/5/16.
Now is the perfect time to see Mars in the summer night sky at Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 8/10/16.
Offering a huge reward for little effort, Dream Lake is only a mile hike from Bear Lake Trailhead at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Winter conditions can add complications, but there’s nothing like sunrise painting the mountains to make you forget about the cold. Photo by Crystal Brindle. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 2/24/16.
Dinosaurs once roamed here, and visitors today can see the fossils of these ancient creatures embedded in the rocks of Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado. The park also preserves petroglyphs (patterns chipped or carved into rock) and pictographs (patterns painted on rock) of designs shaped like lizards, birds, spirals and more. Photographer Dustin Baugh captured this beautiful photo before cooking dinner at his campsite: “The meadow was full of deer and Canadian geese wandering the swollen river banks, with one large bighorn sheep grazing near the cliffs.” Photo courtesy of Dustin Baugh. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 6/2/16.
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Have you ever seen lightning make such crazy shapes? This bolt looks like a Tyrannosaurus rex getting ready to chomp a formation at Blue Mesa in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. Monsoons usher in summer lightning, so explore safely and be sure to check the weather. Photo by Hallie Larsen, National Park Service. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 8/17/16.
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Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park. Photoby Derek Culver. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 7/31/16.
The sky above California’s Death Valley National Park comes alive at night! Milky Way photo by Sriram Murali. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 8/17/18.
The Milky Way behind Balanced Rock Arizona’s Arches National Park. Photo by Joshua Snow. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 8/2/16.
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The Board Chronicles is an ongoing series of articles about the adventures of Mrs M’s Handmade as a vendor at community festivals & craft fairs. Mrs M’s subsidiary, Mr M’s Woodshop, has been approved to create this chronicle for the good of vendorkind.
Tehachapi is a small town (population 13,000+) with at an elevation of 3,970′, and is located between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. Tehachapi is about 60 miles north of us, in the mountains of southern Kern County.
Which must be why they host the annual Tehachapi Mountain Festival®.
There’s a rodeo. There’s a parade. There’s a 5K & 10K. There’s a carnival. There’s a car show (and I saw none of these, by the way, but I did see Miss Rodeo Kern County’s horse trailer.). The event takes place at Tehachapi’s Philip Marx Central Park, where a bandstand has free concerts and the streets are filled with vendors offering handmade goods. That’s my kind of good time.
We first visited Tehachapi as vendors last year, and had a fabulous time, as you can read in last year’s The Board Chronicles: Tehachapi Mountain Festival. At the time, this was our Best. Event. Ever.
We’ve kept improving on our performance, however, and we’ve broken that record 5 times since. My only question is, can we keep it going?
New Ideas
- We’ve both improved our presentations since last year … but we still don’t have a banner. We’ve introduced a few new products, of course, but we’re comparing results with an excellent, surprisingly successful event from last year.
- New at this event is Aunt Sis’ Cloth Exfolier, available as a flat cloth or a mitt (see the last picture, below). Aunt Sis has been crocheting up a storm so she could be a part of the wonder that is Mrs M’s Handmade. That’s my version of the story, anyway.
- This is our 80th event as vendors. I’m not sure we still qualify as beginners, but I know we are far, far from being experts.
Observations
- The number of vendors effectively doubled this year, with many more vendors on the 2 streets surrounding the park. Unfortunately, many of the new vendors were not exhibiting handmade goods exclusively. In my humble opinion. Only handmade goods were allowed to be offered from the street positions (there were perhaps a dozen buy & sell vendors located in the purgatory on the south side of the park, just like last year). The mixing of non-handmade goods by some vendors was my only complaint with the event.
- I love community events.
- Great booth location … because it’s the same one we had last year. Personally, I don’t think which booth location you get matters much most of the time, but we are happy with our location … especially with vendor friends on both sides and behind our booth! Keeping the same location year-to-year is important, I believe. Own your space.
- Both Mrs M & I had so many people come to our booth on Saturday and express their excitement that we were back again. Mrs M sold a lot of Soozy’s Achy Muscle Relief to people coming back for more, and that is always a wonderful thing!
- I love community events.
- Oh so many wannabe woodworkers talked to me at this event, and to a man (yup) they all asked where I got my lumber. It’s not easy to shop for exotics like I use when you leave LA County.
- After thinking my large surfboards, AKA Elegant Cheese & Cracker Servers, would never sell … I’m now down to my last one. I need to make another big bunch ASAP!
- Requests were pretty light this weekend … so it figures that the requests received were for chess pieces (2x) and (wait for it) … cribbage boards.
- Someone asked Mrs M for soap made from ostrich oil. That’s a thing, come to find out. And, uh, I don’t want to know how you get the oil out of the ostrich.
- I’m never going to be OK with the look of our booth until we:
- Add mesh walls to both add hanging points and control our backdrop 100%
- Get banners up above our booth header
- The former may have to wait until we buy a new shade structure … maybe next year. If we need it. The latter needs to get handled ASAP. We. Need. Banners.
- It was just days ago that I had pushed my inventory of boards & such to 215. After this event … I’m down to 140. And it’s only been 17 days!
- I either need to make more stuff or stop letting people buy things.
- Guess which option I’m choosing.
- Results on Saturday seemed good, though not spectacular. Flat to prior year, I thought. Sunday started slow and stayed slow … but kept coming. In the end, we beat last year’s number by 4%. That’s not a record this year, but it’s still strong sales from this fun event.
The Food
Saturday Breakfast: Holiday Inn Express Biscuits & Gravy. Of course.
Saturday Lunch: Fish & Chips Surprise from one of the vendors at the Festival.
Saturday Snack: nope.
Saturday Dinner: Red House BBQ, with our good friends Jan & Barry. They were paying, so it was a great dinner. (Seriously, it was a great time, and nice to relax after a busy day vending).
Sunday Breakfast: The infamous HIE plastic cheese omelette.
Sunday Lunch: Some Chinese Chicken. On a stick.
Sunday Snack: Still nope.
Sunday Dinner: The best Mexican meal we’ve had in 3 attempts at the last 2 events … served at a gas station on our way out of town. We couldn’t believe it, either.
The Facts
- Total miles driven: 152
- Booth cost: $300
- # of people we met during the event from the producer: 2
- Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 2
- Total sales: $2,759
- # containers of product taken: 18
- # boards available: 152
- Saturday alarm: not needed
- Sunday alarm: not needed
- # transactions: 95
- # soap & lotion vendors: We never saw any, but there was supposed to be someone there selling Sugar Scrub. Never found them.
- # woodworking vendors: Several. There was a box maker, a toy maker (Hi again, Mitch!), and several people that used wood in signs, holiday decorations, etc.
- Edge grain vs. end grain: 27:1
- Returning next year? Yes.
Boards sold: 28
Magic Bottle Openers: 9
Cheese Boards: 5
Lazy Susans: 5
Large Surfboards: 2
Small Sous Chef Boards: 2
Small Surfboard: 1
Bread Board: 1
Large Cutting Board: 1
Chess Board: 1
Notepad Clipboard: 1
Lazy Susan # 15 – 050. Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Cherry. 17″ diameter x 3/4″.
Cheese Board # 15 – 048. Cherry, Hard Maple, Jatoba, Honey Locust, Jatoba, Purpleheart, Black Walnut & Yellowheart. 9″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 107. Single Magic. Purpleheart, Black Walnut & Hard Maple. 5″ x 10″ x 3/4″.
Sous Chef 16 – 020. Caribbean Rosewood, Bubinga & Bloodwood. 16″ x 9″ x 3/4″. Gorgeous wood in this one!
Cutting Board 16 – End – 031. Purpleheart, Canarywood, Cherry & Bloodwood. End Grain. 15″ x 20″ x 1-1/4″. $240.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 118. Double Magic. Black Walnut, Purpleheart, Canarywood & Yellowheart. 5″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Clipboard 16 – 019. White Oak, Purpleheart & Hard Maple. Note Pad size, 1/2″ clip.
Cheese Board 16 – 039. Hard Maple & Black Walnut. 10″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 099. Purpleheart, Yellowheart, Canarywood, Padauk & Black Walnut. Double Magic = Refrigerator or Wall Mount.
Cheese Board 16 – 049. Purpleheart, Bubinga, Hard Maple & Caribbean Rosewood. 7″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Chess 16 – 04. Purpleheart & Yellowheart playing surface, framed in Hard Maple. Squares are 2-1/8″ across.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 110. Single Magic. Padauk, Purpleheart & Cherry. 5″ x 10″ x 3/4″.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 105. Single Magic. Purpleheart, Canarywood & Hard Maple.. 5″ x 10″ x 3/4″.
Sous Chef 16 – 019. Bubinga, Canarywood, Purpleheart & Bloodwood. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″.
Small Surfboard 16 – 09. Purpleheart, Canarywood & Hard Maple. 6-1/2″ x 16″ x 3/4″.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 084. Purpleheart, Yellowheart, Canarywood, Padauk & Black Walnut. Wall mount.
Cheese Board 16 – 003. Hard Maple. 10″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Surfboard # 15 – 30. Black Walnut. 12″ x 19″ x 1-1/4″.
Lazy Susan # 15 – 043. Jatoba, Purpleheart & Canarywood. 17″ diameter x 3/4″.
Lazy Susan 16 – 019. Black Walnut. 17″ diameter.
Cheese Board # 15 – 060. Padauk, Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Cherry. 8″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Surfboard # 15 – 34. Black Walnut & Yellowheart. 12″ x 19″ x 1-1/4″.
Lazy Susan 16 – 016. Purpleheart, Bubinga & Canarywood. 17″ diameter.
Bread Board 16 – 11. Hard Maple, Canarywood, Jatoba & Yellowheart. 8″ x 20″ x 7/8″.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 089. Black Walnut, Bubinga & Yellowheart. Wall mount.
Lazy Susan 16 – 017. Hard Maple, Cherry, Honey Locust, Padauk & Black Walnut. Chaos board. 17″ diameter.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 090. Black Walnut, Bloodwood, Teak & Hard Maple. Wall mount.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 113. Double Magic. Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Yellowheart. 5″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
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Tehachapi is a small town (population 13,000+) with at an elevation of 3,970′, and is located between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. Tehachapi is about 60 miles north of us, in the mountains of southern Kern County.
