PNewL PNewS 33.1: Moving on...sort of

 

PNewL PNewS

           Volume 33 Issue 1     “All the pnews that phits.”    April already…or...May 2025

 

Moving on…Sort of

Dearest Readers:

     Other than during the 386-day World Tour (which started exactly 30 years ago!) during which I didn’t write the PNewS, this is the longest I have gone between issues. I have written stuff and then it sat on my desktop and it needed so much editing because new stuff had happened and I was behind and I couldn’t face it. I thought, I could delete it all (but it’s a record of where I was then and it felt too hard to throw it away). Then I wondered if people could read two disaster-related issues in a row and I wondered…oh lots of things. Then I thought I could just post it without telling anyone and I could say, in the real PNewS, [here] that there is this blathering post on the blog that is meh but was important to me so it needed to stay but it was once again too messy and two too messy issues in a row made me feel not quite myself.

     So here I am and so are you.

     Disasters are messy and take a lot of time and some day we will all have up close and personal experience with disasters and we will share our stories as one does and the whole world will feel messier but a little better from the sharing.

            love, peggy

PS Frankly, the whole world feels pretty messy so we can all feel like honorary members of a club we never wanted to join. Come along, tell your stories, see the beauty, hold onto those you love or maybe just like a lot, and pet the puppies.

 

Post-Storm Updates

(Note: I have decided to post the longer post-storm piece separately at https://pnewlpnews.blogspot.com/)

      It takes more than a village to pull Western North Carolina back together. In the early days after the Storm, the power people from Indiana came to bring us electricity, then Michiganders brought back the Internet.* A hearty crew from Kentucky rebuilt the road. And hopefully, lastly, some remarkable folks from Wisconsin took away the downed brush and trees. And that was just our neighborhood. I’ve heard from friends in other parts of the region tell similar stories. Kinda warms my heart. I know it’s their jobs and they go where they are sent and where the work is but some of it was in nasty weather and tough conditions and I will always be grateful. (One of the guys from Wisconsin said he’d been away from home since October…)

     *Spectrum who provides internet to a lot of people up my road ran a generator for almost six months to power the folks up top. There was a guy (maybe a bunch of guys) whose job it was to fill the generator with gas several times a day. When I came home from the airport at midnight in the middle of a snowstorm, one of those guys was coming down from filling up the generator. Last I heard, there were still 20 or so generators running around the county. Buster and I used to walk up the road to check on the generator and then, boom, one day it was gone. Progress.

     I met with the Debris Removal Assessors. They documented the downed trees on our properties (mine and my neighbors)—it was pretty cool. They had mapping software that showed them exactly where things were on our property. Then we waited.

     The text came one day—they’d be here soon. And as I was driving off to yet another Big Fiber Giveaway, the trucks arrived. Let me say, I am very grateful. They say we (maybe my neighbors and my property together?) would have had to pay about $100,000 for the work they did. (Thank you, tax payers!) It’s also one more level of loss. Each stage of removal has exposed more of what is lost. There is still a tree behind my house that I told them to leave. I’ll hire people with smaller machinery. I can’t have tanks driving over everything and dragging massive gouges into my yard. I’m done. As I said, I am thankful for what folks have done but I need some time to adjust to this next step.

     Being in CA in January, following the Southern CA fires was humbling. Our storm hit a region but it's mostly rural. LA? A massive urban area? Hard to imagine.

 

Getting Away Part I

     Speaking of being in California (and not disaster related!), I went to Northern California in January to make stuff (and visit) with old friends. In the past, Sue Ellen and Mary Beth had talked of their times in the studio, dyeing wool and threads and making stuff. I said, I want to do that! I suggested that a group of us get together to make stuff together. It was a blast and so comforting. I invited myself to Sue Ellen and David’s house (not realizing that five days is a kinda long time to impose...). Sue Ellen is a wonderful cook and has a very cool studio. There were many of us crafting and hanging out and it was a great way to start a challenging year. Plus! Judy, a friend and owner of a good dog, Sue Ellen’s sister and neighbor is a docent at the tide pools off Bodega so we had an expert showing us the sea. My dear friend Sara consented to be my chauffeur and I believe a good time was had by all. Thank yous all around.

 

Getting Away Part II

     Today, I find myself in Reykjavik…again…and I feel, not for the last time. I keep trying to figure out what about it is so appealing. Maybe now, the familiarity? Beyond the city, there is the space and wildness, remarkable vistas, hot water and wonderful food. I was in a workshop the other day where the instructor, a local, talked about the harsh environment over the last several thousand years. Yeah, that is not appealing. I like me some creature comforts.

     My excuse for coming to Iceland is the Iceland Writer’s Retreat (and look! I am finally writing!) and I stay to wander around. This year, I was a little crunched for time so I headed to Vestmannaeyjar, a group of islands off the southern coast. It was Easter Sunday and Monday and despite being a pretty secular country (according to people I talked to), they go all in for Easter. It lasts five days. Nothing was open except a brew pub and a falafel place. But the weather and the scenery were gorgeous, the food and beverage tasty, and I wandered a bit. I also got to hang out with a natural dyer of wool—she uses local flowers, roots and lichen plus a few imported bugs, and plants. AND I got another tattoo in a warm and cozy studio in Reykjavik.

     I thought this might be my last visit but I do believe I need to come back and do my “Best of” (according to me) Tour…and of course, attend IWR.

 

Getting Away Part III

     Okay, so this was kind of an extravagant adventure, but I flew from KEF to SEA to PDX. I had a meeting I attend that was being held outside of Portland where Peter lives so I took the opportunity to hang out with him and Martha who came in for the meeting and the visit. We had a lovely time and the meeting was, as always, inspiring in this moment (a comment that is getting tedious to this brain). BUT I have to tell you about a very cool thing: the flight from Reykjavik (KEF) to Seattle (SEA) is off the charts cool! Highly recommend. I had a window seat because I always sit there in case of views and because I have to fly the plane from there. It was stunning. We flew across the middle of Greenland which was overcast for much of it but was also pretty snowy when visible. Then across the water between Greenland and Canada which was very icy looking, perhaps iceberg-y, then just north of Hudson Bay which felt like a bucket list item. How cool to see the edges of Hudson Bay!!! And then Nunavut and Northern Territories down through Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, over the Canadian Rockies into Washington. To my surprise, I can’t tell you how thrilling it was. Oh, and!!! The flight from KEF to SEA is 7 hours 10 minutes while the flight from KEF to RDU is around 6. Huh? The roundness of the Earth and how you tackle it makes a difference…

 

Things I am Learning

& Miscellaneous Observations

• I took a politically correct/protest week off of social media and noticed some interesting reactions. I have a knee jerk to click on Instagram without thinking… consistently. Not so with Facebook. I found I questioned whether I needed to take as many pictures as I usually do. I know a lot of small businesses I follow are getting off Instagram, where I found them in the first place, and I wonder how they will drum up business. Interesting time in popular culture.

• I started getting my hair cut at one of those storefront chains. The haircut is ridiculously cheap and not necessarily a bad haircut. I have noticed it could be a good haircut but not what I asked for. Lesson learned.

• The Buster Report: 11 mini bars of fancy chocolate, a stick of butter, my meds, a bag of dried mango, the packaging of David’s birthday present—all gone, not on the same day.

• It’s “Mouse in the House” season! Several years ago, I had a mouse that moved dried pasta—fusilli—from the pantry to an eyeglass case in a drawer across the room. I think that same year, there was a mouse nest in a different drawer in my sewing room which is across the house. This year, the mice got into the rice (and the almond flour but that doesn’t travel easily). So far, I found A LOT of rice in one of my knitting bags—I’d say ¼ cup, and then scattered grains in a basket full of mini skeins of yarn. I’m thinking there might be more relocated rice—I just haven’t found it yet. The thing that I find remarkable is the amount of poop I have found. Obviously, they—there were a total of five…my personal worst—were hearty poopers. It’s everywhere and in large quantities in the pantry! (Turns out Buster is an effective mouser…He found one in a water bottle and it was dispensed with.)

• Did you know that no American Indian language has a word for "religion"? (I'm taking a class on Native Americans or American Indians--still a little confused on what the right term is—but it’s been a really great class!)

• I am finding, even four months after the Storm that when I see people for the first time, the conversation always needs to include our Storm stories. (Sorry/not sorry to conclude with a Storm comment.)

 

"I know you are anxious. I know you are wondering where all of this will go. I know you feel you are on a ride you cannot stop. Many of us feel that way. It is the natural reaction to chaos and chaos is the unexpected happening over and over. While we may not be able to stop it, we can keep our own equilibrium. We do that by focusing on one another: hold on to me, as I hold on to you, as together we hold on to Spirit."

 

and..

"Speak, leaders of every nation, leaders of every faith, speak, let the world hear your voice, speak, against the violence and the greed, against the bullying and the power grab, speak, let your voice call others to freedom, speak, so that silence will not bury us in the shadows of history, speak and speak now, before the time for speaking is past."

-Indigenous (Choctaw) elder and retired Episcopal bishop Steven Charleston (two of his recent daily meditations)

PNewL PNewS...more storm stuff

 Written between October and April...

Doing Good Work: After the Storm

     On social media, I am constantly reminded that people are very busy around here taking care of their neighbors…even several months after the Storm. They are slopping mud, chainsaw-ing debris, collecting, distributing and doing good work. I have felt like a shlub. I keep feeling like I am beyond shoveling mud and so am not doing the hard work.

     My do-gooder work has had to do with the organization with which I am heavily involved… Local Cloth. We had 70+ vendors in our retail shop that lost their inventory and part of their livelihoods. A small team of us took it on to get the word out and start selling their goods at far flung markets around the state.

     Our first market was in Charlotte —I mentioned that last issue. It was fun, and good to be away. Local Cloth was really lucky to have an administrator who lived outside the disaster area and had her wits about her to get us there and other places. Plus we had a great silly time and made some money for our artists and made new friends for the organization.

     Our next endeavor was the “Big Fiber Giveaway.” A woman in upstate New York organized a donation event at the New York State Sheep & Wool event aka Rhinebeck where they asked shoppers to buy a skein of yarn for themselves and one for the folks in WNC. It grew. By the time she was ready to come on down, she had eight plus pallets of wool, equipment, fabric, and tools. A former owner of a local yarn shop put the word out and she showed up with a camper van and trailer filled with goods sent from all over the country. It was a bit overwhelming.

     Meanwhile, we were negotiating getting into the Folk Art Center where the event was scheduled to occur on the then closed Blue Ridge Parkway. We were trying to be grateful and hopeful and helpful and we all—the Folk Art Center people and the event people—were a wee bit frustrated. We just wanted to be able to distribute crafts supplies to folks who had been impacted by the Storm.

     On the day after the national election, we were at the Folk Art Center at dawn, greeted by a trucker who had gotten through various barriers and delivered the goods to appreciative crafters. While I knew that he and I had not voted the same way (he was wearing a Trump hat) the day before, the fact that he got the goods to people who needed this uplift, made us all feel better by the end of the day.

     This three-day event supplied machines and tools, yarn and fabric, and some unrelated goods. Distraction from the election and from the Storm recovery for five hours a day was a gift. People were so grateful. I was sleepless one night wondering how we were going to manage this largesse, but on Friday, hundreds of people showed up, leaving with bags of goodies. Many said it was the best day they'd had since the Storm. Saturday and Sunday were equally busy. Teachers, artists, people who had had serious damage—all came and thought about being creative. It was remarkable.        

     Our volunteers felt great being there and many from the Folk Art Center said it was a really great event for them to be a part of as well. Win—win—win. Monday morning, we cleaned out the auditorium and took away 6+ bins -- that's all that was left! And we raised ~$6000 in the three days of the event to support our rebuild and the artists who lost their inventory in the storm.

     More markets followed. The one my friend Marnie hooked us up with in Greensboro was also great. I had Covid so was carefully masked and took frequent breaks. Some of the people who came said they came primarily to support Local Cloth. Locally, Lowes opened their parking lot to a market of artists and while it was extremely cold, it was also very successful—we were selling hats and mittens! And finally, The Big Crafty turned out to be a bonanza. A market held in the arena in downtown Asheville was packed and people were there to shop.

     With that, our merry band of marketeers took a break for the holidays, but we did sneak in a smaller Big Fiber Giveaway in Ashe County. We had a few items that were specifically for people who had requested them—a loom for a teacher who lost hers, a sewing machine for another person. We also had two more sewing machines that were snapped up quickly and as much yarn and fabric as we could stuff in the van. Again, almost all of it was off to appreciative new homes.

   We’re not done. I keep thinking the donations will slow down but they just keep coming. I have a hard time keeping it all straight—someone is aging out of her crafty years, another is clearing the decks for new ideas, and another just has too much—and that’s just this week!

     This weekend we went to Yancey County with a whole bunch of stuff—truck-fulls that came from Virginia including sewing machines and sergers, an SUV full of yarn from an estate in Burke County, a rented van full from Charlotte and other donations from folks closer to home. The generosity and the need. We’re the conduit between the two.

     We had a great turnout, it was a beautiful day, the smiles were so wide. It’s a small community up there and people were seeing their friends for the first time since the Storm. It was pretty dang touching.

    And the beat goes on—a group in Tryon wants to replicate our Giveaway. When we booked “Another Big Fiber Giveaway” in Swannanoa in April, the Tryon folks decided they'd come to us--we had the system down. The Swannanoa event was close to the heart of some of the hardest hit parts of the area. We raised money for local food pantries and gathered 30+ boxes of food. It was on the same day as Knit for Food, a national fundraiser for Feed America, Meals on Wheels, World Central Kitchen and Team No Kid Hungry, which raised $530,000+ nationally and over $3000 locally. It was indeed a three ring circus. We had another amazing group of volunteers who got it all done. I am so grateful.

     Now we are taking another little break. We need to get the Studio back open (hopefully in the next month...) and then the Anything Fiber Sale. Still plenty going on, just different. Meanwhile, the green has returned to the land and one of these days the trucks removing the trees will move on to other neighborhoods. It ain't over yet.