Orange Trees - Doc Report - I WON I WON - Restoring Union Loom

For Christmas last winter, my parents sent us a box full of fresh oranges picked out of their backyard on Lyle's land. The oranges were absolutely wonderful in flavor and taste. Nothing like you can buy in the stores around here.

Lyle said to save the seeds and plant them and they might grow real trees. Because they were not some hybrid or GMO created type orange strain, the seeds may very well sprout into trees.

I did just that! I saved 12 seeds and planted them. They were very slow to sprout, took about 2 months.  I tended them all the way through the spring and summer. I got these wonderful little sprouts but they are very slow growing. I was told it takes a long time to grow an orange tree.

Mom and Lyle visited this summer

and I took these pics of him 

with the orange seedlings:

Now that these sprouts are about 4 or 5 in tall, what am I going to do with them?

I really have no interest in growing a full size orange tree in my house. Of course, an orange tree outdoors would never last in Wisconsin winter. What to do?

I called our local high school and asked for the name of their science teacher that handles any type of horticulture class. They passed me on to Amy Theilman who said she would very gladly accept the orange tree seedlings. We arranged a time to meet over at the high school and drop off the plants so she could transplant them into larger containers and grow them in the school's greenhouse

She let us tour around the science lab and see some of the other projects they were working on. They are training white rats to do some tricks by conditioning with positive reinforcement. They had a great big bunny rabbit there. She explained some of the other programs that the students are taking part of, including a plant sale every year for Mother's Day. They grow the plants and the Art Department decorates the pots. How cool is that?

She will now try to grow the seedlings into full grown orange trees and hopefully the students will learn something along the way. It would be wonderful to get a call years from now and say that the trees are bearing fruit and come eat an orange???

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Yesterday, I did a little trek up to Green Bay to my wonderful gastrologist doctor at Aurora BayCare Hospital,  Dr. Peter Stanko. I've been seeing him for fifteen years now. Ever since my accident at work that resulted in three major surgeries to my stomach (from chemical burns to my esophagus and lungs).  We went over a bunch of records and tests and he is delighted with progress of my slowly weaning off a lot of the gastric medications. I am down to now only taking pain medications if I have a severe attack .... Things are going quite well. He is pleased with the healing progress of the Barrett's Disease in the esophagus and said things are healing up nicely. Now, as long as my gallbladder behaves and does not flare up, perhaps no more surgeries, scopings or gastric biopsies are necessary. He said it would be a real mess to get in there and cut if a surgery were needed. Of course, in an emergency we would do it. If you're curious, Google "Nissan Fundoplication Complications" and you will see what a mess I am inside.  Ewwwww

Nuff said on that.

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I WON I WON!!!  A Facebook drawing was held for a quilt store, It's called Twin Turtle Quilts located near my friend Juanita, in Clinton, WI.  I won a gift certificate for $25.  Happy Birthday to me, I have to use it by Oct. 31st (my birthday)

http://www.twinturtlequilts.com/

Twin Turtle Quilts

Teresa Popanz, owner

Post Office Box 335

244 Allen Street

Clinton, WI 53525

(608) 676-6196

I looked around her website and ordered a couple panels of some of her coffee themed prints, and some coordinating fabrics to blend with them....

It was sooo much fun to pick out the fabrics by messenger and have Teresa coordinate them for me and cut them and now she will ship them out to me.

 I already have a pattern in mind.  I think it would be a cute cuddly quilt on a rainy day, sipping coffee and feeling warm inside and out.

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Earlier this spring, I picked up a Union Custom 42 inch wide two harness rug loom. I'm finally getting around to it's restoration. It originally came in the blue color, and it's between 80 and 100 years ago.

http://www.weaversfriend.com/page1/page8/page8.html

The 2 grandsons helped Steve assemble it last month. 

 Then they helped me scrub it all down good!

I was debating if I should repaint it all with the original blue. It would look fresh and crisp, but then I decided to keep it as original as possible. If someone wants to buy it and repaint it themselves, they are welcome to do it.

I still have to hang the harnesses back on and attach the treadles.  Then put the beater back on with the reed. It will be ready to weave!  (there is some old warp on there that is pretty, but I would rewarp with new warp if I was going to keep it.  It is just too wide for my loom room and would take the space of both of my Newcomb looms that only weave 32 inches wide.

My friend Hilary from New York sent me a crank handle, and my friend Tina from Indiana sent me some new heddles for the harnesses. Steve has helped grind the rust off of the handle and the reed and I will soon put it all back together.

 I will post it for sale once it is in operating condition. 

Stay tuned if you are looking for a good solid rug loom.

I will deliver it for the cost of gas, a reasonable distance around Wisconsin. I will probably be selling it for $300 and post it on Craigslist and the Facebook Buy Sell Trade pages. I have found some of the same model online for $500-700.  If you come to my house to get it, I will include a free weaving lesson on my own looms that are set up inside. Also included will be two DVDs, one which is a beginning weaving DVD. The other, is my own DVD that I self-produce and market called "How To Warp a Sectional Loom". I also sell those on Etsy and Ebay and on my own website, in case you are interested:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/KarenInTheWoods

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300817626591

https://kareninthewoods.com/

Here it is already Friday, and the weekend promises to be some pretty nice warm weather here in Wisconsin ... above-normal temperatures in the 70s.  I want to get this loom finished up.

Steve is going to do some work at the Calumet County Historical Museum and we picked up some lumber this week so he can jump on it right away tomorrow morning. Got to get it done before the temperatures turn cold in the snow starts to fly he said.

In a way, I'm kind of looking forward to Winter.

We don't know if we're going south this winter 

or out to the desert this winter 

or staying home???