Busy Busy Bee

May 21st to July 23rd is a long time to go without an update, but things have been more than busy. I find myself on a couple hundred committees with only a few thousand projects to work on. Okay I am highly exaggerating the amounts but I have been given a lot of opportunities to do some things and I have found myself asleep long before I get home from work. However, I am trying to do better about making sure I am updating which is why I am doing this now although my eyelids are closing.

The slave garden has had much success this spring and is already ready for the fall crops to grow and flourish, well that was until the deer came along and ate my black eye peas as well as some of my okra. It seems that deer don’t like tomatoes and will therefore stay away from them at all cost, but as soon as I took the tomatoes out, the deer came running. sad, sad times indeed. Other than that, I have planted black eye peas, green bush beans again, brown cowpeas, early dutch cabbage, collards and okra. I still need to get seeds for my mustard greens as well as my purple top turnips. Once those seeds are planted, I’ll brave the heat and start the weeding process until the plants really get going.

I have also been working on my sewing, which currently is all done by hand. So far I have made one petticoat and am working on the other, and have fabrics for 2 aprons which I cannot wait to make. One of the things that I want to show in my interpretation is that slaves were often skilled seamstresses and in order for that to happen, I have to know exactly what I’m doing. Fortunately for me, right now, hand stitching is relatively easy and I am enjoying it. Can’t complain too much about it other than being stuck with needles.

Unfortunately, I am losing the battle with my eyelids, but I would like to start a series of discussions on interpreting with limited sources and how to meet the challenge of getting African Americans to tell the story that most ignore.