Whatcom skill share faire

On Saturday, the whole family headed to Ferndale, WA, to participate in the Whatcom Skill Share Faire. It's a colorful fair where people of all ages gather to teach and learn skills, sell or barter their wares, and partake in some good old community building. A lot of topics were covered: animal husbandry, home skills, fermentation and home brewing, survival skills, story telling, and so much more (water witching, anyone?).

After spending hours organizing and packing the RV the previous day, we were ready to leave early Saturday morning. Except when Steve turned the ignition key, nothing happened. The RV's starter pooped out on us, so we had to pile everything and everyone into the van, in a condensed version, of course. I brought my felted hats, handspun yarn and goat milk soaps, and Steve brought his hand made wooden bows.

When we showed up in Ferndale two hours later, the sun broke through, after the weather forecast had predicted rain. The whole day was a blast! We were crazy busy all day, juggling selling our stuff, teaching a class, entertaining the kids, and visiting with people.

Eva in front of our booth, showing off the balloons twisted into a flower.

Face painting.

Our friend Bo saved the day. He lives in Bellingham and bicycled out to help us with the kids. Eva adores him beyond measure. She got bored sitting around in our booth all day, so when Bo showed up and entertained her, she was in heaven. They went on little excursions visiting the Llamas, petting sheep and bunnies, and watching kids make felted soap balls. Eva wasn't entirely comfortable with the big llamas, who got kind of pushy trying to grab apples out of their hands.

Later on, she found a baby goat to play with. A gaggle of kids followed the baby goat around all afternoon.  Kai and Lukas, who ran around with their own friends for hours, joined in the fun.

It was fun watching Steve teach his mini bow making class. We shared a booth, and he had a crowd gathered around him the whole day. He was in his element, answering questions, demonstrating proper technique, show casing his beautiful bows.  I especially loved the diversity of people being so lit up by the skill he shared.  There were lots of children, rapt with attention (later, we traded a kid's bow for beautiful beeswax candles).  There were fathers of tiny babys, rolling strollers back and forth and hanging on Steve's every word.  Even elderly women came up to him and wanted to touch the shiny wooden bows.

The whole event was organized beautifully. The people who put it on fed the teachers and vendors organic, home cooked meals for free. The sense of community, fun, networking and learning was so much fun to experience, not to mention the entertainment of well-known local musicians.

I can't end this blog post before showing you two of my favorite pictures this week.  They have to do with harvesting.  First, there is more basil, which got made into even more pesto.  Eva helped harvest and carry the fragrant basil stems into the kitchen.  She looks like she is wearing a dress made of basil.

The other picture is of Steve, helping me make green tomato relish.  I took a picture of him juggling three onions, but they all got blurry.  So instead, I am including this picture of Steve, showing off his hot body our home grown onions.