Jan, Bella, Finn, and Martha at the Rivercane Trail

From Martha Owen, Folk School Resident Artist in Spinning, Dyeing, Feltmaking, and Knitting:

Finn, 14 years old, and Bella, only one, love to run and walk and chase a Frisbee and go for a quick swim at the Folk School. For the last three years, Finn and I have been talking about how well kept the paths on the Rivercane walk are. We have a look for berries (Martha does) in the summer and roll walnuts in the fall. The other day we had Bella, too. The dogs  got to comparing how much money they had saved from their sheep herding earnings.  Finn has had loads of time to save and Bella, being very young and still not actually herding yet, didn’t have much, but they don’t really need much to spend, since they have some nice food to eat every day and a warm place to sleep.

Finn said, “So, why don’t we give some money to the Folk School?”  Bella said, “For what for what for what ?”  Border collies tend to repeat themselves. Martha said, “Arff arff arff! ”  Which means how do you think these paths get mowed?  Is gasoline free? In the end the three of us were able to put together a tidy sum of $100 as a donation toward the gasoline that goes in the tractor that mows the paths.

Our original idea was to write the Folk School a letter, but Bella can’t read and write yet, and Finn was impatient to get going on the whole plan (and you can’t read his paw writing, let me tell you.)  In the end we invited Jan to meet us on the path and you can see from the photograph that Bella may not be able to read and write yet but she knows how to shake!

Martha Owen, Resident Artist
About Martha Owen, Resident Artist