A gorgeous day yesterday. Well, gorgeous for March in upstate NY. Went for a long walk on the property and checked out all the winter damage done to the forest. Lots of broken limbs, fallen or uprooted trees, and even some trees twisted and snapped. Cold temps and high winds can create a real mess. Some of it we’ll be able to collect for firewood but most isn’t accessible by tractor. Gonna have to give serious thought to getting that four-wheeler we’ve been considering for years. Wonder if they have electric ones yet...of course, we could do donkeys instead.
Spent most of the day working on the shoes. Whip-stitching the outer edges and seaming the upper together using deer-hide lacing. We deviated from the instructions here. He wanted an invisible butt-seam but our leather was too thin to lace that way. Instead we used the technique I learned in my Cordwainer class and did an X stitch. As an added bonus, we like the way it adds visual interest to the shoe.
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| Creating lots of stitch holes |
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| The upper ready to attach to the soles |
We had a bit of cleanup work to do on the soles then we glued just the edges of sole and upper together. We’ll now stitch them together for a more permanent bond (fingers crossed on “permanent”).
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| Making stitch channels |
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| You can just see the stitch holes |
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| Inside out, glued, and ready for stitching |
Had to let the glue cure overnight so that was shoemaking for the day. That left plenty of time for cooking. I made naked General Tso’s Chicken (get your mind out of the gutter; that just means the chicken is not breaded and fried) and finished up with sourdough English Muffins. I use the King Arthur Flour recipe and it’s an excellent way to use your sourdough discard.
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