Vintage Spinning Wheel

I have in my possession this vintage spinning wheel. It belonged to my children's grandmother who was born in 1909. I married into this family in 1960 and it always sit in front of her fireplace in the living room. I don't know how long she had it, but she was always quite proud of it. She was an antique collector and loved her antiques.

This old spinning wheel appears to be in very good shape. The treadle on the bottom looks quite worn as if it has seen many hours of use. I don't know the manufacturer or the year it was made. I'm guess it was made around 1880. This old spinning wheel has always intrigued me.

Wikipedia describes this type of spinning wheel as a Treadle Wheel:

"This type of wheel is powered by the spinner's foot rather than their hand or a motor. The spinner sits and pumps a foot treadle that turns the drive wheel via a crankshaft and a connecting rod. This leaves both hands free for drafting the fibers, which is necessary in the short draw spinning technique, which is often used on this type of wheel. The old-fashioned pointed distaff spindle is not a common feature of the treadle wheel. Instead, most modern wheels employ a flyer-and-bobbin system which twists the yarn and winds it onto a spool simultaneously. These wheels can be single- or double-treadle; which is a matter of preference and does not affect the operation of the wheel."

I would really like to know the manufacturer, date and value of this old spinning wheel. If anyone reading this knows something about it, I would love to know.

Butterfly Slide Show

Beautiful Sunset

I wanted to share this beautiful sunset with you that I captured the other evening. God paints such beautiful pictures for us to enjoy. I saw the red sky and went down to my favorite viewpoint on beautiful Lake Eufaula to see the beauty of the sunset over the lake. The little ducks were having a great time enjoying this beautiful day.







I want to thank all of you for your prayers for me last year. It was definitely a difficult year, but God was so good to me to bring me through 2007 with the peace that only God can give. As most of you know my wonderful husband, Ken, went home to be with the Lord on August 31st and he is greatly missed. If you have not seen the blog I posted during his last few months with us, you may view it at http://updatesaboutken.blogspot.com/ . On November 26th I had a total knee replacement and have almost completely recovered.

I love you all! Thanks again for the many prayers, phone calls, visits, and cards. I have such a wonderful family and great friends!!!

Trip to AZ & White Sands National Monument

I just returned home from a trip to Arizona and New Mexico with my friend, Karen. I will post each segment of our trip on different blogs. This first one is about White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.

We saw this Mission driving through a little town in New Mexico.

Mary and Karen at White Sands National Monument.

We arrived at just before sunset and captured this beautiful scene of the beauty of the yuccas, white sands and the mountains.

This is a beautiful scene of the white sands and the mountains in the background and the most beautiful sunset.

I have a new Canon Sureshot Digital Camera with 10 megapixels and was able to zoom in on this family and their dog silhouetted against the sunset atop a sand dune.

I love this camera! Isn't this the most awesome picture of one of the desert plants against the sunset.

This is the same plant with a view of the mountains in the sunset and the new moon in the sky above.