Weekend of Industry and Progress.

This weekend we spent a morning in the garden picking the last of the fava beans and clearing away the remaining plants in preparation for spring planting!  We cleared the cruciferous bed and also the one where most of the favas have been growing.  Remembering that there is no gopher screen beneath the soil in the cruciferous bed, we planted in the other bed, the one I lined with gopher screen last year and filled with the nice organic soil from Sloat.  Into this we planted two rows of cool-range lettuces, and three rows of multicolored carrots. 

 

And then we walked home with Carlos' flannel shirt used as an impromptu carrier for the many fava beans.  We took them home, shelled them, blanched the beans and then plunged into ice water to split the outer skins, and then peeled them.  I ended up sauteeing the blanched beans in a mixture of olive oil, hazelnut oil, orange zest, garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin.  They were so delicious!!  We ate them with the leftover Spanish rice I made with chicken the other night.  Zzzzzfood coma...

 

Intermittently throughout the weekend I assembled the new-to-me AVL loom.  The mechanical dobby seems to work just fine, though I am sure I will have to do fiddly tuning with it once the harnesses are on and the dobby pins/chain attached.  It was amazing to see how small a pile Granny Cranny took as she was disassembled reverently, and then there were this big clean floor space.  The two halves of the AVL assembled without too much difficulty, and then Carlos helped me to hold them vertical while I attached them with the cross-members.  Once that was done I added the lower treadle pulley rack, and then the lower lamms/springs.  I took a break and then finally attached the mechanical dobby box and the upper pulley housing up on top of the loom.  For grins, I placed the large sectional warp beam in its brackets, though I still need to attach something to it.  You can see the photos here.  Amazing to see the loom come back to life - it goes from being a pile of wood beams and assorted chunks and cogs to being an organized instrument. 

 

Seems to take up almost  the same footprint as Granny Cranny, but it's slightly taller.

 

Next step will be to attach all the springs to the lower lamms (some fell off in transit) and to attach harnesses (with help) to upper castle pulleys/dobby and then to attach the lower sprung lamms to the bottom of the harnesses.  Then the treadles to their respective connections, and then the remaining parts - the various weights and pulleys.