Last night was the first night I took any ibuprofen. My right arm didn’t hurt that much, but I’ve lost track of which of the 374 steps of bootmaking I’ve done now, and which ones I’ve still got left to do. I’ve crimped the vamps, and jabbed some stitching holes through the insole with an awl, but I figured I might need my arm again today. I’m terrible with that lip knife…ARGH!…Tex says I should try whittling boots out of wood ’til the knife feels right. The knife is sharp enough…I’m just using it wrong. I’ve never really used knives before. I think something in my girl-brain says pulling a knife through stiff leather straight towards your thumb is a bad idea. Tex showed me the right way to hold the knife is towards the crease of your hand, so if it slips it goes along side your thumb. (I’ll practice.) Tex says you can’t ever know where folks will get hung up learning bootmaking…my guess is that he thinks if I’m serious I’ll spend the next 20 or 40 years figuring it all out anyway, just like every other bootmaker. Tex says I did just fine channelling the insole with that short knife …go figure?

So far so good. I’ve already stitched the tops and crimped the vamps. Tex and I made a daring move and went with a contrasting thread color…that yellow shows up really well on that dark brown…don’t try this at home. Well, I did okay on that one row of stitching twirling around the front. It’s lining up 2 rows of stitchin’ right next to each other at the top, up at the beading, that I have some trouble with.

Coleman, TX trivia:
In the 1985 Greater Abilene Telephone Directory, there are 34 pages with the heading “oil”…and nine with “air conditioning”.

Growing up, I was always the little girl with a stomach ache on the first day of school….actually I think I had a stomach ache all the way through college. I’m not sure why…probably because I worry myself too much about being good at things I have no experience at. Yesterday was my first day at Tex’s place…and I was sitting at the sewing machine with a piece of brown leather with some wacky angles and curves…and I was sewing around and around and around…and I was wondering where the stomach ache was. It seemed like it would be a good place for one…you know, a kinda moment-o-truth-thing… Will Jennifer June like bootmaking???? Yesterday, Tex and I picked some brown leather and some yellow thread out of the pile. He showed me how to measure and cut out some patterns. I practiced stitching rows….and I measured Mrs. Robins’ feet. (She’s had her feet measured quite a lot.)

Here I am. I’ve made it as far as Millsap. I’ve eaten BBQ and ridden a horse…and I haven’t even been in Texas 24 hours yet. I’m soakin’ up some of Stephanie Ferguson’s hospitality. Her daughter gave up her room to me last night…full of beanie babies…horsey stuff…the walls are covered with posters and horse show ribbons…everything on the walls except a mirror…it’s just the right girl age to be.