Cotton education adventures cont.: the Combine

Mississippi has very hot summer days. Moving from cool rainy Seattle to sweltering heat made our first summer here almost unbearable for me. The kids and I arrived ready to start our Mississippi lives right smack in the hottest days of summer in 2014. To add to our discomfort, the AC in our rental home was broken.... lol, I can laugh about it now ;)!

Since I mention the first summer, I might as well talk a little bit about the first winter.  It wasn't until around the second week in January that I went looking for the box our heavy winter coats were packed in. The ladies at Maple Street charity quilting would comment in wonder how I could still be wearing short pants and sleeveless shirts well into December... That was the first year... 

But with such a drastic change in temperature, getting acclimated happens quickly! The next summer, though it still required living mostly indoors with AC, was much more bearable. And this year I saw more of the outdoors and even enjoyed working in the yard early in the mornings (but also experienced more of the blood sucking insects that summer brings :(... not a pleasant experience at all!! I did considered getting stock in Deep Woods insect repellent spray!) 

It's mid November now and the cool mornings have us putting an extra layer of clothing on.  I think we are fully acclimated to Mississippi weather, lol :).

But back to the cotton. 

Despite the heat, Mississippi summer days are gorgeous!! I love that beautiful blue sky in all my pics. The clouds on this day seemed to have been provided just for us. A perfect field of fluffy clouds to go with the field of fluffy white cotton. 

In my previous blog post, Cotton Education...: the fields, I tried to express how very fortunate I have been to meet some wonderful women through quilting. It's amazing that with all the diverse lifestyles we connect through our love of quilting. I am truly blessed to have found such a wonderful group.

Julia Graber graciously continued our cotton education. I got a text one morning that she had a cousin visiting from WA for a week. That even though the fields weren't quite ready yet, she was taking her cousins out to the fields to show how they pick the cotton, and wanted to invite me and Karen along. 

The ideal spacing for cotton is 30 inches apart.
These fields are planted in skip rows, meaning 2 rows together then a space.
I think it's for a higher yield and maybe easier maintaining.

By the time I arrived at the field the cousins were already taking a ride. The combines are quite impressive machines. 

A module is finished and ready to drop off the back side.

It's already started the next module.

.....and MASSIVE!

I'm already two ladder steps up. When I stand on the ground the tires stand higher than my head!

LOL, I was just like a little girl, I saw more ladders and I had to climb all the way to the top :).

Julia's son explained all the workings. How the cotton is picked. How the combine senses how much and wraps each bale. How the bale is rolled up and dropped out the back. That the yellow wrapper cost about $35 each so they make sure to make full bales. He answered question after question. I'm sorry, I don't remember much of the technical information. My emotions were in overdrive. I'm not sure why... I hadn't wanted to ride the combine, rather was happy with just watching it work. But Julia persisted and convinced me to experience it. I am so grateful she insisted <3!!
Thank goodness for google :)... National Cotton Council of America has a great page of Frequently asked questions!

The combine is a two seater...

...Karen and I had to balance ourselves and snuggle on the passenger seat.

Looking down from inside the combine.
The combine was adjusted for the row spacing. It's so perfectly aligned!

A yellow wrapped cotton module holds about 13 - 15 bales of cotton. It is very tightly packed. I hope Karen doesn't mind me using her picture :p.
You can sort of see some cotton is left behind. This is what Karen and I had hoped to glean when we first inquired about the cotton.


Julia was going to take her cousins to the cotton gin right after this. The gin is only a 10 minute drive from here. We were invited to go along. My schedule prevented me form continuing on this day. The MQA Fall Gathering was fast approaching and I still needed to finish Beholder's Beauty. Somehow, in the excitement of the moment, Karen suddenly thought to arrange a cotton table at the MQA meeting. She would like to start a fiber arts group and this could generate interest.
LOL, I was a bit noncommittal at this time :p. My mind was only on Beholder's Beauty! But once I was home and as I continued to stitch racing the clock, I started to embrace the cotton table idea. Planning in my head what items I could bring and which pics to print for the display board.

Not too bad for a quick display!! I even demoed a little bit of my spinning talents during the meeting. And quickly learned spinning cotton is definitely not same as spinning wool. I still have some learning to do. Still, I'm proud of what we set up!

Ok, enough for today, the next part of my Cotton Education Adventure will be the Cotton Gin! Hope to see you soon!

Cotton education adventure. The fields!

It started with the curiosity - how is cotton spun?

I learned how to hand spin wool fibers using a drop spindle about 6 years ago at a LYS (Local Yarn Shop) in Kent, WA (it has since closed). I love the process-- spin the spindle on my leg, draw fiber from the roving,,,

 spin, 

draw,

wrap the length of yarn around spindle stick, 

spin,

draw,

  spin, draw, wrap, spin, draw, spin....

 the repeat movements are hypnotizing and relaxing..

My spinning instructor (I am sorry I don't remember her name) had told us that wool is easiest to spin because it is a long staple fiber, unlike cotton, which is very short staple. The short fibers make it difficult to hold the twist, and so difficult to spin continuous lengths of yarn.

Honestly, it sounded like a challenge to me!

And how perfect is it for me that I now live in a cotton state! 

(Here's some other Mississippi State facts. I especially like #24 because MSMS (Mississippi School for Math and Science) does a reenactment of the event every year during their Tales of the Crypt  production. But, it's off subject...)

So, I've lived here two years. I hadn't had the courage to seek out a cotton farmer to see his farm. Heh, I am a bit timid about that kind of stuff for myself. Looking back now, I guess I could have easily googled cotton gins near me and learned all I wanted, but that's not how my adventure goes :).

Luckily, last year I met fiber artist Karen Arzamendi, who moved here from Texas. She is an accomplished quilter, has several self published patterns, weaves, and is a member of SAQA (a group for art quilters). These are some of the things I know she does but I'm sure there's much much more. She became a member of the Possum Town Quilters, that's where we met, and then I invited her to come to the Starkville Hoopers with me. I mention all this to tell you that we both have a love for fiber and quilting. She uses fibers for art and I use fibers for traditional needle crafts.  

As an added bonus our husbands both work for the same company, different jobs, but it's another connection she and I have. With so much in common it was very easy to become fast friends. 

The Starkville Hooper's quilt meeting is in the next town from me and a 30 minute drive. Karen lives right at the midpoint of my trip, so we often ride together. Well, last year was when I told her my curiosity with cotton as we passed the fields MSU maintains as part of their agriculture studies. LOL it pleased me so much when she dared to drive up to the field and have a closer look at the plants with me. I have a picture of me during that trip somewhere....

MSU agriculture cotton field.
Oct 2015
The only thing we took were pictures, we didn't pick any cotton!

Recently, I happened to be dropping off a PTQ friend, Julia Graber, at her house after a day at the Old Man River Quilt Show. Julia specializes in art quilts, a member of SAQA, and this year's Mississippi's Quilt Association president. All this along with being an involved wife, mother, and grandmother! I am in awe with her!

Across the road from her house was a cotton field just starting to bloom!  I asked if she thought the farmer would mind if I stepped closer to the plants to get some pictures of the cotton blooms and plants. Come to find out, it's her family growing the cotton!!

The flower matures and falls off leaving the pod to grow.
The green pod is the cotton boll where the fibers are starting to
push out of the seeds.

Look at those beautifully shaped 5 point leaves!

Karen and I start talking during our ride to the next Hooper's meeting. Both of us are super curious about spinning cotton. Neither of us have had this experience. We wondered if Julia's family would allow us to glean what's left of the cotton after it's been harvested so we can give spinning it a try. The best part is that now that I have someone else interested with me, I have the courage to ask!

And Julia says, "I'll tell you when the cotton is ready." And a couple weeks later she texted me. She thought it would be easier if we picked the cotton BEFORE it was harvested!

And our cotton education adventure began...

Julia took the time to personally take us to the prepared field. Her enthusiasm to share with us her knowledge how her husband and son grow the cotton amazes me. I think she was just as thrilled to find out our genuine interest. 

These fields are planted in a skip 2 row, meaning 2 rows are planted together then a space between.

It's thought to be the best spacing for maximum yield potential. 

Once the plants have matured, they were treated with a defoliator to speed up the opening process. It dries the plants, making the leaves fall off and the bolls burst open.

Each boll has 5 sections, kind of star shaped. Each of those sections contains a fluff of cotton.

as we hand picked, I could feel the fluffs clinging to the base of the boll with a popping sensation as I pulled it away from the plant. 

It was a very warm day, not a hot Mississippi day. But 15-20 minutes was long enough. I could not imagine whole days out there hand picking cotton. Thank goodness it's harvested by machines now.

The fluff of cotton reminds me of a pussy willow that just burst. Or cotton candy :)!

Each fluff of cotton contains 5 to 10 seeds. That would make up to 50+ seeds per boll!!

a cotton boll that hasn't opened yet. It reminds me of the man-eating plant in Little Shop of Horrors!

"Feed me Seymour, feed me now!"

"It's so FLUFFY!"

The scenery is beautiful!

too many of the bolls haven't opened. Have to wait a few more days before harvesting with the combine. 

Lol, Julia made sure both Karen and I left the field with 2 grocery bags packed bursting full of raw cotton! Karen and I still had a small problem... Now we have all this fiber, but we still didn't know how to spin cotton!!

Karen went home and started looking up youtube videos about spinning cotton. She texted me several links. Isn't it cool how much we have at our fingertips these days!!

However, the deadline for Beholder's Beauty was fast approaching. Spinning was going to have to wait for me.

Next post will be about our experience on the combine!
Please have a look at Julia Graber's blog and Karen Arzamendi's website!