Rustic Broom Blog

Tag: broommaking

  • The Stick Trip… Broomcorn Meets Diamond Willow

    Blog post from January 13, 2018

    The holidays are our busiest time in the shop. We fill orders from dawn to dusk, pouring candles, weaving brooms, folding boxes.  Outside, snow piles up and time flies by.  We have filled the wood stove countless times.  Chopped the kindling.  Shoveled the walks.  We wake up New Year’s Day wondering what happened.

    We are tired.  Our shop is a mess.  Our collection of cool sticks is dwindling.  The grey ghost of winter we call cabin fever begins to crawl under our skin.  This is surely THE best time for a Stick Trip!

    The temperature in our woods is between 38 Fahrenheit down to minus 20, so we stow a few things in our packs.  Hot coffee, venison sausage, dried pears, gorp, and some unfrozen water.  Our pup’s name is Tig.  She likes to go skiing, so we bring her special Milkbone & Vita Bone trail mix.  

    Our old Alaskan Camper rides pretty low, and is heavy enough to give us traction, four-wheeling up the un-plowed back road.  There is a good flat spot to stop about 3 miles in.  The camper has everything inside, in case of emergency.  Sleeping bags.  Extra food.  A furnace…

    We set out on skis to hunt for elusive diamond willow sticks for our brooms.  These are chubby skis, built for bushwhacking by Altai Skis – Curlew, WA. Just like snowshoes, but they glide through the woods nice and easy.  It sure beats post-holing through thigh-deep powder.  We have a pocket handsaw with us.  Some bear spray, and a six shooter — just in case.  Every wild critter is hungry right now — and we’ve heard tell of grizzlies and wildcats.

    The pup is a big help, actually.  At her age, she is indeed a baby sitting job — but she can use her nose to an extraordinary high degree.  We watch the hackles on her spine.  When her Mohawk rises up, we know there’s trouble.

    Sarah and I take turns breaking trail, since it’s a lot of work packing the new snow.  There are a few snow flurries today.  The air is fresh, but not too cold.  Just a perfect day to get outside.  This is the very best part of our job — getting out here to soothe our souls in God’s wilderness.

    http://www.americanbroomshop.com

  • The Real Reason We Just Love Making Brooms

    Post from June 12, 2015

    There is a patch of wild rhododendrons that grows in the San Juan Islands.  They grow along the edge of a small lake — where there’s plenty of moisture — protected from winter frost by a dense canopy of Douglas Fir and shore pine.  The birds love it there in the spring.  Trout rise on the water.  Lily pads hover around the margins of the marsh.  And then the wild rhododendron blossoms pop open.  It is a piece of heaven.

    We try to make it up there every year for the bloom.  The place is only accessible by boat, so we have to hope our old outboard stays running long enough to make the 12 mile journey to the secret cove where we hit the beach.  An old trail winds steeply up the hill, but we don’t mind — the pink blossoms are worth it.  Of course, we would never dream of chopping down a rhododendron, just to make a broom.  We go there to relax for the day, get some fresh air & maybe find some inspiration.

    One day last summer, a friend brought me a wild rhododendron branch he had pruned away to clear a trail.  It is hard to find a nice, straight branch like he had.  It was just the right thickness, and not too heavy.  So we took it.  The branch dried for a year in our shop — and yesterday I finally brought it out to make a broom.  Whittling on the bark, I started day dreaming about our secret spot in the islands.  It’s been a little while since we have gone there, and we really miss it.  As I carved out an interesting knot, the rhododendron wood started to really look cool.  I thought to myself, “This branch is going to make a cool broom, and someone is really going to love using it.  And looking at it too.”

    http://www.americanbroomshop.com