Mongrels across ditch!

I received this photo from a lovely customer tonight. It was taken in New Zealand. I had received a copy of it some months ago, given to me by a customer at the Market, sent down with them, by a friend of their's to give to us, when they holidayed here in Tassie. The original is actually tacked up here next to my computer, I couldn't use it on the blog as it was a photo of a photo so not very clear when it was scanned. Here's the email that accompanied it...

Hi There,

I had promised to send the attached photo to you some time ago on behalf of Estelle Hargreaves, however I've only just came across your email address again which reminded me I had reneged on my promise.

Estelle is a very dear friend who has sent numerous pairs of Mongrel Socks across the ditch to my wife and I( in Dunedin) an my father and mother in-law ( in Central Otago). The attached photo was taken in Hanmer Springs, an amazing spot with an outdoor thermal complex surrounded by mountains. There was plenty of snow about when we visited and I'm told the temperature hit somewhere around -7 degrees. Showers to warm up were delayed due to frozen pipes in our rented (and newly built!) home,but one thing was for sure-none of our toes got cold!

Regards,

Luke.

I am continually amazed at the kindness and good will our customers show us, we may well give them warm toes, but they give me a warm heart.

1,2,3, argh!

It's come around again, the end of the financial year. Not many socks being made, while we're busy counting stock. I just hate the mindless, seemingly endless, sock counting. Then there's the need to count the raw materials, pure wool, wool blends, packing materials, and so it goes on. I don't think the count is even the worst of it, it's the need to clean that becomes glaringly obvious, once the count begins. It will take a good week to get the shed back in to shape, after I've ripped the guts out of it, shuffled boxes, consolidated boxes, before we can get back in to normal production.
The EoFY could not come at a worse time for us, smack bang in the middle of the busy winter season. Getting our wholesale and mail orders out, can't wait 'til I've finished stocktake. It's got to be done as they come in. So I find myself jumping to and fro from one thing and another, never seeming to get anything actually finished. I know by the end of next week I'll be able to forget about it for another year, it's just going to be a long week.
Best I stop putting it off and get in to it!

The long weekend

There's frost on the ground this morning, winter here in Tasmania has really set in. And with winter our pure wool sock sales step up. We have been busy making, making. Not too busy to take a the long week end off, however, which we did. We went up to a visit friends, who run a 3ooo acre property in the lake district of central Tasmania. The property is called "Currawong Lakes", and what a magic place it is. As a business, it is a very private game and fly fishing park, it has abundant wildlife. We were blown away by the quality of the facilities at the property. It has 5 or 6 cabins, a rustic lodge/restaurant with a state of the art kitchen, lake's stocked with trophy sized trout, clay target shooting range with another lodge there, breeding set up from egg incubation to pre-release pens for quail, pheasants and partridge and much more-all this is miles from anywhere. I am once again amazed at the diversity of endeavors here in Tasmania. This little island is a place where idea's (with a lot of hard work) can become a reality. Currawong Lakes is an idyllic property, not by accident, by design. The staff work hard to ensure it stays that way. Not only in so far as land management, but the guest's needs are always attended to, actively seeking to exceed their expectations. It wasn't all leisure while we were there. We did get around to discussing socks. Fly fisherman in their plastic waders, would really benefit from the comfort and warmth our pure wool socks can provide, so we are packing up a parcel of our pure wool Mongrel Socks for management to have on hand for any cold guests, we're also sending up some of our heavy duty Tuff Mongrels for the gamekeeper, who does a million miles on foot around the property, and needs socks that will stand up to a whole lot of hard work. Yep, the Tuff Mongrels will be just the thing. We will also, time permitting, get ourselves knitting up some over the knee wool socks. At the moment the game shooters have to import them, at great expense, from the UK. We'll be happy to fill that niche. Anyway best get in to my sock making day, but here's a link to Currawong Lakes, if anyone would like to have a look. www.currawonglakes.com.au