Natural Connections December

Our next Natural Connections event is December 9th at the Sandpoint Library, in the Community Rooms. Come for the full event or just stop in for the portions that interest you.

Check out our schedule for the day:

10 AM: Food Preservation Basics

This class will cover common food preservation techniques including dehydrating, boiling water canning, pressure canning, freezing, and freeze-drying. We will also demonstrate making freezer jam and each participant will get to take a small container of jam home with them.

About the presenter:
Suzy Miller is a Master Food Safety Advisor with the University of Idaho Extension. She helps provide the community with information on safe food preservation practices for use in the home.

12: Brooms & Brown Bag Lunch Hour

Bring your brown bag lunch and enjoy a one-hour demonstration of hand-tying a whisk broom and view a display of several other types of handmade brooms and brushes.

Shortly after man discovered dirt, woman created the first broom. Many natural materials have been used for making brooms but the most common in the U.S. is broom corn, a variety of sorghum. Benjamin Franklin is credited with first bringing broom corn from Europe to the U.S. European brooms were rounded and the Shakers changed the design to flatten out the sweeping end to what we now recognize as a broom. Broom corn was grown across the U.S.; in 1909 Illinois recorded over 38,000 acres producing over 19,000,000 pounds. Today most broom corn is grown in Mexico and imported just as most brooms are machine-made. Hand-tying a broom remains an artistic craft that creates a practical tool that can be used for decoration or cleaning.

About the presenter:
Brad Huhta has lived in the Sandpoint area since 2016. He took a week-long broom-making class in 2019 from Marlow Gates at the John C. Campbell folk school in Brasstown, North Carolina. He has sold a few brooms but mostly uses them as gifts and for cleaning around his hobby farm on Colburn Culver Road. While living is his main occupation, he makes time for lots of gardening, jam-making, hiking with Cedar his dog, lots of berry picking and a little mushrooming.

1 PM: Living with Ease through Tapping

Tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique) is a self-healing tool that uses a sequence of light physical “Tapping” on external acupressure points, allowing you to restore your body and mind to a state of wellness.

In this interactive workshop, you will learn, practice and explore how this tool can be utilized in a variety of situations; from physical and emotional pain, to anxiety, stress, and PTSD.

At the completion, you will possess the tools needed to help yourself and others.

About the presenter:
Beryl Ryan has been an RN for over 35 years. She is currently practicing as a Hospice nurse as well as maintaining a private practice with Tapping clients. She has been teaching Tapping Workshops for over 10 years in various settings, including private and public venues as well as medical and correctional facilities.

2 PM: Band-aids for Books

The purpose of this workshop is to introduce basic book-mending techniques to the community. For book lovers who want to learn how to patch up a favorite volume or someone interested in a new hobby, this workshop focuses on educating and instructing those with no knowledge on book repair.

We will cover basic book anatomy, recommended repair materials, corner repair, hinge tightening, and page tear repair.

All supplies will be provided, including books to practice on. If you desire to bring a personal book, please do so at your own risk. The instructor will not be diagnosing individual books due to time limitations.

About the presenter:
Rhela (ree-luh) is a staff member who was raised here in Sandpoint. In fact, she used to come to this library after school as a kid. Rhela was working here for a year before our previous book mender retired. She applied for the job, and the rest is history!

Rhela cares a lot about the integrity of our collections because they belong to her community. So, in essence, she is taking care of your books! When people think about libraries, the symbol that often comes to mind is a book. Not to mention, it is very satisfying to take something broken or worn and put some life back into it.
When not at work, she is a university student, snowboarder, guitarist, painter, reader, video gamer, and nature enthusiast!