Renaissance Woman

Aletta Clark, 93, of Lonerock, OR, enjoys many creative hobbies. Pictured here with one of her prized thunder eggs.

For Aletta, it’s never a dull moment at her place. Her morning starts at 3:30 am when she rises to read her Bible beside her woodstove. Her cocker spaniel companion lies at her feet. When her quiet time is over, a neighbor walks to her house for coffee and a quick visit. After that comes the chores— she’s got chickens to feed, wood bins to fill, a garden to water, rocks to polish, hides to scrape, guns to clean, and rugs to weave. She’s got a big loom for weaving in her living room and a sewing machine hardy enough to sew leather and other animal skins. She actually entered a shooting competition wearing a buckskin skirt that she stretched, scraped, designed, and sewed herself. She laughs as she remembers just how heavy that skirt was when it got wet.

As my friends and I followed her through her barn, she showed us her work in progress. She had a standing length wood frame with a deer hide pulled tight over it. She had various scraping tools hanging on the wall that she used to remove the hair. By the time she finishes scraping, she’ll know what she wants to make with the hide.

Various scraping tools she uses to take the hair off the hide.

Aletta is about the only person I know who isn’t much bothered by the electricity going out. She has a wood-fired cookstove commanding a corner of her kitchen that’s over a hundred years old and she can still cook with it. While her life may seem simple and too quiet, I see her joy for life and there’s still a spring in her step.

What hobbies would you start if you lived in a place like Lonerock?