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Dealing with apple guilt

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It's rained most of the day and there was very little on the calendar. J. and I decided it was time we dealt with the apples that had taken up residence in our kitchen. We opted to make and can caramel apple pie filling with the decent ones and press the others for cider. I'm happy to report that the many baskets of apples have been processed. The total? Seven pints of caramel apple pie filling, which all sealed. The remainder of the apples produced a gallon and a half of cider. No picture of that, though. It was a low yield year mainly because the apples ripened far earlier than I expected or was able to do something with them and many has fallen before we realized it. I suppose this means that I should make a note in the calendar for next August to start thinking about apples. Because who doesn't want to process apples during a heat wave?  As I had a suspicion would happen, opening up my canning recipe book has kicked my brain into preserving mode. I spent a little time t...
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Friday Update - September 18, 2026

I'm not sure there will be much to share as it has been a quiet week.  I really dislike books with unreliable narrators. It is especially annoying when you only start to get the hint in the last 75 pages. Then to add insult to injury, the book ends the moment before the foreman of the jury is about to read the verdict and the last line of the book is, "Guilty or not guilty? You decide." And that's it. Absolutely no closure after nearly 400 pages. I've been sputtering about it all day. Ducks are hilarious. They also like to stay out until after dark. But then they can't find the door of the pen without someone shining a light on it. L. suggested outfitting them all with little head lamps. How cute would that be? I love listening to my children's stories about odd things that happen at work. L. and A. seem to collect the oddest experiences. It's just me, R. and H. at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's very quiet... and a little odd. J. and I spend ...
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I don't fix children

For anyone who comes here to work with horses, we do a lot with emotional intelligence. I've lost track of the number of times I've told someone that the horses don't care how you feel, they just want you to be aware of how you feel. Incongruence drives them literally wild it is so uncomfortable for them. (I've got stories... ) Today I was listening to someone who works with parents of autistic children. It kind of stopped me in my tracks when I heard her say (my paraphrase): <<Parents need to do some work on themselves. They need to know how they are feeling and acknowledge it. These children don't care how their parents are feeling, but they want their parents to be aware of their feelings. It is very uncomfortable for them if the parents are pretending and that is when the behaviors escalate. If parents can get a handle on themselves then the emotional tone of the home changes and the big behaviors start to abate.>> I don't know why I didn't p...
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Books to read because you should

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I'm in the middle of reading Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mex. Yes, I know I am very late to the party on this one. I hadn't felt up to it. Last week I listened to an interview with Du Mex about her new book, Live Laugh Love: the secret history of white Christian women and the world they made. I will be reading this one; it's currently on my hold list at the library. The interview seemed to make it seem as though the second book builds on the first, so I figured it was time to finally read it.  It is as hard and disappointing and infuriating as I expected it to be. Sadly, it is also completely unsurprising. I really just need to plow through it and be done with it. With that ringing endorsement, I do encourage you to read it, especially if you are (or were) a Christian and have found yourself being completely mystified as to how so many people who are supposed to believe in love, goodness, and mercy have so completely lost the plot. It will answer a lot of those...
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Fiber Monday - New toy

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I think I mentioned in my post about the Sheep and Wool Festival that I splurged and bought a new fiber tool. It's a Clemes & Clemes Lock Pop , otherwise known as the most expensive block of wood I have ever bought.  So why did I? I have a lot of fleeces that need to be processed and turned into yarn. I enjoy the spinning part, but am not overly fond of the combing or carding part. It's just super time and labor intensive. So I put it off. But if I don't prep the wool, I can't spin it. I was beginning to think it might be worth it just to send all the fleeces I have to a mill and accept the fact I should just buy fiber ready to spin. And then I tried the Lock Pop at the festival.  It doesn't look like much, but it works amazingly well. So well I bought it. What does it do?  Here are a pile of Cotswold locks that I dyed. You can see they are all mixed up together. There is no way to spin these without opening them up and getting the fibers all going the same way....
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Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival

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This morning G. and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. We had a really lovely day. We wandered the vendor hall, watched some sheep shearing, ate a picnic lunch while watching the sheep dog trials, did a little more shopping, participated in a farm auction, and watched a Shetland sheep show. It was a pretty perfect day.  And there were a lot of sheep. G. took nearly all the pictures. This is the portable sheep fencing we got at the auction. By far the best part of the whole day was watching the ewe lamb class at the Shetland sheep show. This little white ewe lamb captured our hearts because every other baby was losing its mind and this one just stood there amidst the chaos. Be sure you have the volume turned up to hear what ~30 lambs sound like.
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Two random thoughts

It was Inclusive Game Night tonight, so I'm shot. I will leave you with two very random thoughts.  1. It is supremely frustrating when playing the Wordle to get four letters correct on your first guess, but then still not get it until your fifth try because you keep guessing the wrong consonant.  2. It is wonderful to hear the students in your spinning class talking amongst themselves and you hear, "There's all those people out there who crochet and they have no idea how much work goes into making yarn!" I'll take that as a win.  Now off to bed.
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