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Ducks who help

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There are some things about the property that we talk about improving, but time or money (or both) make it so our plans are difficult to carry out. We had a free day today (well aside from our chauffeuring duties) and the weather was beautiful, so J. decided to lay a brick path where we had long planned on putting one.  It runs alongside the chicken coop in an area that has been pretty much an ignored wasteland. Well, except for the hydrangeas we planted in it a few years ago thinking they would line the brick path we imagined and just ended up looking as though someone had dropped them at random. The path will help the hydrangeas make sense. We also had the bricks already. We picked them up for free from someone right after we moved and have been living in a pile by the parking area ever since. Now that pile is nearly gone as well. J. only needed a few supplies, making it a fairly low cost endeavor.  Here's the nearly final project. (J. still needs to figure what he's going t...
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I didn't mean for this to turn into the small tirade that it did

Mucking stalls everyday provides a lot of time to think. Well, it provides a lot of time to think when I'm not listening to a podcast. Sometimes I just need to have some quiet; as if my brain is full and it needs some time to process. All of this is the prelude for what I'm going to write about. I would really like someone to do a study on women's perception of body image correlates to the shift away from custom made clothing to ready-to-wear. I have a hypothesis that perception of body image becomes increasingly negative as less and less clothing is custom made from individual measurements. This is all due to my own experiences learning to draft patterns from scratch. Before industrialization, all clothing was created with a specific person in mind. Either these clothes were made in the home, or tailers and dressmakers were hired to create a wardrobe. Some dressmakers would live with a family for a period of time, taking measurements, doing fittings, and creating clothes a...
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Waiting rooms

Recently, I think of things I could write about pop into my head throughout the day, Then, when I sit down to write after dinner... Nothing. I can think about the laundry I've done, the bills I've paid, the dishes I've washed, but none of those things are terribly interesting and everyone does them. I'm pretty sure no one really wants to read about those things, either. I'm beginning to wonder if I need to start keeping a running list of possible blog topics. Today I do have something to write about because we did something a typical. It was H. and Y.'s annual neurology appointment. It still feels so fantastic to be back home within an hour of the appointment start time. Today that was even with a blood draw added in. This is so much better than when we were driving an hour and a half one way and had to stop for lunch on our way home.  The appointment was quick and easy and we don't need to go back for a year. After needing to go every three to six months th...
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Fiber Monday - Sample book

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Here is one of the more fascinating photos you are going to see on the blog.  Clearly you should read that previous sentence with a sarcastic tone because this looks like just a piece of fabric. Which it is, sort of. It's also my latest addition to my personal sample book that I'm slowly constructing.  I've learned that when you draft your own patterns one of the most challenging aspects is that there are no construction directions. It's great to say I want to put side seam pockets into something, but what would those pattern pieces look like and how do you put them together? This is where a sample book comes in. It contains directions and samples for various parts of garment construction, such as fly front zippers or ratios for Father's or side seam pockets.  I'm very pleased with how it came out and I am pretty sure that I can replicate it in an actual garment. But it also took me a ridiculous amount of time to figure the whole thing out and then actually doin...
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Camping

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J. took four children camping this weekend (H., R., L., and G.). Y. stayed home to work and I stayed home to see clients, take care of animals, and drive Y. The camping group met B. and HC at Apple Canyon State Park in NW Illinois. They had a great time, though Friday night, with its freeze advisory, was a bit chilly. Here are some photos various people took. 
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Women's work

I've just finished reading, With Her Own Hands: Women Weaving Their Stories by Nicole Nehrig. I highly recommend it. It takes you on a journey around the world and through time looking at the relationship between textiles and the woman who make them. I found it fascinating.  Some of the book addresses the idea that the textile crafts and hobbies of women are not seen as 'real', whether that is 'real' work, 'real' art, or of 'real' value. I realized as I read that my negative reaction to the words 'craft' and 'hobby' stems from this tacit second class dismissal that comes along with these terms. "... beyond taking public actions, these feminists endeavored to shift the mindset about what textile work means for women as an expression of our value and influence. Writer and maker Betsy Greer, ... , says, 'It's about making your own creativity a force to be reckoned with. The moment you start thinking about your creative produ...
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I thought I was done with apples

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Our fourth apple tree on the far side of the pasture seems to ripen later than the others. There still seemed to be some apples on it, so J. asked H. and R. to go pick what they could. This explains why my kitchen island suddenly looked like this.  They were taking up a lot of space and I couldn't quite bring myself to ignite them and eventually feed them to the chickens, so it seemed as though I was going to canning applesauce after all. Today I didn't need to drive anyone anywhere and I had no clients during the day. If applesauce was going to happen today was the day. H. pitched in to help and by dinner  I had canned 9 quarts of applesauce with another 2/3 quart in the refrigerator. Don't you think it sounds more impressive to say 2 - 1/2 gallons, though? Why is that? I would make an announcement that I am really and truly done with apples, but I think there are still more on that tree. 
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