Ordinary Time

Before I jump into those new skills I got to learn, I'm going to start with my current knitting project. This is The Shift cowl by Andrea Mowry and I'm really loving how it is turning out. Frogging that ridiculous number of times early in the process was definitely worth it. The blue is hand spun and the other colors are purchased yarn. What I'm loving the most is the subtle changes in hue in the blue. It is part of the CVM fleece that I processed, dyeing it before spinning. That is the reason for the subtle color shifts. I will remember this because I love the effect. The blue CVM yarn. And now we get to the reason for getting to learn new skills. I've been working on a very wide weaving project for a while now. Never have I been so relieved to get something off the loom. These blankets were troublesome. I learned how to repair multiple warp thread breaks while weaving as well as dealing with some significant tension issues. Then, after I took it off, I realized that t...

Why do animals always wait until the weekend to injure themselves? This morning I had a parent and child out for an EFL session and we were looking at the horses when the mother asks, "Is Emmy's eye swollen?" So I look and yes, Emmy's eye was very swollen. Actually it was disturbingly swollen. I go to get a closer look and admit that I panicked a bit. (I'll put the gruesome details in brackets for those who don't want to read them) - - [When I looked in her eye, which was really difficult to do, it looked for all the world like her eyeball had been punctured. I immediately called the vet because this was definitely something that couldn't wait.] - -       (It's safe to read again.) I sent my clients home and waited for the vet. She got there very quickly and went to work. I love this vet. She is the same one who helped with Bristol and was so very kind. But I will admit it was very difficult to find myself in the barn with the same vet and a horse that...

I seem to have a lot of pictures to share this week.  First off, here is a sunset J. caught the other night  I came downstairs and found this huge bowl of cereal on the kitchen counter. He has been enjoying having money to buy treats, and he had bought a box of Fruit Loops. Yes, he ate it all. It's been a bit wet here and the horses are very muddy. Earlier this week, the plan was to do a blood-typing activity in biology. I had bought blood typing kits and everyone was ready to go. Well, no one was able to type their blood because no one could squeeze enough blood out. While the little safety lancets were handy and easy to use, they didn't pierce deep enough to actually be able to collect even a small amount of blood. This is everyone trying to get even a tiny drop. It's been all over the news today how the Chicago Police Department is going to work on finding and firing officers who belong to the Proud Boys (who were significant players in the January 6 insurrection). Yet o...

One of the classes I'm teaching this year is one where I introduce a novel, give a plot outline, and then just read. I came up with this format first because I enjoy reading books out loud, and second, because I firmly believe hearing good literature is one of the best educational tools there is. By reading the first couple of chapters, students will get a feel for the book, and hopefully become engrossed enough in the story to pursue reading it on their own.  Today's book was Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. As I was reading, I couldn't help but think about the Ramona books by Beverly Clearly. This isn't as random a leap as it would seem.  Ramona is one of my favorite characters in children's literature. Beverly Clearly nailed what it is like to be a child. As a parent reading them, you can both remember what it was to be that age,  it also commiserate with the adults who populated Ramona's world.  I'm not sure which book it is, but I'm pretty ...

You all know I love libraries. They have many books and you can borrow as many of these books as you want. So I do that. And most of the time once I have read the book I'm happy to give it back and not have to find a place for it on my bookshelves.  Usually the returning part isn't a problem even given the number of books that we check out. Sometimes there is a book that I'm sure we've returned but is marked overdue. Often it just didn't get scanned back in amidst the dozens of books we are returning. Every so often, a book is just genuinely missing, though.  Our library is very nice and will keep renewing it until it turns up, which it often does. Only one time recently have I paid to replace a book only for the child who checked it out to find it a week later.  All this to say, I don't worry too much about finding books because they usually are found and our library doesn't have late fees. But today I learned that I should be a little more careful in looki...

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting with a group of people when one woman looked at me and said, "E., you must get a lot of things done each day." I was taken off guard and didn't really know what to reply. I don't actually remember what I said, but it was probably along the lines of not as much as you think. I've been kind of stewing about it ever since. I know I do quite a few things during the day; raising children will cause that. Laundry, meals, school, errands all have to happen to make life function. But I don't think I do any more than anyone else. I guess what threw me is that I try very hard to be not too busy and to not have to hurry. I've learned over the years that busy and hurry are what make me the most stressed. When I am stressed, I am nut a good parent or spouse and I certainly am not enjoying the things I am doing. It's just not worth it in the long run.  I actually have ways that I mitigate the busy and the hurry and we now reach t...

This week's installment really isn't about making things so much as it is getting ready to make things. Because I seem to have a compulsion to make things as complicated as possible, I have collected a fair amount of raw fleece over the past year. I needed to do something about their unwashed state.  The weather cooperates, and I got a fair bit done. The merino that had been hanging around for a year is all washed. The Clun Forest is going to spend the winter in an outdoor shed and not get washed. I have plans for it come next spring when it's warmer. That left me with the Corriedale I bought at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, the Cotswold from Kline Creek Farm, and a little over a pound of Shetland. The Cotswold had the most lanolin, so it moved to the top of the line.  I'm guessing if you are still reading, you might have a vague interest in the process I use  The first thing to do was soak it (well, some if it, it was too big to big to wash all at once) in pla...

We put the not-so-baby chickens in the big coop with the other birds last week. It all went well, and while the younger birds tend to huddle in a clump, there was also no bloodshed. This also meant that we weren't letting any of the birds out into the yard for a week as everyone settled. This afternoon we decided to try letting them all out. Having access to the outside world was a first for the young birds. When we opened the pen, the older chickens all ran out, the ducks headed immediately to the pond, and the young birds headed straight for the chicken feeders in the pen because there were no big chickens near. The younger ones didn't even seem to realize the pen door was open. Eventually some of the younger hens moved closer to the door and peered out. It took a while for one of them to be brave enough to hop over the sill. The second she did, she panicked and starting running, obviously trying to get back into the pen, but instead just ran around it, occasionally trying to...

I feel as though I really haven't had much to write about recently. I blame having all teens which means all potential blog fodder is really off limits. Because really, there is so much to write about but so little I can write about.  H. is always drawing and when you do something a lot, you get better and better. Lately she has been drawing leaves Then added color. H. has also discovered YouTube how to draw videos which she loves. (The leaves are her own original art work.) I have a plan for my submission to the student art show at Fine Line next year using the naturally dyed skein of yarn. My grand plan requires a few watercolor pictures, so I decided I needed to go back to practicing. I drew some leaves, too. I've decided I really dislike that blue green shade right smack dab in the middle. I may invest in a darker shade of green for my palate. I made a rookie mistake today. I planned on riding Major because it had been a while. Part of having a new horse means getting to kn...

You all know I can't be completely wordless, right? I had a meeting tonight so have no bandwidth to actually write. Instead you can enjoy this picture of the forest preserve behind our house starting to turn color.

I want to discuss something vitally important this evening. With all the dire news and pressing issues that fill the news, what could this subject be? I'll tell you... How one goes about putting groceries on the check-out belt.  This topic comes to mind because last week, yet again, I was complimented by the checker on the orderliness of my groceries. This has become a thing. I always put the heaviest things on the belt first, slowly working my way down to the more squishable items. It's just common sense. When I shopped at stores where someone else did the bagging, I didn't want bread to end up being crushed by a bag of flour. At Aldi, some checkers move so fast that they don't pay much attention to what is dropped onto what as the groceries are flung into the cart. I guess I just assumed that everyone does this, if solely for protecting the groceries.  I guess I'm unusual. So unusual that I have checkers who remember me and Magda a point to thank me for my organiz...

That would be exactly how much I needed the things I'm about to show you. First would be this spinning wheel I found for sale in the area. I got a very good deal on it.  This is a like new Country Craftsman spinning wheel. They were hand made up until the mid-90's, though I don't know when this one was made. It is a double drive which is one type of way the wheel turns the bobbin and flyer. (If you want more explanation let me know. It's about at this point I can see my audience's eyes glaze over, so I tend to stick to generalities.) What it means is that it can be a very fast wheel. This style is as also know as a flax wheel because it can be used to spin flax into linen, which explains... the distaff. (Which is the part which holds the fiber supply.) Because this wheel was for show where it lived before, it came with a loaded distaff. It's the cone part you see and that is flax. (Another large amount of flax also came with it.) In addition, there was a matchin...

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers" -  Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery After several days of rain, it was a gorgeous October day and we had nothing much planned. It seemed like a good time to check out a local living history farm we had never visited. We had a lovely couple of hours at Kline Creek Farm. Cotswold sheep That's K. taking pictures of the cows. He loves cows. He took several pictures of them. By K. By K. And as a treat everyone got a bottle of old fashioned soda and a stick of candy. I'll tell you more about that garbage bag sitting by the picnic table tomorrow. There was a beautiful sunset as I driving people home from youth group. Photo by G. (I was driving.) And finally we ended the day by celebrating P. G. Wodehouse's birthday which we discovered was today. It seemed only appropriate to eat dinner while introducing the younger half of the family to the Hugh Laurie and Steven Fry version of Jeeves and...