Ordinary Time

The blog hit a rather large milestone yesterday in that according to the analytics it hit three million page views. That's a lot of views. I've been wondering recently if the blog had run its course, but that probably says more about the weird transition phase I'm currently in than anything else. I don't have young children anymore. Heck, we're coming pretty darn close to only having adult children now. Technically we're still homeschoolers, but the learning has shifted to the community college. We're definitely not empty nesters since there's still eight people living in the house. Not unlike most of my life, I don't easily fit into typical categories. Maybe that's the direction I start to aim my writing?  In the meantime, once again thank you to my faithful readers. It's so nice to have you along for the ride. Because having an audience means I can share exciting content such as the fact I'm writing this post from the laundry room where...

While I did a lot of things this past week, well, one thing... Canning. It's hard to can and do fiber type things. Pretty much for most of the week all I was able to get in was a bit of dyeing. Clearly the theme of the week was put things in very large pots and cook them. Things such as cucumbers and choke berries and more cucumbers and some goldenrod. Here are the results: The bottom skein was the first in the dye pot, then the next day I put in the top one because there was still so much dye left. I could have probably gotten a couple more skeins dyed with this batch, which would become increasingly paler, but I didn't have the skeins, and if I did, they wouldn't have been mordanted. Maybe I can do this next fall, and be prepared with the right amount of yarn, because it would be really pretty.  Then came the weekend. Saturday was filled, so no fiber things that day, which brings us to Sunday. I had plenty on my list... Winding the warp into the loom, tracing my new musli...

What should I write about.... I could write about how our washing machine stopped working last Tuesday and how J. spent the entire day today trying to figure out what was wrong. But that's vaguely depressing and he is hopeful that the part he ordered late this afternoon will do the trick.  I could write about how I spent my afternoon, but I need to save that for tomorrow. The same with why my loom is still not warped. I could write about the weather and how much I really just want to wear sweaters, but that's starting to really scrape the bottom of the barrel.  So, I guess I will write about food. Again. This time it was Y. in the kitchen. She decided she really wanted pandan cake. (Pandan is a South East Asian plant whose leaves have kind of a vanilla/coconut/banana-y flavor. We discovered it on our first trip to Vietnam and we all love it.) Y. has made pandan cake before, but it has been a bit of a trial and error process. This time she decided to make a chiffon cake with pa...

It was just a quiet day at home today. A day where I canned nothing. After multiple days spent entirely in my kitchen, I needed a break. So I started a fiber project... in my kitchen and put a bunch (250 g. to be precise) of goldenrod into a pot. I'll share the results on Monday. It also rained today, first early in the morning and then late afternoon. We really needed the rain, but the last time I looked at the forecast it wasn't due until around 6:00 and it came a little over an hour early. Because I was caught off guard, Emmy had time to do her very favorite thing in the world before I made it out to the barn.  And finally, one of K.'s most recent photos. I really love this one. He said he hadn't realized he had caught the lightning until afterwards. 

I'm two-thirds of the way finished with reading, Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food that isn't Food by Chris van Tulleken. It is a fascinating book and so much more than just about ultra-processed food. It has history, human biology, brain science, and sociology. While I will probably write more about the ultra-processed food bit once I finish it, I came across something this afternoon that I wanted to share with you in terms of adoption. "Flavour signatures of particular smells and tastes also allow us to identify food from our cultures -- historically food we would know to be safe. This learning starts before birth. Julie Mennella at Monell Chemical Senses Centre did an experiment examining how food choices during pregnancy influence future flavour choice. During the last trimester of their pregnancies, participants drank a big glass of either carrot juice or water for four days per week for three weeks. They did the same thing while lactating. Then, as the ...

Today was pickle day. G. and I made ten quarts of dill pickles and five pints of bread and butter pickles. Plus, they all sealed! We still had some cucumbers left, so at some point I'll make and can some sweet relish. I did save some brine from the dill pickles if there are still some cucumbers left after that. I used nearly three gallons of white vinegar today.  I also juiced another 24 cups of choke berries. I think I have one more batch to juice and then I can make jelly. Fascinating times over here, but it keeps me sane because I can't really focus on all the bad stuff.  And for those who read to the end even when all I wrote about is endless canning, a brief update on how the community college classes are going for everyone. The shirt answer is they are going well for everyone. What has been interesting is all three have come home saying they are the only ones who answer questions in class. (They are all in different classes.) I'm fact, Y. came home and announced her m...

It's the end of the growing season, the country's descent into hell in a hand basket is speeding up, and I have a bit too much free time due to not enough clients this month. All of that together is a recipe for me to engage in an obsessive canning and making fest. The making end I shared yesterday, so today it's canning. The direct correlation between my existential dread and preserving food continues.  Yesterday, I popped over to my favorite family run farm stand where I know they sell in amounts suitable for canning. (Remember the corn ? Same place.) I wanted to see what was on offer because the pantry was bare of Dilly beans and dill pickles, with the bread and butter pickles running low. I was in luck and bought 25 pounds of beans and two packs of pickling cucumbers. With G.'s help, we did all the beans today. Those 25 pounds of beans ended up making 13 pints of Dilly beans with enough fresh beans leftover to have with dinner.  Only one out of the thirteen didn...

Before I get to talking about warps, I have a couple of other things to share first. Here is some handspun that I finally finished and got off the wheel.  It's a 2-ply Merino, and I wasn't sure I loved it at first. It's for the holiday sale, so I decided to wind it into a set of mini-skeins which I would them dye each of them a different color using natural dyed. The skein on the right is actually a prettier green in person (you know me and photographs). It was dyed with bindweed, which I have in abundance. I think I'll do goldenrod next because it is in bloom.  After I had mordanted this batch, I actually ended up liking the yarn more. It's now incredibly fluffy and bouncy. The other thing I wanted to share was my bodice Muslim that I drafted. The pattern drafting class I had been taking is meeting again, and we are now to the place where we are creating pattern blocks for ourselves. This is to my measurements and we'll do the first fitting on Wednesday. I stil...

I just finished The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery. If you're unfamiliar with that author's name, she also wrote Anne of Green Gables. If you haven't read this particular book, I highly recommend it.  One thing I have always loved about L. M. Montgomery's books is that she created strong and often outspoken female characters in an age where that was not the norm. (Anne was published in 1908 and The Blue Castle in 1926.) This book has the added enjoyment of watching the main character find her voice. It was the perfect antidote for this past week.  And one of my favorite quotes from it: "Fear is the origin sin. Almost all the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that someone is afraid of something. It is a cold, slimy serpent coiling about you." (p. 25)

A while back, while we were heavily in the thick of healing two newly adopted older children adjust to their new parents, siblings, home, language, and culture, I wrote a post with some unpopular opinions in it . I don't normally ask you to pause in reading the current post in order to read a previous one, but I'm asking you to do that now. If you weren't reading here in 2016, reading this past post will help you understand where I am coming from. Go on, click back, I'll wait.  Here's a picture from about that same time period to keep you entertained while we wait for everyone to get back.  R., H., and Y. at the Museum of Science and Industry Everyone back?  Good intentions don't go very far when vulnerable people pay the price. In the example I wrote about it was the children living in institutions who pay the price for orphan tourism. Nice people with good intentions get to feel as though they did a good thing while leaving unacknowledged emotional wreckage in...

It's been a tough couple of days, huh? Sometimes you just need to pull back and take a break for a bit. What's on my list of things which help me regroup? Hanging out with my horses. (If you need to spend time with horses to regroup, message me.) Luke Major And if you've wondered how tall Luke is, I put the camera lens at my eye level, which is about dead center on the photo. His withers (the place at the base of his neck, are three inches above my head.) I've started a L. M. Montgomery book (The Blue Castle) that I have never read. Anne of Green Gables is one of my comfort books, so I hope this one will be, too.  I spent time with others and have plans for tomorrow as well. Tonight was the Inclusive Game Night that our church sponsors. It is something that H. and R. look forward to and enjoy very much. Though H. also enjoys it because sometimes she beats me, which she did in Rummy Cube tonight.  I worked in my studio. I didn't exactly make something so much as get ...

I don't know about you, but the past couple of days have felt so heavy for so many reasons, that I think we need something a little frivolous. So here are some terribly amusing (I think) chicken photos that K. took yesterday. 

It was a hard news day, huh? No one, regardless of their beliefs, should be gunned down. No one should suffer violence for their beliefs. Violence is never the answer. It is never something to rejoice over.  I think, in theory, many people agree with what I just stated. But I have been incredibly dismayed by my Facebook feed today at the number of posts which are stating how wonderful Charlie Kirk was and what a loss his death is. Do not forget that this was the man who said that gun rights were so essential that we should be willing to put up with the occasional victim. This is the man who said that gay and trans people should be killed. Exactly how do those sentiments line up with the idea that no one should be murdered?  While his death should never have happened, and I am sorry for his family, I will admit I am struggling with the whole thing. He went on record saying my children should be murdered because of who they are. He made life more dangerous for my family. He was ...

I think I have a solution to the conundrum that has bothered me for quite some time... why does everyone near Felon47 just go belly-up and go along with him? I find it baffling and disturbing. Then I remembered a bit from a Thursday Next book which I looked up this evening.  Now, I'm dropping you in the middle of the fourth book of the series. For some of this to make even the remotest possible sense, you will need a score card.  The narrator (I) is Thursday Next, who is having a conversation with Bowden, Millon and Stig (a neanderthal) who are other characters helping her out at this point.  Yorrick Kaine is the unethical politician who gets away with the most egregious of offenses.  Goliathopolis is the giant city from which the Mega-corporation, Goliath (which pretty much runs the world) operates. Mycroft is Thursday's genius, though scattered, exceedingly brilliant uncle, who invented The Ovinator . Landon is Thursday's husband. Formby is the England of Thursday'...

I have a lot of sheep pictures on my phone, but I'll spare you and just share one.  This is a Ouessant sheep, which is the smallest sheep breed. They are from France and have very fine wool. I had no idea there was a flock in Wisconsin. I do have a secret (okay, not actually so secret) desire to have a collection of different sheep breeds. They look almost deer like.  Now that the sheep trivia is done, let's move on to the festival. G. and I watched much of the Shetland show which was pretty interesting. We then wandered around, bought some sheep-related items we needed, then hit the vendor halls. I think I was pretty restrained. I bought a pound of Shetland roving because it is the type of wool I dye and provide to my Sheep and Fiber class students. I was starting to run a little low, so this was a necessity.  My unplanned splurge was an inexpensive kit to knit this hat.  I'll make this once I'm done with the sweater vest I'm working on.  I also bought some but...

It was a busy weekend, which means very little blogging. Last night we had friends over for dinner and today G. and I spent the day at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool festival. It was a great weekend, but I'm pooped.  One of the many sheep photos G. took throughout the day. More about the festival tomorrow. 

This is one of the stickers I have on my travel mug. It feels appropriate to share because the whole dinosaur-mom-thing definitely sums up my week on social media.  While there is much good that can happen on social media, the opposite is also very true. The disconnect, whether by posting anonymously or not, certainly allows people to write things they would never say to a person's face. And some of the things they say are pretty darn ugly.  Since I hold a strong line that whatever I write, wherever I write it, has to be something I would say directly to a person, you can assume that what I'm about to write I would say out loud. I'm fact, because I lost my filter somewhere around child number six, I will add that I have said these words to a great many people in person.  It seems people need a reminder about a couple of things. Before I get to them, I need to add my perpetual rules of engagement. I will delete any comment that is hurtful to my children. There will be no d...

The first item is canning. Last weekend I went to my favorite farm stand to get some sweet corn for Labor Day. My choice was to get two dozen ears (which is what I went for) or a bag of over five dozen ears and not quite half the price per ear. Guess which I picked. It was a lot of corn. So everyone are their fill, but we still had quite a bit left over.  This was not all of it. That evening, my first plan was to find a spot in one of the refrigerators to keep it (it was all blanched) until I could tackle it later in the week. Not surprisingly, it didn't fit in any refrigerator. So I. and I found ourselves cutting corn off the cob on Monday evening. I ended up with 18 cups of really good frozen sweet corn.  But wait, there's more! Eight cups more to be exact. This I set aside to make corn relish with. This is what I did today because I was worried about it going bad before I could get to it. I'm happy to report that all six pints of corn relish sealed. Items still on my can...