Ordinary Time

There was a lot going on this weekend... Two birthdays, Father's Day, a big family party hosted by W. and MC, and a surprise gardening event. The birthdays were D.'s and J.'s.  D.'s birthday was yesterday which coincided with the party. Last year W. and MC decided to host an extended family party in June because the stretch between Easter and Thanksgiving, when we usually all gather, seemed like a long stretch. The P. Family were invited, too, because they are pretty much family at this point. Someone decided that D. needed to be sung to, at which point K. got this awesome picture. It's too bad we don't have any fun when we're together, huh? (l-r: a P. Family daughter, P. Family Dad, W. and D.) Also yesterday, TM and JH came but with a tree for me. JH works for a large plant growers and loves plants. The last time they were here, I was asking JH about recommendations for what to do with the front of the barn because I was tired of it looking... abandoned.  ...

The Internet is really a mixed bag as to its societal benefit, isn't it? I personally think that one of the really great things is people creating videos showing you how to repair things. Things such as your KitchenAid mixer that stopped working after 33 years of service.  I had mentioned that J. had taken it apart and figured out what parts needed to be replaced. To get everything he needed to make it work again, we were out less than $50. The parts arrived and J. worked on getting it all put back together this afternoon.  It's now good as new! While he had it all disassembled, he also scrubbed all the parts clean. It truly needed it, especially after 33 years and many children using it. It's positively shiny!  I'm very excited to have it back and working. This is mainly because it is what I use to make applesauce and I couldn't imagine even attempting such a feat without the food grinder that attaches to the mixer. I've made applesauce using a hand crank food ...

Remember a couple of years ago when Vienna was so sick because her metabolic system was haywire and it took a long time to stabilize it? That wasn't fun for any of us. She'd been doing so well... until she wasn't. Last Thursday she seemed a little off and Friday I knew something was wrong.  Because I am a little pathologically hypervigilant about her health we caught it nearly immediately. She is now back on her protocol from two years ago and we've had blood drawn to make sure we know what's going on. (According to the vet she is probably experiencing an insulin spike.) The good news is she doesn't seem to be getting worse. If she doesn't continue to make forward progress, there is also another type of medication we can try. There's no reason to believe she won't make a full recovery.  So my brain knows that, but my nervous system hasn't quite believed it yet. This looks like feeling unmotivated to do much, feeling as though I can't concentr...

A few of my favorite people have birthdays today. G. and L. turned 17 if you can believe it. There were donuts for breakfast and we had L.'s birthday dinner tonight. She decided to go with her long standing dinner choice from when she was younger: homemade macaroni and cheese, mini-pickles (sweet gherkins), and squishy bread (grocery store made French bread). Wednesday night will be G.'s chosen dinner of Pasta with onion, bacon, and goat cheese. For dessert we went out to our little town's seasonal ice cream place.  Happy Birthday to all three of you! I love you very much!!

Food is really one of the joys of summer, isn't it? In the past few days we have enjoyed salads completely from the garden, we picked the most cherries from our trees since we planted them, and the hens are going all out in terms of egg production.  (These were from several days; we'd let them pile up a bit.) Strawberries are ripe this week, but I don't know if we're going to get time to go picking this year. Of course, once you pick a bunch of fruit, you have to do something with it. I know I don't have time for that. Maybe I just buy some already picked to enjoy fresh. I also noticed that the black raspberries are starting to grow, but we probably have another week before they're ripe.  The perishable nature of summer fruit, though is also a problem. With pears and apples, they can sit around for a bit if I don't have time to do something with them immediately. Summer fruits? Not so much. And that is all I have for you tonight... my musings on future guilt...

A few weeks ago we asked everyone what they would like to be sure to do this summer. An item on G.'s list was to go see the new bison at the Burlington Prairie Forest Preserve . Earlier this year, bison were added to the prairie ecosystem. They are owned by the American Indian Center of Chicago and are the only herd in the area living on tall grass prairie. The bison currently have 38 acres to roam. There had been a baby born recently, so that was added incentive. It was a beautiful morning, so some of us made the half hour trek north. We were lucky that the bison were all grazing near the public viewing area this morning, and we did indeed get to see the baby bison.  After we had watched the bison for quite a while, we decided to hike one of the trails. This wasn't a forest preserve we had visited yet and it was beautiful.  The hike was just over two miles and looped around the prairie. We started out at those trees in the distance. If you're local, I recommend going, espe...

Some good friends invited me to join them tonight at a local florist/gift shop that was hosting a bingo night. I actually won something!  It's a very pretty plant and I was also given care instructions. I'm a little afraid for it though. Maybe you can figure out why based on comments I received when I got home. (These are not direct quotes, but the intent is accurate.) "Does the plant know that it is doomed?" "Mum, are you going to kill this one?" I fully admit that keeping houseplants alive is not one of my strengths. That is probably an understatement. My mother-in-law was known to take houseplants from my home to nurse them back to health. They never reappeared. This is a long standing problem.  I'm going to do it this time. I am going to keep this plant alive. Really. 

It's been well over a year since we started assigning the teenaged children a day to cook dinner each week. I have to say, I'm a huge fan of this whole plan. I've noticed a few things about it, so I thought I'd give an update.  The first is that practice really does build skills. While everyone had pretty decent cooking skills when we started, I would say that their abilities and comfort level have significantly increased. Their timing of getting everything to the table at the same time has also improved.  Second, they are all experiencing the thing I struggle with every week when I sit down to plan menus: the question of what to eat. This is probably the most challenging part of the whole process. Knowing how to overcome the feeling of forgetting everything you've ever made is also a skill. They are all pretty good at pushing through while using the tools at their disposal... I keep previous menus to remind us of what we've made in the past, a wide variety of c...

A photographer friend ( April Duda Photographer ) came by last month to take pictures of the farm. I got the photos today and I couldn't be happier. They're beautiful. Here are some of my favorites. (And if you're on FB, there's more here than I shared there.)

That would be a new decade for me which began today. It was a lovely and relaxing day. I got to see all my children and children-in-law except for D. who was out of town. I talked to my mom. I had many messages. And I received plants and flowers and books and games as gifts.  One of those gifts I want to share with you in case you haven't heard of it. It's the game Hues and Cues. It's a game all about color and trying to get the other players to guess the color as accurately as possible. It's fun and very visually appealing. Here's the game board. The game is actually more challenging than you would expect. It is also fascinating to compare how others perceive color and describe it. I imagine that this is going to be a game that is played a lot. 

I spent the best part of today demonstrating spinning with a spinning wheel at Fine Line for the Fox Valley Arts Ramble. I love demonstrating fiber related things, and since we were inside in the air conditioning it was doubly nice. I am peopled out at the moment, though.  Surprisingly, not one person (usually a man), watched me spin and then announced, "I bet I could automate that." This meant that I didn't have to tamp down my inner snark and observe that since he was wearing industrial made textiles, he might be a little late to the party. Instead, the general reaction was bafflement. A few people were able to make the connection between what I was doing and the labor textiles used to require, but many didn't seem to quite understand.  But here's my own personal realization for the day. (I'll also add that when I announced this after I got home, it made L. laugh. A lot.) In general, I don't think the general public is as interested in sheep, the differe...

It's been a while since I've done one of these. Chicken Curry had her last dose of medicine tonight, but her back is still healing so the wounds need to still be flushed a couple times a day.  The ducklings have grown so much that they are now out of their brooder (which means I have a new stock tank for the horses) and are free to roam their living quarters which is formally known as Duck Jail . (And if you read the post I linked to, you will learn how we got the smallest chicken coop where Chicken Curry is now residing. I had no idea when we picked it up how useful it would be.) A few weeks ago, a child was making cookies and the KitchenAid stand mixer stopped working. It was very sad. We've had this mixer for 32 years and it has been in pretty constant use. (I also have a Bosch mixer, so cookie making could still happen, don't worry.) I wasn't willing to give up on it, so today J., with the help of YouTube, got it taken apart and figured out what was wrong. The p...

What is summer for if you can't spend the afternoon reading? Today was a day with nothing on the calendar. Since summer tends to be my busy season in terms of EAL, this was a kind of gift. Then when you combine that with the fact that I found a new series, binge read the second book last night, and had the third sitting on my shelf, what, I ask you, was I supposed to do? I, of course, did the sensible thing and binge read the third book this afternoon. The trouble is that I am on the waiting list at the library, so cannot immediately start the fourth. That is actually probably a good thing.  And what is the series? The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower. There are eight volumes in the series; I may have to buy them all. Ultimately, they are just fun. They are set in Victorian London, but the setting is merely window dressing for quirky characters, a quirky neighborhood, and lots of tongue in cheek storytelling. I love an author who doesn't take herself too serio...

No, this isn't a recipe post, but I do owe you an update on the chicken who was attacked by a raccoon. The bite marks on her back were pretty significant and she was starting to act a little off, it was time to be more proactive. We have friends who are vets and also have quite a few chickens, so I asked them for advice. And I'm glad I did, because she probably wouldn't have made it without their help.  L. was given instructions as to how to flush the wound multiple times a day as well as a prescription for oral antibiotics. (Amoxicillin if you're interested.) L., with G.'s help, has been diligent in keeping the wound flushed as well as giving antibiotics every eight hours. There were a couple of concerning days where L. had to hand feed her, but I'm happy to report that we see new skin growing back and she is eating and drinking well.  The round of antibiotics is done on Friday, but she'll have to be in quarantine for another three weeks both because her sk...