Ordinary Time

Today was the day that H., R., and I headed out on a major grocery shopping expedition. The closest Asian markets near me are about half an hour away. Plus, they are not on the way to anything I regularly drive to, so require a special trip. I put this off as long as possible, but eventually I do need to restock. With the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival on Friday, I needed to go to get mooncakes. (Y. has made them before but with school and work, she doesn't have a lot of free time.) It had been a long time since I had gone, so supplies were low. I knew it was going to be painful. First stop was the Chinese market and it was as painful as I was expecting. We then drove a mile east to hit up Patel Brothers. This wasn't as bad, but was still significant. I've just now finished repackaging and putting things away.  Here is most of what we brought home. You can't see the 50# bag of rice or the things already in the refrigerator. Mooncakes packages always get put inside their own s...

And what was the little bit of panic? It was realizing that I needed to submit my application to have items in the holiday market by Oct. 2. In theory this shouldn't be a problem, but I need to submit photographs. (It's a juried sale.) I don't have the guest towels I'm going to weave finished so I don't have a photograph. Today is September 21st which is not that very far away from October. If I was going to get my application in, I needed to get a move on.  Which is why I spent quite a few hours yesterday dressing my loom. I did have my warp measured out and my project planned, so that was something, but there is still a lot that needs to happen. I managed to sley the reed, thread the loom, and get the warp wound on yesterday. Today was a bit nuts, so all I managed to get to was to tie up the treadles and begin to get the front of the project tied in. I did discover one section of crossed threads, but I decided to leave that until tomorrow. I really hope I can be w...

We did indeed have apple fritters for breakfast.  G. made them with our own apples and the glaze has cider and bits of apple in it. They were delicious. It was very nice to come in from cleaning the barn in very wet weather and be able to enjoy a freshly made apple fritter. Teaching your children to cook pays off. 

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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....

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.

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.

When interacting with parents, whether on social media or as a client, it seems as though the concept of respect comes up again and again. I'll admit that that the word has become to me as rather a red flag is to a bull.  First, let's discuss the actual definitions. Respect can act as both a noun and a verb. According to Merriam-Webster the definitions are as follows: n. - a feeling or understanding that someone or something is important, serious, etc., and deserves appropriate treatment or regard v. - to consider worthy of high regard The flag can be respected. The Constitution can be respected (it isn't currently, but that's a different blog post.) We used to be able to respect the President (oops, also a different blog post.) My point is that there are entities out there that deserve our respect (noun), but even then, if those entities act in a way opposite to being worthy of respect, it is not a requirement for us to continue respecting them. I'm just not sure t...

I just finished reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I had recently come across several different reviews in various places about how much the readers adored this book. Steinbeck and adored don't necessarily go together in my head, so I was intrigued. I didn't have another book to read, so checked it out of the library. As is my usual practice with "classics", I went into it cold with no advance research as to what it was about. I did know that it took many of its themes from the opening chapter of Genesis.  Well.  Usually I am quick to set aside a book that I am not enjoying. For supposed classics, I will waive this rule because it might have something worthwhile to say even if it isn't my favorite. (Hello 1984.) This book was a slog. I didn't enjoy most of it, I didn't like the majority of the characters, and it was just depressing. I truly don't understand how so many readers find it to be one of their favorite books. To each their own, I guess. ...

Late last spring I finished a denim skirt that I had sewn using my self-drafted pattern. You never saw it because I wasn't happy with the fit and so didn't really consider it finished. I tried a few things hoping that simple fixes would get it to fit right, but I knew deep down that I was going to have to take off the waistband and open some of the seams and take it in. It sat in my studio for weeks waiting for me to prod myself into action.  The combination of my drafting class starting again (which meant I would be busy working on other things) and one too many times standing in my closet wishing I had a denim skirt to put on finally was enough to force me into picking up a seam ripper. You know what the really silly thing is? It took me one afternoon. I could have been wearing the skirt all summer if I hadn't made the process into a bigger deal than it was.  So finally, I have a completed denim skirt to share that actually fits. This was made out of five worn out pairs o...

The other day, while I was driving Y. to do the onboarding for her new job , we passed by a pond that often has birds of various sorts in it. It was a jackpot day. Y., who is always on the lookout for birds, noticed that there were four egrets. We paused to admire them and moved on. Coming home, I paused to see if they were still there. They were, but they had been joined by a blue heron. So I took a picture.  You can see them if you enlarge the picture, but I'll make it a little easier. Take time to notice the bits of wonder around you. K. is here for the night, so he got in some picture taking. Here are a few of them. And my favorite.

This never fails to happen at least once when I'm demo-ing either spinning or weaving. I'll be doing my thing and chatting and explaining it to people when a man comes up (it has only been men) and stands and watches thoughtfully for a few minutes. He then approaches to interact with me and says, "I could automate that." There is rarely any variation of how this happens. It caught me off guard at first, now I'm ready for it. My usual response is to ask, "Are those store bought clothes you're wearing?" "Yes..." "Well it looks as though someone beat you to it." I reply with a smile.  The more this happens, the more annoyed I am by it. I have wondered at my emotional reaction. I know the men don't mean anything by it. They don't know that I have heard the same comment more times than I can remember. They are usually friendly and not mean spirited, but it has started to grate. I couldn't put my finger on why.  I couldn...

Three quotations from two very different sources to start us off. "Allowing horses opportunities for decision-making -- such as choosing a route on a ride or approaching a novel object at their own pace -- stimulates dopaminergic circuits involved in reward, motivation, and curiosity. These include pathways connecting the ventral regmental area to the nucleus accumbens, systems that support approach behavior and promote cognitive engagement. Structured choices, introduced in controlled settings, help horses learn that they can influence their environment, building flexibility and trust. These moments of agency are not just training tools; they are exercises in shaping the brain. They reinforce circuits that allow horses to remain curious under pressure, rather than shutting down or reacting defensively." (p. 144, Horse Brain Science: The Neuroscience of Ethical Horsemanship by Dr. Stephen Peters) "From a neuroscience perspective, psychological robustness comes not from o...

It's hot and I am not enjoying it. Neither are the horses nor the sheep for that matter. I take care of the horses early in the morning and sweat through the first outfit of the day. At lunch I head back out, give everyone water and hay, spend some time sponging the horses off, head inside and collapse while I cool off. Repeat several hours later over and over. All I can think about is freezing temperatures where there are no bugs and I don't start sweating just walking to the barn. I am more than ready for fall.  Until the weather breaks, just read this post each day because it is what I would write. I have no margin for writing by the time evening comes. This is especially true if I have spent much of my day working on an abstract to submit for an upcoming conference which is what I did today.  So you can hope right along with me that the weather cools off and I can write interesting blog posts again. 

Yesterday I spent the day driving places... carting children places, going to the grocery store, going to another grocery store, going to the library, etc. It left me with awkward bits of time throughout the day. This turned out to be a good thing because I was in the middle of a book that I desperately wanted to keep reading. It seemed the perfect activity for all those awkward bits of time where you can't really begin anything. When the day began I was halfway through a 650 page book. At 11:00 last night I had finished it. Now I read fast, but that was a pretty good amount of reading to get done even for me. It also shows how totally engrossed I was.  And what was the book? The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson. First off, it's fantasy. If that's not your genre, this is probably not the right book for you. Some aspects of the book were pretty typical for fantasy: contests to see who would rule the county next, different houses/clans/mentors that organize society, magic, an...