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In search of bison

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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...
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I won a plant!

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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. 
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Learning to cook

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...
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Farm photos

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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.)
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A new decade

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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. 
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Realization for the day

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...
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Weekly update - June 5, 2026

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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...
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