Ordinary Time

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. 

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. 

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...

There has not been much to share this week. I've done exciting things such as clean the kitchen (multiple times), comb snarls out of several horses' manes, laundry, and repeatedly drive back and forth to the library. At least it feels as though I repeatedly drive back and forth since I'm currently in a go every day phase at the moment. None of it warrants a blog post.  Today's big event was some of the horses getting their annual teeth floating and vaccines and the sheep all getting their yearly vaccines. I did get this cute picture of Clark while he was waiting for the others to be done.  I also spent quite a bit of time sewing because that has become my go-to avoidance activity this week. I sew while I watch The Great British Sewing Bee and it does a lovely job of blocking out current events for that moment of time.  Plus, I'll end up with a jacket. Eventually. Sewing with handwoven fabric is a wee bit slower than using commercial cloth because there are some extr...

When it rains heavily, the pony stall tends to get filled with water which means the ponies need to move into the barn aisle for a few days while it dries out. They don't like it; I don't like bailing water out of the stall; no one is happy. J. decided that perhaps if there was a gutter along that side of the barn, the water could be drained away and the pony stall wouldn't flood. So today he added a gutter.  You can't even really see it, can you? What I love is that he put it on so that it blends with the light panel and makes it virtually invisible.  The downspout still needs an extension at the bottom to move the water away from the barn.  This is a better view where you can better see the gutter. So that was the barn, then it was time to move onto sheep. Actually that should be a sheep, singular. Clark is the only sheep with horns and because of the way they curve, we have to keep an eye on them, otherwise they would grow into his skull. As you might imagine, this i...

First the clarification. I hope no one was concerned for me yesterday due to my post . That wasn't my intent. I've known the end of homeschooling was coming for the past sixteen years. Because I knew it was coming, I have been actively working to fill my life with interests outside of active parenting (I'll always be a parent, even if my grown children) and homeschooling. I can appreciate the fantastic times we've had (and have yet to have), but I can also be appreciative of having a bit more disposable time. There is a reason my farm and business is Bittersweet. Most things in life are both at the same time. Now the advertisement. Feel free to pass this along to whomever you think might find it useful.  The start of a new school year can be a time of big transitions, especially if you are sending a child off to college. Transitions can be challenging. With this in mind, I'm offering a special package of book three sessions but only pay for two for parents who have ...

Life has been pretty calm around here. I'm not complaining, but it does make it a little challenging to find things to write about. Drama makes for a better story. Next week things will changed a bit as we head into a different schedule. I think everyone will be relieved by this as time has seemed to be hanging heavy for more than a few. (Not me, I should add. Having nothing on the calendar fills me with glee and I am more than capable of filling that time.)  Thus, this may be the last photo based post for a while because the more people do things, the more there is to write about. We'll be back to my 1000+ word posts before you know it.  In lieu of so many words, here are a few photos from this morning in the barn. First, a sparrow egg that I found on the ground.  They are teeny tiny eggs. And the side where the hatchling emerged. I just hope this next round of babies managed to stay in their nests. And next is just a sun-bathing rooster. Note the outstretched leg. ...

The flies have been bad this month due to our rotten hot weather. I don't think Major really likes his fly mask and is firmly aligned with me in wishing the temperature would drop about thirty degrees.

Kenzie is a very old man now. We're not entirely sure of his age, but fifteen wouldn't be an unreasonable guess. We decided that it would be less stressful for him to go with everyone to the beach house. To clarify, less stressful for Kenzie, not less stressful for J. because Kenzie has barely medically controlled excessive anxiety and possibly dementia as well.  All that said, Kenzie enjoyed his vacation with many of his people and his people took many photos of him.  Getting ready for the trip.  I'm the car. At the beach. Resting in the house. More beach. More house. Worried that people were moving suitcases again.  Happiness resting on the way home with his people. 

One of the reasons that I read so many books this past week is that it was only me and P. in the house, and P. has a full time job. J. took everyone up to his aunt's Beach house in Michigan from Thursday to today. There was no way our budget would extend to hiring an animal sitter, so I stayed home to care for the animals. While it would have been fun to be at the beach, don't feel too sorry for me. I don't actually mind having a string of days where I'm virtually home alone.  But everyone returned safe and sound around dinner time. It's good to have them home, but I'll admit the first few minutes of seven extra people felt a tiny bit overwhelming. They all had a great time and most have already taken themselves off to go to bed. It was a tired crew at dinner this evening.  I'll get a few blog posts out of their trip in the next few days. I'll warn you ahead of time that there are a lot of pictures. But for tonight I'll leave you with a couple of pho...

The perpetual question of, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" baffles me a bit these days. Living with more farm yard-y types of animals is illuminating sometimes. Let's take ducks, for instance. Everyone makes jokes about having their ducks in a row (or not) as if this is some stellar achievement. I hate to break it to you, but having your ducks in a row is a very low bar. Ducks walk in a row. They just do. I think it would be far more difficult to get them to not walk in a row, though short of perpetually walking through their row, I'm sure how you'd do it. Aim higher, folks! Now, if you got your chickens to walk in a row, that would be impressive.  Chickens do not walk in a row. They will sometimes run together as a clump, but far more often, they just wander about looking for bugs and thinking their little chicken thoughts. I often think they must day dream, because sometimes they just stand there, not moving. This happens most often when standing in the mi...