Ordinary Time

Did you notice the double negative in the title? Usually the day after Labor Day is our day to head off to a museum relishing both the empty spaces and the freedom to set our own schedule. Today? G. woke up feeling miserable and it didn't seem kind or wise to drag a sick child to a museum, tradition or not. So for the first time ever, we actually did school on the day after Labor Day. Well, it was a very light day of school, which is what we would have done tomorrow. I call it syllabus day. I passed out schedules and books. We cleaned out bags. I went through how the school year was going to look and how our individual mornings will go, and I walked them through the work they would be expected to do on their own. Because now that G. and L. are in high school (!), I start the process of turning their education over to them. Oh, and they got their propaganda notebooks all set up and ready to begin documenting the different types of advertising and speech they come across during the y...

As I was still finishing up with everything that needed to be done in order for school to start this past week, I still didn't have a whole lot of time in my studio. But I did have one school-related project that needed to be done and would let me do some spinning.  My second year students in my Sheep to Scarf class at our co-op are doing a fiber study using a sampler box with fourteen different types of prepared wool. I needed to create a page that they could use to record their results and also have a completed page as an example they could look at. This meant I had to do some spinning. Had to. The final result:  So you can see there is space to write about each breed of sheep and make their own observations. There is space at the bottom to attach a small woven sample (they'll be learning to use a pin loom) and places on the side to attach a sample of a spun single and a two-ply length of yarn. The two-ply is on the left. For my own records (because I have my own samples box...

I can sum up my afternoon in one picture  That would be 6 quarts of dill pickle slices, 8 pints of bread and butter pickles 5 half pints of dandelion jelly, and what's not in the photo are the two quarts of peaches for pie in the freezer. G., l.., and H. were all super helpful in the chopping department. I'm now going to put my feet up in a cool room. All those burners boiling things was not a happy addition to the rather warm weather.

First, a barn full of hay is always satisfying. That's over one hundred bales stacked in there. (The few browner looking ones are what was left from my last load at the end of last spring.)  But as satisfying as this is, there is something almost more satisfying. When I first started having hay delivered and needed to help stack it in the barn, I could barely do it. I would move about ten bales and would feel as though I was truly going to die. It was incredibly hard work for my poor out of shape body. Now? I realized this morning that I could help unload and stack hay without having to collapse. I still can't throw a heavy bale (though I can a lighter one), but I can carry the things for a very long time. That feels good.  Here is another satisfying thing.  That would be eight pints of dilly beans and two and a half pints of black cherry jelly. I can jelly in 1/4 pint jars as much as possible (because it's good for deglazing pans and making sauces) if you're wondering ...

Happy September! It's probably my favorite month.  I'll celebrate by actually doing a weekly update post. Every evening when I go out to bring in the horses, I see this chicken on this chair. Of course, the day after we spend two hours looking for orbs twenty-five new ones are set out. I thought about suggesting that we all head out again this morning, but didn't think it would go over very well. Plus, I really needed a day at home to catch up on all the things I've let slide for the past couple of weeks. One of those things was deal with the six cups of black cherries H. had picked a few days ago. (Boy, does she love to pick fruit!) So I was responsible and cooked them and set them straining in order to make jelly. The plastic elastic on the straining bag is gross. It's the only way to describe it. It's sort of soft and sticky and very unpleasant. I decided just after I took this picture that I was tired of having to deal with it, so sat down to order a replace...

Fine Line Creative Arts Center is hosting an open hunt this month where artisan made orbs are being hidden in the prairie next to the center and in a local forest preserve (Leroy Oakes).  We thought it would be fun to head over to our favorite forest preserve and see if we could find one. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Do you see the bumblebee? I haven't the foggiest idea what plant this is, but it was cool. I can't tell you how excited I was to come across this bridge. We had taken a path that we hadn't been on before and suddenly there it was. I have driven up and down the major road right next to it and always wondered what the bridge I saw was connected to. Now I know. It was very satisfying. And once again, we had the entire place to ourselves.  Alas, no orbs... even with the promise of ice cream if we found one. Since there were only four left to be found this week and the forest preserve is huge, I figured it was unlikely we would find one. We'll try again n...

I can tell I have a lot in my head as I've been getting ready for school, getting my co-op classes ready, and as a co-op board member, getting the volunteer situation sorted out. And somewhere back in my head is my business that I have several things I need to do (and perhaps do some advertising and networking) which just hasn't reached appeared out of the depths of the inner to do list. And how can I tell my brain is overloaded? By what I'm able to read and not read. Non-fiction has been totally out recently. I just cannot seem to focus on it. The same goes for more "serious" novels. Instead, light and fluffy is about the only thing I can handle. I plowed through the Constable Twitten mysteries by Lynne Truss. (Highly recommended, by the way.) And then I started two more books. One I just couldn't read because I didn't find the main character's family situation believable, and the other was a book I realized I had read but didn't remember. I just ...