Jonah Sutton-Morse

Lovely fall on the farm.

A sunny day. Grey-white clouds in a bright blue sky. Below that, a blur of green trees behind the light brownish-green field. A flock of sheep is spread out, grazing. Closer up, in the shadow, taller grasses and brush grow.

Last time I tried sourdough, I had an opaque crock for my starter. This time it’s glass. Last time, my starter often got neglected and sick. This time I’m feeling the constant pressure to produce. Genuinely unsure which is worse, but I think I need to make some friends I can gift sourdough to.

History

I’ve been listening to some Irish Republican songs recently (Come Out Ye Black and Tans, Men Behind the Wire, etc) and filling the kiddos in on bits of the history and violence that filled the news when I grew up. (On that note, Stan Rogers, always a surprising source of excellent music, has “House of Orange” which I think is a right song for The Troubles). So I was interested to see this line from a reader of John Gruber’s Daring Fireball “Because the UK includes Northern Ireland, which has an open border with the Republic of Ireland, and the RoI is part of the EU, and the border MUST remain open for historical reasons, …“. What are those historic reasons? Hundreds of years of bloody guerilla civil war. Anyway, I don’t have a big point to make here - I’m not an expert in Irish Republican history and pointing out the U2 sang Bloody Sunday and also ended up in another notweorthy Apple News story years ago is pretty irrelevant, but also that throwaway sentence (which was probably intentional understatement, this isn’t a critique of either Daring Firreball or the commenter) triggered a few other thoughts and an educational moment with my kids, and frankly the fact that Apple packaging is being determined by risings hundreds of years ago and the different fights that have been etched in history ever since actually does seem relevant in various ways today. At the very least, it’s an argument for the ways in which history continues to haunt us for a very long time, and people who act without considering historical precedent are likely to find themselves re-learning some lessons at some point. And that, in and of itself, is a useful lesson, or reminder.

I think I’m starting #sourdough again

A bright yellow lid on a blue bowl with King's Arthur's sourdough tips and tricks booklet leaning against it

Good times in small town midcoast Maine.

A crane holding a giant pumpkin just over a junked pickup truck in preparation for a huge pumpkin drop on a cloudy day.

Watching the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest Pumpkin Regatta (which, yes, is what it sounds like, with 500+ lb pumpkins). Excellent silliness.

Working on setting up the historical shelves. Still unsure of the organization,- Dan not sure how much I want to follow chronology vs trends.

A set of bookshelves, some organized, others with piles and figurines on them. Some books facing out include Peter Brown's Body and Society, Graeber and Wengrow's Dawn of Everything and Hawking's Brief History of Time

Ok, I’m sure some more books will pop up and need to be slipped in, but SFF is shelved, other than all the Tolkien stuff I need to sort out. Recognize anything?

Two bookshelves fully stacked. A few are facing out including Vajra's Saint of Bright Doors and Ken Liu's Grace of Kings. Generally alphabetical by author, but Robert Jordan and Steven Erikson's series are on bottom shelves on one side, and anthologies of various sorts are the bottom of the other.

Wondering if I should shelve Principia with our various student textbooks …

A box of books, with a few pulled out. Visible covers include Newton's Principia (vol 1), Darwin's Origin of the species, CLR James' Beyond a Boundary, and Kieran Healey and Marion Fourcade's The Ordinal Society

Here’s the good part of the next few day(s)

A room full of piles of books, with built in shelves in the background.

The great shelving begins, and along with it the eternal question: is “Jerusalem Delivered” poetry, history (if the crusades) or a historical document that goes with the date of publication? (Corollary: where to put The Silmarillion, Lit Crit focused on Tolkien, and Tolkien’s Monsters and Critics?)

At Meeting today, read a Pendle Hill Pamphlet from 1985 by a Quaker working with a broad coalition of faith groups to provide sanctuary to Central Americans being treated illegally and inhumanely by INS. Depressing and inspiring, but I’m leaning into the inspiring parts.

One must imagine Sysiphus happy

A delighted 6 year old with blond hair is on her knees rolling an awkward blue ball up a steep grassy hill with a wooden porch in the background.

Put up winter hay. I think our barn is trying to tell us we should get more sheep.

Another view of wooden frame barn with a row and a half of hay bales stacked although incompletely.A wooden barn with exposed beams, hay bales stacked 5 bales high, and lost of empty space

Apple really wanted to make sure you don’t miss Liquid Glass when you do the upgrade, huh?

Goat surveying her domain

A blurry photo of a white goat on a rock looking out over a foggy meadow, with trees in the background

Golda needed to get porcupine quills removed from her muzzle this evening. After that, everyone went out for some nice foraging

Another wider shot of the flock among grass and goldenrod, with a bright blue sky bisected by the outline of a large tree in the background, and the barn in one corner.Closeup of the sheep's dark brown face, including ear with green tag and about a dozen black-and-white porcupine quills sticking out of her chin.A brown sheep with dark brown face stands in front of a wooden split-rail fence and brownish grass. The outline of porcupine quills are barely visible.A group of sheep grazing in the golden light of late afternoon. A bright blue sky and wood barn are in the background.

Dan Hartland, absolutely calling out my podcast habit … overcast.fm/+ABDNpY2E…

Netflix has Land Before Time and so now I’m realizing that probably some people saw Jurassic Park without having imprinted on that, and lots of people probably watched Jurassic Park sequels in the context of things like Jurassic Park and maybe Jaws but not Land Before Time.

Moving means stumbling on the papers in bins untouched since the last move. The Father’s Day address from my dad I will keep. The college paper with notes from the professor about the lack of engagement with secondary scholarship and “I wish you had not worked alone quite so long” maybe not

An unexpected advantage to our “never put the kids’ names on the internet” policy is that two of them have changed names, and I don’t have to correct any confusion with internet friends.

Nice evening out with sheep

A green photo with sheep (brown and white) in the foreground among grass and ferns, a red barn in the middle distance, and gold-green tree leaves aboveAn old grey sheep lies on the ground with a white sheep standing nearby. A brown sheep walks towards the camera, and another person's arm is visible taking a photo of the grey sheep.A wooden barn wall, with dirt and hay in front, and three browns and white sheep trotting to the left in front of the wall

Article by my grade school teacher about her marriage in the early nineties. I am slowly coming to realize in my 40’s how special my childhood was. www.friendsjournal.org/2009066/

I gotta say, parenting a 3-6 year old and watching her develop her language, reasoning, and reading skills is a really interesting time to also be watching dialogue about LLM usage and strengths/weaknesses.

Youngest kid is almost six, dog is confined behind a baby gate, and cats are restricted to bedroom/bathroom until they show they can use the new litter box. There are areas of the house that can have breakables in them and all my reflexes are freaking out when I see it.