out · the · window · backwards

More than one, for sure. He had lots of space.

This is Galahad. He's a three-month old cria (baby llama).

When he grows up he is going to help guard the sheep. Right as soon as they stop being kind of scary.

I always wanted to be Laura Ingalls.   My mom read me <em>Little House In the Big Woods</em> when I was five, and Laura was five in that, and... well, obviously it made a deep and lasting impression.

Broke broke broke and also the truck is broke(n). Not in a "can't move" kind of way, just in a "really probably shouldn't be taken five hours down the road and back" kind of way. Alone. With animals waiting.

This is stressing me out.

On a completely different and much more upbeat note, I just managed to arrange a little piece of barter so complicated I'm not even sure I've got all the details sorted yet. It involves three sheep, some weeds, and a pile of wood, and I definitely think I get the better part of the deal in the short term, but in the long term it should all even out.

Tomorrow, a handsome prince is coming to woo Blackie, Freyja and Chloe. Then, since Chloe is young and shy, and Blackie is Indipendisheep and a huge bitch, the handsome prince will fall in love with Freyja and sweep her off her feet (this will be easy, he weighs like 200lbs) and bring her back to his kingdom and give her hay and oats and soft straw to sleep on. And then, the beautiful princess of the same kingdom, who is currently imprisoned by trolls and threatened with a horrible fate, will be rescued by Blackie and I (Blackie is also Intrepidsheep) and we will bring her back to our kingdom, where Chloe will befriend her and teach her how to eat flowers.

And also I'm going to cut some weeds and maybe help chop up a barn floor.

I know some people are sick of my ranting about wind farms. Just bear with me while I make a couple of points:

1. I am not against wind power. Wind power GOOD.
2. I am not against living near turbines. I have minor concerns about the sheep, but we'll all get used to it I'm sure, they're being careful about flicker, and no matter what system they adopt the things have to go somewhere. I am NOT a 'NIMBY'.
3. I AM against "solutions" that shove a little patch over an existing problem without considering the future problems that "patch" will solve. Don't for goodness sake force people to examine their lifestyles, just generate as much ''green" power as possible, as quickly as possible.
4. Bigger is NOT better, bigger is a perpetuation of the industrial model/mindset that caused our current problems in the first place.

I've been ranting about this for two years, and I'll admit it, they almost had me convinced to shut up. And then they started killing bats

With West Nile already a growing problem throughout the region in which the (really indescribably big) wind farm is being installed, and mosquitoes having bred wildly and often this year because of the wet spring/early summer, gosh what a great time to start killing off or driving off with radio signals one of their major predators.

How did they miss this? Well people, what do you think the "environmental studies" they are so responsibly doing are about? Actual testing? They CAN NOT KNOW the effect on the environment of these farms until they have built them and had them up for a few years. But instead of a gradual start, we have to have as many as possible as quickly as possible so our government and corporations have something "green" to point to.

All right, I'm done. If anyone wants me, I'll be down at the Human Race office. lining up to turn in my membership card.

Well, sionnach_sidhe says everyone's doing it... and my result says I "go with the flow"... neat picture, anyway!

Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...

NFPC - The Artist

Nature, Foreground, Big Picture, and Color

Take The Perception Personality Image Test at HelloQuizzy

It's that time again... time to remind you that you really want to come out here and party on labor day weekend. Actually I know Raven already posted this, and probably any of you who are interested/able to show up read his LJ. But in case not, here's your annual reminder that Labor Day weekend is (ehemmybirthdayehem) the fourth annual Kill the Bastard Rooster party. Show up when you want, stay as long as you like, pot luck, I will provide baked goods and some form of chicken entree. Bonfires. Optional camping. thetyrant swears he is coming this year. Baby chickens to play with, big chickens to eat your leftover sandwiches, and New This Year: Sheep to hug AND a friendly goose!

Also new this year, the pond is officially open as "The ol' swimmin hole." We've cleared back the reeds in the deep end. Resident wildlife include frogs, smallish fish and a goose who loves to Swim With Others. The bottom is clay, and you will sink a bit (don't swim in shoes, you'll lose 'em). But it's clean and there are no icky surprises.

Note: Due to the rain this spring, the mosquitoes are on the insane side, and I recommend bringing something to ward 'em off. The bats and fish are active, but they can't keep up. IF YOU BRING DEET (which it's hard to avoid) please DO NOT GO IN THE POND WHILE WEARING INSECTICIDE. Also, please make sure you do not spray or wash your hands before touching the animals. This shouldn't be a big problem, as the skeeters don't attack in force until after dark, when all the fluffies are safely abed, I just had to mention it as the animals are very friendly, and I don't want my babies getting poisoned!

If you called me, read this a few people have already contacted us about bringing friends, and I hate the telephone so I'm posting here: Yes. Bring friends. Please don't bring anybody who is going to be an arsehole, or they'll be very lonely sitting out in the middle of the road while we have fun at a campfire. But I don't expect you would, because if they were an areshole, why would you be friends with them? But this weekend is about relaxing and having fun and wrapping up the summer in an enjoyable way, so if you feel your friends either need/want/would enhance that, they are very welcome here!

Directions, if needed, are posted here I think that's a locked post, so if you're not on my flist, either get on it or find someone who is!

Not everyone will have seen this post about a neat gift Raven and I got. (Well ok, the post is mostly about our new floor. But somewhere in there are pictures of these really cool antique incubators that someone gave us.

They're huge, so we moved our kitchen table out and replaced it with the larger one, which I will use as a baking island thingie. It looks very nice, ya ya ya home decorating bullshit that's not the point.

The point, such as it is, is that I put some eggs into it three weeks ago, and there were many adventures with lightbulbs going out, and me learning to candle eggs, and turn them like a hen, and now: The box is cheeping! As far as I can see through the tiny window, there is one whole chick and two eggs with little holes in them.

It worked! I made at least one chicken be! This is almost as cool as having a hen do it. Not quite, but almost. Now all I have to do is keep them alive.

The little kid down the road is going to be SO impressed!

I and a whole lot of other people got this flyer in the mail yesterday from our MP:

"The former Liberal government implemented a toothless Youth Criminal Justice Act which sent a terrible message to young people who were at risk of falling into the trap of violence and crime. Lenient laws meant these young punks got a slap on the wrist for their crimes. It is little wonder that so many young hoodlums learned to easily dodge our justice system.

It's time thugs and hoodlums learned that Canada is a peaceful, secure country that will not tolerate lawlessness. Thanks to real leadership from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative Government, lawbreaking punks will have to take real responsibility for their actions, just like every other hardworking Canadian."

I am... appalled. Not necessarily at the (unspecified) reforms in question, and don't even get me started on the actual argument, such as it is, presented here - but at this offensive language which, given the statistics that these people surely had on their desk when conceiving this blather, is functionally ageist, classist, and racist too. Functionally hell, that little "young people who were at risk" bit makes it acknowledgedly so.

In another sadly frequent instance of my coming to terms with the "real world" I am saddened that this was - could be - said in Canada, and much more so that it is clearly expected to touch a chord with a large number of people.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or put an asterix next to...) the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them.

*1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
*3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
*7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
*8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
*12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Not quite all of it)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
2. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
*24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
*33. The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
*40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
*49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - A.S. Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
*94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
*100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Here's some chucks for a thursday morning - This was forwarded to me by my mother this AM:

A new supermarket opened near my house. It has an automatic water mister
to keep the produce fresh.

Just before it goes on, you hear the sound of distant thunder and the
smell of fresh rain.

When you pass the milk cases, you hear cows mooing and you experience
the scent of freshly mowed hay.

In the meat department there is the aroma of charcoal grilled steaks
with onions.

When you approach the egg case, you hear hens cluck and cackle, and the
air is filled with the pleasing aroma of bacon and eggs frying.

The bread department features the tantalizing smell of fresh baked bread
& cookies.

I don't buy toilet paper there any more.

Have you ever had it happen that you were reciting the so-called Postal Worker's Creed in your head (I don't know, there's always something going around and around in my head) but then halfway through it changed into Hal Jordan's oath instead?

I bet the mail would be faster if Green Lantern delivered it, anyway.

Geese do not like long car rides. Geese do not like my mother-in-law's lawn, which is made of fresh sod and has no weeds. Geese do not like tinned salmon, which is therefore not a substitute for weeds.

Phil the not-duck is feeling better now, and would like to thank dusksembrace for her kindness and generosity. He is sorry he was not a more entertaining guest, and hopes to make it up to you next time you visit.

Meet Clean Phil, the orphaned (but very big and strong and brave) goose:


This Is Not A Duck

Romulus has eaten some wheat and corn!

He's still not opening his right eye, and he definitely can't see out of his left, although it's open more and more often. We believe he may be getting some light/shadow perception on that side, but it's hard to tell. We hope so, as I think that would be a good sign.

I managed to get his beak and one foot into the pan of grain, and he recognized it and started eating. Now we just have to teach him where to look for it, because the final confirmation of his blindness was watching him, eye wide open, confidently trying to scoop up wheat four inches to the right of where the pan actually was. But he's eating!

My brother just sent me this link... not shockingly new information or anything, but some cool bits, and definitely a share for any beginner Viking types out there.

Viking Fashion Flair

Oh yeah, and please ignore the terrible picture of the woman. I don't know why her 'apron' is down there, nor does the text explain. It shouldn't be. Also her arm appears to be encased in a red flannel cast, which is probably not the case. Just edit that part out when you get to it!

Beginning of this week I went out to the coop in the evening and discovered that there'd been a radical change in the power dynamic - Crowley beet the crap out of Romulus. I found Romulus hiding in a nesting box, scratched up and bleeding with two black eyes. janusdp may remember that Crowley even as a baby always did go for the face!

Crowley looks pretty rough, and I think if he had been able to see, Romulus would have won. But he can't. Right now his right eye is still swollen shut; he can open the left one but it's badly injured and there's no indication right now that he can actually see anything when it is open. amon_raven has been feeding him soup, because we can get him to take that, so far he hasn't tried to eat any solid food, and doesn't seem to recognize that it's there. (It's that BIG PAN of seed on your left, dude!)

He's otherwise healthy, and although resting and sleeping a lot, is waking up to preen his feathers and crow, so we're just waiting to see whether he'll recover any vision. Frankly, he should be soup, but Romulus has been a hell of a good rooster, and Crowley is only a year old, which means he could turn into a complete jackass this spring, and the only other male on the farm right now is Patches, who is cute but... well, Patches is really cute, yessiree. So if Crowley starts beating up on hens (or me!) we'll be up a creek until someone hatches another cock. So far he's been ok, but time will tell.

Freyja, Chloe(front) and Linton (rear)

Monster in his little shirt (which I had to cut off him yesterday!)