Altivo Overo's Blog, page 9
October 22, 2018
Of pears & cranberries
A kind and generous neighbor made us a gift of a ten pound sack of pears from her tree. Husband made pear bread with pecans and raisins from about half of them. He also cut some up and froze them. That left about three pounds for me to deal with. These are Asian pears, sometimes called "apple-pears" because they are shaped like apples. Sweet and fragrant, but without much acid or bite. Firm and crunchy like an apple unless allowed to become overly ripe and mushy. What to do?
Well, as serendipity would have it, an ad for a cooking magazine arrived in the mail with a few sample recipes. One was for a pear-cranberry pie, and it sounded interesting, so I revised it a bit. Here's a photo of the result:
And here's the recipe as I revised it:
Pear-cranberry Deep Dish Pie
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. instant tapioca
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
6 ripe, but still firm, pears, cored and sliced (about 2 lbs.)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 cup fresh or thawed frozen whole cranberries
1 Tbsp. milk
Coarse sugar, for sprinkling
pastry for a double crust pie (best home made, but packaged store-bought is OK)
Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl combine sugar, tapioca, ginger and nutmeg. Add pear slices, cranberries, and lemon juice. Stir gently to coat the pears and cranberries.
Divide prepared pastry dough into two parts. Roll one portion into a 13 inch circle. Use this to line a 9 inch deep dish pie plate. (Ease pastry into place, do not stretch.) Spread pear filling in the piecrust.
Roll out second pastry portion into a 12 inch circle, and gently place this on top of the filling. Crimp edges, cut slits in top for steam to escape. Brush top of pie with the milk, and sprinkle with coarse sugar for a little sparkle.
Place pie on a baking sheet or pizza pan to catch any drips. Bake 65 to 70 minutes or until filling is bubbly and crust golden brown. Allow to cool on wire rack, but serve while still slightly warm.
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Our review: Tasty, but really needs a bit more spice to give it character. Compared to apples or cherries, pears are, well, pretty bland.
comments
Well, as serendipity would have it, an ad for a cooking magazine arrived in the mail with a few sample recipes. One was for a pear-cranberry pie, and it sounded interesting, so I revised it a bit. Here's a photo of the result:
And here's the recipe as I revised it:
Pear-cranberry Deep Dish Pie
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. instant tapioca
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
6 ripe, but still firm, pears, cored and sliced (about 2 lbs.)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 cup fresh or thawed frozen whole cranberries
1 Tbsp. milk
Coarse sugar, for sprinkling
pastry for a double crust pie (best home made, but packaged store-bought is OK)
Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl combine sugar, tapioca, ginger and nutmeg. Add pear slices, cranberries, and lemon juice. Stir gently to coat the pears and cranberries.
Divide prepared pastry dough into two parts. Roll one portion into a 13 inch circle. Use this to line a 9 inch deep dish pie plate. (Ease pastry into place, do not stretch.) Spread pear filling in the piecrust.
Roll out second pastry portion into a 12 inch circle, and gently place this on top of the filling. Crimp edges, cut slits in top for steam to escape. Brush top of pie with the milk, and sprinkle with coarse sugar for a little sparkle.
Place pie on a baking sheet or pizza pan to catch any drips. Bake 65 to 70 minutes or until filling is bubbly and crust golden brown. Allow to cool on wire rack, but serve while still slightly warm.
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Our review: Tasty, but really needs a bit more spice to give it character. Compared to apples or cherries, pears are, well, pretty bland.
comments
September 6, 2018
Embarrassing stash
No, not drugs. This "stash" refers to fiber art supplies: yarn, unspun wool and other fibers, knitting needles, dyes, crochet hooks, and so forth. (We won't mention projects started and left incomplete, as there are several of those as well.)
Specific goal: knit a lightweight shawl from some handspun yarn I have made. First, find a suitable pattern. I knew I wanted a circular design with just a little bit of lacy patterning. Having seen one like that made by a friend several years back, I asked her about it. Her advice was just to search online. Most of what I found was far more complicated than I wanted, but eventually I located some simple advice for knitting shawls in the round that will work.
Now to make a sample swatch to make sure the yarn grist and needle size is appropriate for what I want. The yarn should be fine, but I'd better wash it first so it doesn't shrink when washed later. Still, I can use a bit of it to test the pattern. Looks like a size 6 or 7 needle will give a light enough textile.
Knitting in the round for small items starts with double pointed needles as a rule, and sure enough I found I have both sizes in double points. However, this shawl will end up, worked from the center out, as a circular piece about four feet in diameter or a bit more. That means once the center is started, there will come a time to switch to a circular needle (two knitting needles connected by a flexible cable) and later probably to an even longer circular needle. Off to look in the needle collection, which is embarrassingly large due to many inherited from other knitters as well as those I bought myself. I find the slip cases for two size 7 circular needles, one 16 inches long and one 32 inches long. I might need one longer still before the end (they go up to at least 60 inches) but this will do to start.
The problem? Both needle cases are empty. All right, they must be still entangled in some unfinished project, and sure enough, after looking through a couple of baskets of stuff, I did fine one of them with a moebius scarf or cowl nearly completed. The other is still AWOL. And... I should complete that scarf as it is also handspun yarn and would make a good gift for someone.
Between all the needles and crochet hooks I found, though, I see it is time to make some sort of inventory to track what I have and avoid buying things again. Proven by the fact that I found swivel hook pairs (crochet tools similar to the circular knitting needle but with hooks on each end) in sizes H, J, and K. That wouldn't be bad, except there were two each of H and J, and four of K. Most were new, still in the unopened wrappers. Worse, I know I have afghan hooks in sizes J, K, L, and M, none of which I found in this search.
Past time to get this stuff more organized. Sigh.
comments
Specific goal: knit a lightweight shawl from some handspun yarn I have made. First, find a suitable pattern. I knew I wanted a circular design with just a little bit of lacy patterning. Having seen one like that made by a friend several years back, I asked her about it. Her advice was just to search online. Most of what I found was far more complicated than I wanted, but eventually I located some simple advice for knitting shawls in the round that will work.
Now to make a sample swatch to make sure the yarn grist and needle size is appropriate for what I want. The yarn should be fine, but I'd better wash it first so it doesn't shrink when washed later. Still, I can use a bit of it to test the pattern. Looks like a size 6 or 7 needle will give a light enough textile.
Knitting in the round for small items starts with double pointed needles as a rule, and sure enough I found I have both sizes in double points. However, this shawl will end up, worked from the center out, as a circular piece about four feet in diameter or a bit more. That means once the center is started, there will come a time to switch to a circular needle (two knitting needles connected by a flexible cable) and later probably to an even longer circular needle. Off to look in the needle collection, which is embarrassingly large due to many inherited from other knitters as well as those I bought myself. I find the slip cases for two size 7 circular needles, one 16 inches long and one 32 inches long. I might need one longer still before the end (they go up to at least 60 inches) but this will do to start.
The problem? Both needle cases are empty. All right, they must be still entangled in some unfinished project, and sure enough, after looking through a couple of baskets of stuff, I did fine one of them with a moebius scarf or cowl nearly completed. The other is still AWOL. And... I should complete that scarf as it is also handspun yarn and would make a good gift for someone.
Between all the needles and crochet hooks I found, though, I see it is time to make some sort of inventory to track what I have and avoid buying things again. Proven by the fact that I found swivel hook pairs (crochet tools similar to the circular knitting needle but with hooks on each end) in sizes H, J, and K. That wouldn't be bad, except there were two each of H and J, and four of K. Most were new, still in the unopened wrappers. Worse, I know I have afghan hooks in sizes J, K, L, and M, none of which I found in this search.
Past time to get this stuff more organized. Sigh.
comments
January 28, 2018
The Left Hand of Darkness
The passing of Ursula K. Le Guin is a great loss to the English language literary world, and not just to science fiction or fantasy readers. A true Grand Master, she was a leader in the realm of speculative fiction as well as a superbly skilled artist of language and imagery.
Watching the comments of many who said they had never actually read any of her work, or had only read the Earthsea books, sent me back to my shelves to revisit some of Le Guin's works that I first read many years ago. First and foremost among these in my opinion would be The Left Hand of Darkness, published about 1969 if I remember correctly. I have read it at least twice, once as an assignment in a literature class and once on my own that I recall. Overall I have probably read about half of her published works, and have always intended to complete the list. This one book, though, stands out in my memory as perhaps her greatest and most visionary work. It deals with issues of gender and sex role quite neatly, and is often lauded for that, but there is much more to it. Political topics such as nationalism, economics, xenophobia, language and cultural barriers, greed, and power are all inherent to the story and its characters. The realities of long distance space travel are merely touched upon as an element underpinning the plot, but handled in a manner that is accurate and consistent with our current understanding of relativity and physics. Le Guin's description of the "ansible," a device that permits instantaneous communication over galactic distances, was puzzling in 1969 but fits in almost perfectly with our understanding of quantum entanglement and how it might be used now, half a century after she first described it.
Le Guin was made a Gandalf Award Grand Master of Fantasy by the World Science Fiction Society in 1975, and a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2003 (rather tardily in my opinion.) She received numerous other awards during her writing career.
The Left Hand of Darkness received both a Hugo and a Nebula.
I can't recommend Grand Master Ursula Le Guin's writings strongly enough. If you haven't read her beyond the realm of Earthsea, you should. And there is no better starting place than The Left Hand of Darkness.
[I was disturbed to find that my own local public library did not have the book on the shelf, nor was it in their circulating e-book collection. Much to my satisfaction, within a day of pointing this out and urging them to purchase this title and also The Dispossessed, both were in fact made available to users of the e-book selection.]
comments
Watching the comments of many who said they had never actually read any of her work, or had only read the Earthsea books, sent me back to my shelves to revisit some of Le Guin's works that I first read many years ago. First and foremost among these in my opinion would be The Left Hand of Darkness, published about 1969 if I remember correctly. I have read it at least twice, once as an assignment in a literature class and once on my own that I recall. Overall I have probably read about half of her published works, and have always intended to complete the list. This one book, though, stands out in my memory as perhaps her greatest and most visionary work. It deals with issues of gender and sex role quite neatly, and is often lauded for that, but there is much more to it. Political topics such as nationalism, economics, xenophobia, language and cultural barriers, greed, and power are all inherent to the story and its characters. The realities of long distance space travel are merely touched upon as an element underpinning the plot, but handled in a manner that is accurate and consistent with our current understanding of relativity and physics. Le Guin's description of the "ansible," a device that permits instantaneous communication over galactic distances, was puzzling in 1969 but fits in almost perfectly with our understanding of quantum entanglement and how it might be used now, half a century after she first described it.
Le Guin was made a Gandalf Award Grand Master of Fantasy by the World Science Fiction Society in 1975, and a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2003 (rather tardily in my opinion.) She received numerous other awards during her writing career.
The Left Hand of Darkness received both a Hugo and a Nebula.
I can't recommend Grand Master Ursula Le Guin's writings strongly enough. If you haven't read her beyond the realm of Earthsea, you should. And there is no better starting place than The Left Hand of Darkness.
[I was disturbed to find that my own local public library did not have the book on the shelf, nor was it in their circulating e-book collection. Much to my satisfaction, within a day of pointing this out and urging them to purchase this title and also The Dispossessed, both were in fact made available to users of the e-book selection.]
comments
August 1, 2017
So this is retirement?
Today's schedule:
5:30 am - Rise, take meds, record blood pressure, feed fish, wind clocks, check e-mail. (62 new messages)
6:30 am - Go out and feed horses and ducks, dodging mosquitoes on the way
7:15 am - Feed dog
7:30 am - Breakfast
8:00 am - Answer some e-mail, delete a lot of it
8:30 am - Go out with husband to clean stalls, set up hay for next 24 hours, dodge more mosquitoes
8:50 am - Chase neighbors' chickens out of garden
9:00 am - Prepare sample recordings for musical group ThingamaJig consideration
10:00 am - Update grocery shopping list, plan to shop after rehearsal
10:30 am - Leave for ThingamaJig rehearsal, with stop at bank on the way to make a payment
11:30 am - Rehearsal until 2:30 pm
2:30 pm - Go to lunch with husband, stopping for gas and car wash on the way
3:00 pm - Lunch
3:15 pm - Hay supplier calls to ask if he can drop off a load of hay this afternoon
3:45 pm - Finish lunch, plan to head straight home to meet hay supplier, skip grocery shopping
3:50 pm - Discover that brake lights, tail lights, and rear turn signals are out on husband's car
4:30 pm - Arrive home, chase neighbor's chickens out of garden, put Tess in her stall
4:40 pm - Dismantle Tess' indoor portable pen to allow hay wagon to get into barn
5:00 pm - Unload hay, working up a lot of sweat, write check for Sunday's & today's deliveries (ouch)
5:45 pm - Examine brake lights, discover that a) the plastic housings for both lights have melted from
the heat of the bulbs, making it very difficult to remove them; and b) both bulbs are broken
apparently due to water from the car wash hitting them while hot; replace bulbs, reassemble
7:00 pm - Feed other 2 horses and put them in their stalls, then discover that during the day a huge
dead oak branch has fallen on their fence, knocking two rails out of it (fortunately horses
are lazy and did not wander off)
7:15 pm - Temporary repairs to fence; remove huge branch from dry lot; pick up after horses
7:45 pm - Shower to remove sweat and mosquito repellent that made me sneeze but didn't work
8:15 pm - Feed dog; fix salad for dinner, eat it
9:00 pm - Sign into bank online and shuffle funds around so check to hay guy doesn't bounce
9:15 pm - Let the dog out, he sniffs around but does nothing
9:30 pm - Write this post
9:45 pm - Go to bed knowing dog will want to go out at 11:00 and probably again at 2:00 am because
he drank a gallon of water after eating his supper
Any questions?
comments
5:30 am - Rise, take meds, record blood pressure, feed fish, wind clocks, check e-mail. (62 new messages)
6:30 am - Go out and feed horses and ducks, dodging mosquitoes on the way
7:15 am - Feed dog
7:30 am - Breakfast
8:00 am - Answer some e-mail, delete a lot of it
8:30 am - Go out with husband to clean stalls, set up hay for next 24 hours, dodge more mosquitoes
8:50 am - Chase neighbors' chickens out of garden
9:00 am - Prepare sample recordings for musical group ThingamaJig consideration
10:00 am - Update grocery shopping list, plan to shop after rehearsal
10:30 am - Leave for ThingamaJig rehearsal, with stop at bank on the way to make a payment
11:30 am - Rehearsal until 2:30 pm
2:30 pm - Go to lunch with husband, stopping for gas and car wash on the way
3:00 pm - Lunch
3:15 pm - Hay supplier calls to ask if he can drop off a load of hay this afternoon
3:45 pm - Finish lunch, plan to head straight home to meet hay supplier, skip grocery shopping
3:50 pm - Discover that brake lights, tail lights, and rear turn signals are out on husband's car
4:30 pm - Arrive home, chase neighbor's chickens out of garden, put Tess in her stall
4:40 pm - Dismantle Tess' indoor portable pen to allow hay wagon to get into barn
5:00 pm - Unload hay, working up a lot of sweat, write check for Sunday's & today's deliveries (ouch)
5:45 pm - Examine brake lights, discover that a) the plastic housings for both lights have melted from
the heat of the bulbs, making it very difficult to remove them; and b) both bulbs are broken
apparently due to water from the car wash hitting them while hot; replace bulbs, reassemble
7:00 pm - Feed other 2 horses and put them in their stalls, then discover that during the day a huge
dead oak branch has fallen on their fence, knocking two rails out of it (fortunately horses
are lazy and did not wander off)
7:15 pm - Temporary repairs to fence; remove huge branch from dry lot; pick up after horses
7:45 pm - Shower to remove sweat and mosquito repellent that made me sneeze but didn't work
8:15 pm - Feed dog; fix salad for dinner, eat it
9:00 pm - Sign into bank online and shuffle funds around so check to hay guy doesn't bounce
9:15 pm - Let the dog out, he sniffs around but does nothing
9:30 pm - Write this post
9:45 pm - Go to bed knowing dog will want to go out at 11:00 and probably again at 2:00 am because
he drank a gallon of water after eating his supper
Any questions?
comments
July 27, 2017
Getting old
One of the things about getting older is that other people get older too. Most of us notice our friends and relatives aging without quite seeing the same thing happening to ourselves unless serious health issues arise.
While I've been pretty fortunate in that respect, I've now survived the loss of nearly all my older relatives. My family was never all that large, but grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, a number of cousins and an older sibling have all passed away, leaving me the oldest survivor of my immediate family. Oddly, I still don't feel "old" in spite of having retired from daily work and being able to take advantage of the occasional "senior discount."
However, it gets closer to home when personal friends are affected. A good friend for many years now, who attended the same university I did (though we had not yet met) and has been fairly close to my husband and me for as long as we've been together (35 years!) has been seriously ill with histoplasmosis. That's a systemic infection by a parasitic fungus if I understand it correctly. It's typically acquired from bat or bird droppings and not very common. Difficult to diagnose and with complex symptoms, the disease can be life-threatening if untreated. He was not diagnosed early, and eventually reached a state of emergency before getting a correct diagnosis. Fortunately, that came just in time and treatment is succeeding, but he has been hospitalized for many weeks and is only now recovering his ability to walk, eat, and perform the tasks of daily life. He is only a couple of years older than I am, and has always been a very active outdoors individual. This is sobering and a bit frightening.
Meanwhile, husband Gary's younger brother has been hospitalized for over two months due to major heart issues. He has had two major heart attacks in the past, and has become so weak that they put him on the waiting list for a heart transplant. This week he received an LVAD, a heart-assist mechanism, in a six hour surgical procedure. His doctors hope this will keep him going until a replacement heart becomes available. He is five or six years younger than I am.
My own younger brother has had both knees and a hip replaced, and has also had back surgery and major heart issues more than once but seems to be continuing a pretty normal life. Fortunately he is married to a very skilled and wise master nurse who can spot issues early and take appropriate action.
So far I've had no big problems and everything seems to be under control. But I begin to wonder if the proverbial sword of Damocles is up there waiting to fall on me.
comments
While I've been pretty fortunate in that respect, I've now survived the loss of nearly all my older relatives. My family was never all that large, but grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, a number of cousins and an older sibling have all passed away, leaving me the oldest survivor of my immediate family. Oddly, I still don't feel "old" in spite of having retired from daily work and being able to take advantage of the occasional "senior discount."
However, it gets closer to home when personal friends are affected. A good friend for many years now, who attended the same university I did (though we had not yet met) and has been fairly close to my husband and me for as long as we've been together (35 years!) has been seriously ill with histoplasmosis. That's a systemic infection by a parasitic fungus if I understand it correctly. It's typically acquired from bat or bird droppings and not very common. Difficult to diagnose and with complex symptoms, the disease can be life-threatening if untreated. He was not diagnosed early, and eventually reached a state of emergency before getting a correct diagnosis. Fortunately, that came just in time and treatment is succeeding, but he has been hospitalized for many weeks and is only now recovering his ability to walk, eat, and perform the tasks of daily life. He is only a couple of years older than I am, and has always been a very active outdoors individual. This is sobering and a bit frightening.
Meanwhile, husband Gary's younger brother has been hospitalized for over two months due to major heart issues. He has had two major heart attacks in the past, and has become so weak that they put him on the waiting list for a heart transplant. This week he received an LVAD, a heart-assist mechanism, in a six hour surgical procedure. His doctors hope this will keep him going until a replacement heart becomes available. He is five or six years younger than I am.
My own younger brother has had both knees and a hip replaced, and has also had back surgery and major heart issues more than once but seems to be continuing a pretty normal life. Fortunately he is married to a very skilled and wise master nurse who can spot issues early and take appropriate action.
So far I've had no big problems and everything seems to be under control. But I begin to wonder if the proverbial sword of Damocles is up there waiting to fall on me.
comments
May 16, 2017
Best tip ever
So our musical trio ThingamaJig gave its first public performance under that name today. It was the Woodstock Farmer's Market, on the Square. We were up in the bandstand gazebo and though the organizers provide a tip jar it was located where we couldn't easily see who was putting stuff into it (if any.) The two hour performance went well, and I was pleased with the responses I got for my flute playing. But the best came when Gary went through the contents of the tip jar (actually a plastic bucket) after we got home. It was a little money, which when divided up might buy an ice cream bar or a coffee for each of us. But the great thing was this note:
Neal's response (with which I can only concur) was:
"Best tip ever. I am inspired."
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Neal's response (with which I can only concur) was:
"Best tip ever. I am inspired."
comments
April 9, 2017
Oddities at LJ?
Suddenly I'm seeing talk about migration from LJ to DW (or other platforms) again. I bailed from LJ not long after the Russians took over, and don't know a lot about what happened to it since then. I've been quite happy with DW but then, I don't insist on a constantly shifting platform that wants to be "cutting edge" all the time even if that means undercutting its own long term users. I have accounts elsewhere (Blogspot, Tumblr, FA, Furry Network, and so forth) but don't really use them or care for the sites. Mostly I keep them to avoid being impersonated by someone else. I do use Twitter with some regularity, but don't consider it to be as effective for real communication.
Anyway, for those who are choosing to leave LJ now and come over to DW, welcome. Dreamwidth has a number of things in its favor. They promised not to try the kinds of wholesale censorship that SixApart fell down on. They promised not to shove advertising in your face. In my experience and exposure (which may not be complete, admittedly) they have kept those promises. I consider that a huge point in their favor. I am happy to pay the annual charge for a paid account, and I encourage any of you who can afford to do so to follow my example. DW staff are helpful and unobtrusive, and the site has very few technical difficulties (unlike some of the other dedicated furry sites that I won't single out by name.)
I generally follow back most who choose to follow me, and my DW journal is public, not locked or private. I look forward to reacquainting myself with old friends and perhaps meeting new ones.
comments
Anyway, for those who are choosing to leave LJ now and come over to DW, welcome. Dreamwidth has a number of things in its favor. They promised not to try the kinds of wholesale censorship that SixApart fell down on. They promised not to shove advertising in your face. In my experience and exposure (which may not be complete, admittedly) they have kept those promises. I consider that a huge point in their favor. I am happy to pay the annual charge for a paid account, and I encourage any of you who can afford to do so to follow my example. DW staff are helpful and unobtrusive, and the site has very few technical difficulties (unlike some of the other dedicated furry sites that I won't single out by name.)
I generally follow back most who choose to follow me, and my DW journal is public, not locked or private. I look forward to reacquainting myself with old friends and perhaps meeting new ones.
comments
April 3, 2017
Spring has sprung
Yes, I know, official meteorological spring began a month ago and astronomical spring two weeks ago. But one of our significant measuring points was hit over the weekend: our ducks began laying eggs. The first two are in the fridge along with four more left in the hay storage by the neighbors' wandering hens.
Also, I got some sour jelly beans (Starburst, not the best ever but they'll do) so that annual requirement is met. I think last year I never found any at all.
It has been raining on and off for three days. Coming down fairly hard at the moment. I can hear it on the roof and hitting the skylight in the kitchen as well as dripping into the stovepipe (despite the fancy cap that is supposed to prevent that.)
( Music chunterings )
Other than going out to care for the horses, I spent most of the day editing and arranging tunes for ThingamaJig. Tomorrow we should see a little more of the sun, but then they tell us to expect some actual snow. Had enough of that now, no thanks.
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Also, I got some sour jelly beans (Starburst, not the best ever but they'll do) so that annual requirement is met. I think last year I never found any at all.
It has been raining on and off for three days. Coming down fairly hard at the moment. I can hear it on the roof and hitting the skylight in the kitchen as well as dripping into the stovepipe (despite the fancy cap that is supposed to prevent that.)
( Music chunterings )
Other than going out to care for the horses, I spent most of the day editing and arranging tunes for ThingamaJig. Tomorrow we should see a little more of the sun, but then they tell us to expect some actual snow. Had enough of that now, no thanks.
comments
March 26, 2017
It's official
OK, we added another gig for the ThingamaJig at local fiberfest. Have to get business cards and website up and running.
I finished up a design for the card yesterday, we printed some and they look good enough. Here's the front side of the card.
Back side has personnel and additional contact info on it, summed up on the temporary page I put up here.
[Late addition: Gary has now added a link on the website page above to our actual calendar of events, which has started to fill up nicely enough.]
In other news, late winter seems to be fading into full-fledged summer, with one day in the 80s already this week. No more snow, but rain and fog are intermingled with warm and sunny.
Neighbors' chickens are scratching up my garden beds and generally making a mess. Their German shepherd was over here this morning digging a hole under the corner of the arena. Same people who in the past have visited two very large hogs on us (two different occasions) and a horse once, and a rabbit that kept escaping and coming over to hide in my barn. Their geese used to hang around here squawking and following Gary about, too. They seem to feel no sense of responsibility for any of this.
In spite of all of this, I feel I'm finally getting the hang of being "retired" and not having to do stuff. Except of course for all the stuff I have to do. ;p
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I finished up a design for the card yesterday, we printed some and they look good enough. Here's the front side of the card.
Back side has personnel and additional contact info on it, summed up on the temporary page I put up here.
[Late addition: Gary has now added a link on the website page above to our actual calendar of events, which has started to fill up nicely enough.]
In other news, late winter seems to be fading into full-fledged summer, with one day in the 80s already this week. No more snow, but rain and fog are intermingled with warm and sunny.
Neighbors' chickens are scratching up my garden beds and generally making a mess. Their German shepherd was over here this morning digging a hole under the corner of the arena. Same people who in the past have visited two very large hogs on us (two different occasions) and a horse once, and a rabbit that kept escaping and coming over to hide in my barn. Their geese used to hang around here squawking and following Gary about, too. They seem to feel no sense of responsibility for any of this.
In spite of all of this, I feel I'm finally getting the hang of being "retired" and not having to do stuff. Except of course for all the stuff I have to do. ;p
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March 6, 2017
Busy busy busy
Too much stuff going on.
The most interesting to me, though (I'll avoid political rants for now) has to do with music.
( Current musical developments )
In other news, the neighbors' wandering chickens are back again, as many as a dozen of them meandering around our yards and scratching holes in the ground. Just now we had two roosters in a knock down battle that got our dog Laddie all excited and worried. Gary had to literally kick them apart and chase them back toward home in the end. The way they were going at it, I figured the larger one was going to kill the other if left alone. He had the victim trapped in a fence corner and was stomping, scratching and biting for all he was worth. I'd have turned the hose on them except it hasn't been warm long enough for us to have put it out yet.
comments
The most interesting to me, though (I'll avoid political rants for now) has to do with music.
( Current musical developments )
In other news, the neighbors' wandering chickens are back again, as many as a dozen of them meandering around our yards and scratching holes in the ground. Just now we had two roosters in a knock down battle that got our dog Laddie all excited and worried. Gary had to literally kick them apart and chase them back toward home in the end. The way they were going at it, I figured the larger one was going to kill the other if left alone. He had the victim trapped in a fence corner and was stomping, scratching and biting for all he was worth. I'd have turned the hose on them except it hasn't been warm long enough for us to have put it out yet.
comments
