Daily log

It has turned cold cold damp and cold. I am really burnin some wood here keeping the house snug.
"I ain't seen the sunshine since, I don't know when"

I am almost finished with my wool knitted socks, I worked on a pattern for goat blankets, I got some Christmas shopping done and I think I'm gonna take a hot bath.

Josh has gone off to his new job. He started out washing dishes last Friday, by Sunday he was making salads and desserts and tonight they are training him to bus tables.
This is his moonlight job, in the evenings after working at the Grocery store.

He is working hard and he seems to be enjoying it.

Even with about 20% of the number of does I had when I had the dairy. it still gets pretty messy over at the ranch; especially when it's been raining. It was time I needed to scrape out the yards. Yesterday I made me promise myself that if it was sunny today, I would do the tractor work.
Well it isn't sunny, but it wasn't raining, so I managed to get almost 2 hours of tractor work and most of the yard is scraped clean.
And now it has started raining so it was good timing, cause who knows when it will stop..

Oh and I have the triplet Nubian bucks in a dog crate downstairs. They're doing fine.

I'm skiing this year dammit!

It might be 4 hours away, but we do have a ski area, and as of this past weekend WE HAVE SNOW!! Skiing will be had!

Just ramblings and stuff; what I ate, etc.

O K Thanksgiving has come and gone. We had a lovely dinner over the river and through the woods and up the hill to our friends and neighbors house, Kathy and Tim and Miles and Cohyn. Also in attendance were Tim's daughter Amanda and her husband David.

Ted has been to Portland and back and has returned triumphant with a major award, a 2 day 2 night paid trip to San Francisco! I have been wanting to take a vacation to the city ( something we have never done) and now it's all paid for! Coolness..

In ranch news, Jeanette has her first kids of the season and I am now the new parent of a set of triplet Nubian buck kids. I needed something to use my extra milk on, so this fits the bill well. They are in the basement in a dog crate.

Yesterdays storm resulted in neither a power outage ( well for us, Eureka was another matter) nor the river flooding.

Not much else to report.Nubian pictures to follow in a day or so.

Rules for living

Tips on How to Be a Better Boyfriend
via Zach.

Hey, you! Yes, you! You can be a better boyfriend.

How?

Well, it's easy! Get a job!

It doesn't matter what job it is, really. As long as you can do it and you are somewhat content there for the hours you have to be there for. Whatever it is, get there and show up regularly, and on time. Keep going back. Collect paycheck. Be sure to then cash paycheck. Use money to take care of life expenses, save the rest. Don't spend it on fancy music playing devices, or magnets from Urban Outfitters.

A new world

Yeah, we are having some weather. It's really windy, especially at the ranch which has NO protection. It's on and off pouring rain.

Never fails, we have horrible weather at the beginning of December. Every year.

This is usually the worst weather we have every year.
Let's hope the power stays on and the river don't flood.

Hang on to your hats.

Updating

I am updating my website.
My breedings are almost all done.

I have made a new page.

Some favorite T v themes. It's a work in progress..

Le Bise

I have mentioned it before, I am sick of the epedemic of hugging. I don't enjoy hugging, especially people I don't know or don't even like. How about people I just met. It is undignified and a bit gross. I don't know when it all started, some California thing but it is out of control.
I especially find the hugging-but-don't touch-genitals-awkward hug really nasty. It is just unnecessary and I believe contra productive as it makes me resent the huggers that force themselves on me.

From Answers.com:

"Cheek kissing is a ritual or social gesture to indicate friendship, perform a greeting, to confer congratulations, to comfort someone, or to show respect. It doesn't necessarily indicate sexual or romantic interest. Cheek kissing is more common in Europe than North America (except for Quebec), especially the southern parts of Europe. Cheek kissing is appropriate between a man and a woman, a parent and a child, two women and two men. The latter is socially accepted in Russia and the Middle East but brings up associations with homosexuality in Western Europe and the US.

In a cheek kiss, both persons lean forward and either lightly touch cheek with cheek or lip with cheek. Generally the gesture is repeated with the other cheek, or more, alternating cheeks. Depending on country and situation the number of kisses is usually one, two or three. Hand-shaking or hugging may also take place.

Cheek-kissing is used in many cultures with slightly varying meaning and gesture. For example, cheek-kissing may or may not be associated with a hug. Do not be surprised if somebody kisses your cheek in the countries and cultures mentioned below, but do not try to imitate unless you are intimate with the culture (and the people around you). The appropriate social context for use can vary greatly from one country to the other, though the gesture might look familiar."

So, I am bringing back the cheek kiss, maybe even the double cheek kiss. This is my family's way; we greet with kisses, lots of kisses. Auntie squeeze kisses. Lipstick leaving kisses. Smooch.

A kiss is so graceful and yet so personal. Not awkward. Under control. I don't want your body pressed up against mine, but I will greet you in my sensual way, the greeting that I want. I will force my kiss on you as you have forced the disgusting breast squeezing hug on me.

I won't even falter at the "a handshake..hug..ug awkwardness ..?" stammer... but will go straight for the handshake and kiss. I am in control. No hugs for you!

It's my turn now. I am the old aunt.

Locky

This is mesmerizing; I could watch it all day. A time lapse video of a lock on the Panama canal; 7 days compressed into 11 minutes.

Singing e mail!

O K this is just too silly.
Type in a message and it patches together popular music to sing it back to you.
Yes, it made me laugh.

DIY movies

Flip Book Printer

Make a Flip Book out of an .AVI clip

Cool!

Wool bearring mammals

I had a good morning at the ranch; my headache is finally waning.
Both Rosasharn and Kia were in heat; I bred Kia to Marvin and Rosasharn to Uriah Heep. Rosasharn has been bred 3 times in the last few weeks, even after I gave her a shot to try to stop this short cycling. I don't have a doe kid out of her, and as much as I would like to have one, I might have to settle with her son Winfield.

Abby and I gathered up the sheep and put them in the pen with only a little trouble. The new ewes I bought from Kathy knew not where the entrance was, and the 2 ewes with lambs just wanted to stand their ground and challenge the dog. Eventually we got them in and I even managed to get the big calf out of the way.
I grabbed the 2 new little lambs ( more ewes, I'm running about 5 to 1 ewes..) and put bands on their tails. One of the new ewes had gotten a piece of wire wrapped around her back feet, so I got that off and doctored her. It wasn't as bad as it could have been ( or as bad as I had imagined)

I counted all the sheep; there's a total of 49, with 30 being ewes, the rest are yearlings and lambs with a few wethers in there. I'd like to ship a few of these lambs; I am sure there is a good demand for them for Christmas, but since the back window of my truck cab broke, I'm gonna have to figure out how to get that done.

I wish Blogger had the Friends option like LJ has. It's one of the few things I miss from "Over There". Uh oh, resembling rant. Must stop now.

I am emerging from a 2 day fog of a headache from hell. I think I might be almost over it, as I took aspirin at 4 AM, and another dose at 8 :30 and right now I feek better than I have for 2 days. I wish I knew what was causung this.

Amy came over twice yesterday for my monthly milk test. I am down to 3 does in milk now, with 2 that are just barely hanging on. However Kia is really chugging along, hardly dropping at all from last month, at a little over a gallon a day. She'll keep us in milk all winter. That's the best goat 100.00 can buy!


Today, if my headache stays away, I need to gather up the sheep and deal with a few of them. Abby will totally enjoy that.

Kathy came by last night and we worked on Thanksgiving dinner plans. Last year we cooked the turkey and khauled it up the winding mountain road to their house. It was almost the last turkey in the store the night before, fortunately it was fresh and not frozen!
This year she'll cook the turkey and we'll bring other stuff. Ted will make the gravy ( yumm). Looks like a late afternoon meal.
They went to a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday, so I got the story. It makes me sad to be so far from my family, what family there is left. Thanksgiving was always at my Aunt Janices house on Ave. C. It was a tiny apartment, but we're not a big family, and at 2 or 3 tables we always fit O K.

The Black Box

Oh what a nice day. Now the sun is setting and the temp is dropping rapidly, but mid day today, I looked at the thermometer (granted, it is perpindicular to the sun on the side of the south facing barn, but still ) it read 88 degrees!

I worked all afternoon on retrofitting my plywood dog box. I had been painting it for a week or so , and I had sanded it before that. Which reminds me, my sander is dead.
It has like 3 or so coats of the same rust o leum black semi gloss that I had painted my yard cart with.

Ted and I finally got the flashing from the lumber yard after some bogus advice last time I went looking..
(serenity now)
We got flashing and tiny (1/2") big flat head nails.
So I spent all afternoon in the sun armouring the dog box. I almost finished but ran out of nails, almost. BUt I was getting tired and I was making mistakes. I was going to run out of nails and I needed one more piece, so I needed to get to the lumberyard before they closed ( closed Sunday).

So I am ALMOST finished.

Ted has gone surfing. It must be a great day to be in the ocean.
He had to deliver a goat back to Jeanette's; we named her Noodle because she can turn herself sideways and slide through every gate on the ranch. I can't keep her in. She needs to leave.

Cart and Cash and Carter

Today is another beautiful clear sunny day, it's been almost a week of this. This is the fantastic weather we usually get in October, I figure.

After taping and painting the wooden parts for my new Garden Cart I spent yesterday afternoon putting it all together. It had come in a one thin coat of khaki army green, so I painted the wood a thick semi gloss Rustoleum black, to go with my herd colors of black and blue.
I think it came out awesomely good; the black looks great contrasting with the unpainted aluminum flashing trim, and the steel for the cart is also a thick black. Now to put it away carefully so it will be nice for show season in 6 months...

Last night we went to see "Walk The Line".
I had heard a lot of reviews, and they were all ridiculously good reviews. Mostly they were about Joaquin Phoenix's performance. How he had become Johnny Cash. I couldn't imagine it; I mean he doesn't look like Cash, and I don't really even like Phoenix.
But damn, it was true. He made himself to look like Johnny Cash. It is an amazing transformation, it chilled me. His performance was amazing.
Even Reese Witherspoon was almost June Carter, if you can even imagine that.

The movie was long, it dragged in a few places, but it was good. Very good. However, Cash comes out like a weenie. A spineless drip of a man. I didn't like seeing that.

I still like his music.

A new world

How cute is this?

A new world

Driving from Holland to India

http://patrykrebisz.com/stills/FINAL_movie.html

What I did while I waited for the bath to fill. A movie shot with all still photos.

IH 584

I spent a lovely afternoon at the ranch in the sun on the tractor.

Now I am going to take a deep hot bath.

TAINTED!!

From last week's Trading Spouses, now on eBay is the "One Of A Kind

Talking bobblehead nodder trading spouses GOD WARRIOR!!" Margeret Perrin doll

Black and white, and black and white

Aargh. I have been trying to make a post for 2 days. If this has come through, I guess the problem has been solved.
The "problem" was my interest and acquisition of a news aggregator. I spent quite a bit of time shopping and I thought I had found one that suited me.
Well, after downloading it I found lots of problems with it; the format, the ease of use. And then it started affecting my whole computer. To top it off, there was no uninstall that came with it.

Anyway, I don't want to rant and it seems to be fixed.
Rants: this new blog is a rant free zone. In my new world I have seen the light; I see that 90% of peoples blogs are rants; which brings to mind the question "Why is that?"

Back to the present.
On Sunday I spent the rainy rainy day shopping for fabric for my next quilt; it is to be a black and white log cabin with red centers. I have been collecting material for this for a while and it's time and season to be working on it.
Here's the pile of fabric that I have to work with.


Last night I got 5 squares done; only about 60 more to go.

In a continuation on the theme, I worked on some old Black and white photos my aunt had sent me.
About a year ago she sent me her wedding album, after I had mentioned I might like to see it. Her only wedding album, from 1965, Just in a box with some other stuff. That was daring. So I needed to scan it all and send it back to her.
A rainy day seemed to be a good time to start working on it.

I started with a bunch of pictures that she had included; very old photos my grandmother had glued to a piece of cardboard, which she often did with photos.
Pictures of my dad and other aunt when they were tiny; these are really old. My Aunt Irene in a stroller!
So I am scanning everything and I'll make a disk and prints for the family and send them out with christmas cards.
Here's a sample; a picture of my aunt who died last year.

Saving humans one patent at a time

Lottery Ticket Scraper

When I worked at the Photobug for my Uncle in the early 80's, a retail small camera shop near Macy's in NY, I would often be sent out on deliveries.
I have delivered stuff in some of the most fantastic buildings and studios in all of the world. It was always great fun to be sent out on a delivery, especially if the weather was nice.

I once made a delivery to a huge loft studio where they were using the 20X24 Polaroid camera.
I got to see some of the prints that they were making with this machine. The colors were unbelievable; that day they were doing flower still lifes.
The prints are still vivid in my memory.

Piercing problams

On my way to the ranch this morning , I found this in the field across from mine:

This is a holstein heifer with her nose ring caught on a fence post. The dairymen put these in so the calves won't suck on other heifers ( they have a pointy edge that pokes the suckee).

This is not the first time I have found a heifer like this, it's not even the first time I've found one in this field.

When I tried to work on getting her off, she really went ballistic and I thought she's rip it out ( Holsteins are notoriously wacky).
Fortunately, right then a neighbor pulled up. I asked him if he'd tail her while I tried to get her off.
So he got out of his truck, changed his shoes to his boots , volunteered for the rear detail and rolled under the fence to the cow side.
All this time she is really thrashing ( understandably).
Just as he starts to get close to her she rears up and jumps straight up, sliding the ring right up the post. At the same time she launches herself skyward and jumps right over the fence.

I went to the rancher in charge of said heifer,to tell him what had happened. He wasn't home but he pulled in just as I was leaving him a note.

Crafts Gone Bad

RSS 101

Thanks so much to Rocketboom for the RSS tutorial this morning. It's exactly what I needed.
Now, I am shopping for an aggregator.

It's been good to know ya

It's Edmund Fitzgerald Day!!!
http://existentialista.com/mp3s/edmund.mp3

RIP hipster

It is now time to retire the term "hipster". It has already been used to death and has lost all meaning.

Tape

I am so enjoying:People's Court
Survivor
Dr Phil
Trading Spouses
Wife Swap
and I am taping all 4 volumes of Loony Tunes while I am at the ranch.

Bye Bye Vise grips...

Self adjusting locking pliers
This is the best tool to come along in a very long time.
Revolution.

A new worldss in

Like the America of the epidemic of whining, I can't seem to completely wean myself from my former life in LiveJournal. However, todays discussion might just be the torture treatment I need.
So I bid a total farewell to all at LJ.
It's a sunny beautiful clear day, representing a new start.

So far this afternoon, now that I'm home from chores, I have been enjoying a bowl of cereal (Berry Cheeri-o's) a cup of coffee and

The Sneeze
BodySong
"The Koyaanasquatsi of the human body"

The Talk Of The Town about regional dialects. I love this. I try to pinpoint accents. It's a hobby of mine. Interesting to see it has become a "field of study" called Sociolinguistics.
Cool!

In ranch news, I moved Vreiss in with Winfield to get bred, and I moved Rare Treat in with the milkers as she has been bullying the kids Jeanette brought down this week.

Welding class tonight(!!); I cleaned the ends off a bunch of pipe and I'll make my teacher show me how to weld pipe. This is what I need to learn, as much of what I want to build will be out of pipe.

Rain, and my life as a rock star

It has been raining pretty much non stop since Friday. Actually since last Tuesday, but it did stop briefly on Friday.

So yesterday was my annual "get in front of a bunch of people and give a presentation" day. I would rather have gone to the dentist. No, really, I would gladly have taken that choice. Even right until I was about to get up and give my little speech, I was ready to bail. I almost left the room many times.
I swear I will not be doing this ever again.

If I am to be a rock star I have to get over this fear. Or I just need to be a part of a rockin band, Like Joel Gion. I can be the tambourine/ maracas star.

There have been so many scenarios now going on in my head of how I could have done better, how my introduction ( non existant) or how I stood or how I should have read my notes or or or...
I can torture myself over this forever.
I can study successful lecturers, comedians, musicians and how the relate to their audience. How some people make you feel when seeing them in person. Eye contact. Where do people learn these things?
Even in a crowd of more than 1 other person I am handicapped. Where in my social development did I get short circuited?

However..
On my way home last evening I got stopped by the police in our tiny town. I had a feeling I knew what the problem was ( broken and half assed repaired tail light). The officer was about 20 years younger than me, and I had no nervousness. When the lights went on I was totally calm. When did this happen? I guess I am a grown up now
( I did not get a ticket)

A new world

A new world

I want this journal to be different than my last at L J. Better, more interesting, new and improved.
So maybe I'll make my life new and improved; there's a goal.

In my new world I will move the furniture and clean the house. In it's new incarnation we seem to have more room and a usable dining room table. Well, at least for now, since I spent the day cleaning.

I think we might even be able to set up the "MEDIA CENTER" so my albums are accessable and not on the floor in a jumble. This will facilitate some sort of shelf/ cabinet/ organizational tool. Ted came home yesterday with a brainstorm to see about the shelves from the now defunct "Ferndale Books" which have been out on the sidewalk as they close their doors and liquidate. But when we got there, it was all shut down and closed; I imagine they had a November 1st deadline..

When I went to the post office on Thursday, Pam M., one of the mail ladies went on and on about what a wonderful child J ( our son) is. She was commenting on his performance at his job at our little grocery store. "Polite, attentive, he always remembers my name, what a pleasant boy for such a young age "( he's almost 18).
Our town is very small, 3 blocks of Main Street, but a busy one anyway. So everyone knows eeryone, certainly those that are in town much of the day.
It was nice to hear. When I told Josh, he seemed nonplussed "well, it's my JOB!" He is SO 18.

"Settled" is the word that is used to describe a doe that is bred. It is a good word, as the condition of a doe in the fall that is not bred is definitely UNsettled. She is in heat, along with all the others, every 21 or so days. This expresses itself in agitated behavior, crying, tail flagging and in general basic irritation. Now that most of the does are settled, things have definitely calmed down. I only have a few more does to breed, besides the 2005 kids, which will be bred well into January.

Last night's movie "The Trouble With Harry".

I had a long appointment with the dentist today. I had broken an already weak tooth, ( root canal) and I also ( while he was there) replaced some older fillings.

In a small town I know a lot about both the dentist and the assistant. WAY more than I need to know.

The dentist's wife died about well over 10 years ago. She was a friend of Josh when he was small.

Now I have a goat hair in my throat, because i didn't filter the milk well enough.

It has been raining Non stop all day to day. Now it's getting windy, the satellite is going in and out. I am using last night's pizza box for kindling.

I need to find a movie...

"Sahara"

Well it got to be 8:30 and I needed to get a movie under my belt. On IFC I started watching "Bully" but I couldn't get past the first 15 minutes, it was just that bad. So I went for PPV and we watched "Sahara".
It's a pretty predictable action adventure film in the mode of Raiders, set in the Sahara and on the Niger river.
Some pretty good unrealistic action scenes, totally like a comic book, and it mostly kept my attention. The camels were a nice touch.
It wasn't bad, wasn't great, just a time passer with good scenery and somewhere in there, a plot.

The rest of my day was as un eventful; I had a headache all day so I won't get into how miserable that was.
I took a lovely bath andI generally kept a low profile.

During morning chores I went out in the field with Simon and we moved the sheep around so I could get a look at them, to see if I had anyone getting near to lambing. I have one new lamb already, and a few limpy ones that should be doctored, but I didn't see anyone uddered up near to lambing.

In a strange turn of character, Quigley came up to me in the field and was a real pal. He let me catch him, and he even followed me around afterwards. He hasn't been that way since he was a baby; it was a very very nice way for him to be, it made me very happy with him.

After that disaster that was Invincible, I found a real movie to be my movie of the day
The Red Violin is the life of a violin over hundreds of years.
A movie that does what few can do; it took me on a journey. I felt like i had been there and was filled with the life of the violin. The lives it touched and the places.

It was beautiful and rich and thoroughly fulfilling.
A much better wat to start my movie a day for November.

Todays movie

How have I managed to find the one Werner Herzog movie? If he can get funding for a movie, so can I because I am sure I can direct actors better than this.
Invincible November 1

In other news, the rain has begun and is threatening to drown out the fascinating and wonderfully delivered script of this movie. That's O K as it is predictable.

In the mode of RocketBoom I will also use VIMEO to make my own T V ..er.. video daily show.
Unfortunately for all of us, I need to work on my on screen persona and we all will suffer through the screen tests.

I'm ready for my close up...

November 1 is a good time to start

Here I am in a whole new world. A world away from LJ. I think it must be time to begin my blogging again .
I feel like I have moved to a new city.
Hello Blogger.