Good Manners.

I recently received a thank-you note in the mail.  A hand-written thank-you note, thank you very much!  Okay, hand-written is a stretch.  It is more hand-drawn.  And it is from my favorite 3-year-old, Zuzu.  She is the older sister of Ramona, who now has three of my Shush Bunnies and is their biggest fan.  Zuzu was rather crestfallen when she did not find a pink Shush Bunny with her name on it.  So, I sent her one.  And she, in turn, sent me a thank-you note.

Zuzu's mother, Julie,  (an earlier link didn't work - so I've re-linked to her blog.  She's amazing.) always sends me a thank-you note on a creative card for any small thing I do.  Her mother, Sylvie, is also as thoughtful.   Seeing a pattern?  My friend, Maggie, also sends a lovely note of thanks, sometimes for no special reason.  Her daugher sent me a thank you note for her wedding present before the wedding!  My mother always insisted that we send thank-you notes for any gift or thoughtful gesture of which we were the recipients.  I will admit that I've become rather, er, loosey-goosey about the promptness of my thank-yous.  I see now why she insisted that we sit down the same day we received the gift to write our notes, even on Christmas.  This seems especially important now that I tend to forget my name by mid-morning.

I did not, unfortunately, have children upon which I could pass down this morsel of good manners.  My youngest sister's son was diligent about thanking me for any and every thing I sent or did.  Until he hit college age, that is, and got sucked into the whirlwind of social activities, studies, etc. that goes with it.  That is fine, as my cut-off date in birthday present giving is 21.  My other nephew and niece rarely, if ever, acknowledged a gift.  And that is not because my sister did not try to impress upon them the importance of the act.  Needless to say, after no acknowledgements, no gifts were forthcoming.

I realize I come from a different point in time.  I am from the time before computers, cell phones, email, and instant gratification.  (Geez.  Also before fax machines, microwaves -- BUT waaay after the Ice Age, in my own defense.)  Having good manners made communicating with strangers easier for a shy kid.  People were kinder.  And then there is the matter of the written communication.  And I am not talking email.  When you take the time to sit down with pen and paper, your thoughts are more, well, polished.  You don't run the risk of firing off something in haste - or in anger - then hitting the send button without stopping to consider what you've written.  When you actually have to write it, word by word, it gives you time to think about the person, what you are feeling, and puts a virtual deep breath between writing something potentially hurtful and actually sending it.

Good manners = kindness = compassion = a very good thing.

Breeze

(You should pardon the pun.)  While it is still raining like crazy, we did not get the wind speeds they had originally predicted.  There is a lot of flooding around us and some of the local towns have declared an emergency.  Bernie is firmly fixed under my bed -- she held up pretty well until the rolling thunder.  Then it was too much for her.  I don't know how much rain we've had - but it's been coming down hard and heavy since 1:30ish this morning - with a very slight lull of about 5 minutes around 7a.

I've managed to finish a book (unheard of!) and get some tomato sauce on the stove.  In case we had lost power which, knock on my wooden head, we have not, I had dinner slow cooking.  I even got some sewing done and some knitting as well.  Now I am ready to go out and see what there is to see.  I am not good at sitting, no matter how much I have to do inside.  That's what winter's for, right?

During the height of the wind/rain, I ran out to close the coop window and could hear the little brook down below the property line roaring like it was the Mississippi.  I am hoping that the rain lets up enough that I can go down the road to take a look at it.  I know the ducks are very anxious to get out and dabble through the massive puddles.  The llama keeps sticking his nose out of the hoop house to see if the rain is letting up.

I am very, very thankful that we had less damage than they predicted.  There is nothing worse than that helpless feeling you have when you can't guarantee all your "dependents" will be safe.  I was so sorry to hear about the deaths caused by the storm and count my blessings often.  My youngest sister managed to get out of NYC yesterday morning, so I know she's safe on the west coast.  My middle sister is vacationing on the coast of Maine, so there's still one to worry about.  Other than two fairly short power outages, my parents are doing fine in VT - except their cable is down, tantamount to the end of the world.  They'll manage.

Thank you all for your good thoughts and wishes.  I love my blog family!

Oh, boy!

Here we go!  I managed to get every one of my to-do's checked off and everything that's battenable (word?) is battened.  The only real fun is going to be getting out to the barn to throw some hay at the sheep and goats.  They may be a little hungry today. 

I think it's inevitable that we will be without power.  It takes a lot less than Irene to shut everything down.  So I won't be posting again until a) the power is restored, or (more likely) I do it from my office -- if THEY have power tomorrow!

See ya soon!

Me, Myself and Irene - No Love Story.

Sorry!  I just HAD to say it.  I've been following her progression and all her changes since yesterday.  It looks like the storm has dropped in intensity - although, I am not sure what the BIG deal is about a drop of a mere 5 mph when we're talking about 100 mph - and her route has shifted slightly to the east.  This all means (to me) that the timetable for preparedness is now shorter, even though the effects of the storm should be less than first predicted. 

I have, inevitably, made a list.  (Waiting for the sound of bodies dropping in a faint of surprise.)  It is fairly detailed and starts at one end of the property and works around in a circle.  I thought you might all find this hilarious interesting.  First and foremost, stowing all the smaller, loose objects.  Even if our winds only hit around 40 mph, a missed step-in post can do a lot of damage to, say, car windows.  Overlooked poultry netting can get caught in hooves.  Feed bins not lashed down and weighted, can blow over and precious feed (KACHING) will be ruined in the rain.  I am including putting a board over the shed window - the plastic that replaced the previously broken glass won't hold up to much, and there's not much sense in putting something in a structure to protect it, when it will get rained on.

I am also going to take the opportunity to coil hoses, bungee cord my grill and trash cans to the deck, and bring in my precious Meyer Lemon tree.  I am also going to remove the screen off the sliding glass door and stow it in the shed.  I know how much it costs to replace, and don't want to add that expense to everything else.  I've got 10 gals of potable water inside, my Berkey filter reservoir is full.  I'm going to pick up ice tomorrow and put necessary things in the cooler, so I can stay out of the fridge when the power goes off.

I'm going to finish tarping the baled hay in the barn - it is not water tight, and I don't want to lose any bales.  If I have time (haha) I might take the added precaution and make a little tepee inside the barn for the goats.   They are in a pretty sheltered spot, but it may be less traumatic to have a smaller, secure area in which to cuddle up.  I don't think I'll have to worry about filling waterers, given the forecast for inches of rain.  If it wasn't going to blow so hard, I'd set up my water barrel.  I may try to do that anyway.

The oil lamps are filled, with shades cleaned.  I have candles and matches at the ready.  I have both a battery-operated radio (note to self:  buy more batteries) and a hand cranked radio. On my list is to charge my cell phone; pick up cat food, poultry feed and dog food; and check the propane for my grill.  And, best of all, I have my doggies to keep me warm!  In a way, I do hope the storm hits earlier.  I would rather have the ability to assess damage Sunday, rather than wake to it on Monday.  That is NO way to start the week!

Signing off for now.  I'll post tomorrow if I get the chance.   If you are in Irene's path, I hope you are all safe and secure -- and well-prepared.

How many times have I told myself...

NOT to turn the hose on to fill waterers and walk away.  I NEVER. Never. never. remember to turn it off.  And with the days being reduced to 8 hours of daylight, my evening chores are crammed into minutes of daylight, rather than hours.  So, I woke up this morning, turned on the faucet and....nothing.  A dribble.  It was then I remembered I had not turned off the hose.  I let the dogs out and vaulted off the deck and around the corner of the house and turned off the hose.  As if that made one dang bit of difference, as it had been on ALL night.

I have stressed my well more times than I would like to admit.  Doing chores when you're tired, not to mention focus-challenged, can lead to disaster.  As I mumbled and grumbled and dragged out the water bottles to take up to the farm to fill, a tiny, dim light bulb started to form in my fevered brain.  Leon, my furnace guy cum plumber, had put in a trip switch so that, once the water level dropped below 10 lbs, it turned off the pump. Woot!  I scrambled into the crawl space and lifted the lever, praying all the while.  Pressure!  Water!  The well had not been stressed (too much)!  I was saved!

With all the dire warnings of Irene's little dance up the coast, our area may be in for some wind and torrential rains.  I believe in being ultra-ready for anything because, quite frankly, anything can happen these days.  I am going to be collecting and stowing any objects that might become dangerous weapons in the wind's hands.  I'm going to bungee the bejeebers out of all tarped structures.  I am going to hope a tree doesn't fall on anything important.  And I'm going to send my thoughts and prayers to everyone more directly in Irene's path.

Shake, Rattle and Roll!

Okay, what's next, there, Ma Nature???  Plague of locusts?  Actually, we have about a zillion grasshoppers this year - many, many, many more than last year.  And the Ash Borers are munching their way across the state.  Geez.

The temblor that ran up the East Coast gave our office building a bit of a shake, but nothing very exciting.  If you've been through it before, that is.  The rest of the office building ran like rats off a sinking ship.  Honestly, it was not very exciting, other than it was MORE exciting than what I was doing at work yesterday.

I think the effects would have been more noticeable in the taller office buildings, as they really can shake by the time the movement works it's way up 30 floors!  Ours is only 7 floors, so it was a bit disappointing.  To me.

Not being home, I didn't have the advantage of the early dog/cat warning system.  They can always tell when something is about to happen.  Did anyone who felt the tremor notice any odd animal behaviour?

Recipes.

I've been thinking about recipes this morning - well, about food, which led me to recipes.  I think about food a lot.  Especially when I am on a diet or, in this case, trying out my non-gluten trial.  You know how it goes -- there is to be NO bread, wheat, fillers, etc., in your diet for six weeks and ALL you want are any and all of the former.  I thought I would try to come up with some recipes that would perk me up while allowing me to stay the course of this non-gluten trial. 

I trotted over to my kitchen island where I have a thick stack of recipes that have caught my fancy on the Internet.  Alot of them are from reading all of your blogs, and a lot of them are from Alana Kellogg's site.  I am especially drawn to vegetarian fare in the summer with its glut of fresh vegetables (read: zucchini).  I also have a sizable cookbook collection.  And I have two recipe card boxes.  And I have a ring binder of mostly tried and true recipes.  And I have my Great Aunt Edie's ancient, falling-apart recipe book that is nearly a hundred years old.  Hmm.  Maybe, if I cooked my way through my recipe cards,  GAE's old binder, my binder, all my cookbooks, and all my printouts, then blogged about it, someone would make it into a movie!  Ah, but, by then, I'd be long gone.  Besides, who would they cast as me, now that Katherine Hepburn is long gone?

Back to subject.  When I opened my recipe card boxes and pulled out those dog-eared index cards and "From the Kitchen of" cards, it was so completely enjoyable!  I spent a good hour going through them, remembering people now long gone who had passed on their special dishes.  Remembering all the dinner parties and patio parties where I first tasted them.  It made me realize that the Age of Internet has really taken the sweetness out of savoring memories.  Got a dozen giant zucchinis in your fridge?  Google "zucchini recipes" and get a zillion hits in a nanosecond.  Or....leaf through the Vegetables section of your recipe box and find JaneAnn's Million Dollar Zucchini Cake.  I mean, really, which would you like to do?  I'm going through my print-outs to ferret out the recipes that I will actually try.  The rest will become scratch paper.  Then I am going to work my way through GAE's recipe binder - heaven help me, I'll probably have to go into a sterile environment and wear gloves, it's so fragile.  But there has to be SOMETHING in there I can eat!  Maybe Ruth's Divine Luncheon Salad?