Some girls might like flowers....

I prefer Pak Choi.

My dinner guest last Sunday night arrived with:  This amazing Pak Choi, a large bunch of scallions, Mutsu apples, Russet potatoes, summer squash (!!), and his guitar.  All from his garden (except for the guitar, of course).  I am still in awe of this Pak Choi.

On Saturday, as I was filling my gas tank in Vermont (10 cents a gallon cheaper), I happened to look across the street ---- and saw this amazing little house!  If you bigify the picture, you will notice that the house was built around a travel trailer!  Also note that their garage in the background is twice as big as their house.  A common site in this part of the world.

Monday Musings.

It's back.

I'm trying to decide whether the reason no one offers to help me load my car at Home Debt is because a) people are no longer very helpful; b) I am usually in my barn clothes and scary-looking; c) I am usually hefting things in myself and my brute strength is intimidating; d) all of the above.

I find aftershave and perfume alarming.  Our building superintendent at the office (you remember him - he of the puddle-depth) is now hugging me at every opportunity.  Apparently, the 'chasm' in our age difference is beginning to shrink.  Unfortunately, and although I am a big fan of real, honest-to-god hugs, I walk away reeking of some treacly aftershave he wears.  And let me tell you, that stuff has a LOOOONG shelf life.  The sheep find it alarming, too.  The fellow who is the boss of our transfer station (dump) is another perfumy character.  I have learned how to side-step him, though, so my weekends are scent-free.  If you don't count the sheep/goat/llama/chicken/turkey/cat/dog poop.

Why, oh, why does the Mamas & Papas' "Dream a Little Dream of Me" keep looping through my mind?  It is driving me crazy!!

I think I have moved out of the State of Denial and into a Plane of Special Blindness; especially when it comes to my living room floor.  Yes, it is still not completed.  There may be, oh, three hours of work left, tops.  And yet..the only time I think about it is when I am safely 30 miles away from it.  I can be thinking positive thoughts - having one of "those" talks with myself all the way home (you know the ones - the ones that start with, "Now, Susan, what IS it with you and the flooring project?  You know you can do it.  You know you must do it.  There's no time like the present.  Yada.  Yada.  Yada.)...and yet...somewhere around the 25 mile mark, the iron curtain in my mind comes down with a clank and there's no more flooring in my cognizant future.  This PoSB has also seemed to have affected my ability to finish my potholder rug and my cardigan.

I had every intention of moving the trio of turkeys - now named, Wynken, Blynken and Noddy - to the hoop house in the center sheep paddock.  They are getting to be big boys (apparently, the LLF Female Mojo doesn't work on turkeys) and it's getting kind of snug in the coop at night.  Then, a few days ago while rushing around outside in the morning, trying to cram in as much as possible into the 2 hours of daylight, a big hawk swooped down into the poultry yard.  Yikes!!!  Where was Roguefort?  Under a bush.  Who saved the day?  Wynken.  I'm either going to have to get a braver rooster or keep the hens under the watchful eye of the Big Boyz.

I had to describe my job to someone today, and I described it thusly:  A long, long, flat boring road across the plains for miles.  Then there's an alien attack.  Then I'm back on that road.

Thursday's Word

Born out of boredom...and my usual musings...I'm going to do a month (or so) of Thursday's Words.  (Are those heads I hear?  Dropping on keyboards?  Still with me?)  And, no, not Wednesday's Words.  I am nothing if not contrary.

Colloquialism

col·lo·qui·al·ism (k-lkw--lzm) --  I love that! k-lkw-lzm!
n.

1. Colloquial style or quality.

2. A colloquial expression.

  Here's my example - "She's a whistler!"  My neighbor uses this on a regular basis and I LOVE it.  It could mean anything - other than, of course, someone who whistles.  That would be too blase.    What examples can you come up with?  

p.s.  Have you noticed that I never have a Wordless Wednesday?  That's because I am not capable of being quiet.  If I had just pictures, there would be lengthy, War and Peace captions.  Yak, yak, yak.

Random-ness, or I am a Babbling Brook.

I had been waiting until I got my thoughts in a row before I composed a post.  Frankly, those cows will NEVER come home.  So here's a long and random, stream of consciousness post for your Tuesday.

I have been thinking that it would be fun to host a Halloween party.  Then I sat down to make a list of people I could invite and realized that most of them are not around - having moved, passed on, got busy, had major life upheavals.  This was slightly depressing.  I hauled out my three holiday decorations (fake lit pumpkin bought at a major discount for no discernible reason; black cat face a friend made and I love; my adorable quilted spooky pot holders from YouKnowWho) and that's the short and tall of it.

I am still picking strawberries.  That's right.  It's almost the end of October and I am picking about a pint every other day.  Of BIG strawberries.  I will be sad to see them go - there are lots more unripe berries and even flowers, but we are entering into the freeze zone, so they are not long for this world.  My raised beds are pretty easy to maintain - I've cleaned up most of them, with the exception of raking out all the mushy little cherry tomatoes from the tomato bed.  Once that's done - if ever, the way I'm feeling - all that's left is to set up the hoops over the kale and Swiss chard beds in preparation for...snow.  There, I've said it.

After getting random whiffs of gas for quite a while (says Cleo, Queen of DeNial), I finally called the propane company that delivers my gas to ask them to take a look.  HELLO!  We went into full terrorist attack mode.  I had to leave the office and drive an hour to the house to meet the service guy.  They had padlocked my tank.  After performing a host of tests, it was determined that they were in the clear and it was a problem with my stove.  They then re-padlocked the tank and left.  WTH?  This would mean that, had I wished to have the stove serviced to fix the problem, I would have to coordinate (hahahahahaha) the repair call with the gas tech call.  Which would mean that I would have to pay two more service calls, whatever the repair bill was, and that would all have to come together in a perfect universe of schedules that does not exist on this plane.  I huffed my way to my favorite Vermont family-owned appliance store on Saturday and bought a new one.  I realized that this was the first time I had actually been in the store.  I have purchased my other two appliances (freezer, washer) over the phone.  I had the gas company on my cell and coordinated the delivery of the stove with the arrival of the gas company rep.  Easy peasy.

Not.

Old stove.

New stove.

After going from Friday to Monday morning with no stove/oven, the stove arrived but the gas company tech did not.  A call to their Customer Service Manager (who needs another job - that doesn't involve contact with the public) revealed that - Oh, lo and behold! - my appointment was actually at 1P.  I will not go into the gory details, but the delivery guys were gems, disconnected my old stove, even though they were not 'allowed', and hauled it away.  The gas company guy didn't show up until almost 4P.  Why is it that people are so fast and loose with other people's time?

Huff.  Bernie, who has, up to this point, spent most of her time in the very back room away from us, is now sharing Scrappy's sofa.  Apparently, he doesn't mind.

I swear Bernie sleeps with her eyes open.  As  you
can tell, it's been cold at night...

Day Off Shenanigans

I do believe that the only days 'off' that count as non-work days, are the ones that happen by chance.  You know - Mental Health Days.  As soon as I pre-plan a day off, it ends up being busier than any three normal days in a row.  Case in point?  This past Thursday.

It started Wednesday night, when I borrowed Melanie's cruck (car/truck) for a trip up to the poultry processor Thursday morning.  She didn't get home until around 9:30ish, so I didn't get back until 10-ish.  Then Bernie decided to have a walkabout in the yard and didn't arrive at the back door until 10:30.  Then I woke up at 3:30 in the morning, thinking about everything I had to do in order to leave the house by 7:45.  The forecast had been for rain, off and on, throughout the day.  I can tell you when it rained:  at 6A, when I went outside in the dark to transport the Nuggets (CornishX) to the tarped crate on the back of M's cruck.  As soon as I had them all secured, the rain stopped.  Thanks, Pa Nature.  I threw hay and feed at everyone, apologized for the lack of a morning walk to the dogs, and headed up to Melanie's.  She had agreed to keep me company.  And she did the driving!  Melanie is awesome.  The trip up to the nearest processor is about an hour and a half due north.  It turned out to be a lovely morning and we made good time.  As we sat around waiting for the end product, we were entertained by Cinnamon:

She sniffed out the bucket of apples
in the back of the cruck.

The Nuggets enroute.

Lovely view from M's.

We also got the good news that the fellow who runs the facility will be relocating to a new location that is MUCH closer to us.  Yay! 

On our way back, we stopped for lunch at a new restaurant that is run by a woman who supports local food and artisans.  The food was good and reasonable, and M and I cased it out as a possible meeting place for a spinning group...we hope.  Then on to pick up a cider press, glean a greenhouse, herd a loose heifer, drop M off, pick up apples, drive home, sort poultry, deliver some to a neighbor, return home, feed everyone (apologize to the dogs AGAIN for no afternoon walk), and hightail it to the town complex for the Rabies Clinic, where I volunteer twice a year.  This year, I worked with the vet.  This had always been Kay's job (she was very qualified, by the way - whereas, I have no veterinary skills, but am very ethusiastic!)  Frankly, I think the vet was relieved that I was NOT doing the paperwork, as I have the focus of a fruit fly and invariably messed it up.  This vet is one of our area's large animal vets - as an interesting aside, it seems as though the large majority of vets entering and in this field, in our area at least, are women - and she a warm, lovely person as well as a terrific vet.  After getting the hang of filling syringes (I dreamt about syringes) and putting a loving but firm headlock on dogs and cats that needed it, I finally stumbled in the front door at 8:30.  Only to have to go out with the headlamp and herd the turkeys into the safety of the coop.  I can tell you when it rained again.  8:33P.

I love my days off.

Zee Winaire!

(Those of you who actually DO speak French - please excuse me...)

The winner of the

is Michelle!  Michelle, email me your mailing address, s'il vous plait, and I will pop this in the mail to you.
Felicitation!

Oooh la la!

Have I got a giveaway por vous!  In having a serious sit-me-down with my knitting books, I have decided to let a few go out to someone who will do more with them than ogle their pages. 

Here's the first:

I was swept right in with the beautiful photography and lovely patterns.  Once the swoony part wore off, I realized that this book was a) out of my league - talentwise, and b) none of the lovely, girly patterns would be serviceable on the farm.  (**UPDATED**)  This book of patterns includes hats, shawls, gloves, socks and lots of other beautiful patterns!

If any of yall out there have some knitting skills and would love to create one of these beautiful designs, put your name in the comments - along with anything French that comes to mind.  I will be pulling a winner out of the chapeau on Friday.

Bon chance!