{this moment}

A single photo, capturing a moment from the week.
A special moment. A moment I want to remember.

:: Inspired by Soule Mama ::

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments, for all to find and see.

Alex and Bambi, and the towering waffle dinner!

Foo, Foo, Foo, Chango, and iPhone 6

Yesterday I posted from my new phone, using the Blogger app. I wanted to see whether any improvements or changes came with the iPhone 6, whether Blogger would need to be updated... just troubleshooting. Everything worked the same. And the only thing that needs updating is my own knowledge... I need to teach myself how to get links into the text of a post. Maybe my resolution for 2015 is Experiment. Maybe not. But, today I am fiddling with the camera on the iPhone 6. So far: Wow! Amazing! Super impressed.

And even though Apple didn't ask me to sing their praises, I will say, "This new phone is pretty spiffy."

I am tech reluctant. Is that one word?

I am techreluctant: adjective \ˈtek\-\ri-ˈlək-tənt\
:a person averse to adapting new devices, esp anything dependent on electricity and/or WIFI
See also: troglodyte.

It's true. From this blog, to microwaves, from my cell phone to the remotes for the television, I am slow and reluctant when it comes to figuring it all out. In fact, I am slow to even posses those articles, and they are here only because of Geoff. He assures me they are safe, interesting, worthwhile, and sometimes even necessary. It never fails to come as a bit of shock to me, but Geoff insists these devices are good, and easily adopted into our modern lifestyle. I drag my bare feet, stand by him, and grimace while he dives in and gets everything humming, synchronized, uploaded, downloaded, and online. I find a chair, sip chamomile tea, and daydream about living in a yurt pay close attention. I am neither boasting about my ignorance, nor particularly ashamed... okay, yes, it is embarrassing, but the truth is instruction manuals, and tutorials on subjects that don't include loads of pictures, or glitter, wool, or chickens, are indescribably inaccessible to my attention span. I lack discipline, or affinity, or the proper neural receptacles, or simply interest... in fact, I believe it is a tragic, yet effective, combination of all four barriers that keep me techreluctant.

But I do like my new phone, and I am thankful for it. And, thanks to Maria, I am learning to navigate IOS. And I do like posting from a mobile device, because sometimes my deep thoughts, and other musings, cannot be contained. And, so, I keep trying. I have figured out our PS3, so I can play movies, and I write my own HTML for Chickenblog... a bit, anyway. I've even used those registers that let you check your own groceries out at the market, though I can't say I am impressed with that whole scene. {All of this to mention that I have a new camera! And it is gorgeous, and small, and new. It came from Mom and Dad, for my birthday, and I've set it all up... and it scares the courage right out of me, so adopting it into my modern lifestyle is going slowly, because I am embarrassingly techreluctant.}

Would you look at my dear, poor, Chango? I've never had any camera that could capture and focus on the details of his face... his nose, the fine whiskers, his dark features, until this iPhone 6. His expression? Yes, I do have many, very many pictures of Chango looking utterly dismayed, ill at ease, confused, dazed, out of sorts. The wide-eyed terror. The twitchy eye. It is his state of being. He is a feral cat who has succumbed to the comforts of domesticity, and even he cannot comprehend how this has all come to pass, or whether it is secure. We adore our Chango. His is a tender, though guarded, soul.

Pencils,Threads, Hoops, and Rats... And Testing The Blogger App

It began with my birthday cake, served by a mouse... {she's supposed to be a rat, but now I can see her ears are too round}. Now I have this fellow... a sort of Hobbit rat, out on the trail. I am on a rat theme.  Rat art. Rat sketches. Rats embroidered on flour sacks.  I wish I hadn't tried to paint the rat I drew on the canvas, because I loved him sketched. The painting is not enough like the fabulous vision I had in my head. I'm  much better at sewing than painting, apparently.  Now I'm finishing a similar rat in embroidery floss.  

Why?  The answer is:  I haven't the rattiest idea.  Maybe I'm simply working on career options, in case I ever grow up. 

*Just testing the Blogger app for my iPhone. I wish I could figure out how to include links in the text. There must be a way, but it's not accepting html, and there's no "press here" option. Nonetheless, it's amazing how much can be done from a device that fits in the palm of my hand.
January 13, 2015
2:58 pm*

Farm Good Things

Our chickens, are they clever, or sneaky and daring?

It turns out the hens are laying a few more eggs than I was finding. We went down to two eggs a day, and then a few days with no eggs at all, which was disappointing. Even more surprising though, is that Kamen is laying, again. She's our oldest chica, hatched in March of 2011. Her eggs are a bit thin shelled and elongated, like a teardrop. I don't think Kamen laid any eggs last year. She's got some gumption, yeah? But back to the missing eggs... it seemed to me that the younger hens could muster a little more effort. Our days are cooler, and shorter, but not that much shorter. Turns out, they took to laying in the goats' cottage! They've done this before, but I thought they'd given up on this reckless habit. The goats aren't exactly dainty-footed, or overly careful about where they drop down for a nap. I can't believe six eggs were safely, stealthily tucked away in the goat cottage... especially in this rainy weather, when the goats hardly step out of their cozy little shelter. How did we keep from having a mess of scrambled eggs in straw?? Since I cannot be 100% sure how long the eggs have been in the goat nest, I will put them to the egg freshness float test. Good eggs sink! It's a tried and true way to know for sure whether we have good eggs.

It's so much fun to bring the holidays outside, where goats and chickens can enjoy the season, too. In the fall they stay busy carving up Jack-o-lanterns from our pumpkins, and now that Christmas is over, they can all enjoy a crunchy evergreen snack. In a few weeks, Alex will have a nice, cleaned-up pine trunk, for, maybe a walking stick? Those wise critters, and our children, do their best to rethink, reuse, and recycle!


Good Things...

1. We enjoyed more rain over the weekend. Yesterday was an all day drizzle, nice for gardens, I think.

2. I finally, finally planted sweet peas, and they are really flourishing. {It seems it took eight years to recover from a tragic sweet pea loss.}

3. Does anyone need an artichoke plant? I wonder if they will flourish, too? Our plants from last year threw such pretty seeds into the breeze, and now we have volunteer artichokes popping up all over. There are more than we can sustain.

4. Inspired by what Deanne and James showed us at their lake cabin... I bought peanuts for the birds, and sure enough, we have scrub jays, flying in and out of the yard, like jets to a runway! They are fun to watch.

5. I resisted bringing home chicks, pigs, sheep, goats, and/or ducks on my last visit to the feed store. Gold star for me, I think.

Monday, again. They seem to come about once a week, ready or not. I hope this is a good one for you, whether you are farming, gardening, browsing seed catalogs, scrambling eggs, or just napping with your cat.