~This Moment~

~This Moment is a Friday tradition, capturing a special moment from the week~

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your moment in the comments, for all to see.Club Day at Max's school, photo By George S~

Breathing

In the midst of life's bumps and bruises, when I feel less than capable and more than a bit worn, I want to dispel doubts, vanquish foes, and revel in the love and gratitude I have for all that is beautiful, worthwhile, and good. Hope lives... in children, and pets, in safe places, and comforting spaces, in 390 volunteers arriving at a school to make things nicer, in children raising enough funds to bring 44 goats to Burundi, in a car repaired, a task accomplished, another meal served, in being contacted with an offer of support, in a ride shared, a back scratched. Little things, great things, moments that are too precious to be overlooked... thank God for these.

The Feathered Exterminators

This is a chica. We have fourteen of these feathered friends, and they do marvelous things. Our chicas look pretty, walk funnily, run hysterically, and they cackle, like they're passing around a good joke.

Our chicas lay eggs... beautiful, healthy, colored eggs. They are not fertile, because we have no rooster. And despite being mint colored, and mocha colored, even pale pink, they all taste like delicious farm fresh eggs. Finding eggs is a delight.

Finding spiders? Finding spiders can be less than delightful. We appreciate the orb spiders that arrive in October, and weave massive webs across walkways, in trees. They do good deeds with the mosquitos and peskier flies. We admire garden spiders, and any spider that respects our personal space is alright by us. But when black widows and brown widows, even camel spiders {which aren't actually spiders at all, but yeesh!}... when we find those sorts of creepers and crawlers, with fangs, and venom, we get the heebie jeebies.

And when we get the heebie jeebies because our Viking tent ropes are full of creepers and crawlers, we call in the feathered exterminators, our chicas! The bundles of rope turned into spider condos, and we needed a fast and safe wait to evict all of the residents.

Step 1. Bait the rope with rolled oats.

Step 2. Call the hens... chchchcook chchchcook chchchcook chchchcook! Here chicas!

Step 3. Watch the hens come from across the garden, running like beautiful fat clock work masterpieces.

Step 4. Add a last sprinkle of oats, so they see that good things come to those who run.

Once the feast begins, the ropes are quickly, efficiently and safely ridded of pests. We saw black widows swallowed whole. The more the hens pecked, the easier it was to pull the ropes open, exposing more surface, and snacks.


In no time at all our ropes were cleaned up and ready for use, thanks to our fine feathered exterminators.

Five GREAT Things From The Greatest Show & Tell On Earth

This is one of those times when I am so revved with joy, with exhaustion, with new ideas for next time, and with a wild desire to share every last drop of an amazing event... that I don't know where to begin, that I stall, and feel incapable of doing it justice. All my feels are on hyperdrive, you guys!

We worked and prepped, and drilled, and packed, planned, plotted and played, to get ready for San Diego Maker Faire. Just preparing was getting so intense and challenging, I was wondering how we would get through the actual event. But, we were like wild, mad thundering nerds, with passion in our veins, metal shavings on our seats, and a Viking tent tied to the roof of our van... we were unstoppable!

Two vehicles were solidly packed with robots, tools, chairs, a table, supplies, people, that Viking tent, food. Everything.

Maria, Maddie, Emma, and William.

Day 1: We were outside, and this was possibly one of the more quiet moments of the first day. It was a non-stop flow of visitors to Maker Faire, with William, Alex, Max, Maria, Paul, Janece, Amira, and Bambi, Geoff and I setting up, taking down, and demonstrating all. day. long.

Natalie, the Chickenblogger with Dale Dougherty, and me as awestruck as the first time we met.

Maria can tell you all you need to know about how Da Vinci works, from the Z axis, to vector illustrating. Here she is explaining the works to her teacher, June.

Day 2: We were rained out... or in? Luckily, we were welcomed into The Hall of Champions, where Dan Hendricks graciously, and enthusiastically, made all the accommodations we needed to bring in Da Vinci, our drawing robot, and also to operate the Giant Robotic Tentacle, Mech-Cthulu! On this day we were, again, blessed with the tireless company and contributions from Paul and Janece. James, Celine, Ruth and Holly were great help, too. This is nothing that can be done with out kind help, and we feel so thankful to everyone who pitched in.

This post is a drop in an ocean of all I want to say about our club, about Maker Faire, about our plans. Look for more, at BOoM, soon, and I promise a goat-chicken post, too, asap.

Great Things...

1. Every friend, new and old, that came by, hung out, played, cheered, hauled, packed, and fed us. Of all the things that went on at Maker Faire, we were most thrilled with sharing the joy of this event with great people.

2. The look on someone's face when you hand them the controller to a 9' tall, 40lb Giant Robotic Tentacle with 36 pneumatic cylinders!

3. Already finding social media shares... {BOoM's Viking tent is at the beginning and check out Mech-Cthulu 3 minutes in! Thanks, Jennylou!}



4. Being so engrossed in doing what I love that I am not disappointed about basically missing an entire Maker Faire! {That's a bit of paradox, there!}

5. My family, and the friends who are like family.