Way out in the Middle of Nowhere

This is a long post, filled with cursing, ranting and bile.  I apologize to anyone not in my family.  For those, let me say that Christmas was ruined again, this time it is solely the fault of my Brother In Law, Dan. Readers Digest Version: I invited Dave's family for a celebration here on Saturday.  They intended on spending the weekend here. Everything was going great until about 10 pm when my Brother In Law deliberately started a political fight with my husband. This escalated into a whole family fight. In the end, my Father In Law decided they weren't welcome, shoved every one into the van and took off.  Despite all efforts to make them calm down, they refused. Mostly because my Brother In Law would not shut is mouth. David and I are now disowned by that side of the family and will never see them again. For those of you who still think Christmas is a beautiful, wondrous time of year, please stop reading now, because your life does not need this. ...

I've got 6 geese, 4 ducks and 11 chickens wondering what the heck this white stuff on the ground is.  I mean, it tastes  like water, but doesn't work like water.  Snow and cold makes working with animals and outside just that much harder.  The power is out in the garage, probably due to the high winds during that last snowstorm. But that's something that won't be looked at until spring. Oh and my car is dead. I mean dead/dead, not even mostly dead. Dead/dead.  It will need a new battery. Our lone girl goosie, Sissy is laying eggs.  We're so proud! For that continuing education on Geese and such: Girl Goosies lay one egg about every other day in a nest they create by themselves.  Sissy started on one near the house under the hedge during the snowstorm. I took a chance and moved the egg plus some of the nest material into the garage next to their pen. I had a 60% chance she'd reject the nest, but she accepted it! I think that is because she saw th...

Ok, so this time I'll try to remain upbeat and stop bitching.  Although I have to say that being cursed with SADD at the same time as Christmas is challenging.  Seasonal Affective Disorder...whatever that last D means just means you get the winter blues.  Last year was bad, let's see how this year goes. Ok, so one thing I really wanted was an Ipad, but I settled for an Ipod touch for 200 bucks less. I've had it a few years and it's my smart phone without a phone.  I carry it everywhere.  It's got wifi and a lot of apps I use every day. I can email, skype, take pictures, video, get weather updates, check the doppler radar, look stuff up on the internet and read books on it.   Just like a $400 ipad but much smaller.  I used to call mine the Ipad Mini............until Apple came out with the Ipad Mini. That's one of my lab partners goofing with a long-chain polymer we made in Chemistry. We mixed two chemicals added a bit of food coloring and we ...

If I could find a working razor, I'd shave my legs and wear a dress today! Ah well, the pasty white skin reflects light..might not be a good day for that. So I read this article yesterday about these cruel farmers who live pluck the crap out of their geese for some chi-chi down coat industry.  The picture showed these poor Toulouse geese denuded and just looked so wrong. I went outside and stared at Buddy, our goose and just cried. Let's take another look at the cutie goose we call, Buddy : Buddy is the most easy-going, calm, upbeat goose we have.  I've been told it's the breed: Toulouse are very docile geese.  Buddy, however has not been forthcoming on his/her real sex, so I had to pluck 3 feathers and send them to a DNA Sexing business to get Buddy's real gender.  I suspect Buddy's a she, but I could be wrong.  Heck, plucking 3 feathers made me feel real bad, could you imagine plucking Buddy until he/she was bald? Not a nice sight.   It's jus...

Still can't get into the Christmas Spirit, not in any way shape or form. I am really trying to figure out how to get there, but it is not happening. Everyone else is singing their carols, bedecking trees and I could give a crap less. So why DO we put up trees? Why DO we spend all our $$ buying crap for others. Ok I know that they are termed 'gifts' but really............what do you remember of last years' 'gifts'?  I mean, think about it: I am a knitter.  I knit. All the time, everywhere. It's not a secret.  Now you'd think a gift of yarn would be greatly appreciated, right. Any kind of yarn, even that fun fur stuff.  I'll use it. I've got charities that I knit for. How much yarn have I received for a Christmas gift? NONE.  Really? I mean REALLY? How freaking hard is it to go to Wal Mart and pick up Red Heart? I'D USE IT! I'd REALLY use it! Instead I get more body creams.  Do I smell bad? I DO shower and stuff. Or Candles.  Scente...

Solitude Ella Wheeler Wilcox Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone. For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth, But has trouble enough of its own. Sing, and the hills will answer; Sigh, it is lost on the air. The echoes bound to a joyful sound, But shrink from voicing care. Rejoice, and men will seek you; Grieve, and they turn and go. They want full measure of all your pleasure, But they do not need your woe. Be glad, and your friends are many; Be sad, and you lose them all. There are none to decline your nectared wine, But alone you must drink life's gall. Feast, and your halls are crowded; Fast, and the world goes by. Succeed and give, and it helps you live, But no man can help you die. There is room in the halls of pleasure For a long and lordly train, But one by one we must all file on Through the narrow aisles of pain.  -The interesting note about this poem is the fact that Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote it in 1...

There was a wonderful rant here, but I cut it out because it was pretty harsh.  Face it people; no one really wants to hear what you say it it means upsetting their pretty little world.

1. If I can avoid it, no more professors of the female gender.  No, I will not expound on why because it will just tick off many of my gender.  Suffice it to say that you cannot have it all and do it all well. 2. Online classes? No. I need on campus classes.  I need the structure. 3. No Friday classes if I can do it, and try to schedule more than 1 class /day to make it pay.  This one hour a day in class M-W-F is killer. 4. Eating in the cafeteria is actually pretty cheap.  $5 gets me a decent meal.  Though I won't do the chicken fingers any more.  They sat like a rock in my gut all afternoon. 5. Stick to my study schedule. It works and even if a prof throws a monkey wrench, it will work. 6. Expect some sort of nervous breakdown weekly.  It helps to expect it. 7. Check that d2l more seriously because of #1 Random photo: The antlers off the deer we last put in the freezer.  I'm having fun walking around constantly chewing on v...

Sounds like fun doesn't it? Kicking pools.  Except I've been doing it for a few weeks now because of the ice. The pools are used for the geese and ducks.  They're just kiddy pools, but it gives them a chance to bathe and get clean.  Apparently the pools also play a crucial role in mating for both ducks and geese. That happens in the big pool There's a larger pool that's deeper and more uh...mating friendly over by the house.  In this picture, Buddy is in the blue one, Percy is in the pink one and Ron is in front.  Now wait for it............. Up pops Sissy! Isn't she adorable?!?! The interesting development over the last two weeks is that Sissy and Ron have bonded.  Geese are one of the animals that chooses a mate for life. I checked the forums on this and it's not a hard and set rule that the ganders won't go astray, but they do have their favorite gals. Ron likes Sissy.  Oddly enough, Ron is not our biggest gander and he does bully Percy on ...

Usually I don't throw down the pre-Christmas rant until closer to the actual day, but what the Hell.  According to the Mayans we'll be dead by then. In 2007, I made all my Christmas gifts.   In fact I spun and knit two of them from soft wool and gave them to my Mother and Mother-In-Law.  So lets roll on some photos, shall we? This one actually was taken before I washed it. The color changes were actually *dirt*. It came out snowy white with green glass beads on it.  I gave it to m Mother In Law. She folded it, put it away and I've never seen it again.  She said it would make a lovely table runner.  *facepalm* it's a STOLE! Onto #2: My Mother's shawl, Mystic Waters I think it was called.  Also spun from Targhee, with no beads. My Mom doesn't do that frou frou.  She opened it, Dad said, "Oh look, it's an old lady shawl!" and that was it. Mom keeps it on the back of her chair in the sewing room.  Hey, at least SHE didn't throw it out...

Knitting has been done, really. I've made two Rikke hats, finished off a lace scarf from Kid Seta, finished off a pair of fingerless mitts and now I'm working on the 2nd of another pair.  Problem is, photos aren't taken.  But I'll uh...wax nostalgic on it. Rikke Hats:  One is handspun camel-colored alpaca.  The cast-on is more stitches and I start decreasing at 7" instead of 9.  I just don't have the need for another 2" in the hat.   The second is a handspun merino in shades of red.  That's the one that I have enough yarn left over for fingerless mitts. One is done, the 2nd one is on the needles. The lace scarf: From Cascade Kid Seta. White in color, this thing took forever.  Not because it was a hard pattern, but because I just lost all interest in it 1/2 way through the skein.  It's now done, but I have to block it. OH I found a hat that I really have a picture of: It's a hat made from Knit Picks Palette.  I made up the patte...

It's been awhile since you've seen a real picture of the geese. They're full grown, with full grown voices and full grown annoyances. Yeah like teenagers. But here's a few of the others things that hand out back: Four Pekin ducks.  Two breeding pairs so to speak: Two male, two female.  That's great right? Yeah, no. One male has usurped all the females.  Most of the time we've got one male dejected duck by himself. Man, even when you stack the deck, things just don't fall right! The ladies are laying eggs.  We'd love to hatch out the eggs, but right now is not the time to start incubating, with winter being about a month away. Incidentally, I don't think those guys can NOT walk and talk at the same time.  They quack away while waddling one after the other from place to place. This one is a bit hard to puzzle out, but there are two hens and 7 baby chicks in the lilac bushes. We started with 10 chicks, but 2 drowned in the pools and one di...

Reality is what hits us every day.  Sometimes we accept it, grasp whatever bits of goodness come out and move on. The people who deal with reality every day will tell you that sometimes the hard parts are unbearable, but must be done. We've been dealing with reality a lot here: Alex gets a job, but it's 45 miles away.  $40 bucks every two days to fill up the car so he can go to his job.  Which means $50 to fill up the van every 2 1/2 days to get both Dave and I to work and school.  $180.00 per week IN GAS.  Reality sucks, my friend. And today I get to finish my chem lab early, drive back home, disarticulate a deer and put what large pieces we have in the freezer to butcher later after I drive back to school at $4 in gas  to take an Algebra quiz. If we don't get this deer butchered, the meat will rot and we'll be eating chicken all winter long.   Reality is we cannot afford to waste meat, nor buy it from the store.  My Brother In Law offered u...

Fred the goose died last night. That's a picture of Fred.  I was out buying new work boots for Alex and found him in front of the pen..already dead. Two geese dead within a week. I'm exhausted emotionally and physically.  I've spent the better part of the last 2 weeks trying to will Fred and George to good health and then cried over their bodies. I'm up early every morning to let them out, feed and water them and to try to keep Fred and George alive for one more day. School is well, school : Professors demand you drop everything in your life to study and then get all shitty when you can't.  Perhaps it was stupid of me to think that returning after 25 years to get a degree was going to work. I've got no tolerance for bullshit profs -and both of them are not as competent as my HS Chem teacher by far- and their inability to remain focused, no tolerance for people who cannot comprehend there's a REAL life outside of University.  School is making us all cr...

Well, Georgie the goose died last Tuesday.  I came home from school to find him collapsed by the lilac bush. I  had him on my lap for about 10 minutes hoping he'd come out of it, but in the end, he convulsed a few times and died.  Dave was a trooper and got him dressed out and  put in the freezer for me. I've put his feathers and down in a bag that I made from pillow ticking and dried it. We learned quite a bit from the process and we'll be using those skills soon.  Cuz you see, Fred's been doing the same thing: Collapsing out of breath...horcking up a lung like he's got asthma.  We've discussed the future of Fred and the ducks, but it will wait until we have the cone. http://meadowcreature.com/poultry/  sells one like we have on order.Ours is on backorder for another week.   Basically it's a galvanized steel cone with a hole in the bottom. Drop your poultry into it, pull out the head and chop it off, or slice the jugular and let them bleed o...

Hey Google? I don't have a cell phone, stop asking me to give you it's number! Back to the original plan; which was...I didn't have a plan really. I've got 2 geese that collapse in the morning when let out of their pen.  It's like they have asthma or something.  I isolate them in the pen and after about 10 minutes they recover. It's inconvenient but I am dealing with it. It takes a morning chore that was 1/2 an hour and now it's an hour-long. School is eh: I was 20 minutes late to my first Algebra exam because I was studying FOR it.  I got into class, apologize and grabbed the test. My brain froze and could only remember the quadratic formula.  Yeah...got a D on that bugger. Chem is fine.  I hear I have to watch an ice cube melt for Engineering fundamentals.  great. Knitting: I can only focus for about 10 minutes at a time.  Other than that, I've got a cat that needs my lap every stinking time I sit on the couch, whether or not I'm studying...

Honestly, I have been knitting! The thing is though, when you're working on a new design, you have to keep it secret.  This is a cowl that I've designed and now I need to write the pattern out and publish it. It's a nice, close knit pattern great for guys. This morning I wore it outside to test it out since it's 41 here in WI. I'm also working on a stranded hat.  There's about 10 skeins of Knit Picks Palette that I scored for 50 cents a piece at Goodwill some time ago.  I've been playing with different stranded designs.  Sometimes I just want to mess around without a real aim.  The Aidez is taking a time out mainly because I am afraid to mess up the bind-off on the sleeve re-design. I know, ...get over it! It's getting colder, so that might be my impetus to get it done. I find that some of my homework reading is done better if I am knitting at the same time.  I concentrate better. Bantam chicken update: we have 10 baby chicks under two hens i...

Hey, wanna see what I look like these days?  I had to take a picture of myself for my online profile for school.  That's me, in the kitchen with my hair down. Which usually doesn't happen due to the fact that it gets in my face or gets eaten by geese if I leave it down. School: Yeah, it's going pretty OK right now. I'm taking Pre-Calculus, Organic Chemistry and Engineering Fundamentals.  The last one is online. The 3 classes keep me plenty busy, thanks.  That and driving back and forth between Janesville, Beloit and Orfordville.   Once we get another car for me, I'll stop having to be in the van for about 3 hours a day driving 100 miles just to go to school. I've got 3 options for cars: 1988 Mustang Convertible, 2001 VW Bug, or a 2005 Aveo.  Really? I want the Aveo. It's new but costs more than I'll be getting for financial aid this semester. Unless we can come up w/ about $2000 in financing, I'll be driving a Mustang Convert...

Lots of people will give you great and moving tributes to those who died on 9/11/2001.  Lots of tributes. And me? I remember the feeling of emptiness, helplessness and horror as we saw what unfolded that day. I start work at 8, so I was in by 7:45 doing my thing.  Dave and I carpooled and he needed to be across town by 8, so I got dropped off early.  As I slipped in the front door, my boss Jeff came out of his office directly across from my cubicle, "A plane just hit the World Trade Center." he says incredulously.  I was thinking Cessna with a student pilot.. small plane got out of control thing.  Jeff walks back into his office. The next time he RUNS out of his office.  "Another plane just hit the other tower!" he says.  My first words were, "Terrorist Attack?" He nods and says, "Seems so." Now as the day unfolds, not much work is done.  We had radios dialed into whatever we could. I scan for any type of info online as the IT Gods would allo...

Yeah.  Sauteed is fine. Setting on a nest of eggs somewhere in the 30 acres we call home.  I see her every morning. Today was the first day of school, which is daunting at 42 years old.  Even worse? Most of these kids could be MY kids! I sit in classes with a bunch of 18 year olds trying to look inconspicuous.  Yeah, right! I put the shop in semi-permanent vacation for now. Still getting used to the whole....not having to do stuff all the time thing. Not having to check for orders, sew bags, finish bags, answer questions, ship orders...it's odd.  I've spent the last few days wandering around doing *something* to keep from going bonkers. So...one thing I've been doing is gleaning feathers from where the geese and ducks lie. When they huddle together and preen, they leave feathers behind.   So I gather them in plastic bags and then dump those into a 2 1/2 gallon zip bag.   That is the first one, I am working on bag #2. From what I've read, gee...

About a month before we got the ducks and eating chickens, my Sister asks if we wanted these chickens her Brother-In-Law had. Sure, 'in for a penny, in for a pound'.  So we got 6 chickens.  We did not realize until they got older they were Bantam Chickens, or as my Momma would call them 'Banty Chickens.  They're smaller than your usual chicken. About the size of a Cornish Game Hen. Ah well.  We kept them, threw them in the coop when they got older  and they free range.  I even gave them names:Fried, and Fricasee are the roosters, and Sauteed, Broiled, Broasted and Curried are the hens. Yeah, that was before we realized they were too small to hassle butchering them. They're like 6 months old now.  We have fun watching the rooster displays, holler at Fried and Fricasee to STFU and let them eat bugs. Well Sauteed come up missing one night.  We have a nightly ritual where Dave herds the ducks into the coop with the chickens and I herd the ...

That is the sound of the truck going down our road marking the middle section now.  About a month ago they put down pea gravel and mucked up a perfectly good road.  Now they're marking their mess...sort of like marking their territory. It will be fun to dig out pea gravel from my yard come spring due to the snowplow. SO, as my MIL would say...Anyways.... Working on closing the shop.  Dave and I have talked about putting up some sort of place holder to keep the shop open without really working on bags. I have some knitting patterns I've written that can be added. The Geese and Ducks are getting along more and more each day.  Now that the geese have become fully feathered, they are bigger than the ducks. Here is Dave with 3 of them. They look alike and I really cannot discern who is who all the time now.  I know the one in front of Dave is Sissy just from her head structure and the fact that all her baby down fell off before everyone else's. Knitt...

The official date for closing the Etsy shop is Aug. 31.  I'm done, spent out, fizzled. It's been a strange, odd, goofy ride.  I started selling bags to help out with the budget while staying home to make sure Alex stayed out of trouble. I was going to Blackhawk Tech at the time and was going to become a Physical Therapist Assistant. Did you ever start something and somewhere along the line get a real nagging feeling that this was not for you? Yeah, that was the PTA thing.  Somewhere along the time when they started admonishing us to be careful when transferring patients because their skin could be so thin it could tear...well that's when I got nervous.  Could I do that? How would I feel if I inadvertently hurt someone? Maybe this is not the path for me. I washed out of the program about a week later.  No amount of coercion could make me go back.  I will always be just so nervous that I'd hurt someone just by moving them. EH The knitting bags are ...

 Oh hey there! Sissy says Hi.  She was especially talkative today and wanted attention.  I think she's just adorable! It took her a few minutes to realize the rest of the flock -er gaggle- had moved on to a different grazing area. She caught up in typical Sissy fashion: All honking and waddling around.  Her defective left eye means she relies on the responses from her family to tell her where to go. So I finished off another Cavallo Point the other day. and  this one is in white. I was not happy with the ending in the pattern as I thought it was too abrupt, so I attempted to make one that would resemble the borders. Not bad, I think. The scallops were made in a short-row fashion. I knitted the same shape as the outer border with the increases and decreases, knitting the last of the group from the scallop + one from the shawl each right side.  It's a charity item, one to be raffled off at the Church's Harvest Festival in September.  I'll ...

Dave's still sleeping, which is odd for him.  Let him sleep. He's been working a lot lately.  So I'm up and getting the animals fed, watered and released from their pens. Meet Sweet Pea, our smallest goose.  She is also the one who will allow us to touch her when she's not being held.  This morning they were all very chatty and very clingy.  From the time I let them out of their pen, they followed me around everywhere.  As I filled pools and water dishes, I had a chatty bunch of geese behind me. They grow in front of your eyes, I swear! Each day I see new feathers, added inches to height and a thickening of that neck. If you compare Sweet Pea to George here, you can see the difference.   George is 1 week older than Sweet Pea.  Here George is looking for water, but I'm busy filling the other pool. As they are too big these days for the back porch (what we call the laundry room. No, I don't know why) we created a pen for them in the garage...

Dear God; This is WISCONSIN, not Arizona! We cannot deal with 100 degree heat! No wait.........it's 101. Our grass is brown, my flowers and garden have died.  People are losing their livestock and are looking at a complete loss of all crops. STOP IT!! We need rain - something that's not been seen for over 2 months.  Sure, 1/2" last Saturday was cute, but really? It lasted like 10 minutes and did nothing for my lawn.  You ever try to teach geese how to graze on brown grass? WE NEED RAIN! It's gotten to the point where all I do is schlep the hose around filling buckets, pools and waterers all...freaking...day.  Who can work when I have to make sure 35 animals have enough water to keep them from dying when it's been over 95 degrees for over 2 weeks...without rain. Yeah, God...thanks for forgetting us. Asshole. 

It's the usual stuff that keeps me away from blogging: family, fowl and knitting.  The family is good; in fact my Son was selected as Member of the Month at the Y. When he decided on joining the Air Force, he was 40 pounds overweight. Now he's down to the last 10.  That's pretty good! The funny thing? that's a 3x shirt he's wearing. Now it looks like he stole it from a hobo.  Not dissing hobo's mind you.  Fowl: Yeah, freaking fowl.  Geese are getting big and getting feathers. They are in a cranky, tetchy mood.  One of the goslings, Sissy has taken to chewing on her siblings' tailfeathers.  It's annoying them and awarded her her very own cubby next to the rest of the flock.  She can see and hear them, but she can't nibble on tails. Sissy was hatched with her left eye deformed. We suspect that she can see movement, but not clear movement.  Other than that stupid tailfeather thing, she's our most lovable goosie. She likes to be held an...