Way out in the Middle of Nowhere

Today is a snow day. Yep, it's a Sunday, but Mass was cancelled so we stayed home and shoveled out the driveway.  It's been an odd week; I've slipped and fallen on the front steps due to the ice storm a few days ago. This morning I was going down the back stairs to release the flock when I slipped and fell again. Minion Slippers My right leg has taken quite a beating so far. I'm going to take it easy for the rest of the day. We've gotten the tree decorated, and I'm making peanut butter balls.  They are coated with chocolate, so I will need to refridgerate them for a few hours before that happens.  I'm finishing up a pair of Minion slippers for my cousin. The pattern I'm using is the Aunt Maggie's Slippers   and it's working up pretty fast. Of course, it would be faster  if I could figure out where I put my size 9 double-pointed needles! Meh. I'll just seam them up when I am done. School is done. I've had 4 whole days of nothing t...

So A&E essentially fired Phil Robertson, Patriarch of the Duck Commander/Buck Commander clan. Why? Because he spoke in an interview with GQ (why I have no idea) about his Christian beliefs and what the Bible teaches about the sin of homosexuality. aaand this is where I lose my last follower. But let me clarify another misconception about the Catholic Church: You can BE a homosexual and still belong to the church. You just can't practice homosexuality, which is considered a sin. What level of sin it is..I do not know, but the PRACTICE of it is the sin..not the being. There are millions of people out there that have the same opinions as Phil. I am one of them. He did put them out succinctly, albeit a bit more crass than I would. I'm not going to quote the whole article because most of the news outlets online have made sure that the first two paragraphs are alllllllllllll ooooovvvvvvvvvvvvver the place, but this is the paragraph that I remember the most: "Robertson rel...

For those of you with a Non-Christian, Non-Catholic background: There actually was a St. Nicholas. He lived in the 4th Century in Greece. He was known for putting coins in the shoes of orphan girls so that they had dowries to get married. Over the centuries, that's been turned into Santa Claus. We all know I'm married to a man who resembles Santa Claus. We get that all the time. Some child will come up to him or me and ask, "Is THAT Santa Claus?" We play along. Our favorite was a child who was touring this old log cabin in the center of Dinosaur National Monument at the same time we were. We were there in June on our Great American Vacation II. This child was whispering to her Mom as we walked around, and finally her Mom said out loud, "I don't know if that's Santa Claus. ASK HIM!" Now this log cabin is like a 4 room shack -no running water, heated by wood. The woman who lived there was reputed to be a lover of Billy the Kid. So we're millin...

For future reference: the guide to down comforter making in pdf form is available for free on Google Docs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzee85NJjrtbMXI5UGZCTGxBc0k/edit?usp=sharing

The gathering of the feathers was done over the course of 3 months. Every Saturday, my husband killed 2 more ducks and I plucked the feathers and down, separating the two. The cleaning, sorting and filling of the comforter was done in one day. just a bit of clingy down As I mixed the down with the feathers in the big plastic tub. I tipped the big brown grocery bag with the down over the tub and shook until most of them were in the tub.  Now...hold your breath, or breathe to the side. DON'T breathe into the tub or you'll look like a tar&feather victim. Using the two bread bags was helpful. After mixing the down and feathers together like folding eggs into an Angel Food Cake batter, I stuffed the bread bags about 3/4 full. And I do mean STUFF.  Then, twisting the top of the bag, I stuffed it into the channel I had sewn into the comforter. bag of down + feathers  For the comforter itself, I am using 120" muslin purchased from the Fabric Store. Normally, th...

For those of you who have no compulsion to read about how to create your own down comforters, I suggest reading something else for a week. I'm starting off from the butchering of ducks to the sewing of these comforters. This does go into some issues that some people might find offensive. For others; I've not read a single blog on how to do this. I've read 1/2 page 'How To' that doesn't even get into how much feathers to use. This will be the guide on how to turn duck feathers into a warm and comfortable blanket that will give you years of use. I prefer to utilize as much as I can from our flock. They give their lives so we can eat and be warm. I figure it is the best way to honor their sacrifice. How to Create a Feather Comforter from Your Own Feathers Over the course of 3 months, Dave and I have processed 26 ducks that were hatched specifically for meat + feathers. All of them were Pekins, like the two shown here. They were hatched in April, brooded i...

Yep, sometimes I can get pretty serious. Admittedly, I usually keep that kind of thought to myself. Sometimes it's good for others to know that actually think of more serious things than poultry and knitting and spinning. Oddly enough, some of my more deep thoughts come when I am knitting. Friends of ours welcomed a new daughter into their family on All Hallow's Eve. She's a beautiful gal; born at home with Mom, Dad and Midwife in attendance. It's with a bit of wistfulness that I have to admit, that if Dave and I were able to have kids 1) there would be many of them, 2) they would be born at home and 3) they would be beautiful, sassy AND smart. Instead, we shamelessly spoil all the kids we come in contact with. This little lassie was being held by her Godfather as we spoke about her adjusting to the outside world.  As you see on Mom's lap in the background, I knitted her a Lady Eleanor Stole to use as a nursing shawl.  It's out of Lion Brand amazing, so I...

A few years ago, Dave and I decided to become chaperones for the Church Youth group. Ok! What did that entail? 1. A background check.  I actually paid for the Church to run a background check on me. Guess what? I came out clean! 2. I was required to attend a 3 hour seminar on how to spot the behaviors of pedophiles so that I could alert the diocese to any unwanted attentions given to the kids during my time as a chaperone. Let me tell you, it was a very enlightening experience. The focus was on a video of 3 men, all were convicted molesters of children. They outlined deed after deed how they got to a point where they could molest kids.  It's called 'grooming.' 3. Betcha you didn't even know the Church did this, did you? You still think they are letting people molest kids all over the place and that's exactly why I am writing this now.  What you *THINK* you know, and what you know, is most likely the result of another kind of insidious grooming. The end resul...

This is a short video of our goosie Sissy chewing on Dave's hair.  She does this every night when we put away the animals. As geese go, she is the only one who shows affection towards us. Of course, she's the only one we hatched and raised.  The others were hatched elsewhere, shipped to us. Sweet Pea will come up and give us 'kisses' by nibbling at our lower lip.  That's another video that will need to be taken to believe. 

Dave and the kitty Tyler watching the game.  He was trying to get Tyler to look at me, but he wouldn't. Oh and Tigger is the big orange fluffy thing bottom center. I gotta give props to the man, he saved my coffee maker.  He ran stuff through it until it became unplugged.  I am with coffee in the mornings! yay!!!

Ok, if one of you is sitting there holding a voodoo doll that looks like me...can you take out the pins now? Please??? Bad Juju has followed me for about a month now. The latest layer on the crap cake is my coffee maker dieing. I mean...........really? Last weekend the microwave gave up the ghost.  Dave pulls out the old one we had and it didn't work.  So he ended up taking it apart and repairing it.  Now we have a microwave. I SWORE I turned on the oven last night to make dinner.  We had to sit and wait an extra hour for the tater tot caserole to bake because the oven wasn't on. Oh the timer was on, but not the oven. ~facepalm~ The entire spare bedroom needs to be emptied and have the carpets cleaned *again*. I did it two weeks ago and one of the cats has decided that it's one big litter box. Good thing all my stuff is in plastic boxes, but still.  I can't sew in there, the smell makes me wanna puke. Which is why if you go to my Etsy shop , you will ...

Taken one morning on my way to school. This is the Rock River in Janesville on River Road.  It was a foggy morning and the water was very calm. School is progressing.  Financial Aid is not. The final word came down that I will not get any aid this semester. I'm $500 in the hole for Calc and if I drop the class they'll add another $700 to it. Damned if I do, Damned if I don't. And they won't let me register for classes until I pay the $500. My only course at this time is to pick up as much money as I can selling stuff that I don't need, selling plasma and keeping expenses low.  And Dave is digging into his 401(k).  I'm less than pissed that it needs to be done, but what can you do? I've also applied for a credit card to put the $500 tuition on. That way I can pay off minimums, STILL register for next semester and pay it off with my grants next semester. Still not happy about that either. On a MUCH funnier note - Dave and I watch Duck Dynasty. M...

Updates: 1. STILL fighting with school over financial aid.  Due to the fact that I dropped that Lit class, they've withdrawn my ability to get any loan. I'm 1 credit short of what they consider 'part time'. I had my advisor find another credit -working with the theater dept.- but they say it's too late. which brings me to: 2. Fighting with the UW about that stupid flipping book. At this point, their obsessive love of this book detailing the abuse of young girl is becoming hilariously ridiculous.  You mean to tell me that this is THE  definitive book on the African-American experience? This book is 40 years old! Try finding a book from THIS century! But still...I've got an interim director who just freaked when I told her that she was being insensitive by her vehement defense of this book. She STILL defends it! 3. I've got a Calc test today. Wish me luck. 4. I came home yesterday to find 3 dead geese lined up by the mailbox.  Someone had hit 3 of Mol...

Calculus is going decently.  I sit in the back of the class next to a young man who has had the pleasure of being in two classes with me. He reminds me much of my son, Alex but with ambition. So, Alex got discharged from the Marines for failing to meet their physical criteria.  Right now he's thinking that he'll spend 2 years copping a squat on my couch while going to community college.  Meh.  I'm still ticked about that, but apparently my prayers and my wishes will never be taken into play with his life. That's the way it goes, I guess. (I'd credit the photo, but I'm pretty sure it's from a meme generator.) Poultry is well, except for Daisy the Duck who got into a fight with like 1/2 the flock and was injured. Now there's a nice, melodic story about picking maggots out of wounds that I could share, but why? It's bad enough that I got to DO it. Suffice it to say she's healed from her external wounds, but will need another month conval...

I made a hex sign. Sometimes they are called a barn quilt, but I call it a hex sign.  When I get done putting that last layer of clear on it, I'll have Dave put it on the coop. Right now it's sitting propped up on the hedge in the front yard. The fun part is that 2/3 of the paint on this thing was free.  I had to pay for the quart of pumpkin, but the purple and cream were free quarts from Ace.  One day a year they have a free quart of paint in the color of your choice.  Dave came back with the cream, I went down for the purple. The design is called 'flying geese'. I thought it was appropriate. It was the first day we tried butchering ducks. Yeah, no more raising ducks for food. Next year it will be chickens. The ducks are too hard to butcher, pluck and dress. It takes about an hour a duck. School started.  I had two classes, Calculus and Multicultural Lit. The Lit class was an online class. I was in the process of gathing the reading materials, readin...

It's been an odd Summer weather-wise.  Life-wise, pretty much the same. we've learned a few new things this summer: Butchering ducks is not as easy as it should be. We've done 8 and it's complicated. It requires a duck with it's adult feathers in and a cool day, not a hot day.  There's a technique using wax to strip off pinfeathers that works well..........when it's not hot outside. Another 20 to go.... Percy has found his dude-ness.  He's hollering after he shags a girl. EVERY girl. It was cute the first 10 times. Now I walk out and say, "Percy, no one needs to know every time you shag a girl. You're not THAT good at it!" We had one rooster that was terrorizing our flock of ducks. We have 3 roosters, so we had to be sure it was this  rooster that was the offender. We put a band on his leg and observed him. Sure enough, it was that rooster. He was very tasty in with peanut sauce and rice. There really isn't a need for m...

Lately, Donna duck has taken to going into the slip drag that is part of my front flower bed.  In front of her is a lavender bush. It must smell nice in that slip drag.  The two boys, Vito and Tony lay nearby and wait for her. Little did I know until 2 days later that Donna was so enamored with her new spot that she was laying eggs in there. 

Nope, I'm not dead.  I bought a wool fleece off a farmer on Ebay.  Four pounds of wooly goodness.  I've been washing and spinning up bits of it all week.  About 500 yards of fingering weight cream colored wool has come off my spindle. I happen to go off in my own little world with a fleece.  I totally immerse myself in the process of washing, drying, carding and spinning.  I find it very calming. In fact, you know in the Harry Potter movies, where Harry is being taught how to produce a Patronus charm and he must remember a very happy moment? This is one of mine. The other one involves snuggling with my honey on the couch watching the Packers. At the time I had sprained both my ankles and could not go anywhere.  My ass was planted on that couch whenever I was home for like,  4 months.  When there's no where you can go, and nothing you can do...you accept it. Dave sat near me while I had both ankles under ice packs watching the Packers pla...

What you are looking at is the rash that comes with Poison Ivy. It's on pretty much the upper 1/2 of my body; flank, arms, chest, neck and ears.  Thankfully my face and hair have been spared as well as my legs.  It itches something fierce. I mean more than anything has ever itched in my life! How does this train your concentration? Well, I had a Trigonometry final yesterday. I've spent the last week working on reviewing all I've learned over the last 6 weeks with a less than stellar results. It's hard to concentrate on formulas that have the same variables but in different areas when you really just want to scratch ...pretty much everything on the top 1/2 of your bod. Calamine lotion works to a point, and there is no way I can have splotches of the stuff on while in public.  People are waaay to judgmental and hypersensitive to anything that smacks of being less than 100% perfect.  I've stayed home for the most part, trying to study and rest. My final was as...

I was relating how my Dad gave me advice some 20+ years ago.  He said, "Brenda, not everything needs to be a fight. Sometimes it's just better if you'd shut up." Interesting advice, but it has an interesting story behind it. (The picture has noting to do with the story, but I have to add them because I like pictures.  This is Tigger, my kitty) Back some 20 years ago, I was on welfare, getting Section 8 housing after that SOB of a Father to my son left us high and dry before I was even showing.  What do you do when 1/2 of the parental units bails on you? You go on welfare and work your ass out of that situation.  Well, Alex was less than 1 year old, and Section 8 will not allow you to be living in a 1 bedroom apartment with a child. You need 2 bedrooms, so I needed to move. I found an apartment on the other side of town in an 8 unit building; upstairs and to the right.  It'll do and Section 8 approved it. Only after that did I find out that the Landlord o...

Ducks and geese do this thing after they've been resting for a while.  They stand up, extend one wing and then lift the corresponding leg.  It's a ballet move if I've ever saw one!   

"   Man it's hot. It's like Africa hot. Tarzan couldn't take this kind of hot." - Eugene in 'Biloxi Blues' It's going to be another hot week here.   Anything that can hold enough water + a duck or goose is used to keep them cool.  Here we have Molly's babies in a Tupperware cake carrier and a heated dog bowl.  Don't worry, it's not like cake ever makes it out of the pan, even.  12 hours and it's all gone.  There's never a need for cake carrier. I needed to keep the big pool out of commission until these little blighters can get out of it safely, but I still needed to keep everyone cool. So I am using litter pans, dog bowls and even the plastic drawers out of one of those cheap plastic dressers as mini pools.  Eh, Dave's gotta clean that one out anyways.  It was the back end of the duck pen when they were inside in the laundry room.  Now they are big enough to be outside.  I finally had to suck it up and clean up and ...

We have our worries about Sissy, center in the photo.  She's been acting oddly lately; standing in corners just zoned and walking aimlessly not with her flock. Her bad eye has been looking worse lately, and I suspect she's lost more sight in it.  Her depth perception is worse: I see her trying to lap up water about 1/2" from the actual water. If it is true, and she's lost all sight in that eye, she WILL eventually adjust. We'll need to adjust as well.  Before I walk over to pick her up, I talk to her and make sure to touch her side so she knows I am there. She had an injury to the area below her chin. With the hot, muggy weather lately, it was important to keep it bug-free.  I slathered triple antibiotic ointment on it twice daily to keep it from blood sucking bugs. It's healed over now, so that's another thing that will make her feel better. I've been working on a redesign of the banana squash head pillow.  I discovered that it is a great th...

No, they are just so cute! Molly hatched out 6 babies day before yesterday. Like Sissy, she's a first-time Mom and doing a LOT of hissing.  A leaf blows by too close to her and she hisses.  Yesterday was the first time the kids got to go outside. At first, all the goose girls came up to her nest to see the wee little ones.  Mary is very interested  in those girls.  She'll make a great Mom next year, I think. We've compared these goslings to Sissy's since these will be a Toulouse/African cross. Well, we were not sure until they hatched.  If Daddy was Buddy, they'd be straight Toulouse.  The kids would have a grayish beak. These are all black beaks but the chicks themselves are more yellow than Sissy's which are straight Africans.  I've seen pics of the Toulouse/African cross: Big bodies, with that tuft-y neck, dark streak down the back with brown instead of gray coloration. Hey, we're diverse here. Sissy, here in the front of the group, ...