Way out in the Middle of Nowhere

The other night, I was working on some dinner plans with our son Byron and somehow the conversation drifted our headboard.  The headboard itself was made by my Father-In-Law a few years ago as a Christmas gift.  Dad had asked what I wanted that summer and I had said that we needed a headboard and I would be proud to have one made by my Father. The wood was harvested from their farm and sawed, turned sanded and varnished all by my Father-In-Law.  It's a wonderful, cherished gift.  A few years ago, I noticed the 'eyes' that stare at me on my side of the bed.   Divine intervention?  Some judgement on the marriage? Or just the fact that the pine had two branches that came out at that area of wood? Well, either way, it's always been a fun thing to point out. And as I discussed the eyes with Byron, I decided to add that Aliens were wankers.  Wankers because they never stop for a good photo op, always probing humans without consent, never even giv...

 We’ve got ducks here on the farm.  The number has been set at a maximum of 7 now for a few years.  They’re all Pekin ducks; the ones that you can refer to as “Aflac Ducks.”  White with yellow beaks, they are great scavengers on the farm.  They stay with the chickens in the chicken coop during the night.  It’s a comfy rental agreement.  The chickens prefer to roost at night and the ducks are quite happy to stay on the floor.  We get one egg per female duck per every other day.   We have four female ducks: Zoey, Bella, Dobby and Winkie.    The three males are Duck-Duck, Malcom and Vito.   Vito is our oldest duck in the flock. In fact, he’s the oldest bird we have in this whole farm.   He’s about 7 years old and will probably only live another few years.   He’s been a good drake (male ducks are called drakes) and has been protecting his girls well. The initial hope was that we would be able to sell the duck ...

I'm enjoying a rare day off. Actually, it's made even rare-er due to the fact I'm actually getting PAID for this! I'm going to go up to a friend's yarn shop and help her take great pics of her store so she can post it online and get better sales. But here at the house, the things are pretty quiet. That's actually GOOD. The geese are doing well, even Sweet Pea, who lost an eye to some sort of mishap two weeks ago.  If you look in the photo, he is the one goose whose eye does not reflect the flash of the camera. Which is why I took the photos in the first place. We were pretty sure that the eye was damaged beyond healing and we've been putting Triple Antibiotic Ointment in the eye to make sure that the eyeball heals over and will be sealed away from bacteria.  As a goose, he'll not want to fly anymore, but as a domestic goose, he'll be fine. We've had a goose before that was born with one eye that did just fine. Knitting-wise, I've been ...

It has been my experience that everyone *should* spend at least a summer doing a stint in a factory.   Doesn't matter which one, but the time spent as a factory worker would make you a lot more aware of the world around you.   Why? Because I honestly don't think those people who work in the front office (lovingly termed the 'suits') know what is going on behind those production doors. Now in the last 40 years of my working life, I've spent about 18 or so of them in a factory setting of some sort.   From making food, to metal parts, to plastic trays, it's been made on a machine and my job has been to take what has been produced from that machine, put it in a box or a cart and move it away. My first job after high school of any note was at a factory that made plastic trays.   What was great about it was that the shifts were 4 hours long, and you got a break of 15 minutes.   Little did I know at the time, but that was not par for the course in a ...

The frustrations of  life will get you down, but working through them, I WILL succeed.  There's not another option out there, and I WILL Succeed.

So as I have almost  reached that pinnacle of the age of 50, I've also come to a few real hard realities out there. I've spent a total of 2 years getting a degree as a Medical Laboratory Technician - only to have ALL of the local hospitals and clinics turn me down for a job. My qualifications are exemplary. I graduated WITH HONORS 2nd in my class. What's the problem? My age.   Tomorrow is my 49th birthday and apparently that means I'm too 'old' to work. At least in the minds of a 20 something HR person.  So............I took a job with a local factory.  This week is my first week.  I get up at 4:30 am, grab a hoodie, yoga pants, my steel toed boots and my lunch and off I go. So far, ugh.  Standing for 8 hours a day is brutal.  Listening to kids 1/2 your age complain about how they are 'tired' and 'their feet hurt' just makes you want to throat punch them. But you try to be understanding, but still...........this is the generation of kids wh...