Settling Some Accounts
The scale has me "stuck" at or above 185 for the last couple weeks. I hate it- the lack of progress, not the scale.
One of our "rescue" cats, Oreo- I call him "Dopey-o"- has been missing for more than three days. He and his brother Fudge are regularly let outside in all weather, but I have no idea where or how far they wander during any day or night. It's possible he got taken in by another family, or eaten by a coyote or hawk or whatever other predator might be out there. Our crazy 13-cat lady has lost at least one cat (not the one that got mauled by the Huskies) in the recent past, but it's anybody's guess what's really happened. Nobody's given up hope for Dopey-o, but my optimism diminishes by the day.
Amy lost her awesome cat, Kiki, after letting her out one evening and forgetting to check on her and let her back in before bedtime- this was in 2010 I think. One of our other cats, also technically a rescue, Tia (we all called her Tee-tard), went out one day and never came back as well. I think that was back in 2016 or maybe 2017- so maybe we are just "due" to lose another cat this year.
I think one of our project design managers has a divorce pending. On Friday he "took the morning off" to go visit a lawyer. By lunchtime, he told my direct supervisor that he would be with the lawyer for the rest of the day, doing things that indicate he is preparing for the aftermath of a divorce. It's ridiculous how much private information people are willing to disclose and/or talk about; the two days prior I saw him having extended conversations with our HR manager, and she didn't make it look like it was pleasant conversation. I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but I don't think so in this case. If tomorrow I find out something completely different was taking place, I will be extremely surprised.
St. Patrick's Day was unexpectedly good: one of the guys in the office, Mike, showed up dressed in an authentic-looking Irish Tartan kilt- complete with leather hat and double-edged sword (with a leather sheath)! He also made an amazing lunch of corned beef, Irish cabbage with delicious parsley sauce, red potatoes, rosemary cheddar soda bread (with some dark yellow Irish butter), and some kind of dessert that looked and tasted like a cross between donuts and spice pound cake. I am pretty sure everything was homemade except for the bread, butter, and the dessert. Anyway, he invited us shop guys to come by and have some after lunch period (only a handful of office folks ate anything, so there was still plenty to be had)- and even though we'd already eaten, who's going to pass up that offer?
We had over 60 eggs in the house by some point a couple weeks ago- all of our hens are apparently at full production! Some friends and neighbors have offered to buy some of our eggs (after receiving a free sample of a dozen a month or two ago), which we agreed to accept; so far we've sold six dozen. Our price was set at an "extremely generous" $3 per dozen, so we're not rolling in dough from these sales but that's okay because egg prices have dipped a little bit locally anyway.
Our rooster, Joey, has been "caught" mounting the hens out in the open on several occasions. It's been pretty amusing to watch because he's pretty clumsy and doesn't stay on very long. One of his "favorites" is Bertha/Coco 2, and her back is starting to look like it's getting rubbed bare. Amy created a "saddle" out of some leftover material for her, per some advice she found online. Hopefully that will at least mitigate the problem somewhat; but, Amy knows I'm not above slitting the throat of a male we don't really need anyway- so for his sake, the saddle had better be all the corrective action necessary.
Barrett accomplished his first baked food this week- it was a cheese pizza made with the Cauli-power crust. All three kids ate it; I don't remember the first time I baked my own pizza- frozen, or "made from scratch"- but I am glad to see him expanding his knowledge and skill set, in whatever areas present themselves.
Work at the warehouse doing pre-fab has been a mixed blessing: indoor bathrooms and shelter from the elements is certainly welcome (especially in the winter), but the lesser amount of physical activity and the generally-stringent repetition of tasks tends to be unappealing. This last couple of weeks we did a few out-of-the-ordinary things like test and troubleshoot temporary power panels, prep new transformers, and build some large pipe and panel racks- but a lot of the rest is prepping junction boxes and cutting wire.
Earlier this week I finished an excellent Netflix docu-mini-series called Five Came Back. It's about a group of directors (John Ford, Frank Capra, John Huston, William Wyler, and George Stevens) who became officially commissioned volunteers and served during WWII to create films for the War Department: everything from instructional films for soldiers, to propaganda for the news reels, to legal documentation (for the concentration camps once they were discovered).
After watching the series I was glad to find that many of the films mentioned are still available, and in good (restored) viewing condition via YT:
This is the Battle of Midway as captured by John Ford:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW8tQ_6dqS8
One of the more interesting films released after the war was Let There be Light (John Huston), about the psychological health and treatment of veterans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiD6bnqpJDE
Our weather is still going crazy, but we only have two official days of winter left. As such, we have a plan to get the garden going- but, it's not going to be drastically different from last year. The main change is that we're going to make a fence with a gate, to keep the chickens out of the bed. I bought a new roll of chicken wire a few months ago with this in mind, but it's probably not going to be erected until well after the prep and planting is done.
I forgot to post a link to Dr. Bobby Kelly's excellent evening semi-traditionally-annual Bible study he conducted last month- here's the first part, you can seek out the rest easily if you want to see more:
https://www.fbcmwc.org/watch?v=QUFGRkQzNjNCQQ
As always there is more to say- including that as-yet unwritten account of Christmas vacation!- but this'll do for now.
God is good. That is all.
One of our "rescue" cats, Oreo- I call him "Dopey-o"- has been missing for more than three days. He and his brother Fudge are regularly let outside in all weather, but I have no idea where or how far they wander during any day or night. It's possible he got taken in by another family, or eaten by a coyote or hawk or whatever other predator might be out there. Our crazy 13-cat lady has lost at least one cat (not the one that got mauled by the Huskies) in the recent past, but it's anybody's guess what's really happened. Nobody's given up hope for Dopey-o, but my optimism diminishes by the day.
Amy lost her awesome cat, Kiki, after letting her out one evening and forgetting to check on her and let her back in before bedtime- this was in 2010 I think. One of our other cats, also technically a rescue, Tia (we all called her Tee-tard), went out one day and never came back as well. I think that was back in 2016 or maybe 2017- so maybe we are just "due" to lose another cat this year.
I think one of our project design managers has a divorce pending. On Friday he "took the morning off" to go visit a lawyer. By lunchtime, he told my direct supervisor that he would be with the lawyer for the rest of the day, doing things that indicate he is preparing for the aftermath of a divorce. It's ridiculous how much private information people are willing to disclose and/or talk about; the two days prior I saw him having extended conversations with our HR manager, and she didn't make it look like it was pleasant conversation. I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but I don't think so in this case. If tomorrow I find out something completely different was taking place, I will be extremely surprised.
St. Patrick's Day was unexpectedly good: one of the guys in the office, Mike, showed up dressed in an authentic-looking Irish Tartan kilt- complete with leather hat and double-edged sword (with a leather sheath)! He also made an amazing lunch of corned beef, Irish cabbage with delicious parsley sauce, red potatoes, rosemary cheddar soda bread (with some dark yellow Irish butter), and some kind of dessert that looked and tasted like a cross between donuts and spice pound cake. I am pretty sure everything was homemade except for the bread, butter, and the dessert. Anyway, he invited us shop guys to come by and have some after lunch period (only a handful of office folks ate anything, so there was still plenty to be had)- and even though we'd already eaten, who's going to pass up that offer?
We had over 60 eggs in the house by some point a couple weeks ago- all of our hens are apparently at full production! Some friends and neighbors have offered to buy some of our eggs (after receiving a free sample of a dozen a month or two ago), which we agreed to accept; so far we've sold six dozen. Our price was set at an "extremely generous" $3 per dozen, so we're not rolling in dough from these sales but that's okay because egg prices have dipped a little bit locally anyway.
Our rooster, Joey, has been "caught" mounting the hens out in the open on several occasions. It's been pretty amusing to watch because he's pretty clumsy and doesn't stay on very long. One of his "favorites" is Bertha/Coco 2, and her back is starting to look like it's getting rubbed bare. Amy created a "saddle" out of some leftover material for her, per some advice she found online. Hopefully that will at least mitigate the problem somewhat; but, Amy knows I'm not above slitting the throat of a male we don't really need anyway- so for his sake, the saddle had better be all the corrective action necessary.
Barrett accomplished his first baked food this week- it was a cheese pizza made with the Cauli-power crust. All three kids ate it; I don't remember the first time I baked my own pizza- frozen, or "made from scratch"- but I am glad to see him expanding his knowledge and skill set, in whatever areas present themselves.
Work at the warehouse doing pre-fab has been a mixed blessing: indoor bathrooms and shelter from the elements is certainly welcome (especially in the winter), but the lesser amount of physical activity and the generally-stringent repetition of tasks tends to be unappealing. This last couple of weeks we did a few out-of-the-ordinary things like test and troubleshoot temporary power panels, prep new transformers, and build some large pipe and panel racks- but a lot of the rest is prepping junction boxes and cutting wire.
Earlier this week I finished an excellent Netflix docu-mini-series called Five Came Back. It's about a group of directors (John Ford, Frank Capra, John Huston, William Wyler, and George Stevens) who became officially commissioned volunteers and served during WWII to create films for the War Department: everything from instructional films for soldiers, to propaganda for the news reels, to legal documentation (for the concentration camps once they were discovered).
After watching the series I was glad to find that many of the films mentioned are still available, and in good (restored) viewing condition via YT:
This is the Battle of Midway as captured by John Ford:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW8tQ_6dqS8
One of the more interesting films released after the war was Let There be Light (John Huston), about the psychological health and treatment of veterans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiD6bnqpJDE
Our weather is still going crazy, but we only have two official days of winter left. As such, we have a plan to get the garden going- but, it's not going to be drastically different from last year. The main change is that we're going to make a fence with a gate, to keep the chickens out of the bed. I bought a new roll of chicken wire a few months ago with this in mind, but it's probably not going to be erected until well after the prep and planting is done.
I forgot to post a link to Dr. Bobby Kelly's excellent evening semi-traditionally-annual Bible study he conducted last month- here's the first part, you can seek out the rest easily if you want to see more:
https://www.fbcmwc.org/watch?v=QUFGRkQzNjNCQQ
As always there is more to say- including that as-yet unwritten account of Christmas vacation!- but this'll do for now.
God is good. That is all.