Absolutely Nothing Fabulous

This person sent me a "Friends" request today on Facebook. My first thought was: Oh great, ladies of the evening, just like MySpace. The reason I deleted the account a dear freind set up for me.

Then I looked closer and saw we have 17 friends in common. Apparently I know her. Oops.





I'm told by the resident goat herder that the little one, Bess is pregnant again. These things are baby breeding machines! Bess spent the past few weeks up in the upper goat paddock with Mr. Deeds. We wanted to give the baby Silver Moon time to get a bit bigger before she was around Bess. Bess moved back into the goat barn with Belle & Baby last week. Leaving Mr. Deeds forlorn at the top of the hill. Hopefully this time we'll have a baby billy who can keep him company. Baby Moon goes right up to see Dad when ever we let her out in the yard - very cute.

Another perfect spring day. It's 72* and not a cloud in the sky. I met the data cabling contractor down at the new office this morning and then stopped by McClendon's the local non-big box (yeah!) hardware store in town and bought yet more plants. Strawberries and tomato's, salvia and lobelia. It's all going in the perennial border mixed in with the flowering plants. I'm forsaking vegetable gardens with nice neat rows and going for the overgrown look. I really need to get busy with what I've already got at home instead of buying more. I'm really feeling the old "make hay in the sunshine" thing. I suppose I should set some goals on what I want to get done by the end of the week. Get the beds done this week and then have time for the containers on the porch this weekend.

On the way back to the office I was listening to a very interesting interview on NPR. The guest, Joel Berg was making the point that we have a multitude of state and federal agencies overseeing food programs in the schools. One of his points was that if we eliminated these redundant functions we could feed all of the children in public schools regardless of their economic status. Another point was that if we reduced or eliminated the bureaucracy that's in place to prevent food stamp abuse it would more than pay for that program as well. I don't know where he got all his data or how valid his numbers were but it was pretty thought provoking stuff.

It's too nice to be inside. I think I'll forward the office phones out to my cell and go get lost for a little while. Meanwhile, I'll leave you with this:

Don't kiss your hunny,
When your nose is runny,
You make think it's funny,
But it's s-not.

XOXOBC

I'd Like A Pony Please...

Random picture of my best friend, because you all haven't seen him in a while.


What a wonderful weekend. While Saturday didn't turn out exactly sunny it was nice and warm but with a thin cloud cover that just never really burned itself off. Sunday was warm and sunny and perfect. I didn't get a lot of my own planting done but was able to go over to my Mom's and help her get her deck containers sorted and planted so that's one annual task out of the way. Before tackling that, Mom and I had brunch at the Lake Route Cafe. I had the low-cal (not) eggs benedict because clearly I'm trying for a life time personal best in weight gain this year.

Mom and I were talking at brunch about my sister and her family. Sis & BIL both got laid off from their jobs in the resort industry last winter. They worked for the same company. This same company that relocated them to Florida about 2 years ago. Poor guys are now sitting in a very large home down there they is starting to look next to impossible to sell. They're both looking for jobs back here in Seattle (sounds like BIL has found one) with an eye to moving back home. My niece has been up here for the last year because she didn't like FL and it was her senior year in high school and she wanted to be with her friends.

The conversation made me regret opening my big fat mouth a few posts back about not really feeling the effects of the economic slow down. They're having a tough time all the way around. My poor sister is sick of living in a house that she needs to keep in realtor showing cleanliness for realtors and potential buyers that never come around. The easy solution for them is to leave the house there basically furnished and move back home and get on with life. What really surprised me was that they're planing to move in with my Mom for a while. I know there's nothing new about "boomerang kids". Well, ok we're all a bit old to really fall under that category, but you know what I mean. What really threw me was that my BIL, the lone republican standout in a family awash with die-hard liberals is actually willing to live with his mother-in-law! Don't get me wrong, we all love my BIL, but if that poor guy is willing to do that, even for a short time, clearly things are worse than I thought.

I'm being somewhat silly about this but later I got to thinking about my niece. I really feel sorry for her. She's a great kid. Never been in any kind of trouble. She's very athletic, a jock really. She's been on the top soccer teams in the local leagues all through school. Just an all around great kid. What I worry about is they lifestyle she was raised in. I know for myself that my mother spoiled us quite a bit. I never realised it growing up but when it came time to live on my own it hit me between the eyes. The day's of salon haircuts and designer clothes were over for a while. My standard of living took a giant step down when I moved out of home.

I wonder if this post is ever going to make a point? Well, carrying on....

Anyway...
As I pulled away from Mom's my niece and her boyfriend pulled up in his new BMW. (high-school kid, driving a BMW...) What kind of shock are those kids in for? How are they going to be able to adjust to a new way of living. I don't think for a second their situation is unique. I know it isn't, we've got another young lad 'working' for us who was raised in a life style far above what his means will be as a lone adult. I wasn't at all shocked when the kids was 'sick' for a week after his Mommy bought him a brand new truck!

Maybe this is just the way life is. Maybe all kids and parents go through this to some degree. Is it the same as adults always thinking the music their kids listen to is garbage? generation after generation? Is it just one of those universal things or has something changed in the last couple of generations?

This is one of those posts that I should really go back and edit or possibly re-write/re-think but that's how I end up not posting for a week. I think I'll just hit publish and then go outside and play in the sun!

Life and Death

I had one of those mornings where you wake up and try to sort out which day it is. I convinced myself it was Thursday and got up and got on with the day. A pleasant surprise when I got to work and realised it was Friday! I've been stock piling perennials for the last week, hoping for sunshine this weekend to get in the garden and get busy. Weather forecast is iffy, well see.

I had lunch with a girlfriend last weekend and we were talking about a 3rd mutual friend who has had a tragedy in their families life. A younger brother (an adult) is being charged with attempted murder for an incident late last year that happened outside of a dance club downtown. The victim was his girlfriend and mother of his child. Other parties were involved and lots of finger pointing everywhere. 'Kids' with guns. This guy isn't a thug or hoodlum. We know this young man and his GF. They've been to party's at our house. People I believe to be 'good kids' Good kids who thought it was necessary to carry a gun when going to a club.

During the course of our conversation my friend told me that her three sons (all in their 20's) also carry guns and concealed weapons permits. I've known these boys their entire lives. Again they're not thugs or hoodlums either. Their rational is everyone is carrying them and they need to as well to be safe. My friend is as anti-guns as I am but beyond ensuring they have permits there's nothing she can do as they're adults.

I've never liked guns. I don't talk about it much here but when I was a very young man my first lover was a private investigator. He ran a company that provided security and investigative services for a variety of clients. He carried a gun. I never liked it but I got used to it. He was a very safety conscious person and took gun ownership responsibilities very seriously. Unfortunately that didn't help him when he was jumped on the street by three guys. His gun fell out of his holster in the struggle and one of them picked it up and shot him. He died then and there. Had there not been a gun involved in that situation...

I'd like to say I don't understand it but I kinda do. To these kids we're the older generation and we just don't "get it". They're used to it. There were guns in the high schools they went to. It so common to them they think it foolish to not carry one. I was discussing this with another friend and her comment was "Why would you want to go some place (dance clubs) where people carried guns" Why indeed. I guess that's how out of control the whole thing is. To them it's just an accepted part of life. I guess dying young is too.

Seattle is for all it's posturing, still a small city. To call it 'urban' would be laughable to people from real big cities. What I mean is it's not like these kids were raised on "The Mean Streets Of..." They're just normal kids. With guns.

I've been mulling this over in my mind trying to figure out what I feel about it. What can any one person do to fight against this? So far I've got scratch. It makes my blood run cold. Thoughts?

OK, sorry for being so heavy, it's just what's been on my mind. It's nice to be at an age where working in the garden is all the excitement you need.

Here's a bit of random-ness for you. I got this pic in an email from the Ex last night. It's our first apartment. Either the building hasn't fared well over the 20+ years, or my memories of it are filtered through the golden light of time. We had the top left unit. I planted the ivy hoping to have the effect of an old ivy covered building. Who knew it took ivy that long to grow. Seriously it's been like 25 years. I swear I can watch the stuff grow up the trees at my place now. Oh well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. It was a cool old 1920's building with insulated iceboxes opening to the hall and your apt. for your grocery deliveries. I always thought that was pretty cool. Could that tree have grown in the past 25 years? I have no memory of it.



I haven't been much of a blogger lately. So many folks are taking breaks or just not blogging much these days. Well, I am going to take myself in hand and re-commit to blogging here. I get so much out of it, I need to just get back in the habit and stop PROCRASTINATING. A word I hate, probably because I'm SO good at it!

None Of My Business

The phones at worked kind of picked up some this morning. It actually started ringing right after 8:00 am! One call from a developer sounds especially promising.

It has been a little slow. I have to remind myself that it's always slow for us between the "heating" and "cooling" season. If folks aren't running their furnaces or A/C units all the time they don't break down as often. I've been listening to the talking heads on the nightly news too much. If you just went by them you'd think the sky was falling. I know the "economic crisis" is real, but I think it's way overblown by the media. Sure I know a couple of folks who have been laid off but in reality (at least my day to day reality) things haven't changed that much.

The effects of the talking heads however are hard to avoid. I know it's keeping me from spending money I normally would. New furniture for example. I've been looking for months, have seen a few things I like that would work just fine but when it comes to giving up that money I just can't do it. The talking heads got into my brain and it keeps me thinking, what if? Multiple that by a few million Americans and we really do have trouble. Not that I have any answers here, just me spouting off. Lately I've been changing the channel to The Simpson's or The Family Guy at 6:00 o'clock. I think I'll just keep doing that.

I had lunch at our house with a friend from my old Evil Coffee Empire days. She left about the same time I did. She's a full time Mommy now, living over on the peninsula. She brought her boys over for an overnight stay in town. I'd met her oldest when he was a baby and hadn't met the youngest. I wasn't surprised when they both turned out to be very articulate (for their age) young men. It really blew me away how the 7 year old would look me directly in the eyes and talk with such passion about comic books. Not surprising given how smart and wonderful his parents are. What did surprise me was that about 2 minutes after that he and his brother turned into whirling dervishes and careened all over the house, knocking over furniture and scaring the hell out of the dog and cat. I think Miss Lilly spent the night in the goat barn. I sure didn't see her. Don't get me wrong, they're great kids but...I'm sorry NONE of my niece's or nephew's would ever act that way in some one's home. Mom didn't seem to notice anything so I turned the TV on which had the expected result of instant child zombifcation.

My own sister has un-friended me on Facebook.

Sheesh, it's not like I was following her around asking "Can I play too" like the old days. Get over yourself Sis! - Not Really, I know she's only on there to keep tabs on my neice who's there as well. But it will make for great fun at the Christmas dinner table this year, if I can keep my mouth shut until then. "Mom!...."

I ploted out the raised beds on our CAD program at work. Then had major sticker shock at the price of materials. I may still do it, but..well, see above...I've thought about scaling it back but if I have Mr. Jay locked and loaded to perform, er..build it I should probally get it all done at once, we'll see.

As I'm told each Thursday morning:

"We can see the light of Friday, make hay in the sunshine!"

Make Hay In The Sunshine

What a wonderful weekend! It was sunny and clear most of the time, all day on Sunday. I even considered putting on sunblock at one point. We had lots of company. It seemed like there was hardly anytime at all that somebody wasn't at the house. I still haven't picked up a new camera but fortunately my Mom's friend Jane came by and took some pics. Unfortunately it was her back up camera and the snaps aren't the best.







Momma, baby and goatboy.

Our friends Lorrie & JP came and spent Saturday night with us. We didn't do anything but sit around the kitchen table and laugh so that was perfect. At some point during the evening we had been talking about the chickens, then poultry in general. JP and Jay got it into their heads they wanted to raise quail. How they came up with quail is any ones guess. Long story short 100 quail chicks will be shipped to us the week of July 6th. My only request was they build a cote to house them in. It's a scary thing when I end up being the voice of reason. They plan to let them go free. I guess they think the birds will stick around, well see. JP & Lorrie have a place bigger then ours with more woods so they'll take most of the birds. Should be interesting.

I spent a few hours in the front yard with a measuring tape and a bunch of rocks planning where the new raised beds are going. Jay's on board with the concept, now were just quibbling about materials. Jay wants to use those textured cider block things that you get a the Home Depot/Lowes. Their fine but not what I'm going for. Those bricks are great for retaining walls and things but I don't want the first impression of the area to be "Oh, you went to Home Depot". Those bricks are to ubiquitous for me. I want something a little different. The timbers I found also at Home Depot are 8" x 8" buy 8 feet - they've been used before and show it. Their labeled as "retaining wall quality timbers" There nice and chunky and roughed up. They look like they were creosoted (new word?) sometime in the past but it's quite weathered now so I think I should be ok with them not contaminating the soil. I thought it was funny Jay was set on the bricks since it's going to be him lifting most of them. Hah! (not really, I will help...point...supervise...what ever...)

I'm chomping at the bit to get planting in the garden. I bought a couple of those cans of wild flower mix to plant in some of the larger, rougher areas of the yard which are to big to make into proper flower beds. I was all ready to get going on that this weekend until I read on the label to wait for the ground temperature to be 60 degrees. How in the hec do you tell what the ground temp is? Stick a thermometer in it? Guess I'll just wait a month and go for it.

Lolli was busy this weekend too. Please take a listen to my beautiful girls, beautiful voice. She's being backed up by her band Atlantis. She rocks my world!


Hope your all doing good!

Poor neglected blog...

Life had been busy at the farm. Baby is finally now feeding on her own. It's been a long slow process from having to hold Belle immobile while baby nursed to slowly getting her used to the baby nursing on her own. But thankfully it's working. She gaining weight and growing just as she should be. And life can get back to something other then goats 24/7.

It's finally looking and feeling like spring. It so nice to have longer days and not feel like it's almost bedtime as soon as I get home. It's just not quite warm enough to get outside and play yet. I've finally figure out where I want to put my raised beds and now I'm just waiting for Jay to 'buy off' on it. I want to use a part of the driveway/parking area that's directly in front of the house. I want to place the beds in a square with an open place in the middle for benches. Eventually adding trellis to go around it all. It's also close to the water tap and I can get Jay to run irrigation out to it. I think I'll just go and buy the timbers and get things going. Jay hasn't agreed yet but he also hasn't said no either. This is a trick I learned from him. It's hard to stop something already in progress.

Work has been slow and quiet. Not too worrisome as it's normally quiet this time of year. We've had the guys working on the new office so it's almost ready to move into. They'll texture and paint this weekend and the carpet will be layed next week. It's good we had something for the guys to do during the slow time but paying salaries with out money coming in can only last a SHORT while. Two big commercial jobs start next week and that should carry us into summer - thank goodness.

We got our taxes back from the accountant on Monday and were pleasantly surprised that we had in fact saved more than enough to cover them. I was a bit nervous. We need to get better about projecting what they'll be. I don't like that feeling of not knowing. Thinking about that, I just now realised the whole first quarter has gone and we don't even have a plan yet for next year! Eeek!

I really haven't got anything newsie to tell. Things have just been humming along. I wanted to get something posted as I don't normally go for ten days with out a post. I haven't even looked at my google reader for days - I'm sure it's completely out of control. I'll get to that after I get today's paper work done.

Still haven't replaced the camera yet. I just know as soon as I do we'll find the receipt for the broken one. I'll do something about it this week. I don't want to miss any more goatie baby picture moments. I'll post something soon.

Hope your doing good!

B

Nothin Much

We woke up to snow again yesterday morning. Luckily the monster sizes flakes were falling to a ground temperature of about 40* so nothing stuck. Typical weird spring weather here. The afternoon brought lots of wind and gusts. I spent part of the afternoon watching the two Doug Firs that were planted about 15 feet from either side of the house 90+ years ago. They've been trimmed over the years to protect them from high winds but they still really get to moving in a storm. Every time we have a windstorm I think that maybe they should come down. I'd hate to do it but it's better then getting crushed in the house.

A pretty quiet weekend all and all. My Sister is up visiting from Florida and she and my mother stopped by for a while. Aside from that, there weren't too many goat visitors this weekend. The baby is doing good. I think we've settled on the name Silver Moon for the marking on her nose that at first looked like a moon but not so much anymore. She'll probably end up with a weird nick-name like Moonie. She's a feisty little baby and very human socialized. Too much so if you ask me. She's growing and changing quickly just like any baby I suppose. She jumps and spins and tries to head butt. She's also a cuddler, always wants to climb up into your lap. Good, cheap, farmy entertainment I tell you.

I found my new desk on Friday. I'd been looking for weeks. I wanted a plain old wood desk with a center 'pencil' drawer. As easy as it sounds it was tough to find. Most of the used office furniture places now sell pieces of cubicles and apparently the modern worker no longer needs a pencil drawer. The one I found is pretty cool. All wood with a fine grain that I can't identify yet. It's large (huge!) and from the 1940's I'm guessing. At least that's what the drawer pulls and styling look like. I took the big company truck back out to Greenlake today to pick it up. Luckily the store owner was nice and helped me get it loaded up. I would have seriously hurt myself trying to move it on my own. Once I got it back to the new office I took a better look at it. There's something about old furniture that intrigues me. I was hoping this piece would have something lost inside or something unique about it. When I took out the center drawer I found the remnants of tape and a torn corner of an envelope that had been stuck to the bottom of it. I love this kind of stuff. I wonder what was hidden there and what kind of stories my desk could tell?