A short quail tale.

I don't feel like writing about the Quail but I said I would. Well, I'll spare you the whole long story. It's enough to say 100 were ordered, 80 made it to us alive. The numbers dropped precipitously since then and this morning there were 3. I know the post office called the morning they got the package, unlike the last order of chickens, they can't be blamed. Why we lost them all we can't figure out.

What were we going to do with them? I have no idea. I don't why Jay & his buddy ordered them. It's a shame though, poor birds - maybe if the 3 live well try and keep them around as pets.

A job I want:
Kitty corner from our building is the warehouse that stores the Miss Budweiser hydroplane. Two people (seem to) work there. The only thing I've seen happen there so far is these two guys playing their remote control cars in their parking lot. It's not like I'm some over-worked wage slave chained to my desk or anything but jeez guys, wax the boat or something, at least try to look like your working.

From "The list of projects & dreams"
Ok, so now that the office is finished we get to move on to new projects. It's really a pity that Jay can't stand to have nothing to do. We're going our tonight to source material for the new "raised beds" or new garden in what is now part of our driveway. Don't worry there's plenty of driveway to go around. My idea was to build to 'C' shaped raised beds that face each other. Their not going to be "raised beds" really as much as they are really tall, large planters. They'll come up about 28"-32" - tall enough to easily sit on the wall while rooting around in the dirt. Here's a crappy little drawing I sweated over for about 2 minutes to show you.



So the roundy things are the existing trees and shrubs - the two red things in the middle are the planters - they should end up about 4 feet across - leaving a little "room" in the middle will probably have a fountain and a chair/table in it. It's about 10x10 in there - the whole thing is about 24' x 24'. The weird rectangle at the bottom is the side of the house. Hey, I'm NOT a graphic artist, ok? I originally wanted them built out of railroad ties but my contractor (Jay) says that would look too much like a fort ( I shrugs me shoulders & shakes me head) I already ruled out the fakey home depot retaining wall bricks. (I'm sure I posted about this before) So even though timbers would be SO much easier to work with, and I think would look just fine...were going rock shopping tonight - WAA-HOO!!

The best part is Jay is "on the job" so this project isn't destined to end up half done, like one of my projects. (refer to the half painted yellow patio table & chairs or the 1/2 done oil painting for starters...)

Anyway....

It's Friday afternoon, the sun is shining and it looks to be a great weekend. Hope your having fun!

Life in the big city (well, Seattle at least)

I got home last night to a neighborhood swarming with the police. When I turned on to the main road at the bottom of the hill I could see two state patrol cruisers blocking off two streets to the south of us and could hear sirens all around us. About 15 minutes after I got home and was out back with the goats a cop in SWAT tactical gear came around from the front of the house, didn't even hear him pull up. Anyway, he told us they were searching for an escaped rapist that was attempting to hide in the woods around us. I have no idea where he might have escaped from or when or where they rape occurred. He left us with the advice to bring the dog in the house as they were bring in the police dogs. We never heard anything after that - I watched the news and looked in the paper this morning but I can't find any report of the whole thing. It's not the first time I've seen a big police response to something and then never saw a news report - makes you wonder.

THEN! this after noon Jay came into my office and mentioned that he noticed what looked like blood and a hand print in the hen house this morning. I started to give him a hard time about being clueless but then I realized that he really hadn't put two and two together. Anyway - I'm going to check it out when I get home and see if it really looks like a bloody hand print. I'll call the cops if it does. I guess I should be more freaked out about it but I'm not. Well unless it really is a hand print - I'll post an update on what I find -

ANYWAY----

On to something better - Pictures! ok - here's my new office


And the view out my much loved window to the parking lot...



And the other two side of my fish bowl (I kid, it's not bad at all)



Out in the shop...Big Red there needs to go to the dump then he can go back to storage - we only us him once in a while


Down the long hall way - we have 4 office across the back of the building and to big ones above, upstairs


And finally, Jay's office. We'll be working on getting him some big boy furniture soon - Right now it looks pretty funny - the "admins" have office suites, the owners have crap!


Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you about the 100 baby Quail chicks that were delivered yesterday - tiny TINY little peepers.

I'm Back.

Hello there - did ya miss me? I'm alone in the office for the first time since we moved in. The 'owners' have been in the office a lot ever since we moved in. Much more so than the ever were before we moved. Hopefully the new-ness will wear off soon and they'll be back in the field more soon. You can translate that to mean out from under foot too. Or in my office, or just generally in the way. Remember, respect is earned.

Anyway, I'm really liking the new place. It's a great commute for Jay & I. We drop down the hill from home - get on the freeway and go south 1 exit and we're here. The fastest I've clocked it so far is 7 minutes. Now if there was just a grocery store, gas station and post office in between here and there commuting life would be perfect.

I brought Bear into work with me the first few days but the general commotion around here was a little hard for him to deal with. Too many people moving around (to be followed around) and too much activity for him. It was a chore just to get him to settle down and stay put and as soon as I did have him settled someone would come in and start it all over again. On the third morning I was going to bring him in he balked. I was ready to go, picked up my keys and turned to him and said "Ready to go to work?!" He gave me a look, grumble and turned around and went upstairs to crawl back in bed. Well, OK then! We'll try it again sometime son - maybe 1/2 days would be more to his liking. Another issue is he knows the park is just down the road so he associates the shop with going to the park. He's pretty clear with the body language when he's wants to go play. Actually I think he'd rather stay home and see if Nana or an auntie will come play with him. The dog has a better social life than I do.

I brought my camera today to take pics of my office and 'the window' (s), of course the battery is dead - so that will have to wait. My window looks out on our parking lot and the abandon house across the road. It's a strange little neighborhood. Residential and commercial/light industry all throw together. I've walked around mentally trying to date the structures and my best guess is it was a residential area first the came the businesses that crowded them out. There are still some inhabited homes in the mix though. Two of them across the street from our bay doors. Next to us is a family run business that sells ice making machines for restaurants and bars. Very nice people. They had us over for an ice cream social/meet and greet, which was fun, and very nice of them to do.

The abandoned house across from the parking lot is completely over grown with plants, so much so you can barely see the house. It's also home to a large population of cats. There not exactly feral but not exactly tame either. They will come close to me but not close enough to pet. They're all very skinny, or more likely the look how cats are supposed to when not over fed by humans.

The nearby park is Ft. Dent, it's also has the Starfire Sports Center in it. A large soccer/sports complex. The Seattle Sounders practise and play some games there. We can go out our back door and down half a block to the trail by the river that goes into the back side of the park.

Across from the road from ice machine company is one of Odwalla's distribution centers. If you've never tried their juices I highly recommend their plain old straight up orange juice - the best I've ever had - anyway, they have cute drivers and a great product so we'll be cozying up to them given the first opportunity.

Well I'll end this by teling you that we're all fine - just been busy - It was nice to take a little blogging hiatus but I'm back now so I'll blog more soon. It's funny how you can feel torn about blogging. First I didn't write because I didn't have time. Then it seems funny to read blogs will not posting(I know, weird) Then I felt bad for not keeping up with everyone - thank god it all just in my own head!
Sorry for dropping off the planet there for a while.

Goats!

Two good folks asked for goat pics so here they are. Tonight we got to rassle 'em and apply flea stuff. They weren't all that into it. Little Moon can bleat at twice the decibels of her elders. Fun.





Bess, the one with the horns, is pregnant. She's due later this summer.

o.k...the chicks are chickens now, it's time to post :-)

Say's Leann and she's right. Thanks for the kick in the pants friend.

< href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9hi0rqCxqOG1FGcNTFWPE3pgUfwTah_cGI0TPVdc75C2TJE5JevWQh8tmp9hOyx1CbB51agGCisQHuJB2pewkljt7Nvw3W7iTvX80Ls8Uer93b_ihu7dWVHwgWXj_X-A99D9SU4lekwB2/s1600-h/023.JPG">

Well, there not quite chickens yet, more like pullets but I won't quibble.

Hi! Miss me? I have no good excuses, well I do but that would be boring. I've been off enjoying summer and just haven't made the time to blog. We did hire a new guy after trying Craigslist to find help a few weeks ago. Things worked out great in the end but it was kinda funny (funny strange, not funny ha-ha) getting there. I got a good group of resumes to my surprise. I guess I can't be dissing Craigslist so much, well on the other hand...like I said we got a good bunch of resumes and I sorted through them and picked four of the best for the guys to interview. I wasn't surprised who they picked after the interviews as it was the best candidate on paper. (have I told you this already? too lazy to go look so carrying on...) After the interviews I decided to do a little checking online about the candidates and low and behold the guy we picked had a record for sexual misconduct with a minor. He'd been a school teacher right up till the time of his conviction - Eek! - Needless to say we didn;t hire him. BUT! we did hire everyones #2 pick who happens to be a guy about my age, has worked in the industry quite a bit of time, took time away to work in film production as a grip (the handymen of sets and stages) but he and his wife had to gave up the vagabond lifestyle with the arrival of their new twins. Anyhow, the new guy is working out great so far (knock wood) it's only been a couple weeks and he's out on the road on his own and doing a great job.

So...Craigslist? who knew?

I feel somewhat bad for not being around and/or coming by and visiting your blogs, but only somewhat. I'm really enjoying summer and playing in the garden and just generally outside playing until bedtime. I do need to get cracking and get around to see what every ones up to so I'll do that shortly. I'm sure my google reader is at some astronomical # of posts to read.

Having fun in the garden. Jay's run drip irrigation out to the beds I planted earlier. I've got corn, tomatoes, peas, peppers and strawberries all jumbled in with the verbena, daisies, columbine, snap-dragons and roses - I like the jumble. It's kind of wild looking, my idea of an english garden. There an old saying on corn, that it should be "Knee high by the 4th of July" well mine was knee high on June 1st but I guess that won't hurt it any.

Well that's all for now - I'll make my best efforts to not let WEEKS go by with out a post or a visit, but after tending my Facebook 'farm' and the odd email or two I can't resist the CALL OF THE SUNSHINE!

Hope your all doing good.

XOXOBC



This is the sunset last Thursday as a wind storm moved in. It went from 90* to about 80* in less then an hour.

Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep

These little guys showed up in the mail on Monday. This time the shipment didn't go so well. They spent the weekend at the post office and I'm afraid got too cold. We've lost about 1/2 of the order of 25 so far. It's never happened before so I'm blaming the post office for not following the instructions on the side of the box: "Call Recipient" with phone number - idiots. They are currently in the basement in the kindercoop. You have to dance with Miss Lilly to get downstairs now. I swear someone removed the insulation in the basement ceiling. From the living room it's just peep, peep,peep, peep, peep. But it's not really annoying. They are fun to watch.

Had a nice lunch with Fiwa and Mo on Tuesday. We went to the Olive Garden. I'd never been before. The food was good but he restaurant was really noisy - kinda hard to catch up with all the noise. We're planning a crafty-day at my house in the next couple weeks. (the emails coming Mo) anyone else wanna join ? (Anonymous Boxer? I'm looking at you!)

We're needing to hire a service mechanic for the company. I've been using the states unemployment website, Worksource looking for resumes but oddly haven't really found anything yet. You'd think more people would be looking but it's always been hard to find qualified HVAC people. I'd really like to hire a woman but you just don't see resumes just aren't out there. I'd like to hire a woman because I'm tired of dealing with 20-something guys who have never heard of a work ethic. Is that some sort of reverse sex discrimination? Well fine, sue me.

It's bad enough that I broke down and placed an ad on Craigslist, We already have a recruiter who scours the job websites like Monster but we'd rather not pay the premium of going though an agency. I've heard a lot of wild stories from people posting adds on Craigslist and all the crazies it brings out. I posted the ad about 1/2 an our ago so well see if my inbox gets any crazy mail. Maybe I'll post them here if it does.

Rain has been keeping me out of the garden this week. Even though I'm well ahead of my game plan so far this year I still have tons to do. We're suppose to get good weather this weekend so that's where I'll be. Jay's headed to his folks to 'do something' with their fish pond. The 10 to 15 fish we gave them years ago have multiplied to over a hundred and need thinning out. Some will come back to our place and some going to friends with new ponds.

Be good & play well with others.

B

P.S. Hope4grace, if you don't comment I'm going to hold my breath until I turn blue!

My God

I do not find God in the temples of man,

but in the sea, field, forest and sky.

The power of the sun,

the heat of the earth's core,

the energy of the tree and rock

are the same as the spark of life in me.