Sunday, March 30, 2008

Sad

My goat finally kidded on Friday. Two perfect little baby does. They were vigorous and seemed to be nursing well. They did fine with the temperature Friday night and were fine all day yesterday. This morning when I went out to feed and check on everyone, both kids were dead.
Poor mama goat was so sad. She kept licking them, trying to make them get up and nurse.

For a few minutes I sat with the babies on my lap and just keened. Its so unfair.

Yeah, yeah, shit happens and life isn't fair and all that, but I wish the Universe would cut me a break for awhile.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Happy Ostara

In the pagan calender, its the festival of Ostara today. I plan to make crepes with my fresh chicken eggs and eat chocolate bunnies with my family this weekend.

Happy Holidays all.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Really Slow Food

I'm sugaring this week. This involves tapping some 20 or so trees, collecting a gallon of sap, give or take, from each tree daily and boiling it down to 1/32 of its original volume. Out of 15 gallons of sap yesterday, I got a little less than a quart of syrup. Liquid gold!

Its peaceful. Just me and the dog watching water boil. For eight hours or so.

We got the meat from our goat last week--it needs to hang for 10 days like lamb does, so when you take it to the slaughter house, you don't actually get it back for at least two weeks. Add the time it takes to raise the kid to market weight and you actually end up with the better part of a year before you can have your chevon. But I just made the BEST dumplings out of the ground meat.

Almost all the chickens have started laying again. Lovely brown eggs with intense yellow yolks.

I love spring.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

What the heck is a dramady?

Alec Baldwin is making a comedy.

About Lyme disease.

I don't know whether to be confused, amused, or appalled.

Okay, perhaps its one of those gallows humor types of things where the humor is used to help deal with the true awfulness of the affliction. Sort of MASH type humor. Or Heathers (Yeah, I'm old)

I don't care much for comedies except the very blackest anyway (this is common among EMT's).

Unfortunately I don't have that much hope or trust. Here's a synopsis I found:

A retro piece taking place in late '70s Long Island, the coming-of-age project focuses on "two families who fall apart when precarious relationships, real estate problems, and Lyme disease converge in the heart of suburbia."

I dunno, it sounds a little tacky to me. I fear that Lyme disease will be treated as either a bad cold or as a hypochondriacal complaint.

Lest you think me too sensitive, replace the phrase Lyme disease with the word Cancer and see how that sentence reads:

A retro piece taking place in late '70s Long Island, the coming-of-age project focuses on "two families who fall apart when precarious relationships, real estate problems, and Cancer converge in the heart of suburbia."

Yeah, that sounds pretty tacky.

Book review

Just got through reading my husbands advance review copy of James Kunstler's A World Made By Hand

Tip: Do not read this book before grocery shopping. You will find yourself wondering if 500lbs of flour is enough.

The book gives a very realistic picture of what happens when the forces of global warming, pandemic flu and peak oil converge. Not a pretty sight. And its set very close to here, so I know all the towns he's talking about.

I wouldn't call it post apocalyptic, because unlike, say, post nuclear novels, there is no one single event that brings civilization down. There's more of a relentless chipping away at what holds society up and together.

Kunstler's non-fictional The Long Emergency predicts this scenario and his novel just runs with the concept. Whether or not you believe in Peak Oil (although with oil running at $100 a barrel, it looks a lot more likely), you'll find that Kunstler tells a fine story.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Nice trip

Hubby was out of town this week and the kids had the week off. Took the kids to The Great Escape Lodge this week for an overnight vacation trip. It was fun. We spent some time swimming and some time playing in the arcade.

I'm pleased that I had the stamina to make the trip myself and spend time with my kids. I even had a go on some of the water slides myself. It seems that I continue to improve.