The Ghosts

 

Of tender house plants haunt the yard.

Mack barks frantically at the last of the Norfolk Island pines, shrouded in rose-studded white sheets and a length of gauzy red fabric. It's kinda tall and scary.

We brought the other big one in last night.

The little yellow cherry tomato huddles under a thin blue blanket, still making sugar bombs of cozy gold that never, ever, make it into the house before they are eaten.

Brrr.....

Ghosts of Ian sent us strangely brilliant, odd white clouds the other day. I couldn't stop looking up, except when accompanying rain showers were shivering down.

The ghost of summer past left behind its shawl of rich and satisfying purple asters and brilliant goldenrod for our enjoyment...if only it wasn't a reminder of what's to come...

And the ghost of my dad visited me the other night in a haunting dreamscape made of what their house is really like and of cold, lonely farm houses we lived in over the years before they bought it.

He was wearing a blue plaid summer shirt he liked that I wear now because I like it too and it reminds me of him. He warned me that we weren't charging enough for the Collier's Weeklies they left behind and started to help me price some other things around the house.

Then the boys came and he vanished and they thought I was a little crazy.

Until we went upstairs and found a piece of ghostly furniture, surrounded by piles of sawdust and wood curls where he had been working a favorite craft again. The haunting scent of pinewood filled the air.

Gifts from my Father

A close look inside the one Becky chose. Do click for added detail

We took a little Christmas to Mom and Dad yesterday, fruits, nuts, a few cookies and candy canes......

While we were there I was admiring some Herkimer Diamonds Dad had in a container on the table.

He offered me and Becky the chance to choose a few and it was impossible to resist. I do love rocks, stones, minerals, and particularly lovely shiny crystals like these. Guess it's the magpie in me.

I have wonderful memories of collecting these with Mom and Dad, of chaperoning school trips to do the same, and digging with my younger brother too. Finding them is at least half the fun. Thanks, Dad!

Silver with a Splash of Red

Brrrrrrrrr

Having a welcome spell of cold, dry weather..well, the cold isn't all that welcome, but the dry surely is. Still the boss got badly and serially stuck in the mud the other day trying to chop the last of the forages, so that is not so good. Sunrises are pretty anyhow. Pic above was taken at dawn and only cropped a little. It was still too dark to tell who the heifer is, but she looks kind of chilly.

Every morning every twig and blade of grass is frosted silver; every footprint leaves a trail across the yard and every kitty stands out like a stop sign. They are quite entertaining when they try to drink from the garden pond, which is skimmed with ice these days. It is just thin enough to dampen their paws and they don't think much of that.

Opening day of the southern deer season here. I expect plenty of fallout from that, especially with only the boss home these days to keep an eye on things. We're feeding the stock in the close pasture this morning instead of letting them up in back. Never can be sure that some folks can tell golden Jersey cows from brown white-tails. Oh, well.....

Missing our boy quite a lot even though he is living home....sort of...he is working a job that calls for six ten-hour days a week, welcome in terms of having a job while so many don't, but he comes home at night, staggers to bed and is gone before we get up in the morning.

And now he has to work Sundays too, making for weeks rivaling farming in the summertime, only spent somewhere else. I'm glad he has work though and not getting the hours cut or anything.

Finally got some bird seed yesterday, although I haven't put it out yet. Still, I was cleaning Nick's crate...old age is causing accidents...and a glorious male cardinal came so close to the office window I could look right into his eyes. He seemed wild and yet as warm and friendly as a pair of wool socks. Of course when I grabbed the camera he broke off our staring match and pumped off across the frosty yard, but what a delight.

Today is Dad's birthday, if you see him, wish him a happy....Happy Birthday from all of us dad, love you.

And this story made my morning. Go, read, laugh, and celebrate the Second Amendment.

HT, Jeff at Alphecca

Weekending at the Movies

And at the rehab hospital. Got to see mom and dad yesterday. Dad seems to be doing great and it was so wonderful to visit and talk with him. Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers.

Also finally got to see The Big Year. It was only released on a limited basis locally so we missed it in the theater. 

I am not much of a movie goer, but I knew I wanted to see this story about three birders doing simultaneous big years, especially after reviews came in from other birders and they were kind....heck, they were downright glowing.

Anyhoo, I bought myself the DVD, something I haven't done since Cats came out, believe it or not, and we watched it Saturday. I gotta tell you, it is worth buying if for nothing more than the bald eagle mating scene, but in fact it is a good enough movie that all four of us, including the boss, who isn't exactly a bird man, watched it, and were truly enthralled.

The scenery...ah, the scenery was breathtaking. Finding the big birds was so cool; the Code 4s and 5s gave me cold chills. (Alan says we should do one, a big year that is, he seems to have missed that we are neither rich nor anywhere near expert enough for such as that, but you gotta love him for the enthusiasm. He is seeing life birds all the time down there where the big rivers meet the Atlantic ocean and I am green with envy. I have only had two lifers in about the past decade.)

Mainstream reviewers butchered this movie and killed it completely at the box office, which I suppose should have been my first clue that I was going to love it.....

I really didn't expect to love it so much though. I expected to cringe at the humor style of Jack Black and Steve Martin as they pursued my favorite pastime. I thought they would mock birding and the slightly off-center sort of folks who get all excited when they see crows mobbing an accipiter in the the rehab hospital parking lot.

 I didn't because they didn't. They captured the madness that is birding, without mocking it too much, and made me smile a lot. There were a few sticky moments where you expected to be plunged into painful embarrassment at the characters' behavior, but most were redeemed before they got too hurtful. If you get a chance, rent it or buy it...I envy you the opportunity to see it for the first time...

I stuck the DVD in my laptop yesterday and watched the whole thing over again and wished for more. I had never heard of Himalayan snow cocks, Xantus hummingbirds, or several of the other birds...I wanted to imagine them again, and to watch those eagles.....

Last Year's Weather

Northstar, a name the calf graduate, all grown up

Is still hanging around biting everybody right...well you know where. Even though we are enjoying this long spell of warmer than normal weather, what happened last summer is having lasting ramifications for farmers and ranchers from the southern borderlands to the far, far north.


Nobody has feed...well, some folks do, but there are a lot of shortages and staggeringly high prices for what is out there. We are about out of haylage, maybe a couple of days worth left, and buying round bales...spring and green grass can't come soon enough for me!


The guy we buy our crop seeds from called the other night...talked to the boss for quite a while. He wanted to give us a heads up that the seed we buy from him will nearly double in price for this year...drought in Texas wiped out most of the seed crop. He is big, successful farmer but he will be out of feed soon and told of dozens of customers who are feeding out their last bits. He thinks a lot of folks who have bought from him for a long while won't be in business this summer.


And yet, the big players are still manipulating the CME, while the milk to feed ratio drops like a rock. I am sure somebody will still be making milk come spring...the Chinese are buying dairies in New Zealand so their farmers can be trained how to do it right (first clue...leave out the melamine...it tends to kill people.) 


China has also become the world's number one nation for feed grain and oil seed production and yet they are still huge importers of food products and feeds....and ammunition or so they say.....


***Dad update. It has been a really tough haul for Dad and for Mom, who has been an amazing trouper through it all, but yesterday she reported solid progress. He is in rehab now and is doing stairs and getting around without the walker. Your prayers have been appreciated more than you could possibly imagine...thank you!

No News is Good News

I hope at least. Haven't heard how Dad is doing yet today, but he came through surgery all right.
Thank you all for your prayers. 


I KNOW they helped.


 Hope you will continue to keep him in your conversations with the Almighty as we will be doing here at home. 

The Bluebird

I was worrying yesterday on several fronts, family illness, frozen stuff, stuff that is going to freeze if that stove doesn't hurry back from Wisconsin, and just in general because it is my nature. I am a gloomy cuss especially in winter. 


Went into the parlor, which is where I dry my laundry on laundry bars....a slow process without the furnace.


I was dismayed to see that some geraniums I started from seed last spring are pretty frost bitten around the edges. Was debating whether to move them out into the living room or just let them go and start new next spring. 


Suddenly there was a bright flash outside the window.


The mockingbird.


 Mobbing somebody who dared trespass on his hallowed territory, which takes in the long lawn, the entire driveway, the field below the driveway, the other side of the house and pretty near any place he feels like being a tough guy.


 I paused to watch and there it was...a lovely bluebird perched in the little poplar by the driveway. It hunkered down a bit under the mocker's onslaught, but you could tell it wasn't daunted by all the flare and flash. My heart flew with it as it pumped its wings on down to the sumacs.


That's my daddy's bluebird there. It came to tell me to be hopeful and prayerful and positive and that he is okay at least this time. Love you dad.

This morning I am dragging plants out of the parlor and putting them wherever I can find a spot. It may look kind of funny to folks who visit, but it is just too cold for them in the unheated parlor.

Mom

I know I have written a lot about my dad's influence on the direction of my life...it has been great and significant and I love him for it. (BTW he is facing a serious health issue right now and your prayers would be much appreciated.)

However, I don't think I have ever said enough about my mom. Her influence was different. Rather than leading us to who we were going to be, she saw who we already were and supported us in our directions...helped us become who we needed to be.

Christmas was a big time for that. Mom always loved Christmas. I shudder to imagine how hard she had to look to find middle brother that first guitar...but he was and is and always will be a music guy and she helped him on his way there...didn't say too much...didn't take any bows for her cleverness, just did it.

And when we were small she worked at Sears. Thus, the natural sciences kid...that was me...got a microscope and dissecting kit one Christmas (along with life-sized ready to paint bird models...gold finch for me and barn swallow for brother I think.)

I can remember the kitchen table at the old house on 5S (another frigid farm house like this one where we learned all about cold too)with all that stuff spread out all over, probably making a huge mess that someone else (mom no doubt) had to clean up.

I can't remember which critter I dissected first...sloppy job, hadn't a clue...or what we peered at through that microscope...but they were part of a wide open door to today and meant a lot to me. And when it came time in college to dissect this and that I was the only girl in the class not bothered (of course working for a veterinarian from the time I was fifteen may have had something to do with that too.)

It was always thus. Mom did try a few dolls on me. Barbie mine rode Michael's race cars down the ramp in the garage. But mostly she got the whole horse thing and I had dozens of plastic ones to love.

I guess if dad was the rock star of our youth, then mom was the back up singer....and ever the rock...where we all were anchored. Love you mom and dad...hope everything turns out fine and happy.