How quickly time flies, no matter the measurement. In terms of photos, 500 apparently comes very quickly, less than a year's time. Who thought I was a shutterbug.
After some consternation, I did figure out how to import my second slide show on this blog, so if you are a regular reader, subscriber, or the occasional browser who happens onto this blog (my principal loves it; she says the llamas always make her laugh), you will notice a second slide show. Welcome to Learning Llamas Part 2. Here come the next 500.
Some businesses actually live their motto, and Ag Fence is one of them. I would link to them, but cannot find them on the internet. No matter; they are busy year round and work in states north and south of us. You would know why if you saw their work. Their teams have worked together for years, and once you get a team, that's the team that returns to do your additional work, or so has been the case for us. A few weeks ago, Et Cetera (in the foreground) got out of our fencing, we think because it was not electrified, and because in some places--because of the hilly terrain--there is space to sneak out underneath. Not any longer; Ag Fence installed a 6th wire, also electrified, and yes, I have the electric fence turned on. When you are chasing a llama, you do not stop to take a picture, but here is the guilty culprit, and the reason why we called the crew back. Well, at least one reason.
The other reason was a health and safety issue. My very practical husband decided that some seasons could provide more challenge than others for getting equipment from the upper to lower barn area. Challenging because there is a steep drop coming down the hill, if you do not navigate it properly. Think icy winters, wet springs. Think no farther; Mickey to the rescue. He had them install a guard rail fence, and it is utilitarian yet attractive, and strong enough to stop a truck. Considering the equipment designated for the new barn in about 2 weeks, I think the fence is timely and needed. The diameter of the posts is the largest I've ever seen in fencing, and are spaced 4 feet apart for over 130 feet, so I feel safer already.
Still, one thing leads to another, and before winter's onset, if we beat the weather clock, we still have more excavating to do. If not, there's always spring. Farm work and projects never end. Perhaps that's what I love the most. Like teaching, you catch up for 15 seconds before falling behind again.
One final bonus of the day's work (the crew arrived at 7:15 and left before noon--they do work fast and well) was getting the dock fixed for winter. Well, partially fixed. Come spring--this mantra is starting to sound familiar--we'll get them back to lift the piece off again, and pour concrete to stabilize the dock. Erosion has taken its toll, with water running off from the number 2 farm which is higher ground, over to the number 1 farm where we live. We get all the run-off, and despite many initiatives, we still get seasonal erosion.
Hopefully the spring fix will eliminate this problem permanently. And, as Mickey would say, all of this for some llamas, when the market for them has dropped dramatically. Lucky for me, the girls are a hobby, and if I never sell one, I'll be absolutely A-OK with that.
If you take a close look, I finally have Mickey where I want him, marooned on the dock without a passageway. He did a cat walk on some 2 x 4s, or maybe 4 x 4s, but he made it back to the "mainland." Loved the moment. Am I "wicked bad" (love this expression, Morgan)? Don't answer.
Ever wonder if place contributes to the joy of a holiday? While I have always believed that it is truly the people that make a holiday wonderful, over the years the location has become important to me. Perhaps that is why we do so many holidays, only this year I made an important decision: I would do Thanksgiving for the families but not Christmas. That resolve did not last long, however, since if I want to see my children, I will be yet again hosting the holiday. But I am considering taking it to a lovely restaurant for the dining segment only. Years ago I did that, and it was nice but not the same. So, place matters, and for me, nothing is more beautiful than a country holiday.
A restaurant, however charming, cannot replicate the feeling of being home. Still, at least for now, after a busy "vacation" that did not seem restful, I may make the move for dining out and desert and Christmas at home. What would the holiday be without life on the farm, "the girls" and just being out and about in the country landscape, especially for city grandchildren. We'll see, and only time and health will tell the final outcome. I'll let you know. For now, I am thankful that I could handle yet another year, although I suspect it is coming time to pass the mantle. Country Thanksgiving Thanksgiving The Farm Llamas Agriculture Farm Life Free tag generator
If you love animals, then you understand the magic of sharing your life with them. On this very special day, I am thankful for more things than I can list, so I'll just focus on two: life and love. On July 5, five lab coats entered a small medical triage room and told me I should put my life in order. I was alone when the coats gave me the test results and admitted me to the hospital. Long story short: the diagnosis was wrong, but it was not until September that I knew for certain. In those intervening months, I saw life differently, grateful that I have always lived it on my own terms, blessed with love.
"The Girls" -- our llamas -- are back from the breeder, and two of the four are pregnant, Ciarra and Rev. For the first time in months, the barn has a full house, and as first light dawned this morning, shrouded in a thicket of fog, I knew in a Lawrencian way that we had come home. A very special and blessed HAPPY THANKSGIVING to our families and friends whom we hold so dear.
Sadly, the llama community is losing a stellar team of breeders who have been in this business for many years. Their breeding program has seriously impacted and improved the llama industry at a national (and perhaps global--I am still too much a newcomer to know) level. Having sold their herd, the owners of Berry Acres Llamas (please view the slide show on their blog--exquisite images) are now selling 25 years of accumulated farm and llama-related items. Their magnificent property is also for sale. You can view a list of items for auction here.
If you read spy novels, you have learned to read the tell of characters that people your fictional worlds. If you know me well, you can read the tells that my life is raging beyond bounds: clutter abounds and I do not get to blog. Piles strewn, like mental labyrinths, can be navigated, but nothing compensates for a stockpile of posts piling like leaves, needing collection. So it is that this post is a retrospective, something that happened last weekend. It was an event, and it had that look.
The notion of that look has morphed through time. Younger and thinner, I had that look, and walking through Hess's, I was often mistaken for a model. Grand fun. My mother loved every minute. Then, as you move through life, that look becomes a child's face on the moment of crumbling into something that will keep you up nights. That look on Cierra's face, poking out through the plastic sheets, had the tell. She was there, but somehow I knew Et Cetera was not. A mother's instinct easily transfers to animals, so I got on the golf cart determined to see if the fence was breached. Not. Then I saw her, in the middle of an alfalfa field, munching, determined not be to be lured. Long story short: when you have only you to count on, you pray to God and your favorite saint to give you that one chance you have to catch the wayward one. Prayers answered and Et Cetera rewarded with more grain than she deserved, but safely home.
Now we use the electric fence, which I hate but see as necessary. Still I am haunted about how she escaped. Next Friday we are adding a bottom row of fencing, and before the birth of our first cria, two things will happen: we WILL turn the electric fence off, and we WILL install a containment fence on the outside perimeter of our first fence. I have relearned how there are no sure things in life, just those things on which you hang your hopes and dreams, and you do what is necessary to insure their safety.
You well might wonder why I would put a screen capturesoftware post on my llama blog, but let me show you why. If, like me, you love llamas and are a bit of a tech geek, you are always looking for new ways to showcase your farm, llamas, breeding program. When you divide your life among school, the farm, and the computer, I can think of no better way to comgine all three than with SnagIt. You will want to watch the overview of SnagIt that I provided in the post below (just click the link) and you will begin to see why SnagIt is a great way to promote your business, or in my case, at least right now, my avocation.
I was given an invitation to preview and promote SnagIt Screen Capture, and let me tell you, I like it. Last year, two of my students, Megan Heverly and Mark Attilio used SnagIt to create a composite of the 21st century learning they did for two years in our English classroom. Then, Heverly and Attilio were asked to present at Carbon-Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21 at a CFF Technology Showcase on April 9, 2009. SHS Students Are Tech Savvy was the title of Heverly's blog post, and you can view the video they made with SnagIt and then imported to Vimeo for embeddable code.
While SnagIt works on PCs and our school uses Macs, most of us go home, like me, to a PC that I love and use. So, for those of you who use PCs, SnagIt just might be your ticket for a wonderful way to snag your desktop and make your next great video tutorial for your students or just capture daily life in snapshots that you want to showcase differently. For a great quick overview of SnagIt, click this link.
Actually, letter might be a misnomer, but I think of it this way, as an abridgment of sorts. My husband and I agree on many things, even on farm issues, but we differ on one. Organic. He argues that the organic does not mean not sprayed. Rather, it means sprayed, and often with something deadlier than the non-organic cousins. Or, if truly not sprayed, you get a product that resembles our very organic apple. This apple comes from a tree that has NEVER been sprayed. The tree itself is approximately 50 years old, still a high producer. My husband's point: when cut open, worms and all, would you really want to eat it. Or even around it.
Feeling like I am riding the horns of a dilemma, I know there is no perfect answer. Here's what I have tried. We sprayed gently this year, only 4 times, instead of every two or three weeks, and used our llama leavings for fertilizer. We had a bumper crop of apples, pears, and cherries in our stamp orchard, but not without an occasional worm or two with the pear harvest. Apples were fine with limited spraying, and all the fruit seemed to survive the summer deluge, although there is no fall foilage worth viewing.
We will never resolve the differences in our approach to how to farm, but each year we make inroads to a greener, more eco-friendly farm, and that is enough for now.
Something about Sunday mornings recharges me. Perhaps it's finding frost on my llamas when I meet and greet them with molasses and grain treats (alas, no photos because the first frost dissipated before I could get down to the house, find, the camera, charge the battery, and trudge back up the hill). Likely it's having some stolen time to myself before we trek off for a 200+ mile ride to a place time forgot. Or maybe because I get to blog with a cat on my lap and a dog at my side while my husband sleeps in. Revisiting Ferris Buhler's Day Offas background to whatever I'm doing in that moment; what is it about some inane movies that we love...maybe the tag line: "While the rest of us were just thinking about it...Ferris borrowed a Ferrari and did it...all in a day. The kid in me still...
A Skype videoconference that wasn't (MAC dead and forgot the power cord; PC too old to have built-in microphone) ruptures the Sunday calm. Guess "my time" works only if I change my settings for my PLNs. In between skyping and Ferris, the cat left but the dog stayed. Train of thought changed. Technology is not always my friend.
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