I’m On It, Mama

Posted on July 21, 2009 by Frog

I just ran out the door to break up a showdown between a stray black cat and a baby turkey. As I sprung into action, I told the mother turkey that I was on it and I made a beeline out the door at super-sonic speeds to chase that cat. The mother turkey barely moved as she watched where her poult flew. Then she kept up her clucking until the poult answered. Not once did she appear to care that a crazy woman just ran outside to chase the cat. She was very focused on her baby.

We’ve been watching two hens and their poults over the summer. Here’s one hen with both of the young poults:

Just recently a third female has appeared with her poult. The three mothers travel together and the third mother always lags behind because her poult’s legs are so much shorter than the others.

And, that damn cat hangs around but doesn’t want to be friendly or take a food hand-out. Now he’s on my list for sure. Don’t mess with my girls!

I didn’t get a picture of the littlest poult today, but it is at least two weeks old because they can’t fly before that time. That little poult flew into the woods and the cat took off for points unknown. I stood there looking worried.

Here’s mama looking around for predators. She had started to cluck by this time so I knew she was worried about something:

Posted in Watching | 2 Comments

The Cucumber Battle is Over (almost)

Posted on July 18, 2009 by Frog

I just yelled upstairs that aside from three slices of cucumber that I was in the process of eating that all of the cucumbers have been processed. The better-half wasn’t very enthusiastic. So I walked upstairs and said it again. He managed to give me an atta-girl. When he tastes my pickles, he’ll be more thrilled.

In an hour I will finish making refrigerator pickles with the cucumbers that are now soaking in salt and when I’m done with that, I’ll move the bread and butter pickles I just canned to the dining room to cool off.

Tomorrow, I’m going to process every last zucchini and squash that’s currently picked. I can’t promise that every last one will be eaten or frozen tomorrow because as soon as you stop looking at the plants they shoot out 75 squash, apiece.

The yukon gold potatoes we picked last week are not exactly beauty queens but they are tasty and those mothers are going to be blanched and frozen too. I will be exhausted but the kitchen counters, refrigerator crispers and garage floor will be ours again. At least until Monday.

Posted in Eating, Gardening | Comments Off

He just gets better with age

Posted on July 17, 2009 by Frog

Here’s a link to an article written by Jimmy Carter about why he broke ties with the Southern Baptist Convention.

I encourage you to read it as it is well written and carefully lays out the reasons why gender equality is very important for how we will move forward as a people. Or better yet, as a species (so no one gets hung up on geographical, political or religious lines).

Posted in Reading | Comments Off

Pink Floyd Can Make It All Better

Posted on July 15, 2009 by Frog

When I was a junior in college I got into Pink Floyd. I may have been interested in them before then, but that year I wore out Delicate Sound of Thunder. It helped me make friends with the boys who lived on the floor below mine. They were awkwardly geeky too and consequently we spent some Saturday nights wallowing in our misery together listening to Pink Floyd and drinking beer. They both eventually found girlfriends and I kept up my acquaintance with David Gilmour and company.

I first heard this song today and immediately thought about how listening to the Dark Side of the Moon might be just the thing to help a friend get over what needs getting over:

Posted in Listening | Comments Off

Open Letter to Office Workers

Posted on July 13, 2009 by Frog

Stop using your speaker phone to bitch at your husband. I can go the rest of my life without hearing you nag him.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | Comments Off

I Have Apologized

Posted on July 11, 2009 by Frog

Monday afternoon there was a sudden break in my health and by sudden I mean an hour or even a half hour before I was OK, then my nose was runny. It doesn’t matter how quickly I act to stop a cold or an overactive sinus dealy from getting out of control, the damage has been done. I’ve spent most of the week either evacuating massive quantities of snot out of my head or hacking up a lung. Great visual, I’m sure. The worst part has been at night when I spend hours coughing and not sleeping. The better-half has been sleeping in the guest room all week. I should mention that the coughing sounds like a dog barking–it’s loud and guttural. It’s also highly annoying for me and whomever might be around.

Yesterday I left work two hours early so I could take a nap. I figured all my work was done for the week and there was no sense staying at the office to annoy the few folks who were actually trying to work. I ended up sleeping for 1 1/2 hours. That’s a serious nap for me as I’m more of a cat napper.

Last night was so horrible and I won’t bore you with how productive my coughs were, but when I got up this morning, I apologized to the universe for whatever I’d done to piss it off. As if coughing all night wasn’t bad enough, the phone rang at 7:45. Seriously, what is wrong with people that calling my house at that time on a Saturday morning is OK? Furthermore, I was just out in a lounge chair hoping to catch some sleep when a big horsefly buzzed my lip. That’s a sure sign that I’m not quite forgiven and I need to go process some zucchini to pay my penance.

Posted in Gardening, Generic Thoughts | 3 Comments

What if the void actually talked back?

Posted on July 7, 2009 by Frog

Do you ever feel like you are just talking into the void?

will it answer

will it answer?

I feel that way on a fairly consistent basis at work. I ask questions and off they go skittering into the void. How many times should you follow up when no one wants to answer your questions?

Posted in Thinking | Comments Off

Vegetables Overload

Posted on June 30, 2009 by Frog

Sunday we spent most of the day either working in the garden or putting up food like good little pioneers.

This year we took a tip and planted basil plants next to each squash or zucchini plant to ward off the evil eye and other pests. It seems to be doing the job because we’ve never had much luck with squash and this year we’re in overload mode. Which is a good thing.

Sunday we had Squash with Pesto. I made the base for the pesto late last summer and froze it. Sunday morning I took it out of the freezer and then quickly added the garlic and cheese just before dinner. Awesome and amazing.

Last night we had a light dinner of squash and rosemary soup. I took a lesson from Cafe Rustica and grilled some crusty bread and that was it for our meal. We finished dinner with a helping of blackberries from our garden.

It’s a lot of work and we’re not sure that we’re saving any money by growing so much food this year, but it sure is delicious. And, I’ll probably have a totally different perspective in the middle of winter as we tuck into a canned or frozen package of vegetables. I won’t remember all the hard work, just how good it tastes.

Posted in Eating, Gardening | 1 Comment

You’re such a beautiful freak/I bet you are flying inside

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Frog

MJ, thank you for the music and the loads of conversations you’ve inspired over the years.

As you can guess, the King of Pop doesn’t let his videos go for free. You’ll have to click to see.

Posted in Listening | 2 Comments

Life Support

Posted on June 25, 2009 by Frog

It’s a good thing that no one lives or dies if I don’t post. I have no idea what happened during the last five days but apparently making sure I had something to write about wasn’t on my priority list.

I felt like crap at the beginning of the week and had to endure stupid training (really, we’re so overqualified for what we were trained on that it was a joke). I was more frank than usual in training because of feeling like crap which won points with my rabble-rousing co-workers. I had some gastro thing and who knew the best way to completely solve that problem is to eat a cheeseburger, fries, onion rings and swill down a vanilla and chocolate shake. Seriously, felt off and on like crap until yesterday’s lunch of total junk food. It’s a miracle diet plan.

We’ve been keeping up with the garden and this weekend I have to can or freeze food or the vegetables will stand up and walk out of the house. We picked all of the turnips the other day and while they are small they are plenty. We’ve already eaten some of them and they are quite delicious. The green beans have gone insane and we’re going to plant more! Because we’re nuts. The squash and zucchini just won’t quit and we’ve been eating them but there’s only so many two people can eat in a week.

Only 7 weeks until vacation! Jeez when you say it like that it feels like that week will never get here.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 1 Comment