Christmas

Christmas is over but the New Year isn't here yet. The loot has been tallied, the leftovers are in the fridge and the time of rest has come. Oh, would that that were so. I think I managed about 4 hours of quiet reading the whole weekend.
Christmas Eve was at the Sister-In-Law's. It was a good visit with cousins, nieces and such. There was too much food as usual, so much that some didn't even make it out. It went well.
Christmas Day was a visit with the Websters, my cousins. There was plenty of good food, some of which still didn't make it out. It was a good visit and Matthew greatly added to the entertainment with his Droid phone. If you happen to have a Droid, download the free talking cat app and tap the screen over the kittys crotch. That's good for an hours entertainment right there. More loot, the popcorn is good and I like the tin.
After the Websters left it was off to Christmas Day at the Mother-In-Laws. More good visiting and more loot. The Autobiography of Mark Twain Vol. 1 will take even me a year to read. I hope this isn't a 10 volume set. I'll have to bring in contractors to reinforce the floor. My SIL obviously remembered the cheese plate that I ordered on one of our trips to Las Vegas. The cheese assortment she gave me will be well enjoyed.
Our Christmas meal was excellent, a fine pork roast with mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. A special thanks for the San Pelligrino. I enjoyed that with my meal.
The Tube has been full of adds and commentators whining about Christmas sales being essential to our economy. WeNeedToSpendOurWayBackToProsperity!!!! No, that just isn't important. What's important is celebrating a Birthday with family. That's what's good.
Please don't feel slighted if I didn't mention your gift but given the the amount of loot, it would be tedious to read. Also, why give criminals a list to work from? For our North Carolina readers, Yes I know that Jesus was actually born at a different time of year and the Church just co-opted the pagan holiday of Saturnaila. Just eat your Spam and let the rest of us have fun.
Given the religious nature of the post, I've decided to close with a prayer.
Lord, give me enough snow to trap me on the farm for two weeks so I can enjoy the winter and get some work done but not so much as to take down the electric so I have to run the generator because that's a drag. Amen.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

I guess I should put together a Christmas entry today since I'll be away from the Net for a few days. Life is still accelerating. Stacey has been in continuous cookie mode for weeks. Batch after batch have gone out of the house for various charitable causes. It makes me weep. Those should be MY cookies.
I've finally sorted the sheep. I've had to cull heavily this year as the lambs are getting too small. It was my original plan to breed them down to the size of large rabbits so folks could keep a flock on their front lawn. That way, they wouldn't have to mow and one sheep would make a single meal plus having fine wool for spinning. Alas, there seems to be no support for that idea and I need to grow larger sheep for the Arab market. I've sorted out my larger ewes and I'll probably have to find some more to buy. I could use a new ram too. It's a shame to waste my work on shrinking the sheep as I'm convinced it's utility will be proved in the future. Someday, people will be cutting their lawns with scythes and push mowers and thinking “ If only Jim Laubacher had finished shrinking his sheep, I could be setting on the front porch eating half a sheep instead of sweating my butt off out here.”. They'll pay, yes they will.
I just got my 20 year achievement award from Transcore. This is the longest I've ever worked for any company. Every year for the past few years, I've put in the employee review that my goal is to survive to retirement. My goal remains unchanged. The company gave me a zippered case at five years. At ten, I think it was $50. I chose a little Sony stereo at 15 years. This time, I'm getting a Canon digital camera . The company uses a service that supplies different levels of awards for years worked. I took a look at the 40 year level and it's heavy with mountain bikes and camping equipment. Come on, by that time you need a traction table and a home pharmacy. I think a power chair would be more useful.
The garden is asleep but the seed companies aren't. I got my first catalog before Thanksgiving. I've got to set down and plan for next year. I know I'm going to try and grow more Sweet Dumpling squash. I don't like squash as a vegetable but I'll eat all of those I can get. I think I'll take another shot at watermelons . It worked ok this year and if I can get an early start, maybe I can grow some more yellow watermelons. I may take one more shot at potatoes. So far, it's been a lot of work for little gain but the 'tators are really tasty when they are freshly dug. There has to be a way.
Our Christmas is not surprising this year. Stacey and I both put in about $300 and bought a new computer. We didn't bother wrapping it. Stacey bought me a Hi-Lift jack that I had on my Christmas list. She didn't bother wrapping it either. I did manage to get a couple of gifts wrapped and under the tree for her. I wanted her to have something to unwrap. If any of you in-laws wonder why you don't get much from me at Christmas, it's because Stacey got everything. You should know that by now.
I could write about the books I'm reading or some other nonsense but I'm tired. I'm closing with a picture of some of our leek harvest and a picture of my wife and mistress waiting for me on the couch. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

A Continuance of November

It's been a busy month. Stacey and I went to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra show in the new arena. It's billed as a blend of rock and classical which is pretty accurate . Just imagine Mozart on acid in an 80's metalhead hair band and you've got it. Our seats were close to the stage but unfortunately on the side instead of the front. We missed the effect of some of the electronic displays and were seated a bit close to the flamethrowers. At the end, I thought I could have used a good basting.
Sunday it was off to the opera for The Rake's Progress by Stravinsky. I enjoyed it greatly. It was good to have a comedy for a change. I particularly liked Nick Shadow ( minion of Satan). He was an excellent baritone. Afterwards, we went out to supper with the Mom-in-law.
Most of the month has been given over to preparations for Thanksgiving Dinner. The menu must be decided and then changed . Provisions must be purchased. Mostly, Stacey has to try and get me to clean the house. I don't see the point in starting until a few days before or the cat hair will get too deep. My real duty is to make Helen Lynch's Rolls for the dinner. The family seems to like that.
I had some cousins out this weekend to help on projects that I need more than one person on. We got a new structure up for the rams and some junk out of the basement. I need to clear out some space in the basement for our plucking party the day after Thanksgiving. I'll have the cousins out to help me introduce the meat chickens to the joy of freezer inhabiting. That will reduce my morning stock care by one station at least until I split the sheep up for breeding.
That's about it for now. Soon, I can start praying for blizzards so I'll be trapped and forced to spend my day reading.

Stay, Good Dog!

Dottie the dog is dead. She stopped eating and wasted away. We took her to the vet for tests but she died before the tests were even done. It was surprising that she lived as long as she did. At least 5 times, I was walking out to shoot her and didn't for some reason. I've never had a dog try my patience like that. She had good qualities. She killed woodchucks and usually offered me the back half of the rabbits that she caught. She had a good heart for a dog. I miss her but I don't think I'll have another dog until I retire. We think Dottie was 16. She had a good run.
The garden is still producing a little. The tomatoes are pretty rough but the peppers are still doing well. The leeks need harvesting and there's a nice stand of swiss chard waiting. I hope we can eat the chard before the frost. I still have to dig potatoes.
I'm reading the last book that I bought at the SF convention. Stacey still remains amazed at the speed that I read. She has to struggle so with her dyslexia. If you're interested in a good zombie book, I recommend Feed by Mira Grant. I enjoyed the method of creating the zombies and the fast paced overall action. The Peshawar Lancers by S.M.Sterling was a good read. I guess you could call it semi-Steampunk alternate history. Stacey worries that I'll run out of books and buy more. This isn't a small worry given the increase in price for even a paperback. Fortunately, there are plenty of free book sites on the net. One little chip and I can store a library. It's a bit harder to read on a netbook than on an actual e-reader but it's worth it.
It looks like I'll be driving even more now. We're picking up service work in Detroit, Columbus and Cincinnati. I'll be working close to traffic on all of them. It's not my favorite type of work but I'm still a long way from retirement.
I need to get back to baking bread. I'd still like to be able to make the kind of crusty, chewy loaf that I can buy in the better bakeries. I can make fairly good breads. My challah is pretty decent. I'll probably have to go to a sourdough yeast to get proper flavor. It should make a good winter project.
That's enough for now. I'll be off to Wauseon in a bit to fix a broken speaker. It's a pretty day for a drive.

October

My Precious! My Precious! My computer is back. I accidentally clicked on an update feature and it locked up. I had to send it in to be wiped and get the OS reloaded. I lost my favorites, some books and some useful info as well. I think I need another 8 gig SD chip to back up a bit more data. I'm glad to have the other half of my brain back. Now I won't have to wait a half an hour for the work computer to load.
The garden won't quit. The tomatoes have large green fruit on them again. Another couple of weeks and I'll harvest again. Stacey is praying for a hard freeze. The big yellow bell peppers are still producing. I've been eating them in my lunch mostly to keep Stacey from throwing them at me. She's had just about all the fresh vegetables she can handle.
The steer has gone to freezer camp and good riddance. All he did was complain. The grass wasn't green enough, the hay wasn't good enough and he was bored. Now he's not. We're going to divide him up 3 ways. I've sold 2 shares so we don't have to eat him all ourselves. We've only eaten half of the last one. Oh Woe Is Us! Forced to eat prime beef day after day. I'm certainly not going to mention veganism around Stacey. My life hangs by a thread now.
The pig is stretching again. I figure he'll be ready around January or February. I've got a lot of beef to eat before then if I'm going to have room to store the pork.
The ducks are only alive at this point because I don't have time to butcher them. Half of our chickens are nearly ready to butcher. I've been thinking about butchering a ewe lamb. The Arabs don't want the ewes. Hunting season is on. Maybe I can fit a deer in as well.
Our great adventure this summer was attending Conclave Science Fiction convention this year. It's been about 10 years since the last one and it was good for me to get back among people that seem normal to me. One of my favorite authors, S.M.Sterling , was there and I got to thank him for his work as well as sit down and talk with him. Stacey attended the artist's forums and bought some items in the auction. All the youngsters ( under 40) were off by themselves gaming. The convention was about a quarter of the size of the conventions I remember. Spacetime Theater is still funny but I thought the Bill and Barry Show was a bit lacking. Maybe it was having to use a Guest Barry. I bought a bunch of books and a cd by Leslie Fish.
The motel was easy to get to and the room was nice but the food in the motel restaurant was lacking. There weren't any good restaurants nearby so we ate there anyway. There wasn't much free time.
I should note that the costumes of choice were Steampunk.
We left early Sunday morning around 9:30. I should say early for Stacey. We headed back to Toledo, had breakfast with the Mom-in-law and hung around until it was time to go to the opera.
The opera was Adrianne Auf Nauxos by Strauss. Frankly, it wasn't the most enjoyable opera I've seen. I've come to like opera because of the projected subtitles. They let me know what the actual story is. This was performed half in English and half in German. I could read the subtitles of the German part but there were no subtitles in the English portion. Opera sung English is hard for me to understand. The performers were good and the music was as well. Stacey fell asleep toward the end giving me a chance to taunt her for a change. I'm usually the one that starts snoring during the dull parts.
Well, that was the fun part of the month so far. Now it's back to shoveling manure. Only 12 to 16 more to go to clean out the sheep pen.

#$&%@ *&#$@ !*$%^

No Fulton Co. Fair for us. It happened like this. Labor Day weekend is the S.C.R.A.P. Show. That's the Sandusky Co. Restorers of Antique Power. It's a very large antique tractor show. The vendors have a lot of reproduction parts and there's a wealth of info from the old farmers there. I decided to take in all three days this time and see the fair on a weekday when it wouldn't be so crowded. Saturday went well. I even had time to watch the horse plowing with modern plows. Sunday , we walked around for a bit and then went to Perrysburg for some family time.
Monday was the auction, a chance to buy lots of useful things cheap. This year, it was fence and fenceposts for me. Even though there were four sets of auctioneers going, it would take until nightfall until they finished. I bought some fenceposts and waited until the fence would sell. I had a chair but neglected to bring food. No problem, the auction area was well supplied with food areas. I had a hot dog and a Pepsi. I had a long wait so I had another hot dog and Pepsi. Eventually, I got the fence and had to get the goods loaded up. The loading portion was not well organized. It took an hour just to get to the entrance. We finally got in and started loading. Did I mention that Stacey had purchased 800lbs of shale for her garden?
We were only able to load about half the stuff that night. We got home , I started unloading and began to experience a peculiar form of intestinal distress. I relieved it, felt ok and made it to bed. It seemed cold in the house. I was shivering. Tuesday was a work day and I didn't fell good at all. I had an install to do out in Bryan, Ohio. I just couldn't get started or stray too far from a bathroom. I was exhausted. I decided to rest a bit first. An hour and a half later, I felt ok and started out. I made it as far as Waterville when I realized it wasn't working out. I made it back to Gibsonberg and managed to talk some of the folks there into loading the last roll of fence. I got home and Stacey took my temp. It was a bit over 102 F. By now, I recognized the symptoms as food poisoning.
I had taken Wednesday off to go to the fair. Unfortunately, a family friend had died and his funeral was Wednesday. That took the morning and I wasn't feeling all that great yet, anyway. I rested the rest of the day.
Thursday was the last day of the fair and I had a doctor's appointment at the end of the day in Sandusky, the wrong direction. Actually, my appointment was on Tuesday but one of the effects of food poisoning is a substantial lowering of intelligence. That didn't work. Friday, I thought I was doing pretty well but I was still stupid. By Sunday, I think my mind cleared.
I accomplished some useful work on Sunday but unfortunately it was tomato picking. Stacey turned them into barbecue sauce and ketchup. Judging by the way she looked at me, I think if I bring anymore in that there's a real danger that they will be used as suppositories. One of the pictures show me operating our tomato processor.
The next vegetable to harvest in mass quantity is squash and do we have squash. I think there may be 30 buttercup on one vine. I'm looking forward to the Carnival squash. They are one of the few winter squash that I love to bake and eat. Stacey's big pumpkin is easily over 100lbs.
I've enclosed pictures of the duck house for Emily so she can see the Terry Gilliam influence. There's also a shot of Big Pig and a nice shot of the sheep in pasture. Just to be clear, Big Pig is a supply of future pork products. It's not a pet.

September is still Fair time

September came in to the sound of gunfire. The early goose season has started. I'm getting regular updates from my cousin Matt mostly asking where the geese are. Obviously, they're not near him. Squirrel season is open as well but I doubt I'll get out to hunt for awhile if at all.
We made it to the Wood County Fair and went to the bake goods auction. We bought a great cheesecake and a good chocolate pie. The cost was high but the money goes to the fair. There seems to be fewer animals on exhibit. We had a Pork-O-Lean sandwich, walked around for a while and headed back home for pie.
We had a great time at the Sandusky County Fair. The weather was perfect and the exhibits were excellent. We had our rib-eye sandwiches and rode the Scrambler. We try to ride the Scrambler every Sandusky County Fair. We rode the Scrambler there about 17 years ago and I decided I loved Stacey and proposed to her the next day. I suppose I should have taken into account possible brain damage related to the ride but it's worked for 16 years so far .
Canning is at a temporary halt. The last bushel (photo included) just about did Stacey in. I had to give the last bushel to Matt. I wasn't encouraged to bring ANY tomatoes into the house for awhile. The gardens are producing a few table grade tomatoes now, enough for hamburgers and such. The strawberry tomatoes are producing well now. That keeps Stacey happy. She cuts them in half, scoops out the little seed pocket and packs fresh mozzarella in it , topping it with a bit of onion. She snacks on those through the day.
Peppers are kicking in and the scallop squash are doing well. The winter squash are getting scary. The buttercup has maybe 50 squash on it and most are pretty big. The carnival squash is doing great. I should have plenty of those. Stacey's giant pumpkin is performing as advertised. It's huge and still yellow. I think it will go over 100 lbs. We've been eating watermelon from our garden and it's good. I've got a rattlesnake melon out there still growing. I hope I get to eat it while it's still warm out .
We've bought anther tractor. It's a 1952 Ford 8N that came with a bunch of equipment. I kept trying to find a pull-type plow for my H and they just aren't available. This is a small tractor but it's equipped with a 3 point hitch so I can use modern equipment. I'll see if I can make better use of the back of the farm.
The Sandusky County Antique Power Restorers show is this weekend. They'll will probably have a hundred plows I can use.
The Fulton County Fair starts this weekend. This is the county fair that more people attend than the state fair. I can taste the butterflied pork chop sandwiches now. I'll see you there.