A New Year

It's been awhile... I've been away from the blogworld for a month or two now... usually Buck wakes up from his nap as soon as I sit down to type, so we'll see how this post goes...

Things are happening around here, though, and I don't have pictures of all of it, so here is a brief summary of the last month or so:

-Buck is now crawling and eating! He is into everything, like a good baby should be! He has the bumps on his head to prove it.

He had his first taste of bacon this morning and I'm happy to say that he loved it and whined until we gave him more. Just like mama!

He's big enough now to use his little potty-- as you can see!


-The chicks from my September post are now all grown up and in with the older chickens. Phoenix's feet continue to look healthy.
One of the hens has turned out to be a rooster, and he is beautiful. I'll try to post a picture of "Red Cloud's Revenge" soon. (Red Cloud was our first rooster, who was killed in the Great Chicken Massacre of Ought-Six)

-My dear bunny, Castro, died unexpectedly two weeks ago. We buried him under the butterfly bush and beside his friend, Mr. Rextopher Bun, who died last winter about this same time. So now we are bunniless. :(

-The day after Castro died, one of the Ameraucanas got out of the pen and was attacked by Honey and Murdock. We thought for sure she was a goner, but she's still kicking, two weeks later. Her right leg was badly broken and she had major wounds on her back end. We managed to keep infection at bay with twice-daily cleanings and application of triple antibiotic ointment. We borrowed the ointment from our neighbor, and it's a good thing we did, because her mom happened to be over and when she heard about our injured chicken, she immediately volunteered to help. She is an experienced chicken doctor, which is just what we needed! Her hugest contribution was helping to set and splint the leg. I was the most nervous about that!
Mendy (as we have named her) seems to be doing great. Today is two weeks since the accident and I think we may remove the splint today.
Meanwhile, she has been living in the recently vacated rabbit hutch inside.




-My sister and her kids came down for a short visit. We had a great time and even managed to get in a trip to the Carnivore Preservation Trust to see all the servals, ocelots, binterongs, caracals, and of course, TIGERS!! Ben and Stacey were able to come over for the "field trip" too.

This is one of their younger tigers, Rajah. He and his sister were found in the middle of a busy road, where their owner had dumped them. (I didn't take this one, I found it on the internet. But it is Rajah. The other pics aren't of the CPT animals, just random pics from the web.)
This one is a serval
Here's the ocelot- beautiful, but they smell like a big ol' litterbox full of pee...
And the caracal, which are really neat and remind me the most of housecats.
The binterongs were really neat and they smelled like fritos. Bizarre, I know, but true. They're not cats, but they are carnivores.
It was really cool. I'd like to go to one of the twilight tours, which is when they feed them, and they're much more active. The one thing that I learned from the tour is that is is 100% legal to own tigers and other exotic cats in NC. So, now all we need is a tiger pen...

-Window Wizard has a new ad coming out next month in the Southern Neighbor (a local, monthly publication distributed through Chapel Hill neighborhoods), a it stars all of us and Mac, Adam's right-hand man. It's a pretty good picture, don't you think?


-We have a new addition to our chicken family. Lucy (or is it Loosey?) was hanging around loose in our neighbors' yard. They don't know where she escaped from, but after a couple days, they corralled her into their garage and then Adam and my bro went and got her. She gets along with the other chickens so far. As far as I can tell, she is an Old English Game hen. She's got the long, tall body and tail of a Game chicken. She doesn't look exactly like the Game hens we had growing up, but she looks just like the ones I've found pics of on the internet. She's pretty. These aren't her, but she looks like something between the two:

FREE DR. PEPPER

Check it out!
Free Dr. Pepper! Oh, and Guns'n'Roses has a new album...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081121/ap_on_en_mu/guns_n_roses_dr_pepper;_ylt=Av4yDfHmkbIaz_2wFaKvctW_.nQA

The List-- from my sister's blog...

My sister put this in her blog and then challenged me to do it too(well, she emailed it to me). So here it is.


Bold the things you’ve done and will admit to:

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band yep, even recorded a cd. And played a show in Cincinnati!
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (do dogs, cats, or bunny children count?)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train It's not as cool as it sounds. Believe me.
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill It's called a "sick prevention day"
24. Built a snow fort like once, when it even snowed enough...
25. Held a lamb If you think baby goats are cute (and you're right), just wait until you hold a baby lamb. They are probably one of the world's sweetest babies. Second to my own, of course.
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon (why would I do that?)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice Okay, I didn't actually ride in a gondola (too expensive) so I settled for riding the public transportation boat. Much cheaper and still pretty cool. Venice, even loaded as it is with tourists, is quite amazing.
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run I kicked a home run in kickball a few years ago...
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language With help from Senora Lucy, por supuesto.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person I saw the mini version at Mini-Europe (in Brussels), though!
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke only like every thursday for about 2 years...
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant Well, I worked at the restaurant, and it wasn't a meal, it was pizza, but still...
44. Visited Africa (Hopefully someday)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted do sketches count? If done by a "real" artist? (Lauren, I'm looking in your general direction...)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person Okay, I haven't, but Adam is over my shoulder saying he has, and since we share everything, I guess I can share that experience, too, right?
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris Okay, again, I was too poor to pay and not patient enough to wait in the long line anyway, but I have stood at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower in Paris...
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business Okay, this one is Adam's again...
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching Not the kind on rafts, but I have seen and watched whales before.
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check Oh yeah.
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy I even saved the corpse of a childhood toy. After my dog tore its stuffing out. So sad. I'm still not over it.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar (no, thank you)
72. Pieced a quilt in my mind!
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle well, I don't know how fast we were going but it felt 2 fast, 2 furious... I was about 7 and my uncle was driving, just on trails in the woods, but still...
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book Well, there's only one copy of it, but my senior thesis was/is a book of my poems, and can be read by anyone who cares to at the Wilson Library on UNC's campus
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House Well, not as an invited guest, we just stopped by to look.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life mostly animal someones. but they count.
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous.
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone although I did hold out until like 2003...
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Baked fresh bread

New Friends

Here are a couple of pictures of Buck and his buddy Hank.
The two youngest on our trip to the mountains in October!





And here's Buck and Dick Dudley, sharing life from opposite ends! Dick is a month or two short of 89 years, Buck is a month or two short of 8 months!

mountain trip

We had a great time on our trip to Virginia! Keely and Curt put up with all of us-- and all our dogs-- for a long, fun, work and play weekend.


Aunt Jeanne, don't know if you read this, but DISREGARD THE NEXT PARAGRAPH AND DON'T LOOK AT THE PICTURES!!!!





Uncle Ben treated all the kids to Squirrel Hunting 101. Then we roasted the squirrel over the open fire and everybody got a bite. You can see that the kids were pretty impressed with his skills. They all huddled around the "work table" and watched the skinning and cleaning process. My littlest nephew was overheard remarking that if Uncle Ben got more squirrels, they could paint the table red with the blood...good observation, buddy!






We cleaned out the old barn, including our old bikes. I remembered them as being much, much bigger. I couldn't bear to let the "Machine Gun" go, so it went back in the barn. Maybe we can fix it up for Buck (I guess I should just clarify-- the Machine Gun is the red roadster-type bike, so-called because it used to rattle and shake when you rode it).



After hours of hauling out dirty what-nots and dusty odd-bits, we were all pretty grimy and greasy. So we all loaded up and took a dip in the beautiful Cowpasture River (not being sarcastic, it's the cleanest river in Virginia!!). It was cold but we all (even my niece and I) got in and went all the way under! There was some hair (and beard) washing as well. It ended with a free-for-all hornet's nest rock-throw. Kinda like a Turkey Shoot, but it doesn't matter who hits the nest, everybody gets a prize (which is being chased and stung by hornets!). Okay, actually, no one hit the nest but I think Ben was closest and no one got stung, not that we hung around too much longer...

I'll be posting some more "moments" and pictures later-- I finally got my pictures backed up on the external harddrive to make more room for the new ones (it's only been a month...) We really had a great time, though. The weather was beautiful. So were the mountains. And the old farm is looking younger everyday!



Also, even though I haven't been blogging, life here in the Big Woods has been trotting merrily along, so I have plenty of things to share with everyone... if only I can find the time to type them up!!!

Fun Things To Do With Baby

This is about the funnest thing Buck knows. Now, everyone, just calm down. In many peaceful, loving cultures, part of growing up is being tossed up in the air and caught. Caught. Not dropped, caught. Babies find the sensation irresistible. Buck is no exception.

Tough week

Well, it's been a crazy few weeks and now things are calming down a bit. Adam has been really busy with his business, which is both good and bad. Things are settling down now, and he's back to a more or less "regular" schedule.
In the past two weeks, several things have happened, all of them sort of connected. Our roof, as of September 14th (happy birthday, Meg!):

It obviously needed some work. It has actually been in bad shape getting worse since we moved in two Octobers ago. Then, in July, our landlord's son, Shannon, came and took off the shingles on the porch roof so he could replace some rotting beams (that were a result of the leaking roof). He didn't put any shingles back on, because the roofers were supposed to come that next week to replace the whole roof-- tear off all the shingles, re-do the flashing and put on a new metal roof.
The roofers never showed.
This coincided with Mr. Bob's (Bob Blackwood, our landlord) failing health. His emphesema started bothering him more, and he was just not feeling well. On top of that, he was furious about what he called, "the biggest half-ass job I have ever been a part of," and was calling all kinds of contractors trying to get somebody out here to put the new roof on.
Well. He finally found someone to do the job. They started on Monday, September 22nd. I kept waiting for Bob to show up to check that they were doing the work right- he is always supervising anything that happens around here. I knew when he never came down that he must be feeling very poorly.
Late in the afternoon, right around five, while the roofers were cleaning up the debris from shucking off the old shingles, they left the gate open and Red, Honey and Murdock all ran out and across the road. I didn't even realize what had happened until I saw Murdock sitting at the front door, waiting to be let in. Red and Honey weren't so quick to return. I strapped Buck in the Ergo carrier and set off looking for them without any luck. Around 7 pm, when Adam got home, he took the car and drove down the road and found Honey. We figured Red would be home shortly.
The next morning, he still hadn't come back.

Later that same morning, Shannon came down to the house to give me some more bad news: Mr. Bob had passed away the evening before at the hospital, with his wife Ann and Shannon there with him. I wish we'd gotten a picture of Bob, tending his bees, or driving around in his truck (fueled with biodiesel), or shooting squirrels off his bird feeders, or holding Buck. He loved Buck. He always said how much he wanted grandchildren, and was tickled when Adam declared Buck his "grand-neighbor." Just a couple days before he died, Adam took Buck up to see him, wearing his red and black-checked jacket and "Elmer Fudd" hat. Bob got a big kick out of that. We will really miss him.