I am amazed--I can post right off the Blogger app from my iPod touch?!
Ingenious!
Even post photos right off it?
Astonishing!
...yet even with all this technology, homo sapien still isn't happy. And we never will be truly happy until we eradicate sin from our hearts, although some may choose to drown themselves in the transient pleasures of drugs, drinking, or suchlike. Not recommended!
Chickenly news: Alice the Buff Laced Polish has been missing again. For the past two days. I just hope the racoons didn't get her!
I sold two Silkie pullets last week on Craigslist. Anyone want a cockerel? Three left!
Small ruminant news: the ewes are looking good, despite the numerous burrs which lodge in their fuzzy hair coat. My parents think it looks so bad, but the lambs don't stand still long enough for me to get them out. Goaty-boy is thriving as usual. Still a perky kid, though he is getting big.
I shall post more later; and perhaps I will actually put my new farm blog up.
I have been looking at the website for Thomas Aquinas College today, just for fun, and it looks amazing! I sort of want to be a veternarian but a real classical Liberal Arts education would be a great thing. No one can ever take away your learning, afterall.
Farewell, blog-readers of mine heart!
Random screenshots, and burrs in the sheep's fur:
Good news: my mother found my long-lost (long story) iPod touch! Extremely exciting!!!
Bad news: why would you care if I have my iTouch back or not? It has nothing to do with you, as I am sure you have your own set of problems to deal with.
Thoughtful quote:
It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings collected together are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately.
~ Thomas Jefferson
We would all love there to be no confining, restrictive rules. And in the beginning, before sin entered the earth, there were no rules (excepting one!). But since there are natural rules, it is better to simply obey the sensible ones as a duty instead of trying to flout everything and live your own way, which is not possible on this corruptible earth, unfortunately. That is the foundation of the Constitution in America: working with the way men are naturally, accepting the fact that we are sinful instead of trying to make up new, Utopian and perfect rules, which are easily corrupted by inevitable megalomaniacs. (Think the French revolution)
~ ~ ~
Having spoken of the world at large, I will commence to speak of what happens to by on my mind: breeding sheep. I am preoccupied with rams, ewes, ewe lambs, lambs, and suchlike at the moment....I have decided to breed my two ewe lambs at the age of nine months, to lamb at fourteen months old, in lateish April, just as the nutritious spring grasses come into their own.
Sadie and Amelia at almost seven months old, currently.
The wide, wide world is so full of so many, many things (yes, I feel it is necessary to repeat myself) and yet I haven't been able to think of a subject on which to blog.
I don't want to merely tell my readers about my life, and opinions, but would like to stimulate their minds. I also want to exorcise any discussion of
smiley faces, crushes, "boys" in general (OMG!!!) or country music from ever be-dewing these beautiful pure white pixels.
Today for school I read a biography on George Fox, who founded the Society of Friends, known to most laymen as the Quakers.
He was in himself, judging from this short bio, a peculiar and interesting man. Obviously stubborn, and probably also blessed with that capacity some people have of being so strongly embedded in their principles they can't see anyone else's. Yet this can also be a good thing.
I also looked up modern day Quakerism and found this and this. Interesting indeed!
Excitement excepting unpleasant ones such as finding that the sheep refuse to enter their fence has been served up in limited quantities here. Several members of this household, namely my brother and mother, are ill, thus rendering them grouchy, tired and sick and altogether unfit for human consumption! Yet we shoulder on....
I have been doing a bunch of reading on my Kindle. I am reading the Emily trilogy by L.M. Montgomery, and am finding them more enjoyable than Anne of Green Gables. The Emily books are more sophisticated, darker, and Emily is interesting herself. I loved Ilse, her b.f.f., and her hilarious epithets in the first book. Lastly, I completely agree with Emily as regards to poetry: Keats is indeed TOO sweet (I found him mostly incomprehensible, excepting this poem which is great) and as for Idylls of the King by Tennyson, Arthur is too perfect, and Guinevere is stupid as "Lancelot is odious." I agree with J.R.R. Tolkien who though the King Arthur tales were immoral and Frenchified. I do like some of Tennyson's other work though, "Crossing the Bar" is a fine example.
And as for music, I have been stuck in a rut listening to Beethoven's piano concertos 4 + 5 over and over--I already knew them well, and their beauty is comforting. And you should read this essay about classical music. Taking a cue from the list at the end of it, I listened to part of Mozart's 40th symphony on Youtube the other day--it was great!
Us classical music enthusiasts have a hard time out there in the 'real' world. If we are adult we are treated like high-society snobs, and if we are younger like myself we are just "weird". Oh well!
There is nothing particularly wonderful about being "weird (unquote) but if the weirdness is a fine, upstanding thing and nothing to be ashamed of, who cares?
Anyway, remember Life is a Gift, so enjoy it, use it, and do not be ashamed of what other people think!!!
To fight the unbeatable foe To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far
To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause
And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star."
~ From Man of La Mancha
Some days everything goes wrong. I'll not bore my readers by describing minutely everything that went wrong for me today, and will spare them the gory details, but suffice it to say that goats are way too stubborn for their own good, and electric fences are a complicated intricacy. (And no, I prefer not to take that bit about stubbornness as discreet commentary about myself)
And the dog won't stop barking! I refuse to be cheerful. I am aware life could be a lot worse, but it could also be lots better, and my spirits are low.
"His brow was sad; his eye beneath,
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,
And like a silver clarion rung
The accents of that unknown tongue,
Excelsior!"
The sky was dark and gloomy, the air was damp and raw, the streets were wet and sloppy...and the rain came slowly and doggedly down, as if it had not even the spirit to pour. ~ Charles Dickens
But I'm not sure I'd wear that outfit. Or those heels--think orthopedic torture.... As this is probably the most colorful post I will ever let pass the gates of "Publish"--enjoy.
By the way, returning to the more psychological realms, I am reading a very enjoyable book: Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit. (1902) It is a children's book, but most ages should like it, unless you are the sort who prefers reading textbooks. I personally think this is some of her funniest and best writing, and some of the inside jokes in it are amusing--"Lending ears was common in Roman times, as we learn in Shakespeare; but I fear I am getting too instructive."
The plot is simple: five children discover an extremely grouchy fairy (the psammead, pronounced sammyead) who will grant them one wish a day. But you have to be careful what you wish for--you might get it. My favorite chapter so far is when their two-year-old brother is turned into an adult!
Anyway, reader, I am getting distracted, and the hoary voice of schoolwork beckons--and must be answered, lest the honored female parental authority withhold privileges from yours truly, who is still a minor unfortunately!
And may I note that I dislike Blogger's new interface? Very confusing to moi.
Between perusing these marvelous sheep photographs on Flickr, and writing feverishly and enthusiastically on a children's book and a introductory classical music course (for teens!), I've been busy. I'll write a longer post tomorrow!
After perusing this blog, and noticing the neat, spare layout, I decided to fix up my blog a bit. I haven't found a layout that I absolutely love yet, but I think this one is pretty nice. The thing is, a plain white not-too-distracting template like I have now can get boring quickly for a personal blog unless you keep adding tons of luscious photographs to keep it interesting, and I rarely find time to take pictures. But on the other hand, maybe plain and boring is better than too much busy-ness, smiley faces and cutesy fonts.
I like the chicken in the header! I find chickens very fascinating; they have the funniest personalities, and may I remark that roosters add a lot of excitement to a flock?
Ronald aka Big Red, a huge and beautiful Rhode Island Red
I also finally got the gumption to post a picture of myself in the profile picture. So, now, dear readers, you can see what I actually look like, rather than reveling in the sheer beauty of Sadie the lamb's face.
"Misery, in cold truth, is a weight less upon those who undergo it than upon the minds of those who see it; for he who is cold and starving is so busy in his efforts to obtain warmth and food that he has little time for self-pity, and endures his unhappy condition better than those who take it upon themselves to suffer for him." — Kenneth Roberts
If you have any comments upon the new layout, please leave a lucid and intelligible comment. (Very important criterion; please observe)
Sunday, September 11
In honor of those who perished on 9/11 ten years ago.
painting by Jasper Johns ~ weird rustic aesthetic, but cool idea.
A Sunday-inspired hymn, to calm in the midst of all this devastation, from
Elizabeth P. Prentiss
More Love to Thee by
More love to thee, O Christ, more love to thee!
Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee.
This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to thee;
more love to thee, more love to thee!
Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;
now thee alone I seek, give what is best.
This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to thee;
more love to thee, more love to thee!
Let sorrow do its work, come grief and pain;
sweet are thy messengers, sweet their refrain,
when they can sing with me: More love, O Christ, to thee;
more love to thee, more love to thee!
Then shall my latest breath whisper thy praise;
this be the parting cry my heart shall raise;
this still its prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to thee;
more love to thee, more love to thee!
.....And to top everything off, a photo of my very svelte and attractive young
goat!
(He didn't want me taking a picture of his face)
Hmm, I seem to suffer from the same universal delusions which harbor much of the female portion of humanity: pretending animals can talk. Ah well, a harmless oddity. Added to my other oddities, however, this takes the cake. The goat says hi.
- BAD News first, to get it over with. Basically, the bad news was this. THIS. In concise wording, a flood of the general area around which my famiglia situated. We are on top of a high hill, so the only excess water affecting us was in our cellar, but the area down town, right on the Susquehanna river, was devastated. Literally. For those of you not familiar with rivers, think 14-foot high water under bridges, and entire river-facing streets were deluged under 8-feet expanses of dirt brown water.
Hundreds of people in the area are still without electricity (thankfully we have it) and internet. We just got it this afternoon, obviously, as you are reading this.
- GOOD news. (Yes, I am in the right mind to write good news. Three days without internet or hot water have cleared my mind of the hubris and general depression my last blog post was written in)
Kayleigh May Beck******* was born on Wednesday, September 7th at approximately 7pm, to Gayle and William, my sister-in-law and brother. We are all extremely excited to welcome her!!!!
Anyway, as I was saying, very exciting news. Certainly smiley face worthy! I don't like to bandy them things around my blog like annoying tennis balls, but this event is worthy of a few more.
Moving on, we come to the book suggestion. I finished Arundel by Kenneth Roberts---you should really read it. (Whoever happens to be reading this at this time, and providing you haven't read it already which I seriously doubt) Arundel was historical fiction at its finest. Fast paced, meaty, and exciting. Solidly researched and well-written. I'd recommend it to anyone 12 and up. It would make a nice thick change from the usual revolting YA novels many teens read in their spare time. (If they have any in this age of homework) As I don't feel like writing a synopsis, go check it out yourself.
Fall is so mournful, yet so exquisitely beautiful for a short time. It always makes me feel poetic, in a pseudo-meaningful, rather aimless manner. I always feel rather tragic around the first weeks of September, because it means schoolwork, coldness, and pumpkins and mums, which aren't as showy, delicious and attractive as their summer counterparts: berries, peaches, and petunias. Wait. I do like apples!
I was researching the Montessori and the Waldorf systems of education today for no legitimate reason other than I wanted to know what they were about. (I must admit I had been complaining before about the-honored-and-respected-may-she-live-forever Charlotte Mason, whose modern curriculum Ambleside Online we (meaning my honored-and-respected-may-she-live-forever female parent) use as our main schooling.
(Side note: Must I drop the fascinating and patronizing manner of using as long as possible words in every sentence, making it harder for my honored-and-respected-may-they-live-forever blog patrons to read?
Most young female people, and indeed most males as well, write in a more Plain English, Spartan and sometimes sloppily romantic style. Nay; they can improve their vocabulary if they choose, and after all, you/they are under no obligations to read it at all. Go read something else instead--Facebook!!! Go on Facebook! Whatever!!!!)
....Returning to the obviously non-absorbing subject of education methods, I must say sometimes the starry-eyed idealism (yes, I am aware that sounds like I'm an old crank) of these individuals gets on my* frequently-easily irritated nerves. All three education methods I mentioned were written by unmarried people who produced no scions**, hence the starry-eyed-ness.
But ANYWAY, I am quickly tiring of writing from this seemingly dry and unappealing subject. No one my age ever knows what I'm talking about anyway.
*unfortunately. **Look it up. ;)
So, saith the little (rapidly dying) optimistic portion of my brain, why don't we find a pretty picture to look at? (Actually, the optimistic portion of my brain pronounced it "pwetty pictew" but I shall over look that slur)
SMACK to the annoying optimistic brain cells.
Now lets go look for a pretty picture and an encouraging quotation!
You have no idea what a poor opinion I have of myself and how little I deserve it. W.S. Gilbert
(Not encouraging enough. Simply a bald testament to man's sickly pride.)
Nah, enough for tonight. Farewell, fellow travelers upon this carbon-based sphere!
I am now the proud possessor of a juvenile pair of Button quail, which is slang for the coturnix chinensis, Chinese Painted Quail, or Excalfactoria chinensis. These diminutive birds, being less than 4" long full grown, are ground dwelling quail originally from a tropical country, as they cannot endure less than 60* weather.
They are fascinating creatures, which being so small serve very little practical purposes, being bred in captivity mainly for pets, amusement or entertainment. As a farmer, I prefer not to accumulate useless, inedible and frivolous pets, but these quails were too cute to pass up, and they cost next to nothing to keep.
I deigned to name them since they aren't going to be eaten.
Meet "Pyramus" and Thisbe", so named after an old Greek myth, which can be read here.
