Have you ever found a book that you utterly enjoyed? What do you do next? Well of course, you check the library, etc. to see if the author has written anything else!
I did that today. I found a copy of "Summers at Castle Auburn" by Sharon Shinn. My younger sister introduced me to this book and when I found it at my local library I thought it would be fun to reread it. I also decided to check the catalog to see if the author had written anything else and if they had it.
Well, she did! and they did! So I got them off the shelf. It was a little bit of a shock to realize that they were quite science fiction. I like some SCI FI, usually in the YA section. For me, if it gets to weird, its just to weird.
Anyway, I rejected 1 book and checked out the other book skeptically. The book I checked out was "Jenna Starborn". It looked pretty sci fi, but I thought I would give it a whirl.
I've been quite pleased with it. That is, I was quite pleased with it until I started recognizing the plot. Yes, it is a rewrite of Jane Eyre. They have changed a few things. For instance, she is not the ward's tutor, but a generator technician who lives in the house- but the storyline is the same.
Now I don't mind a rewrite. I'm looking forward to reading "Pride and Predjudice and Zombies" if I can ever find it on tape/CD. - BUT - Don't you think they should warn you somehow on the cover or on the back of the book that its a 'enjoyable revision' 'interesting rewrite' through an old storyline?
I'm just bugged. I was expecting a fresh storyline. That's what is bugging me. I don't think I will really enjoy this book until I get over that. Maybe I should put it down for a week or so...
What would you do?
(btw, the book isn't heavy on the sci fi and is well written. I may have to check out the other book "Archangel". But I don't know. The cover looks really STRANGE and the back cover says nothing about the story.)
***Edited to add that after careful scrutiny of the cover, I found a reference to Jane Eyre. But in my defense, it was half covered by a library sticker.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
forever!
It has been forever since I last blogged!
I won't lie. After my last blog entry I decided I hated my blog. Well, A redesign may happen. Or not. We'll see. Right now I'm feeling neutral about it.
Lets see.... A family update.
We recently spent a glorious week at the beach. It was wonderful. It was restful. It was hard to come home. At one point I begged hubby to let me stay. I joked that I could sleep on the beach at night. Of course that is impossible. But it was a sweet little daydream for about half a second.
In all we spent 8 nights at a house about a block from the beach. We spent a lot of time at the beach wading, digging, building, walking, etc. We spent a lot of time in Lincoln city, and visited both Depoe bay and Newport.
We visited so many beaches like Otter Creek (rock?), and Agate beach, gleneden beach, and Taft beach. We visited a lighthouse, the aquarium, the Hatfield marine science center, and saw a sandcastle building contest.
We also watched lots of Food Network and the History Channel. American Pickers is my new favorite show.
We also ate out every single day. Yes. We got tired of it. No. I don't think I would do it again.
The whole reason for it was hubby's love for seafood and my thought of keep it simple. We had cereal every morning for breakfast, went out for lunch, and then had peanut butter and jelly for dinner.
We sampled lots of clam chowder and ate lots of seafood. And I can tell you one thing for certain. Mo's is the WORST place to eat. There are so many other non-chain restaurants on the coast.
Leaving was hard. But we had to. Hubby had to get back for work.
Well, while we were gone to the beach, a breaker tripped in the garage and spoiled about $450 - $500 worth of meat and all sorts of other things. That is all I'm saying about that because if I focus on it I get depressed.
But we are moving on. Can't do anything about it. Just have to add that onto the vacation expenses.
I just hope we can get the grass back. the sprinklers were also on that breaker and the lawn is VERY patchy. It was very hot while we were gone.
The turkeys doubled in size while we were gone. That was amazing. We haven't lost any in a while. We started out with 22 turkeys and 4 silkies. We are down to 19 turkeys and 2 silkies. for some reason this group has been hard to raise. I just hope we don't lose any more.
A just found out who her kindergarten teacher is. She has been so excited to go to school. C asked me this morning if it was Friday. Friday is when she finds out who her teacher is.
They are both super excited. I'm not ready for summer to be over. Seems like we just started. It has been a busy summer.
Hubby's been busy with various projects in the yard. The only thing I seem to have done in the yard this year was to kill off all of the plants on my front step. I kind of forgot about them in July when we had so much family here.
So far this summer has been busy. Maybe it will slow down once school starts? And soccer starts. And piano lessons start....who am I kidding. Its just going to get worse. Oh well. :)
I won't lie. After my last blog entry I decided I hated my blog. Well, A redesign may happen. Or not. We'll see. Right now I'm feeling neutral about it.
Lets see.... A family update.
We recently spent a glorious week at the beach. It was wonderful. It was restful. It was hard to come home. At one point I begged hubby to let me stay. I joked that I could sleep on the beach at night. Of course that is impossible. But it was a sweet little daydream for about half a second.
In all we spent 8 nights at a house about a block from the beach. We spent a lot of time at the beach wading, digging, building, walking, etc. We spent a lot of time in Lincoln city, and visited both Depoe bay and Newport.
We visited so many beaches like Otter Creek (rock?), and Agate beach, gleneden beach, and Taft beach. We visited a lighthouse, the aquarium, the Hatfield marine science center, and saw a sandcastle building contest.
We also watched lots of Food Network and the History Channel. American Pickers is my new favorite show.
We also ate out every single day. Yes. We got tired of it. No. I don't think I would do it again.
The whole reason for it was hubby's love for seafood and my thought of keep it simple. We had cereal every morning for breakfast, went out for lunch, and then had peanut butter and jelly for dinner.
We sampled lots of clam chowder and ate lots of seafood. And I can tell you one thing for certain. Mo's is the WORST place to eat. There are so many other non-chain restaurants on the coast.
Leaving was hard. But we had to. Hubby had to get back for work.
Well, while we were gone to the beach, a breaker tripped in the garage and spoiled about $450 - $500 worth of meat and all sorts of other things. That is all I'm saying about that because if I focus on it I get depressed.
But we are moving on. Can't do anything about it. Just have to add that onto the vacation expenses.
I just hope we can get the grass back. the sprinklers were also on that breaker and the lawn is VERY patchy. It was very hot while we were gone.
The turkeys doubled in size while we were gone. That was amazing. We haven't lost any in a while. We started out with 22 turkeys and 4 silkies. We are down to 19 turkeys and 2 silkies. for some reason this group has been hard to raise. I just hope we don't lose any more.
A just found out who her kindergarten teacher is. She has been so excited to go to school. C asked me this morning if it was Friday. Friday is when she finds out who her teacher is.
They are both super excited. I'm not ready for summer to be over. Seems like we just started. It has been a busy summer.
Hubby's been busy with various projects in the yard. The only thing I seem to have done in the yard this year was to kill off all of the plants on my front step. I kind of forgot about them in July when we had so much family here.
So far this summer has been busy. Maybe it will slow down once school starts? And soccer starts. And piano lessons start....who am I kidding. Its just going to get worse. Oh well. :)
Saturday, June 26, 2010
arghhh!
The cochin is not broody yet! I'm so worried!
If she doesn't go broody soon (like, by TUESDAY) I will be raising 21 turkeys.
Not what I was planning to do with my summer.
Darn cochin.
If she doesn't go broody soon (like, by TUESDAY) I will be raising 21 turkeys.
Not what I was planning to do with my summer.
Darn cochin.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
State of the Property Address
So Here is a rundown of current projects/stuff going on at our house.
We recently purchased 3 Angus cows. All Steers. 2 black angus, 1 red angus. We bought them down at the livestock auction. If you are ever bored on a Saturday, go down there and sit in the front row. Its lots of fun!!!
The red Angus is blind in one eye. These boys have been given names like Hammy (short for Hamburger), Sir Loin, some other meat related name. I try not to remember names or get attached to these guys since they will be food in a bout a year.
they are currently over at Mom and Dad's pasture eating it down and getting fat.
In our pasture we have the sheep. They were sheared about 2 weeks ago. Imagine our surprise when after shearing we realized they were pot bellied. Last year I wasn't certain I was feeding them enough. But after shearing they looked ok. This year I fed them more just to make sure. I guess I went a little overboard because they are REALLY FAT. So I'll be cutting them back to the normal winter rations this winter.
The chickens are fun as always. We've got our normal hatching egg laying crew around. This consists of 6 hens and 1 rooster. When hatched out, their eggs lead to sex link chicks. This is my passion. Anyway, in the next pen we have the silkie and 10 chicks that I purchased from the feed store for A's preschool class to have as class pets. I promised them chicks and the ones the silkie sat on never hatched. So what was at the feed store was what I ended up with. 5 White Astra's and 5 black Austrolorp. Both breeds I've never owned and never really wanted to own. So I'm not sure what will happen with them. There are at least 3 roosters so far. Maybe more. With straight run chicks they aren't sexed before you buy them so you really never know.
In the other coop I have 2 Cochins. One is raising 12 chicks that I bought from the hatchery to replace my current laying chickens. Those chickens will be ready to retire by next spring and these chicks will be old enough to take their place at that time.
The other cochin in that coop is getting ready to go broody. I hope anyway. Silkies and cochins follow a pattern. They lay for about 2 months and then go broody (meaning they want to sit on eggs and raise some chicks) for a while and then they take a break for about 6-8 weeks.
This cochin should go broody soon. If everything works out right, she'll be able to raise the 21 turkey chicks I have coming in late June!
The garden is doing well. Most everything is planted and the greenhouse is nearly empty. I ordered 110 more strawberry plants and am in the process of cleaning out the beds that my strawberries use to be in. I sold about 175 plants this year. But still have at least that many left. So next year maybe we'll get enough strawberries to make jam.
Everything else is waking up slowly due to the rainy cold weather we've been having.
We recently purchased 3 Angus cows. All Steers. 2 black angus, 1 red angus. We bought them down at the livestock auction. If you are ever bored on a Saturday, go down there and sit in the front row. Its lots of fun!!!
The red Angus is blind in one eye. These boys have been given names like Hammy (short for Hamburger), Sir Loin, some other meat related name. I try not to remember names or get attached to these guys since they will be food in a bout a year.
they are currently over at Mom and Dad's pasture eating it down and getting fat.
In our pasture we have the sheep. They were sheared about 2 weeks ago. Imagine our surprise when after shearing we realized they were pot bellied. Last year I wasn't certain I was feeding them enough. But after shearing they looked ok. This year I fed them more just to make sure. I guess I went a little overboard because they are REALLY FAT. So I'll be cutting them back to the normal winter rations this winter.
The chickens are fun as always. We've got our normal hatching egg laying crew around. This consists of 6 hens and 1 rooster. When hatched out, their eggs lead to sex link chicks. This is my passion. Anyway, in the next pen we have the silkie and 10 chicks that I purchased from the feed store for A's preschool class to have as class pets. I promised them chicks and the ones the silkie sat on never hatched. So what was at the feed store was what I ended up with. 5 White Astra's and 5 black Austrolorp. Both breeds I've never owned and never really wanted to own. So I'm not sure what will happen with them. There are at least 3 roosters so far. Maybe more. With straight run chicks they aren't sexed before you buy them so you really never know.
In the other coop I have 2 Cochins. One is raising 12 chicks that I bought from the hatchery to replace my current laying chickens. Those chickens will be ready to retire by next spring and these chicks will be old enough to take their place at that time.
The other cochin in that coop is getting ready to go broody. I hope anyway. Silkies and cochins follow a pattern. They lay for about 2 months and then go broody (meaning they want to sit on eggs and raise some chicks) for a while and then they take a break for about 6-8 weeks.
This cochin should go broody soon. If everything works out right, she'll be able to raise the 21 turkey chicks I have coming in late June!
The garden is doing well. Most everything is planted and the greenhouse is nearly empty. I ordered 110 more strawberry plants and am in the process of cleaning out the beds that my strawberries use to be in. I sold about 175 plants this year. But still have at least that many left. So next year maybe we'll get enough strawberries to make jam.
Everything else is waking up slowly due to the rainy cold weather we've been having.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
interesting
so I learned something interesting today.
Hubby has been researching a bit for his cow project. Its time for us to buy some more cows to put in the pasture. He thought for a while about Waygu which are the type used for Cobi beef in Japan. That deal didn't come through so he decided that he would probably buy cattle at the Livestock auction.
Now if you know me at all, you know that I love a good auction. So of course I wanted to go. I went last week and found the smell pretty pungent. Now I'm not talking about some sissy barn smell. Nope. I'm talking at least 100 people in an room that is smaller than an elementary school cafeteria and in that small room is an open space as big as my family room. Lets call that open space the arena. the arena floor is covered in about 1/2 inch of sawdust. Well at least it started the day as sawdust.
The arena has several doors for animals to be let in and out. The cattle come in in the lots they are being sold. The larger animals are sold seperately. Their are mama cows and babies, their are babies alone, there were lots of sheep. Each time these animals come in the arena they do what they do. They poop, potty, and even have diarhea (also known as scours in the cattle world).
This ALL adds the wonderful aroma.
Well today I had a scratchy throat so I threw a few menthol cough drops in my pocket.
We were at the auction and the smell was really making my stomach turn. And then I remembered the cough drops. guess what! It totally covered the smell. Well, not totally, but mostly. It was wonderful.
So the next time you go to the livestock auction, take a few cough drops.
Hubby has been researching a bit for his cow project. Its time for us to buy some more cows to put in the pasture. He thought for a while about Waygu which are the type used for Cobi beef in Japan. That deal didn't come through so he decided that he would probably buy cattle at the Livestock auction.
Now if you know me at all, you know that I love a good auction. So of course I wanted to go. I went last week and found the smell pretty pungent. Now I'm not talking about some sissy barn smell. Nope. I'm talking at least 100 people in an room that is smaller than an elementary school cafeteria and in that small room is an open space as big as my family room. Lets call that open space the arena. the arena floor is covered in about 1/2 inch of sawdust. Well at least it started the day as sawdust.
The arena has several doors for animals to be let in and out. The cattle come in in the lots they are being sold. The larger animals are sold seperately. Their are mama cows and babies, their are babies alone, there were lots of sheep. Each time these animals come in the arena they do what they do. They poop, potty, and even have diarhea (also known as scours in the cattle world).
This ALL adds the wonderful aroma.
Well today I had a scratchy throat so I threw a few menthol cough drops in my pocket.
We were at the auction and the smell was really making my stomach turn. And then I remembered the cough drops. guess what! It totally covered the smell. Well, not totally, but mostly. It was wonderful.
So the next time you go to the livestock auction, take a few cough drops.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Matilda the broody chicken
I made this movie for my daughters preschool class. They decided that it would be fun to learn about chickens as a class project. More exciting that mealworms which was their other choice.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
oh the memories
I have fond memories of Marty Robbins. This song in particular.
We always joked that the iron must have been awfully big and heavy to lug around. Someone suggested that maybe it was a travel iron.
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