Posts

Showing posts from November, 2011

SNAFU is not a new word

Image
No, this is not an endorsement for Yellow Tail Shiraz, although I wouldn't mind receiving residuals for such a seemingly perfect product placement. And I don't have much to say about the cat n' hen either. Curiosity could hardly obscure what these two were really feeling toward each other that day. "Dude! You're in my space." "Man, you're ugly!" "Go away already!"  They would of course, choose to walk on opposite sides of the street if they could - (and they can't you see, as we have indoor cats and chicken coop chickens) but you do get the point. There's just no reason in trying to mix the two. As a rule, feline and fowl do not mix. And the same rule applies for the Democratic party and the G.O.P.  No such alliance or partisan politic will ever exist for the two. There is a long and arduous game at stake here and those that sit around the political round table are the only ones who really know what the rules are an

Thanksgiving

Image
The meat birds are happy in their new digs. Playful, fat and full feathered, they are now about twenty one days away from the freezer. That's farm life! I took a walk through the old flood plains early Sunday afternoon. The weather, unseasonably warm, provided me with a chance to walk an area that few now visit. These many trails and cart roads we once traversed freely. They are now closed by barricades made of steel or stone and are only accessible on foot or by bicycle. In winter there are many miles of snowmobile trails that crisscross the area. Many of these roads, closed by decree and that now go nowhere offered a place to hunt, fish and a hidden place where you could go necking with your sweetheart. In the last few decades these enjoyable places of beauty and solitude became dumping grounds for demolition, tires and items that no one wanted to pay a disposal fee for. But not all was lost. There remains a haunting beauty evident in an area where once 1930's autom

Meat Birds and Thanksgiving plans

Image
For the last four weeks we've had meat birds  living in our basement. The brood gathered under a heat lamp sitting comfortably upon fresh wood shavings and they began to eat. And eat, And eat. By the third week you remove the feed from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. and then watch the bedlam when the morning feed is lowered back into the pen. On Sunday Gaia Girl collected the twenty five plump little broilers and moved them to a coop and run several miles away. I can still hear them cheep, chirp and squeak in the basement. Creepy! Thanksgiving is fast approaching. With the pending divorce all tradition as I have known it is no more. Time for something new! Thanksgiving has been a huge holiday for my family and for my parents before me. And with following tradition, Grace is said while that responsibility often falling to me. My dysfunctional sons, my drunk wife, my daughters (my hope) made it feel more like an Irish wake. I was much more mournful than thankful. With every passing year

All Hallow's Eve

Image
Twenty four inches of snow. When it arrives one day before Halloween it's not a surprise, but a horror for everyone. The area where I live had the highest amount in snow totals and yet we did not loose power. We were prepared with our wood all stacked and lanterns full and wicks all trimmed. We came away unscathed and little worse for wear.  Not true for a larger part of New England and all of the way down into New Jersey. As I write this, many homes are still without power. Unlike TaoSpring, many homes rely entirely on electricity for their homes to operate. It's true that we too need and use and rely on our local power company more than we want to. And as a part of our future goal for TaoSpring, whether or not it be the TaoSpring in it's current location, we will seek to lessen our dependence. And why? There may exist all sort of tree-hugging, ethereal, new age reasons for lessening our imprint upon the planet we call earth. But simply put, in contrast to the non-ce