Scent Signals

Scent Signals

Gotcha!

I caught a Pea display on my camera today. If you look closely you can see the blue tipped feathers growing on his/her neck. The Peas are getting so big now. They are such charming birds. I never tire of watching them. I love how they walk with their necks all ruffled and their heads bobbing forward and back. I love how they peer carefully at a bug before jabbing at it quickly. I love the way they turn their heads almost upside down and look at the sky. I love the way they are so curious and come beak to whiskers with the cats at the French doors. I love the way they get excited and jump around and flap their wings every once in a while. I love their plaintive honking. I love their very muted disagreements with each other. Here's to you, Peas!

Oscar's New Bed

I made this for Oscar today. For the last three weeks he his mobility has diminished almost by the day. It's very mysterious. Shreed left November 9th and I recall emailing him about how Oscar was racing around playing. Then he began to have trouble moving around: first he couldn't go up and down stairs, then he couldn't get on the couch. Now he's pretty much confined himself to an area of about 50 square feet. Since he has to be on the floor I made this bed for him. I didn't think he would like it but he got right in. So at least I hope to give him some comfort. Renee was going to come out last week but I didn't get her message in time. So I think I will have to take him into the clinic this week. I hope it's nothing very serious. He eats and is alert. But the poor guy missed meals before I realized he couldn't go downstairs to eat. I felt so terrible. So he is thin. He's a very old kitty. But he has to stick it out. He's so special to Shreed.

Things Could be Worse

I think that if one hasn't blogged for a while it becomes more and more difficult to emerge from "private" life again. Nothing terrible has happened; I have been turned inward, perhaps because I'm alone.

It's been more than a month since Shreed left for Antarctica and at the moment I can't believe his weather could be worse than ours, eleven degrees and blowing about 40 knots. All this is a transitory unpleasantness for most people as they exit their cars and dash to their office buildings. But for many of us it means making sure other beings can be as comfortable as possible in these life-threatening conditions, and coping with the layer of constant anxiety weighing down on our daily activities.

Whenever you move to a new property or build, you discover little quirks about the place that despite your best efforts seem beyond redress; they stubbornly continue to irritate or make life just a bit more difficult. Around here the problem is doors that won't stay closed. I now have the French doors bungee-corded (what a verb!) shut and the side door must be pushed on and rechecked several times before one can be certain it is secure. Despite the fact that I was sure that the people door to the barn was closed, I found it wide open when I went to feed this morning. The terrible wind had blown everything about and thoroughly chilled the peafowl, who, instead of roosting in the rafters, were huddled on a corner of the floor next to the tractor.

Several burning oaths later I had closed the door and was going about the morning chores. After finishing I went back to the house and upstairs to my study. A little later I casually glanced out the window and saw the door open again! I rushed out, swearing, and locked the door from the inside, making my way out through the stall door and the gate. On my way out I noticed that one of the peas was shivering badly, so when I went back to the house I searched in the basement for a heat lamp. I went back out side carrying the lamp and I wrestled our large animal crate from the porch down to the barn in the wind (it almost swept me away like a sail), scared the horses in the process, and got it set up with the heat lamp, AWAY from anything flammable (!).

Yesterday the peas had stayed in the barn, much to my relief, but for SOME reason they decided to fly out right at sunset and went under the porch. It was cold and windy yesterday too, and the peas soon realized their mistake, so with a little coaxing they stumbled on the ice and were blown about a little, but they made it back to the barn and through the slightly open sliding door. Except for one pea. He decided to go into the chicken yard and after chasing him around the coop several times I gave up, and then he went into the chicken coop with the chickens. I decided that was good enough and I shut the coop and could hear him honking plaintively, no doubt missing his friends.

So this morning I began to worry about the stranded pea, so I crawled into the coop and grabbed him, sustaining attacks from Merle, and managed to back out of the small space, make my way to the horse gate, unlatch it and go through the stall and let the pea go with his friends. The chickens are a bit hardier and have survived one winter here, so I am not too worried about them, except that I need to buy another electric water dish as they have no access to water next to the coop. Their waterer is frozen, of course.

To tell you the truth I don't know how I ever held down a full time job and managed all of this. In the past I would be drowning in student papers right about now. Then I would truly be despair. I would much rather do farm chores in the terrible cold and wind than I would look at a student paper. Things could be worse.

Christmas 1991

Love the acid-washed jeans!! And that's Teddy Ruxpin, I believe--the gift for kids that year. I think we had a lot of fun with that dumb bear!

At lunch: Me, Shreed, my dad (standing), Bruce (Holly's partner), Chris (my bro), Holly (cousin), Mark (cousin), Lisa (SIL), my mom. I think my mom is speaking to her grandson, Matt. Sadly my cousin Mark died in India in 1998.

At top, the cutest kid in the world, my nephew Matt (now 20 years old) and his grandpa.

Alone Again

This afternoon Shreed left on his long odyssey to Antartica; he won't reach Christchurch, New Zealand until about 6 or 7 PM tomorrow, our time. There was an histoire at the airport concerning visas for Australia, which they didn't have and which should have been obtained prior to travel, insisted a loud, overweight, and quite unpleasant United Airlines employee. Even though they will only be in Sydney Airport's travel lounge, the visas are necessary, supposedly. Shreed said one generally obtains a visa upon arrival, but for some reason the counter person had other ideas. The atmosphere at the airport was tense because a US Air plane was "broken" and had "spilled fuel all over the tarmac when it landed," according to another employee. So there was a long line of people trying to get rebooked. Ah, the joys of air travel!

The countdown to departure is always a difficult period--once Shreed is gone there's no choice but to cope. And of course on the way home from the airport I tried to use my debit card and the pin was wrong--those are the sorts of things that always happen. Well, we won't be totally out of touch for another couple of weeks. While he's in McMurdo prepping for the field we'll still be able to email. After that, he'll be where there's no contact with the outside world. Must be nice, in some ways. If only it weren't so dang cold!

I'm posting here a picture of my new bicycle. Jan had requested it! It's been unseasonably warm the last few days and unusually calm so I've enjoyed running and riding, both horse and bicycle. I very much hope our winter isn't brutal. Things are so much easier when it's not. For me winter begins here.

The Adventures of Loretta

Well, I have another crazy animal story. This morning when I let the chickens out, I didn't see Loretta, the one-eyed hen I had to keep in the house early this year. I searched around for her a little bit but no luck. I emailed Shreed about it and he said she was probably hiding in the hay. "No," I thought, "That's not Loretta." Despite the fact that she's half-blind and scrawny, she doesn't take crap from anybody, and gives the rootards what for if they try anything with her. She chases the pullets and the peas away from any food she wants. So I just didn't see her hiding. Predators were a possibility and just because we've never had a problem doesn't mean we never would. But I know I didn't hear anything, and you know how chickens make a huge fuss over nothing.

Finally late this afternoon, I decided to search in earnest. I looked under the porch, under the deck, in the shed, barn, in the tall grass. Nothing. I went back to the shed and saw an overturned hanging plant basket next to Shreed's motorcycle. As soon as I saw it I knew she was under it. I don't know how I knew because she wasn't visible but it was just a sixth sense thing, which I often have. I nudged it with my foot and it didn't give much. I reached in (the shed is quite cluttered) and started to turn it over. I saw black and white feathers and suddenly there was squawking and Loretta was trying to charge out of the shed, but the basket was coming with her. I grabbed her as she shrieked awfully and of course Merle came running! Always helpful! I held Loretta by the legs and saw that a link of the chain from which the basket hangs was caught around one of her toes. There was blood and the damn thing would not budge!! There was no question of trying to haul her and the basket into the house and Shreed was not there to grab some vaseline or something to try to lubricate the toe. I was queasy from thinking I was hurting her but slowly I worked at it and in what seemed like an interminable time (but was probably 2-3 minutes) I worked it off. I wanted to hold her and check her over but she was totally having a meltdown so I let her go and she ran off to eat some cat food, so I guess she's OK. Whew! I don't know why these things always seem to happen around here!