Nature is True

The other day I wrote about Mother Nature and ways to outfox her.  Today I just want to say how amazing she is when it comes to creating creatures.  In 2 weeks the chicks have already doubled in size and after only a couple of days they were sprouting feathers on their wings.  They drink and eat like giants and make me laugh whenever I enter the coop simply by the way they scurry from one spot to another in an attempt to hide from my Good Morning voice.

Meanwhile the kittens at 10 days old are still sleeping most of the day and their eyes remain closed.  They are about one fifth larger than the day of their birth but certainly they are not growing at any where need the speed of the chicks.  They are not at all conscious of anyone but their mother and each other and barely realize that I am lifting them up off the ground.

It’s remarkable that the chicks have never experienced motherly love as they were simply hatched under a light and then shipped off in a shoebox to me.  As my father used to say Nature can be cruel but Nature is true.  The mother cat is quicker than lightening as both my male cats have noticed but this morning a poor little chickadee also discovered it, too late.  I was shocked to turn around from our chicken chores to see Kitsy looking rather peculiar with something sticking out of either side of her neck, namely the bird.  It was useless to try to save the poor thing as she was pierced at neck and chest.  I just recalled those words of Dad’s and let it take its course.

But it made me sad.

90 Days of Thinking

I’ve finished the 90 days of thinking about thinking and I can still think, surprise, surprise. 

All kidding aside I have found the exercises valuable and effective.  “Jumpstart Your Thinking” started out with 21 days of preparing one for various ways of looking at thinking, work spaces, booklets and so forth.  Then the balance of days looked at various types of thinking all of which were listed on Day 5.  Big-picture, Focused, Creative, Realisitic, Strategic, Possibility, Reflective, Uncommon, Shared, Unselfish and Bottom-line thinking were building blocks on how to create and execute goals both personal and professional.  Sometimes I had to put myself on pause to really think through an exercise because I had to shift myself from a work based mindset to a personal goal mindset.

It was interesting to notice that the ideas in this book aligned frequently with the meditations I was doing at the same time.  My mother asked me the other day “do you think it is helping you in any way?” and I replied by saying “have I suggested the silver bullet lately?” which made her laugh.  She wondered why I was working at changing my thinking but when I started to explain she was precariously close to echoing her mother-in-law’s sentiment “I don’t want to bother my head with that” but she knew that would set me off big time.  I am always encouraging her to think outside the box and stop reading the same old magazines and books.  While there is nothing wrong with comfort reading I do think it is very bad for the mind to constantly go back over the same old ground.

I will echo the words of John C. Maxwell, the most vital type of thinking is most definitely positive thinking; if you can do that all the other types will easily fall into place.

Outsmarting Mother Nature

While I am an avid gardener I am still only slightly advanced from a beginner in many respects but one thing I do know, you cannot outsmart Mother Nature.  That is to say, no matter how good the weather can appear we gardeners in Southern Alberta know that we cannot put out bedding out plants before the May long weekend (and many won’t until June 1^st).   Generally I go with the May long weekend unless we have had an unseasonable long, cold winter.  This year I am very tempted to put plants out earlier than that as we have had an incredibly short and mild winter but I am not going to let Mother Nature outfox me.  Instead, I am using my greenhouse to cold frame many of the vegetables that I hope to grow this year.  I am having success with tomatoes, peppers and pumpkins of all things.

Southern Alberta is a very challenging area to grow anything out of the ordinary but things that I seem to have had good luck with are raspberries, gooseberries and asparagus.  I am leaning towards planting more items that are perennial in nature rather than a lot of small vegetables that I cannot handle in large quantities.  One of the challenges that I experience is watering the garden since it is a fair distance from my taps.  This means multiple hoses which have to be unscrewed at intervals to accommodate the front flower beds and then extended to reach the back garden.  One certainly gets a lot of exercise in walking and bending when gardening in a large area.

I attempted to over winter some miniature roses in containers by placing them in the garage where they would have consistent temperatures and yet wouldn’t experience a hard freeze.  That unfortunately did not seem to make any difference, they do not look as though they have made it.  The year before I had then in the sunroom but they didn’t like that either as they seem to require to go dormant for at least a few weeks.  Gardeners can read up on a lot of facts but it really comes down to experimenting with your own area and figuring things out.

But that’s part of the fun of gardening, discovering what you can grow that no one else can.  I’m still waiting for the lightbulb.

Buzz, Chirp & Meow

My goodness but it has been an eventful week on the farm.  On Monday I got called out to a bee keeping event, inspecting an apiary of 24 hives and discovering many dead ones, a few weak ones and only a couple of healthy hives.  I looked at eggs, capped brood, capped honey, honey in the comb as well as identifying the queen in various hives.  One of the most exciting things was observing pollen on the legs of some of the workers who got disturbed enough in the hive to decide to take a little recognizant trip into the trees and came back loaded with the pollen.  How cute was that?  So cute!

Tuesday my 75 day old chicks arrived intact but sadly I had one loss in my batch of 26 and brother John also had a loss the next day in his 50.  Thank goodness for the spares but I am very impressed with Miller Hatcheries quality.  The chicks are thriving and on this, day 4, they have already started to sprout feathers on their wings.  Listening as I enter the coop I can first hear them chirping and then I hear there itsy bitsy little feet speed across the floor because they sense I am coming.  They scurry to the wall, away from the heat lamp and wait for the door to open.  Can I repeat myself?  So cute! 

Thursday morning I went to make my breakfast but as always I first checked on the little stray cat I have been harbouring due to the fact that (1) she is adorable (2) excessively friendly and (3) terribly knocked up (yes as in kittens on the way).  Last night they arrived and poor little Kitsy peeked out from her hidey hole (which she had never used before) and I knew before I heard the mewling that the babies had arrived.  Poor Kitsy was being a good mother but at her own expense; she was a mess.  She hasn’t figured out how to multitask so she was not cleaned up and let me tell you something – do not, I repeat, do not attempt to clean up a mother cat by spraying them with the kitchen sink spray hose.  I had to explain my lacerated body to the doctor this morning when I went for my physical as I looked like something out of The Walking Dead.  Drawing out the kittens later I thought they were, wait for it, so cute!

What will tomorrow bring?  Peace of mind I do hope as this has been too much for this retiree’s old heart!

 

 

 

 

Rights and Rights

The other day I heard some mind boggling decisions made by Mississippi (following on something North Carolina did a while back) namely passing a law that allowed people to deny rights to gay people basing this on these individuals’ own rights to live up to their religious beliefs.  Really?  So now you can declare yourself a Christian and then deny a homosexual a marriage license because your feelings as a Christian cannot handle the task of issuing a license.  If it’s your job to issue licenses I’d like to know what your personal beliefs have to do with that job. 

As a secretary I frequently had to lie for my boss by saying he was not in the office or otherwise denying access to him.  The 10 commandments tell us not to lie but if I had gone to my boss (or the Legislature) to have my rights as a Christian honoured do you think I would have gotten them?  I would laugh if I wasn’t so horrified by a governing body going back into the dark ages on something so archaic as this.

There are Rights and there are rights.   What I am seeing is a regression into prejudice and the next thing the legislature will peel back on are other hard fought rights such as that of women working, getting equal pay and their rights to say no just to name a few.  I don’t care what religion a person owns but if that religion tramples on the rights of individuals the religion is no good.  Too many bad things happen in the name of so called religion for a governing body to give rights to hypocrites at the expense of others who simply want the rights they have been given by a higher authority (and I don’t mean God I mean the Supreme Court). 

Live and let live, for crying out loud.  (and by the way, I don’t think you are a “good” Christian when you have been divorced 3 times so suck it up and give the gay couple their god damn marriage license).

2016 First Quarterly Review

I cannot believe we are more than a quarter of the way through the year and my first thought as I write this statement is “oh no, I am not having a quality retirement because time is going to fast”.  Then a big breath and I use my meditation teachings “cut yourself some slack” and don’t panic.  Then I look at my blog listings, only 35 posts in 90+ days which seems deplorable.  Then I think, yes but aren’t you working on quality rather than quantity? 

On this small scale one can see how a person, family, business and so on can get into a vicious cycle of self blame and anxiety over not producing what one feels should be produced.  Then I hope that my poor Henriettas don’t understand a word I tell them when I go “produce, produce, produce”  or “production or the Colonel?” or “the competition has arrived, production is a priority”.  Since they continue pecking at grass and chase little bugs and feathers I believe they do not pay any attention to me except when I bring out the big red bowl (filled with bird seed).  Then I have their undivided attention and beware foot trippers!

Until I retired I honestly did not feel that I was putting very much pressure on myself but at lunch this past Sunday my girlfriends listened to me talk about the “Jumpstart Your thinking” book and when I told them I had purchased an appointment book so I could log my daily, weekly and monthly accomplishments they looked me in the eye and said “Sue, that’s a problem”.  I blushed but secretly I thought “I’m still going to do it”. 

But on the other hand I have done some really cool stuff over the past few months such as attending seminars on bee keeping, a mini workshop on writing, creating 2 archival scrapbooks of the family, completed a university course, read a pile of books, went on a bee keeping mission and today I started raising my second brood of chicks.  Not earth shattering stuff but it was all fun and rewarding and at all times I felt fully engaged in the task at hand.  And with all the built in fear of senility I think that is not bad for one pre-senior. 

Can we think up a cool word for that?  Pres?  Prez?  PreeCee?

 

Can An Aunt Be Jealous?

Did I say that out loud?  I made the decision last year to take two years out of my travel plans in order to concentrate on my sustainable farm.  I have exciting things on the agenda but every day or so I get a tweet, a Facebook note or a hideously descriptive blog about my nephew’s travel adventures overseas.  I say hideously descriptive because I find myself living vicariously through his writings of exotic and colourful places.

For someone who is supposed to be teaching a high level curriculum at a high end school I jealously question “just how many days to you teach”?  It takes some time to get it through my head that so many “foreign” countries are a mere hop, skip and jump away from Dubai and so it is easy to take a long weekend in Beirut, Oman, Lebanon and even Italy.  Okay, I say sulkily, fine.  Have fun, begrudgingly.

In truth I am very happy that he has the opportunity to experience the sights and people of various nations since otherwise our exposure is far too Americanized.  There is no 2 ways about it, Canada is an extremely young country, particularly the west which is barely 100 years old.  To be confronted with 2,000 plus years of history right in-your-face is almost mind boggling.  Imagine seeing the architecture, sculpture and art of beloved Renaissance masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.  Imagine walking along streets where the saints may have walked, where Greeks and Romans sang and drank and died.

Travel is an eye opener for anyone who really cares to look and wonder instead of just feeling in the moment (although there isn’t anything wrong with that either as there is almost nothing better than laying on a beach hearing the sound of warm water rippling in from the sea).  Hearing the stories of people from other countries is also very rewarding whether their perspective is biased or not, it is someone else’s.  Asking questions is a wonderful gift to have and our Junior has this in spades.  Then we get to live through his experiences via his travel blog.  It’s the next best thing to being there . . . I guess. 

Preparing for Spring

March wasn’t completely study and reading as the month was unusually warm and many days I was drawn outdoors.  The forecasters and gardeners kept warning us not to get overly excited about the warm weather so I was cautious about getting to heavy into my gardening but I managed to soak up some sun and rake a whole lot of leaves.  I kept wondering, why do I have so many leaves when I raked like mad last fall?  Only the good Lord knows the answer to that one.

I took another course of bee keeping and am excited to report that I will be venturing out with my mentor this very week.  If you don’t hear from me after today it will be because I got stung by a bee (or two) and couldn’t take it.  I am actually very excited about this experience as I find bees extremely interesting and I am sure I will write a great deal about this if I overcome my anxiety about bee stings.  They tell us that we should get it over with right away as it is inevitable to be stung if you are a bee keeper.

Also, tomorrow my new batch of chicks arrive.  I am thrilled to actually be able to raise these as my last set of Henriettas were raised by brother John.  The nesting area has already been prepared for them, food has been bought and the water containers and feeders have all been sanitized for the new gals.  It will be fun to watch the old hens wonder what is happening as they are so incredibly curious.  Whenever the least little thing is being done to their coop or run they are pecking anxiously to get into that area so they can give their own opinion on the change.  It’s been two years and I am not tired of their antics yet.

The one anxious problem that I have is the continued low performance which I am certain is still due to their partiality for their own eggs.  It sounds strange but those little peckers are still trying to get at the eggs before I can recover them.  The problem now, will they teach this bad habit to the youngsters?

Time will tell.

Colour Me Yale

My winter studies included the subject of theology and I found myself dissatisfied with the way I was progressing.  I started out by reading my old catechism for my confirmation into the Lutheran church while at the same time I began reading the Bible on a scheduled basis “The Bible in One Year”.   Then I found a book on Forgiveness and another one on Buddhism which gave me some balance from straight Christianity.  However, I thought I should take a more disciplined approach.

The miracle of Google led me to Open Yale where I discovered free online courses from Yale professors and bingo I found just what I needed, a course on the history of the New Testament.  I spent the month of March taking a daily lecture from Professor Dale Martin and I felt rewarded by learning a great deal from a historical rather than a theological perspective with respect to the creation of the New Testament. 

You may wonder, what does the history have to do with theology?  For me, one word answer, everything.  Understanding from a scholarly view how the writers are identified (or not), when they were written (or not), why some writings were chosen as scripture or canon while others were not are all very important to understanding how Christianity developed into the “orthodox” religion some 1,500 years ago.  Taking a critical look at the holy scripture of Christianity will help balance the review of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism as well as other religions.  I think in studying theology it is important to have as unbiased a view of all thinking as is humanly possible (and that is sometimes quite difficult).

Since the vast majority of humanity at least nominally declares they believe in one religion or another I think this is a big step in understanding the quixotic nature of people.

Maybe.

Book Reviews for the Month of March

I gobbled up two wonderful books this month, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney.  The Goldfinch won the Pulitzer Prize and had me up late at night reading until my arm got sore from holding the book.  It’s a rather intense tale of a thirteen year old boy who suddenly finds himself an orphan.  There are undertones of Great Expectations I am told however I didn’t really find it terribly apparent as I didn’t ever have that feeling of dread which Dickens conveyed so well.  Nevertheless I enjoyed the book immensely but will warn readers that it is rather intense.

The Nest on the other hand is a much lighter book and while the characters (four siblings) are rather unlovable it was an enjoyable read.  I frequently found myself wondering what it would be like to anticipate an inheritance and whether I would fall into the trap these people almost galloped into.  I am not the type of person who spends what I don’t have so I would hope that I wouldn’t spend what I hadn’t inherited yet. 

In both books I found myself so immersed in the story that I really wanted to get into the book and strangle a few people . . . am I giving anything away?

I loved The Goldfinch so much that I went out and bought Ms. Tartt’s other books The Secret History and The Little Friend (both of which are rather different from The Goldfinch since they both involve murder and mystery; The Goldfinch is a straight youth novel with a twist).

More tomorrow on how I else I spent the month of March 2016.

One Month Sabbatical

I decided to take a month off my writing so that I could recharge my brain batteries but I do not promise anything terribly new or exciting this month despite my high hopes of being “quiet” for a while.

Here we are three months into 2016 and I still feel a moment of shock when I look at that date.  One hundred years ago the world was at war, women were kicking into high gear for their rights and more children and young people were being educated as never before.  Today we have a global war on terrorism (they tell us), women are still typically underpaid in the workforce and now students with college degrees are still finding it difficult to find jobs.  The more the world changes the more it stays the same if we are talking about practical matters.

For sure we have made incredibly strides in technology which is almost impossible to keep abreast of and yes, if I was asked when I would like to live on this planet, it would still be today.  But when evaluating humanity and our so called progress I find that we are really not any further ahead than we were not only one hundred years ago but even further back.  In some respects I would say we might even have regressed (when it comes to principles and moral high ground).

I didn’t want to write something depressing for my first return back from sabbatical but I thought I would just lay it out there and get it out of the way!