2013 Randomness

'Tis said that how you spend New Year's day will predict how you spend the rest of the year.  I certainly hope not. I've got a major case of the flu and have spent the past four days dragging myself from bed to couch.  Bob has taken over making the traditional beans & greens for our New Year's Day dinner (which turned our really well--probably because he put in a lot more ham than I would have)

But at least I will start the year with a blog post.  It will not portend a year of being focused and organized, because I'm just looking at the pictures on the camera and seeing what I haven't posted about yet.

Me and the Goose

The morning of the Fall Farm Days at the museum I heard people yelling "the goose escape!"  I ran over--sure enough, our new, very large, male swan goose was out of the pen.  Geese can be dangerous (being "goosed" is not as much fun as it sounds) and I hadn't officially met this new one.  My plan was to keep him cornered (and people away from him) until someone from the animal department could capture him.  So I chased him proper farmwife style, flapping my apron.  He merely looked confused.  I sidled up to him, carefully patted him as he honked at me, and finallly picked him up.  Turns out that Maynard is a very friendly goose who likes being handled.


Ojo de Dios

Again at the museum--our Christmas on the Farm.  We had various craft tables, and I (who always think about fiber and yarn) thought it would be fun to have kids make Ojo de Dios--yarn wrapped God's Eyes.   How were we to know that it would turn out to be one of the most popular crafts?  At any given times I had a half-dozen kids wrapping yarn around sticks--we made dozens and dozens of the things.  There were probably a lot of Christmas trees adorned with Ojos this year.



Downtown Abbey

 

WFSU had a big fundraising premier to kick off the new season of Downtown Abbey.  The show is set in the 1920s, so I set up a display of 1920 clothing.  Fortunately Eliza (the Rosie the Riveter of a few blogs posts back) came out to help me, as this was the day after I had helped make the dozens of Ojos de Dios and I was rather sore.  The clothing was interspersed with some great antique radios, and the whole display was very well received.  Fans of the show got a kick out of seeing "the real thing" up close.


A Bit of Color

Late last spring my mother handed me a slightly sad Christmas cactus that someone had abandoned.  I can't say that I babied it--the best I did for it was offer it some ground space in the butterfly garden.  The butterfly garden is treated with benign neglect--it gets watered occasionally, and weeded a couple of times a year, and whatever lives, lives.  So we were surprised to catch a glimpse of red flowers--just in time for Christmas!




Projects Done!

I've been busily knitting for the Christmas season--but of course couldn't show pictures.  And forgot to take some.  But I finished Dane's sock puppet dragon--of course, by now he's probably too sophisticated for such things.  So kid--it's OK if you regift it, or stash it in the back of a drawer (we also sent him a catapult model).  I also made Amanda a couple of warm alpaca scarves and hats.  If I'm correct, this picture was taken in Paris!

Chores Done

I had mentioned in my last post that being given a perfect day, we took off and enjoyed it.  The next day we ("we" meaning mostly Bob) got onto the delayed project of replacing some broken boards on the front deck.  Jeff came out to help us--and with three people nailing the boards were quickly in place.

To thank Jeff for his help I took him out for some quick afternoon kayaking.  He and Rob had sometimes wondered that Bob and I tend to kayak almost exclusively on Lake Talquin (why not?  it's right here).  I think now he understands.  Especially since the bird in the picture is a limpkin--close to being an endangered species.

A Perfect Thursday

Sometimes you are given the gift of a perfect day--and it's foolish not to accept it.

It's a couple of days after Christmas--time to take advantage of some days off to do things like catch up on housecleaning, or replacing some rotted boards on the front deck.  That was the plan for today.

But the day was beautiful--cool enough to wear a sweatshirt, but not cold enough to shiver.  Clear intensly blue sky.  There were some other items on the "things to do during the break" list--like go hiking at St. Marks.  We moved that up to the top of the list and took off to hiked the nature trails around the lighthouse.  Perhaps "hike" is too vigorous a word--we wandered.

After a few hours, we drove into St. Marks for oysters and shriimp.  It was still too lovely to go home, so we went to Wakulla Springs.  The problem with living someplace is that you don't get around seeing the sights--so we try to get to Wakulla at least once a year.  Our river boat tour was the last one of the day.  Not only was the light beautiful, but our boat driver was a man who enjoyed his job, and took advantage of the fact that there would be no boats coming behind to give us a much longer tour than usual.  We saw very few alligators (unusual for the Springs) but made up for it in manatees.  I wish I could have gotten a good picture of the cormorant who followed us for about 20 minutes.  Apparently the boat stirs up small fish and the bird takes advantage of this.  We got a great view of how they swim underwater; he would then pop up to swallow his catch.

We came back to the dock just as the sun set and the moon rose.  It was time to go home.

It was a perfect day, spent with the man who is both my true love and my best friend.

Geronimo!

I just had my 60th birthday (gasp!).  To mark this occasion, I decided to cross something off my bucket list:  I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.

OK--to be technically accurate, I did not jump from the plane.  I was strapped to an experienced skydiver, and *he* did the jumping.

I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting.  I did rather expect the several pages of paperwork which basically read "you've elected to jump out of a perfectly good airplane and you agree that it's not our fault if anything goes wrong."   I was somehow expecting my training to last more than 10 minutes (mostly "you're along for the ride and let the experienced guy take care of things).

My expectation of a "perfectly good airplane" was not a wee tiny two-seater Cessna that's almost as old as I am.  And it used to be a two-seater.  The seats had been taken out so that 5 people could squeeze in--four jumpers (2 two with large chute packs) and the pilot.  I was packed into the tiny gap between the pilot and the door.  Periodically he tapped my shoulder to indicate that I should bow my head so he could read the instrument panel.

So I'm sitting cozily, knees around my ears, my jump partner sitting on my feet in front of me, and about a mile up it occurs to me that I'm not strapped to him.  How is that going to happen?  Well, it can be done in such a confined area--it just gets a bit . . . personal.

We're two miles up, the checklist is checked, and suddenly the door is open.  Remember that I had been squeezed in between the pilot and the door.  Now I was squeezed in between the pilot and . . . nothing.  Language ensued.  The Tim (my jumper) indicated that I should swing out and put my feet on a little step outside of the plane.  Really?  Like that's going to happen.  But I did--and suddenly the plane just wasn't there any more.

Freefall didn't really feel like falling--it's just a great unobstructed view of the ground which inexplicably seems to be getting closer very quickly.  When you first get ready to leave the plane, the rider (me) is supposed to hang onto her harness and keep her elbows in.  After you're out, the jumper taps your shoulder and you spread your arms out in the free-fall position.  Well--he tapped, and then he pounded a bit, and then he finally reached around and pried my hands loose.

From watching war movies on TV I was expected a big jolt when the chute opened.  It was more of just doing a gentle swing from a horizontal position to a vertical one.  We drifted for a bit--I got to take control and do a couple of gentle turns.  He took them back and did some swirling loops until I suggested that he stop unless he wanted to check out my breakfast Cheerios.

The landing was equally gentle--I just got my legs up and out of the way and let him slide in.

I wonder what's next on my bucket list?

Prepping for Winter

Why is it that as the year is winding down, things are winding up?  Keeping busy--and usually forgetting the camera.

There was the fall Farm Days.  Absolutely beautiful day for it.  I got to spend the day spinning on the porch and got quite a bit of yarn made for an upcoming Christmas gift.  Not a full day's worth--I had to stop a lot and let various children try their hand at spining to get their samples.  I do cheat on that, of course--my hands are on their hands, and for some I'm doing all the spinning.  Others I can take off one hand, and then the other, and they're doing it on their own.  Either way--it's a good photo op for their parents.  But did I think to get a picture for myself?

And Thanksgiving--I got to have two of them.  We had friends over for an early Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday, and then Thursday I packed up all the goodies and we had family Thanksgiving day with my parents.  The cats were thankful for the bits and pieces of turkey that they got, and the chickens were thankful for the carcass (bones are good for them)

Bob's been putting in the winter garden--greens and cabbage and garlic and carrots. We don't get that many cold nights here, but we do get some (it got down to 31 degress last night).  He thought about building a cold frame to go over one of the beds to protect it (an experiment--to see if a covered bed fared better than an uncovered one).  I pointed out that you'd have to move it every time you wanted to weed, water, or harvest (the beds are 12 feet long by 4 feet wide so this would be awkward).  My suggestion was to go bigger--build it over two beds, tall enough to go inside.  The build was super-simple and fun--we put arches of PVC pipe over the beds, then covered them in plastic.  All duct-taped together.  It's not elegant, and we'll probably have to go retape it after any storms, but it only needs to be there for about three months.  All told, it took us about two hours to put it together.  How did people do fast builds before PVC? (The black plastic at the end is there because we ran out of clear plastic)

Rosie--The Next Generation

Sunday, November 11, was Veteran's Day.  Bob and I usually ride his jeep in the parade--and I get to be Rosie the Riveter.  It's fun on so many levels: you get to ride in a parade (and people love Rosie).  And you get to remind people that the women back home contributed so much to the WWII war effort.  Finally, and most important, it's heart-catching to see thousands and thousands of people lined up, waving flags, and showing their appreciation to those who keep this country free.

Oops--Sunday was Veteran's Day.  But Veteran's Day observed was  .  I had managed to double-book myself.  No Rosie in the parade this year  :-(

Except . . . .

I'm helping out at the Goodwood Plantation planning for an exhibition they will be doing in the spring.  Another committee member is what we here in the South call "a lovely young lady," Eliza.  Eliza and I had talked about how she likes to dress in vintage clothing, and she had once mentioned that she was Rosie the Riveter for Halloween a couple of years ago.   So I asked her if she could cover for me--and she was beyond thrilled.   So the crowds got their Rosie, and Bob had a charming companion for the parade.  What I found most touching is that she carried a picture of her grandfather in his uniform.

Maybe next year Bob will have two Rosies in his jeep . . .

Cabinet of Curiosities

Another Halloween has come and gone.  Sigh . . .

This year, Jeff and Rob and Bob and I (with brother Mike dragged in at the last minute--I always work him on his visits) banded together to decorate the schoolhouse at the Museum as as "Dr. R. Cane's Cabinet of Curiosities."  What a blast!  The musuem loaned us display cases (which gave an air of authenticity to the whole thing).  We also had taxidermidied animals and casts of skulls of prehistoric animals,along with props that we had made,  so we had a collection of real and artificial artifacts.  We had hundreds of people come through without a single negative comment.  On the contrary--many people thought we were a real museum exhibit (some asked permission before taking photographs), or a professional travelling show.  We often got compared to "Oddities" or "Ripley's Believe it or Not".  We all acted as museum docents, and just made up stories about the "artifacts" (I wonder if anyone going through for a second or third time noticed that they got different stories.  I got the ultimate compliment--one woman was disturbed enough by my Peruvian mummy that Mike had to finally let her know that he was a fake.

and now--back to normal . . .

October Continues

OK--so it's November.  October was busy.

But not the crazy busy of the last many years.  As much as Rob and Jeff and Bob and I absolutely loved doing the haunted trail at the Museum, we had to admit that it kicked our butts.  We tried to far more than was possible with limited time and limited money and limited people--and we succeeded.  But it took up every spare minute of September and October to plan and build (and a lot of time before that building props) and most of November to tear it down and put it away.   Last year Bob and I broke away by going to Mexico, and Rob and Jeff put up a display on the museum grounds.  But we missed working together.  So this year we offered to decorate one building as a Cabinet of Curiosities.

While we did do some prop building, we also managed to have a more relaxing October than usual.  We went to an alpaca show

 

 

 

I managed not to bring an alpaca home, and only a little bit of fleece (to supplement the pounds and pounds of alpaca I still have hanging around--but it's a lovely color).

 

We went to the Blountstown Goat Days--a small-town fair.  No pictures, but we enjoyed talking to blacksmiths and the people rendering out pork cracklins and bought homemade soap and food-on-a-stick.

 

Zack the Zombie was put up at the MacClay Gardens scarecrow display to advertise the Halloween Howl.   He made one of the park rangers uncomfortable, and she eventually tied a bandana around his face to hide his scary mouth.  I heard that she also thought about putting sunglasses on him.

 



 

 

I even got interviewed by the newspaper about our Cabinet of Curiosities.

 

And we did build props.  My major contribution was my Peruvian mummy.  He started out life as a skeleton from Walgreens, and with a lot of paper mache and paint he ended up like this.

 

 

We had to stage some pictures for the abovesaid newspaper article, and, while I didn't send it in, this was my favorite

 

Bob made a conjoined skull

 

And I did a vampire killing kit

 

Next post will talk about the Cabinet of Curiosities--which was a resounding success!