Braeburn's Ditty

Braeburn is studying poetry terms in sophomore english class.  Words like enjambment, assonance, trochee, dactyl, and other odd literary words were all up for study.

Overcome by equal parts boredom and inspiration, he wrote the following poem in the style of Lewis Carroll, and anonymously handed it in.

Ready?

"The poem fell on it's assonance,

and slowly rolled away.

it alliterated the ground with broken

verbs that cracked and crunched, then lay.

It rolled into the door enjambment,

and sprained it's right trochee

when an anapest ran up and 

stole the cap off his other knee.

A careless speaker kicked it,

and towards the ground it sped.

But a flapping, soaring dactyl

mistook it for it's egg.

The gigantic bird chanced a look down,

and gave a throaty scream

for it saw the dangling participle

hanging from the poem's rhyme scheme.

It dropped onto a hexameter,

broke it's couplet, and turned blue.

What was at first a narrative story poem,

was now a small haiku." 

Music Lessons

Golden Delicious with her teacher, Kera, during lessons.

New Digs

The chickens are now a week old, the weather has turned warmer (for a minute), and the little swimming pool is too small, so the little chicks are headed out to their new home in the chicken coop.  Also, as Braeburn pointed out, chicks at 90 degrees make the garage smell disgusting!  We covered them over with a blanket and just picked the whole thing up and carried it from the garage to the coop.

Their new intermediate home is an old stock tank waterer.  We borrowed it from the neighbors.  It's great because it's round so they can't get stuck in corners, tall enough they can flap around, but small enough we can still put heat lamps in for them.  Plus mice can't get in and bother them.

This is what a chick should look like, round and cute.  (This is a rhode island red.)

This is what a black sex-link chick looks like.  Strangest birds ever!  We call them the starlings.  Vultures might be more appropriate.

Nova Spy even cleaned out the swimming pool.  Look how nice the weather is!

Atlas Shrugged

Today's wordfull wednesday from Cocoa's blog is about a favorite genre of book.  Atlas Shrugged could sort of be a genre in and of itself.  It is 1168 pages after all.  This is Ayn Rand's "magnum opus", her attempt to explain the philosophy of what she believed in -and believed in very deeply -  Capitalism.

Ayn was raised in Communist Russia and came to America as a teenager.  Her philosophy is fascinating.  I disagree adamantly with some of it, and agree passionately with other parts of it.  Agree or disagree, she was courageous in stating openly and logically her approach to life.  

Atlas Shrugged, sold more copies last year than ever before.  The following comment by one of the main characters shows how timely Ayn Rand's insights were to our present economic and political situation.

"...what do you think is going to happen to the world?"

"Just exactly what it deserves."

"Oh, how cruel!"

"Don't you believe in the operation of the moral law, madame?"  Franscisco asked gravely.  "I do.... Do you wish to know whether that day is coming?  Watch money.  Money is the barometer of a society's virtue.  When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."  

Atlas Shrugged, forces you to think through what what you think.  My dad tells the story of being in the Denver airport once, years ago, and seeing a girl reading Atlas Shrugged.  A stranger walked up to her and said, "well, how's Dagny Taggart doing today?"  Dagny is the main character in the book.  There is an instant rapport and hours of conversation possible when two people have read the same book, and Atlas Shrugged is particularly interesting to discuss. 

Have you read it?  What do you think?  

Wild, Wonderful, Wyoming

After Idaho, Wyoming is my favorite state.  

This happened way back when I was twelve and we first drove through the whole state on our way home from Ohio.  My first glimpse of the Tetons, with the clouds surrounding them, backlit by the sun, was unforgettable.  I think it was then that I decided I was going to live at the foot of the Tetons, have 12 boys, send them on horseback rides before a hearty breakfast of oatmeal, and live a happy life. 

Fast forward to graduate school.  Mr. Bechtel decided to go to University of Wyoming in Laramie.  As I read the brochures describing the school, all of my previous dreams came back.  The brochure said Laramie was nestled in a beautiful mountain valley. Of course I imagined Jackson.  Mistake!  I imagined my days would be filled with excitement and adventure.  I would sent Mr. Bechtel off to school, put little Braeburn in my baby carrier and head off to the hills.  When we first visited Laramie I looked for the mountains and  I was disappointed.  (very mild word choice).  All I remember from that first trip was all the old tires on the roofs of the trailers by the freeway.  That and  it was Memorial Day and I thought all the trees in the whole area were dead because there were NO LEAVES.

After we'd lived there for several years, my sister-in-law (who is now living in Italy) sent me this picture after they'd visited.   

On the back she wrote "Wyoming - beer, ice, groceries, and antelope - gotta love it!"  

I admit, that Rawlins is a place I never grew to love.  Rawlins, and Red Desert, and Wamsutter, etc.  But there is a wild freedom in Wyoming that is addictive.  We used to go on Sunday drives and we would find places where you could see for a hundred miles in every direction and you felt like you were on top of the world.

All this came back to me this week as I saw in the news that Wyoming people ranked number 3 in overall happiness compared to all the other states.  Utah (don't understand that), and Hawaii (do understand that) were the only states that ranked higher.  Utahn's loved family, Hawaiians loved their weather, but the citizens of the great state of Wyoming loved the "rugged west".

Amen. 

As Helen Mettle, age 15, wrote as her last entry in her dairy in 1923,

"God bless Wyoming, and keep it Wild".

Baby Chicks

Yesterday was the big day... 70 new baby chicks!!  Granny Smith came with me to the feed store to pick them up.  As usual, a visit to the feed store is an exciting event.  Granny Smith was not excited thinking we were buying full grown chicken, but when he got there and saw the baby chicks, plus a bathtub full of baby ducks, he was in heaven.

While we were looking at the ducks, another mom and her little girl came in.  The mom wanted some ducks, but only girl ducks!  She wondered if the owner could tell the difference between the drakes and the hens (hens?  is that the right name for female ducks?)  We watched as he picked up each duck, turned it stomach side up, and held a penny on a string over it.  After watching the coin for about 5 seconds he'd put the duck down and pick up the next one.  When he was done, he said, "well, there you go, those 4 are female".  What??!  We asked him how he did that and he said he'd done it for a long time and he could tell if a mom was having a baby boy or a girl, too.  Well, the other mom happened to be expecting a baby.  She had already had an ultra-sound and knew what she was having, so this was too good a test to pass up.  He sat her down in an old chair in the corner of the store, held his penny over her stomach, and then said, "you're having a little girl."  She looked up at him with this funny look and said, "you got it right!"

See what I mean about the feed store? 

At first I was going to get 80 chicks, but then I wimped out and cut it back to 60, but then once I saw he had buff brahmas, and a few more banties, it went back up to 70.  This is what we ended up with:

Mille Fleur Banties: 7

Buff Brahmas: 2

Black sex-links:10

Golden sex-links: 20

Barred Rocks: 10

Buff Orpingtons: 10 

Rhode Island Reds: 10

I know that's only 69, but I swear we all counted them when we got home, there were 70.  They are really hard to count though. 

It was so cold yesterday I couldn't put them in the coop.  Baby chicks are to be kept warm at 90 degrees for the first week, and since it was below zero that morning (according to the feed store man) I thought that was a bit much to expect two heat lamps to do.  So they are in the garage in our neighbors trusty swimming pool.  We put a rake handle across the top and clipped on two heat lamps.  Very professional process.  Then since it was still too cold I draped a blanket across the top to keep drafts out.

Braeburn helped us transfer the chicks, which was really nice since I just can't pick them up.  I don't know why.  He was very efficient, too, because he is entering 2 movies he made into the Kiwanis Film Festival, and he needed to drive down town and submit them.  We'll keep our fingers crossed for the chickens and for Braeburn's movies.

Starting Seeds

Last week Golden Delicious and I started some herbs and Peppers in little Jiffy 7 pots from Wal-Mart.  The Peppers are still not up.  I guess they are very slow and that's why we started them so early.  I thought the herbs would take a long time but they popped right up and are starting to feel sad there is so little light for them.

We planted chervil, rosemary (hasn't come up yet), chives, marjoram, chamomile, basil, and a few others I can't think of right now.

I coerced Braeburn (his word choice) into helping me assemble the light.  He did a great job and was highly entertaining to listen to as he worked:

" This is the DUMBEST set up.  Who ever designed this was a MORON.  I can't understand any of these stupid instructions.  I'm just ignoring the instructions - it's just a light after all.  Mom, if there's a few missing parts, don't be offended.  Man, this thing is wimpy.  Grant would not be impressed."

He did a brilliant job (another Braeburn word choice).  And now the little plants have some light and are very happy.

The Banties

Chickens, chickens everywhere!  These are Bantie chickens which are small chickens.  There are lots of different kinds - these are brahmas.  We got them from Mr. Bechtel's cousin in Nevada and they rode home with us in the Suburban.  6 chickens and 8 people.  It actually wasn't too bad.  The birds were very quiet in the back.  I think they thought life was coming to an end.  But then they were delighted when we finally turned them loose in their new home.  We think they are beautiful!

The brown ones are buff brahmas and we think the white ones are silver brahmas.  The rooster is a hoot.  And so far, pretty mellow, which is good because I am still sad that Barney our old rooster is gone.  I'm especially sad since it's my fault because I'm am scared to death of attacking roosters with flying feathers.  If I could have been nonchalant about that then he could still be living - probably fighting with Orville.  I am still not an expert at this chicken thing.  I'm going to improve.

And the banties make the most adorable little hidden nests.  This one was behind a bale of hay.  I hope they go broodie soon and hatch out some cute, tiny chicks.  Banties are good little mothers.