Well, This is embarassing. I forgot it was Monday when I started this. Oh well!

Time to start another thread.

My last few days have been filled with computer troubles, now apparently solved. And amazingly, I'm the one who solved them! Gee!

I was out at a friend's farm (they actually are BTS, though not terribly far beyond) Saturday evening. We began outside at fireside (they have a firepit). We fell silent when a bunch of sirens went by on the nearby highway (because we couldn't hear each other anyway!), and as they passed, a group of coyotes started gabbling in the very next field.

I've never heard them that close, but it wasn't scary around a fire with 8 other people. It was actually kind of amusing, since the sirens 'set them off' just like a bunch of dogs. The coyotes sounded like a bunch of puppies. Perhaps some of them were this year's litter.

Later when we were in the house, I was marvelling again at their butler's pantry, which is between the kitchen and the dining room. It's almost as big in itself as my present kitchen! Every house should have one of those! The house was built a long time ago for someone rich, then, still a long time ago, was moved in 2 or 3 pieces to this current farm and rejoined. It's a great place for gatherings, and they're very generous about having people out for various events. Neat place to visit!

It remains unseasonably mild here. It's been cloudy the past couple of nights, so meteor watching was futile. I may go out tonight to see if there's anything still going on, if it's clear.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

Answers

Response to Over the Fence Chat - Nov. 19 - Nov. 25, 2001

Glad you got your computer fixed! And that you did it yourself.

Looks like LUSENET is up again for a little while.

Raining here again...although we had a warm and beautiful weekend. My favas are coming up; I have volunteer peas growing in their old beds; the garlic has sprouted; and my old geranium is trying to bloom!

My neighbors decided to stay in Hawaii for another 5 days, so I'm still critter sitting. Just found out they have 2 hamsters, too! They were just about out of water and food, so glad I found out...

My wrist is hurting today (oh-oh...and have to keyboard for 8 hours today) so I think I'll shut up now. Hopefully, I can mix some pie filling tonight after I get home.

Y'all have a good week!

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

I have afriend that has a buttlers pantry in her house but I think here it goes by another name. Its pretty cool. We got this years fencing done on Sunday and the sheep are on fresh ground now. Its a relief. My hands are some sore though. Its mild here too. Lovely sunshine yesterday but cloudy so far today. The hackmatacks stand out very brightly on days like this since their needles have not yet dropped and are a bright goldy yellow in colour against the dark greys and blacks and greens of the denuded hardwoods and the spruces. My hens have finally decided to call the hen house home at night. I am pretty sure they were all in there last night. The turkeys are refusing to go in except to occassionally eat. i feel a hankering for porridge so I will shut up now. Have a great day.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

Okay, Alison, I've been wondering if "hackmatack" is the same as "tamarack", so I looked it up, and yes, they are the same. "Common" names for black larch [Larix laricina].

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

The Larch.

(sorry, had a Monty Python Moment there...)

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

ROFL..everytime I hear larch I think Monty Python. Y'know..just like when some people hear "booby" and they start to giggle? With me its sometimes "The Larch". Yes Joy you are right, tamarack is the same thing. I will try to be clearer in the future. :o)

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

The Larch.

The Larch.

The Larch.

The Larch.

Oh my God, I'm busting a gut!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

"neat, neat. We are the knights that say, "neat".

Well, I have found that it is unpleasant to fall on your fanny on 100 year old barbed wire fencing. I have about two and a half more 330 ft rolls of fencing to enclose three acres (and another roll to make it two pastures. I thought to make it three but two is so much nicer right now)

I know I'm getting the cold later then alot of you but I STILL HATE THE COLD. And it's getting worse with each year. I am not looking forward to the frozen rabbit water bowls and sliding down the hill to feed. (never mind trying to get back up that same hill with ice) And I really believe we will be having a bad winter this year. Lots of snow - we are in the middle of a drought after all.

Sorry to be down tonight but it was it was REALLY COLD tonight when I went out to feed. I want to move!!!! Florida, here I come....

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

Well, now I feel stupid -- I know nothing about "larch" and it's connection to Monty Python. Kinda hard to believe, since Julie knows all their stuff!

Alison, now that I know what a hackmatack IS, you can go right on calling them that. I like learning other terms. After spending time in the UK, I was doing stuff like calling the parking lot the "car park" (which I still think sounds better than parking lot!).

Dee, falling on barbed wire is "unpleasant"? Did you major in understatement?! LOL!

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

Yes, Joy looks at me quite strangely when I say things like, oh....

"There's a Penguin on the telly!"

"Rams-bladder Cup"

"There's a lovely bit of filth over here"

"My Brain Hurts!"

"He's pining for the fjords!"

"A shrubbery!"

"and there was great rejoicing (yaaay!!!)

She really hates it when I sing "I Like Traffic Lights", but then, she doesn't like it when I sing "Imagination" (from WaltDisneyWorld fame) either, so go figure. Some of us are just more cultured than others.

So, Dee, doesn't this make three now, so you don't have to do yourself any more damage? The ankle, the thumb, and now the posterior parts. Does this mean you're going to have to get a tetnus shot too, or did you have to have one with the thumb already? You need to install a rope tow with a two-way switch for that hill this winter!

I think that fall has officially ended, since the snow came yesterday and the ground is finally freezing. I have been racing against the weather to get everything in the garden taken care of so that it is snug 'til spring, even got leaves shredded right on the toes of winter's arrival, but I am still stacking manure and spoiled hay, rotten pumpkins, garden trimmings, bunny beans, and guinea pig litter in the newly emptied compost bin to try and steal a march on getting it composted.

Aside from leaf shredding, and compost turning, and garden prepping, and manure toting, I planted my 4th apple tree (not the best time, I know, but it's been hanging fire all summer), put in some currant bushes, outfitted three more raised beds in the veggie garden, pruned the bushes around the house so I could see out the windows again (so now they need washing), and such like.

I'm still hoping for a kind of marginal day in which to wash a few windows and put some Rain-X on them to see if that helps cut down on the streaking. It's cold out enough at night that I put the turkey out on the deck to stay frozen til tomorrow when I'll have to thaw it. Since Joy isn't coming, it looks to be just myself, mom, and my aunt - - who is expecting the 4th of July any day now, and won't remember that she had Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. This summer she thought that Christmas was nearly here....

I bought myself a toy this fall, a Flowtron leaf shredder. Once I got the (unprintable expletive deleted) assembling done, it was really nice to be able to turn an enormous pile of leaves into 5 55- gallon sacks of shredded brown 'oatmeal'. With a little luck, by next fall it may be leaf mold.

Here it is, nearly Thanksgiving, and I discover that I still have trying to bloom, a viola, primroses, and an orange miniature rose! Through all the freezing temps and snow! That little rose is a stubborn customer, makes me think that it may survive the winter.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001

Julie, I thought I was finished with my hurts but after the ankle (which is still bothering me), the thumb (I'm gonna lose this nail and hope it doesn't snag on anything) I had a lithargic yellowjacket attach itself to my arm and continue to pump in the poison. Arm swelled and itched forever. Tetnus is up to date and I had on thick jeans or the barbed wire could have been worse. Now today, in work, I poked myself in the eye with (of all things) the perch of a birdfeeder. Went right in the eye, no delayed blink or anything. How'd I do that, who knows, didn't see it.

You might want to put some of that shredded leaf around the rose bush to keep it warm.

I still hate the cold.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001