Catnip

We were harvesting Catnip (or is it Catmint? Is there a difference?) for drying.

And the cat, of course, got into it.

Oh, and here's a video of the chickens, too, because why not?

Strawberry fields forever

We harvested the first strawberry of the year today, and it was delicious! A good omen I hope.

We've been fairly busy here, and the weather's been okay -- if still a bit wet and rainy. Everything is getting greener, and stuff is really starting to grow, I can't wait until the strawberries really start bearing and we can go out and pick them everyday (I know I'll get tired of it, though at the moment I'm still excited). I also invented something: The Chicken Purse!

Some of the chickens like it, some don't. Sometimes it depends. Either way, I think it's a success!

Well, I don't have much else to say, so, uh, happy summer, everyone?

-Willow

An adorable dilemma

Today we went out to see Sue Miller's farm. You know, the person who I mentioned about raising rabbits? Well, they had a new litter a while ago, and we got to see their huge plot of land (do want), and their adorable baby bunnies (also want). Unfortunately, I'm not sure I could kill and eat one of the fluffy little creatures, nor do I know if I would even like rabbit meat.

So, we might see if Sue has any rabbits to spare after she butchers her's. Its her first time raising rabbits, too, so it'll be a learning experience for all.

As for the baby bunnies, they were adorable, fluffy, tiny, and the last thing you'd think of as dinner.

When they were not squirming or freaking out, holding the baby bunnies was easy, letting the little ones doze of in your arms, and petting their soft, soft fur.

When they were squirming and freaking out, holding the baby bunnies was very, very, hard. You didn't want to hold them too tight or hurt them, but they would squirm and squirm, and all their sleek fur made them hard to hold onto and stop from jumping away. Like holding one of those long, skinny, slippery water balloons. Except this water balloon had claws. And rabbits aren't like chickens or sharks or toads. Sharks and toads will stand still if you flip them on their back (sharks even go into tonic immobility), and chickens will act similarly, calming down if you hold them side-ways. Rabbits will not.

Sue was kind enough to give us a tour around the property and some tips about raising meat rabbits. A successful day of meat rabbit information-gathering, I'd say. And a Nick-N-Willy's pizza for lunch makes it even better.

Weather-wise, today was the same as yesterday -- rainy. I'm sure the plants are getting a bit tired of it by now. I don't mind, though.

Well, that wraps up this unintentionally late blog post. I'll write a blog post about why I always forget to write blog posts sometime. 'Cause I heard you liked blog posts so I put a blog post in your blog post so you can read blog posts while you read blog posts.

Alright, that's it, I should really not write blog posts this late.

Computer problems... again

We are having computer problems again. My computer, after coming back about a week ago, is still, apparently, having problems with the fan... *sigh* We're beginning to think we might need a new computer, though the people at Toshiba would, obviously, rather fix the current one. We'll see what happens.

As you may have guessed, The Other Side of Shrae will probably be delayed a bit, due to said computer problems. I might write a few chapters of it, but a broken computer does not help at all when trying to be creative.

In other news, it's raining here. Heavily. In fact, it's been rainy pretty much all day -- and should rain well into tomorrow. We got a bunch of starts planted out just in time, and they're now enjoying the wonderful water along with their spacious garden beds to grow in.

Well, I think that's all I have to say for today.

Oh, yes. I'm thinking about playing around with the blog layout again. Hey, it's fun to mess around with! It might just be a sort of constantly changing thing. Along with the header text.

*Shrug*
Eh, we'll see.

The Other Side of Shrae: Chapter Two

Chapter Two

They set anchor and the crew stepped back down onto solid land. Talli looked around. Solid ground under her feet felt weird, after getting used to the slow, steady, rocking motion of the Albutrae.

Captain Sielrite stepped off of the boat, shouting out orders to all.

“Talli, you lead Dylan, Briar, Becka, Robert and Ashelea to go forage for whatever you can find here. We need fresh fruit, and it would be nice to see what kind of wildlife there is here.” He gestured to the beach and the jungle-like forest behind. “I’ll stay here with the rest, unpack a bit, and we can try and get our bearings.”

Talli nodded, calling the others over.

“Pfft. I don’t see why I can’t lead a foraging party.” Dylan Scarwhile complained.

“If it wasn’t Talli who was leading this group, It’d be Ash’ or Me” Robert, a map-maker and explorer snapped back.

Talli nodded to herself. But she felt that it still would have been better if Ashelea led the party, instead of her – Ash’ was a biologist and had studied and read about many plants and animals, and Talli was not. But, Talli supposed, her leading a small foraging party was better then Dylan leading it.

Walking across the damp sand towards the foresty tangle of vines and trees, Talli realized that what looked like a small bank up to the jungle, was actually a steep, eroded-away hill of dirt. Grabbing the vines trailing down from the huge trees above, she climbed her way up, tossing a rope down to the others once she was at the top of the small, cliff-like bank. Once they were all up, Talli took a moment to look around the dense, viney, jungle. There were tangles of branches and vines everywhere, and Talli pulled out here Machete, the rest following, and hacked away at the thick foliage.

They soon came upon a small game trail, and followed it through the forest, still having to occasionally cut away a low-hanging vine or intrusive plant. The party had spread out a bit, each staying fairly close to the others but still far enough away so that they each explored a new area, increasing their chances of finding anything.

“Hey! I found some fruit trees over here!” Ashelea’s voice carried through the undergrowth.

Talli went over, pushing her way through the bush and overgrown plants until she found herself in a small clearing where all the plants had been cut away, Dylan, Briar, Robert and Becka standing alongside her. Ashelea motioned to a few trees around them. A lemon tree, some sort of pomegranate tree, and a mango tree a little bit back.

“Nice find!” Talli said, as Ashelea and the others started to pick what fruits they could find.

Taking out a small sack, Talli did the same, gleaning any freshly-fallen fruits from the forest floor, and reaching up to get any that were still on the trees and in her reach.

“You’re all gonna eat well tonight,” Becka said with a smile.

Dylan said nothing, looking a little sulky, but he did take a mango and skin it for himself, muttering something like “I should’ve found it…”

Talli didn’t get a good vibe from Dylan, that’s for sure, but she didn’t say anything to him. The Captain could have a word with him if needed.

Heading back to the beach, packs full of fruit, Talli and her party chatted a bit, daydreaming about what delicious food Becka would cook up.

Becka just smirked, playing along, “I dunno, it’ll taste good, though, I bet.” Making the others laugh.

Back on shore, however, nothing was going as planned.

The bulky, armored creatures swam surprisingly gracefully up towards the ship’s hull, and at a single flick of the leader’s lobster-like tail, they all tore into the ship’s underside, strong, razor-sharp claws tearing through wood like a knife through butter. The crew who had stayed behind unloading heard the commotion, opening fire at the beady-eyed, crab-clawed, armored creatures. Shrill shrieks echoed all around the cove, mingled with gunfire and yells. More crab-things came up, swarming the deck, tearing sails and destroying the already-sinking ship. Captain Sielrite rushed in, pulling out a sword and trying to behead one of the creatures. It didn’t work, the sword sliding off of the thick armor plating, making a screeching sound like metal on metal. The beast hissed, lunging at the captain. Below, water was flowing into the underbelly of the ship alarmingly fast, the Albutrae starting to slowly sink towards the seabed.

Talli and the rest of the foraging party stepped out of the tangled forest onto the beach, a scene of confusion and destruction before them. No lobster-creatures in sight, no ship in sight, just blood, destroyed timbers, and only one of the 7 people who stayed behind to unpack alive.

The Other Side of Shrae: Chapter One

Chapter One

They were finally ready to set sail, the weather was nice and the wind was with them. Bidding farewell to land and stepping onto the Albutrae, Talli said a final goodbye to shore and crossed her fingers they’d find land soon, and come back rich.

The next few days were uneventful, and business went as usual around the ship. The cook, Becka Sanddune, was quite a good one, and she managed to create fairly good-tasting food with what was onboard.

5 days after they set off, a storm hit them in the middle of the night. A few kegs of beer and a lot of sleep was all that was lost, though they were blown off-course slightly. Seilrite didn’t seem very worried, and tried to keep the crew happy with a few words whenever someone asked if they thought they’d have missed anything.

“It’s what you’ll expect out at sea, nothing more. Sure we could’ve missed an island or what have you, but we weren’t set off-course as much as you’d think.”

Talli was convinced, but the crew were still a little disappointed and sulky. The chance of them missing anything important was, as the captain had said, very, very low, and Talli thought it a bit silly of everyone to be worrying about a small storm.

Everyone cheered up, however, when Briar Wright, one of the crew who was friends with Talli, spotted land.

“Land! Land! To the East of us!” He shouted down to the crew from the Crow’s nest.

“Aye, you’re right. Good eye!” Captain Seilrite said up to him, running to the bow of the ship and quickly shouting out orders to all the crew as they adjusted course.

After several hours of work and running around on deck, and several more hours of waiting, they were nearly to the small part of land the crew had been calling The Other Side of Shrae. Everyone was excited and restless, pacing around. Though Talli took a break to study the land ahead of them.

The island they were approaching was big, with tall, grey, slate cliffs to either side of a small, sandy beach. There was a small slate jetty on one end -- the perfect place to land the ship. Talli could see long, knife-like pieces of slate on the seafloor below, presumably knocked off of the slate cliffs and the dock-like peninsula they were heading for. Peering into the clear water below, she could make out clearly the many jagged rocks and slate chips resting on the sandy floor. And… was that movement? Something caught her eye, and she thought she could see something that looked like a skull tumbling down into a small rock crevasse, leaving a cloud of silt. No, it’s just my imagination, she tried to convinced herself, though she wasn’t so sure. She shook her head, but Sielrite interrupted her doubtfulness.

“Land, ho!” The captain yelled, as the Albutrae bumped up against the long slate jetty they were using as a dock, sending long slices of slate crashing down to the seafloor below, distorted cracking and smashing sounds drifting up from the water. Talli would have celebrated with the rest of the crew, but suddenly she wasn’t sure this was the best idea at all.

Below, a huge, armor-plated creature hissed to it’s comrades, drawing back into it’s small underwater cave.

Something intruding on their territory?

They knew how to sink a ship, they’d sunk quite a few in their day.

But hopefully the Skrass wouldn’t find out…

Everyone would be in trouble then.

The Other Side of Shrae: Prologue

Prologue

“Talli Firecrow’s the name”, the red-haired, green-eyed young woman said to the captain of the Albutrae, captain Seilrite.

“Any previous experience sailing?” the grizzled old sailor asked. His hair was white, and he had a short, bristly beard, making him look quite intimidating.

“Er…” Talli said, trying to sugar-coat the fact she used to be a pirate, “I used to be a… erm, privateer”, she said awkwardly, looking around and hoping none had noticed.

Seilrite nodded, coughed, and muttered something like “Very well…”

They stepped aboard the ship, it’s white sails fluttering slightly in the wind.

“Well, there you are.” the captain said, clearing his throat loudly, “The Albutrea, finest ship ever, if you ask me. Good for fishin’, but even better for exploring.”

Talli nodded, taking in the whole ship. It wasn’t a bad one, that was for sure.

“How long you think we’ll have to sail before we find this ‘Other side of Shrae’?” A brown-haired man said, coming up from under-deck.

“Who knows.” the Captain replied with a shrug, “None’s ever thought of or had want to explore this side of the great sea. If we’re lucky, we’ll find land in a couple weeks. Hopefully we can find someplace fast, but you never know with sailing. Just the luck of the draw, really. If you’re blown off-course even a few hours you might miss a landmass you might otherwise see.”

The man nodded, and kept on carrying supplies from shore back onto the Albutrae.

“So, when are we leaving?” Talli said, eager to set off.

“Well, I’d say in a few days, if the weather stays calm.” Seilrite said, scratching his beard.

There were some shouts, and Sielrite was called away to see to the loading of some very heavy casks of rum, and Talli wandered off to meet the rest of the crew, shaking hands and exchanging names until she had met everyone. Some came just for the paycheck, some came to document any new plants or animals they might find, some came because they knew the Albutrae’s Captain, or had friends aboard.

Talli, however, used to be a pirate;

She came for adventure.

Books and book -- I mean earth -- worms

About two weeks or so ago, me and my mom went out to watch The Greenhorns; a documentary about young farmers. I was already starting to get interested in farming thanks to Jenna and her blog, Cold Antler Farm, but watching that documentary was the last push I needed to really want to get into gardening and raising animals. I'm doing a bit of work in the garden currently, preparing beds to be planted with my dad, and cleaning up the yard a bit. Unfortunately, I was and am pretty out of shape -- not fat or anything, but I don't have much stamina. Hopefully that will change. At the moment, I'm focusing on plants, but someday I want to raise meat rabbits or maybe meat chickens. Lucky for us, one of our Unschooling friends knows a Homeschooler who keeps meat rabbits -- though it's her first year doing so. We'll see how this whole meat rabbit venture goes.

In any case, I suppose this writing blog may turn into a writing-and-farming blog.
That's probably for the best, though. Farming is, in my opinion, much more interesting then writing.

"Hey, what did you do today?"
"Oh I wrote some more of this plotline that I can't tell you about cause it has to be a secret"
"Cool"
"Yup"
"See you"
"Bye"

VS.

"Hey, what did you do today?"
"Oh, I planted three garden beds, took care of an egg-bound chicken and helped the first three sheep give birth. And took the pig to the butcher."
"Cool"
"Yup"
"See you"
"Bye"

Not to mention that there's a lot more to write about when it comes to farming then writing. Theoretically.

But that doesn't mean I won't be writing anything other then stuff about farming. In fact, while I was running out of steam a couple weeks ago, I've just started wanting to write again (which may or may not coincide with my computer coming back from the repair guys). I'm slowly working more on Thenew, not that there's much to do other then making up plotlines, which is fairly boring. However, I have started writing The Other Side of Shrae, and I plan to post each chapter up here as I write it. They'll be short chapters, though, and hopefully I won't have any major plotholes to fill. I don't want to be editing and re-writing chapters I've already posted.

I'll probably post the Prologue tonight. And hopefully I'll be able to write about a chapter or two a day. Who knows.

Here goes nothin'.

The Story of the Mouse

We were off to Bellvue for a friend's concert, and the day, while slightly breezy, was nice enough; sunny, fairly warm, and if you count the fact that there was good music playing (if a bit loud for my ears), it was a near-perfect day.

We were outside a small coffee shop, called the Bellvue Bean. Sparky's band was playing outside on the lawn behind the shop. There was a gravel parking lot in front, but not nearly big enough to fit all the cars. As the band started playing, I wandered down to the parking lot where Harry (my brother), Corrine and Melissa (friends) were. Now, I must mention, I have eagle eyes, if I do say so myself, and am always able to notice nails or baubles lying on the ground. Why does that fact matter? Well, as I was walking over to Harry, Corrine and Melissa, who where chatting amongst themselves, I spotted something on the gravely ground.

You'd think a tiny, grey-furred, baby mouse would be hard enough to see in a field of tiny, grey-colored, rocks. As I said before, I have eagle eyes. Once I saw the mouse I froze, watching. Was it moving? Yes! The mouse let out a small, high-pitched squeak, calling for it's mother, and moved it's head a bit. I made a quick decision, and grabbed up the baby mouse, yelling something to Harry and the rest. They rushed over, cooing and awwwwing over the mouse. I closed my hand over it, rushing over to where my mom, my dad, Corrine and Melissa's mom, and our friend Dan were. My mom picked up the mouse and took it over to where I found it, putting it out near a bush near where the mouse was first found, where we guessed the mother might have come from. We had attracted a small crowd, but most where rather uninterested and moved on, while me and the Saxophone player's (sorry, forgot the name) daughter kept watch. She mentioned something about a snake she saw earlier... yeesh. As the minutes dragged on, the wind got stronger, and the clouds started to move in. The band was just done playing as the first few drops of rain fell, thunder rumbling off in the distance, like some scene from a movie.

A movie about baby mice and blues bands.

After much tension and many ifs and buts and what ifs, we decided to take the mouse home. We weren't sure before whether it would be better to hope the mother mouse would come or to take the baby mouse home, but the rain was the last straw, and my mom scooped up the mouse in her hands (which where much warmer then mine), and we walked over to the car, a couple blocks away. The rain really started up by the time we got to the car, Corrine deciding to ride home with us, living close enough to us for it to be possible. This wasn't the first time we had raised baby animals, the first being the two Squirrels we had accidentally separated from their mother. Kitten milk replacer, we knew from previous experience, was the thing to feed to the mouse.

Problem number one: we didn't have any kitten milk replacer. So we had to make a stop to Poudre Pet and Feed Supply. Problem number two: Poudre Pet and Feed Supply was closed. Cursing and worrying, we drove over to Petco, 5 or 10 minutes away, to pick up the kitten milk. It was expensive, and we had to buy way too much then a mouse would need, but we bought it anyway, having no choice. Unfortunately, the other thing we would need to feed the mouse would be a teeny-tiny eyedropper, and neither us nor Petco had anything like that. But we could visit multiple stores before we found anything the right size, and still might come up empty-handed, and the mouse needed food now, and he hadn't gotten anything to eat in at least an hour, maybe longer. We rushed home, but before the mouse could be fed, we needed to get something to feed him with.

But, thanks to our previous animal-raising adventures, we had just the thing, a syringe; with a curved neck and small enough mouth for the mouse to nurse on (it was originally used to feed a chicken with Wryneck vitamin water). Disaster averted, we warmed up the milk and attempted to feed the mouse. Melissa had come over, and after the feeding was over, we walked her and Corrine back to their house, a block away, promising to let them know how the mouse was doing every so often.

Of course, I didn't forget to take pictures:














Here he is the first day we found him, eyes closed but furred.

















And a here he is a little while later, a bit bigger and getting better at drinking from the bottle.


Life continued as normal, if you don't count the every 1-2 hour feedings, and the slight worry that the mouse wouldn't live.

But, against all odds, he stayed alive, and kept growing, and about 4 days after we got him, his eyes opened, and he began to be more and more independent.

















He started eating solid food more and more, and he stopped wanting to drink milk. He weened faster then we expected. Soon he was nipping at us when we tried to pick him up. He was clearly a wild mouse, and if you think that pet mice and wild mice aren't much different behavior-wise, you're very wrong. Even mice have been domesticated and bred to be calmer.

Soon, it was time to let him go, and while our cat might pay more attention to the kitten milk rather then the mouse while inside, she might go for him outside, so releasing the mouse in our yard was not an option.

After much delay, we decided one evening to take the mouse out to Redwing preserve, a small, marshy, wilderness area a little less then a mile away from our house. Camera in hand and gloves on hands (he bites pretty hard), we set out, with the mouse in a small cardboard box, and searched around for the best place, where the mouse might have a fairly good chance of surviving.

Finding a nice spot underneath a short tree, with some brambly bushes around the base and long grasses providing more then enough cover, we opened the box, waiting to see what the mouse decided to do. At first he was hesitant, staying inside, but as soon as my dad picked him up and held him over the bushes, he leapt off of my dad's hand, into the bushes, and he disappeared in an instant, grey-brown fur perfect for blending in with the grass. We scattered some a mixture of sunflower seeds, cracked corn and oats around, in case he had a hard time finding food at first. It was bittersweet, seeing him go, but he would have let himself out soon enough if we hadn't set him free -- he had been chewing small holes in his box. Sure, he was just a mouse, one of millions. But, to think you saved a creature, who was almost surely bound to die, and gave it free food, a better place to live, and a new chance at life...

It makes it worth it.