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.