Last thursday started the week off with a driveway full of mush as the snow melted and with a pick-up that wouldn’t start. Aaaahhhhhhhhh, the funs of winter.
Over the weekend, weather turned a bit warmer (into the 40s) and the precip to rain, so by sunday evening the snow was almost all gone. The hens stayed indoors when the snow got a bit deep, but are out daily now.
Egg production is usually a bit off in this kind of weather, but not this year. The whites have begun to lay and we are getting between ten and thirteen eggs a day … except last monday and tuesday when we got fifteen.
Enough for breakfast breads now.
The “bad” thing about the weather for several days was ground level FOG! Monday’s sun was shining to the south, but here the temps stayed in the high 30s and low 40s and most of the time we couldn’t see as far as the barn. It was equally bad in Weed. The edge of the fog blanket was just a couple of miles north of downtown Mt Shasta.
By tuesday the fog edge had moved south past Mt Shasta and it was below freezing at dawn.
This morning is windy and overcast.
Oh well …
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Remember I told you about David Brooks’ new book last week?
Do you believe in coincidences?
Well … try this on for size (an idiom from my youth).
I was first on the reserve list for Alexander McCall Smith’s new book in the “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series titled “The Colors of All the Cattle”. I started reading it friday and guess what the entire first chapter was about? Same message. Not in the words of the erudite professional columnist Mr. Brooks, but in the words of intelligent women of traditional size, repeated in paragraphs 3, 4, and 5 on page 21.
Then on Sunday, the Rabbi’s weekly homily arrived in my email and guess what it addressed? This time in a parable based on a conversation with a young man.
Coincidence? I think not. I almost believe the Universe is trying to tell me something.
Oh well … my next event with Great Northern will be packing Holiday boxes on the 17th.
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Thinking about holidays … I’m planning the games for the radio club’s holiday party. I’m going to have two games this year … one of those “How many other words can you find in this word or words?” and a word search using holiday words. Let’s see how good the hams are at words.
The first will be played in teams of two and the search will be individually, so I’ll need three gift bags. That means a trip to Dollar General and time to make something(s).
I’ve even had ideas for next year so can begin planning early. Maybe start a holiday cactus plant for a gift bag next year.
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My last-of-our-generation cousins (one on each side of my family – one two years younger than me and the other four years younger) both live in the Los Angeles area … one in Canyon Country and one in Palos Verdes … and both were close to fires this past summer. The Santa Clarita fire came right up to the Canyon Country back fence (paternal cousin Dottie), and the Palos Verdes fire was only three or four blocks away (maternal cousin Doug) according to the map I saw.
We were spared again. Mark is working and planning on changes to help protect us such as clearing trees close to the house and along the road right-of-way. I will miss the trees by the house. I watched them grow (by comparison with previous views, not actually day to day) and got used to the views. Trading views for safety, however, is a no-brainer. And if one or two trees on a neighbor’s property and one on our property go, I’ll be able to actually see the Mountain from my bedroom window again.
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I received two early holiday gifts this past week. The first was a very unusual book from another cousin (I seem to have been blessed with a sufficiency of those). It is undated, but the language used seems to indicate mid to late 19th century. The cover is light tan suede with what appears to be a hand done decoration. It is a book length poem titled “Lucile” dedicated to his father, based on a work by George Sand, and written by Owen Meredith (Robert, Lord Lytton). Wow !
I will begin reading it after the holiday rush cools.
The other was this month’s fiber surprise box based on StarWars. The sample fibers had the following names … Swamp Baby, Golden Droid, and Chewbacca Fleece. An extra surprise was a Mudhorn Egg pompom. Also included were patterns for mittens and caps. Looks to be a fun spinning and knitting month. Paul has a birthday the end of January so … mittens or a cap?
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As part of the holiday season, remember …
Smiles and kindness are contagious.
So … ‘til next week …