today in pictures

~~~~~

friday flurries

Well, it's been a bit of a darkish day.

Snowed all morning, and quite cold.

 The wind had a real bite to it.

But just as I went outside to do the last chores of the day,
the sun suddenly burst through the greyness
and the sky turned bright blue!

Minutes later, the sun went down.
It was a colorful surprise ending to a dimmish day.

And here's another colorful surprise.
This one appeared in my email today:
the Kiva tally for International Women's Day.

Nice.

~~~~~

poor pictures from a big storm

Tansy?

"What?"

Just checking!

This is a Real Snow we are having.

Knee-deep at noon, and still coming down.

Chores took...a long time.

All the goats have multiple options for shelter.

They tend to find a spot, stay there for a while, then move to another spot.

Often, this means other goats get shifted out of that other spot.

Seeing that the snow was predicted to continue into the night,

I moved Tsuga and Tansy and Fern into the Corner Suite.

They get "shifted" more often than the others,

and I wanted them to have a comfortable night.

With lots of hay.

In fact, every goat will have lots and lots of hay tonight.

There will be much wasted hay. Can't be helped.

Real-time blogging interruption:

Campion is yelling in distress.

I'm going to put on my last pair of dry trousers and get the flashlight.

Real-time blogging update:

Campion was being kept out of the big barn.

His mama and sister were inside,

and he wanted very much to be inside with them.

(Someday I'll write a post about goat bonding.)

But three other goats were also inside,

and even though there was still plenty of room,

and even though no one was physically blocking the doorway -

which is eight feet wide -

Campion was definitely being prevented from entering.

(Someday I will write a post about herd dynamics.)

I escorted an ice-encrusted Campion in from the snow, 

had a chat with the group in the barn,

and distributed even more hay.

Then I made the rounds again, checking the other goats.

Everyone was settled when I came back inside,

and I sincerely hope they stay that way at least til daylight.

I do not enjoy putting on wet trousers.

And now I'm about ready for bed at 8 PM.

A cup of tea, I think. Maybe an audiobook.

But before I sign off,

let me show you what the birdfeeders looked like today.

All day. Non-stop.

 At one point, the pile of snow atop that feeder was over a foot deep,

and the the line it hangs on was sagging perilously.

I cleared the snow off, added more seed, and came back inside.

Next time I looked out, that feeder was covered in little birds again,

and next to them, I saw this gem - bright even on a dark day:

Good night!

~~~~~

bye july

Intermittent light rain today!
I am so grateful. Heat and humidity have been almost relentless since May, and it's been dry, dry, dry.
So dry that in the week before July 4th, I called the police four times to report that thoughtless people (a bit of serious editing there, readers) were repeatedly setting off illegal fireworks near my place. Curmudgeon? Maybe. But the forest didn't burn and my barns are intact.

Speaking of barns, a couple of weeks ago I went out before dawn - the best time to do "extra" chores in this weather - to set up a big fan in the goat barn. The fan is part of a large haul of goodies bought at a farm sale last Autumn. It had been stored safely out of goats' reach in the little stilt barn, hanging from two nails in a rafter. Retrieving it meant teetering on a stepstool while keeping one eye on LeShodu, Betula and Acer - the three biggest goats in the herd - who had been sleeping in the stilt barn til I showed up to entertain them. Each was capable of bumping me off that stool with a gentle "whatcha doin'?" nose-nudge.

Do you find it a bit unnerving when you need all your strength to wrestle with something that's over your head? That big box in the loft, that suitcase jammed onto a closet shelf? It's like a dog chasing a car: when you finally get hold of that thing, will you really be able to control it?

I managed to hang onto the fan and get off the stool without mishap, mostly because even in the relative "cool" before sun-up, the goats were too lethargic to help. This endlessly muggy weather makes the goats either lethargic or cranky. Same here, goats, same here. I move even more slowly than usual, if you can imagine it. And there's been a lot more swearing when things don't go smoothly. (Please don't imagine that second part.)

In the big barn, I attached a piece of stock panel at an angle across one stall to keep the goats away from the fan, then opened the west door of the barn. Campion was the first to investigate:

Followed by Dara and Vinca. By the way, these are both goatcam shots. I kept an eye on things from the house, to be sure my barrier was working. As soon as I was out of the barn, Campion tried to tear the stock panel down, but was unsuccessful. This was a big victory for me; sometimes it takes two or three tries to Campion-proof something. He is tenacious!

The fan isn't on all the time, but when the air is hot and thick and humid, it certainly helps to keep a little air moving through the barn. And I hope it's helping keep the biting flies out as well.

~~~

So far this summer, there have been only three days when the gardens have not needed watering. There are hoses set up to reach the big gardens but every evening after regular chores I've been carrying buckets of water to a few small garden areas beyond reach of the hoses. A couple of days ago I broke down and bought one more hundred-foot section. (After extensive research last year, I invested in several sections of 100% rubber hose. And I do mean "invested;" these hoses will be specifically mentioned in my Will.) Money well spent. What a thrill to have that hose carrying the water for me! Simple tools often provide miraculous results.

Here's another miraculous thing: the vegetable plants are beginning to produce. 

French filet pole beans

In the past ten days I have appreciated the first pole beans, summer squash, and cucumber. The winter squash plants are now climbing to the top of the six-foot fence, and at the other end of the spectrum, the tiny okra plants are putting out new leaves. I may not have the abundant harvest I had hoped to put by for Winter, but I am very grateful to have fresh, organic vegetables right now.

Ronde de Nice squash

And tonight I think I can skip watering the gardens.

~~~

Piper visited the doggy spa last week, where she is very popular and always has a swell time. Usually she has a professional bath in the Spring and Autumn, but this was an extra trip; the equivalent of buying new jimjams for a hospital stay.

Piper's doctor felt a couple of molars were giving her trouble and should probably be removed. To be honest, I was hesitant; Piper wasn't off her grub at all and showed no signs of discomfort. And as boisterous as Piper is  - and as much as I am in total denial about this - she is not a youngster. Anesthesia always carries a risk.

But I did the responsible thing: trusted my vet and scheduled dental surgery this past Wednesday. It was two hours of surgery in the morning, and poor Pip was feeling peculiar and a bit wobbly when I brought her home late that afternoon. She is feeling much more herself now, but we're still taking things more quietly than usual. I'm hoping we'll be back out for little strolls in the woods this week.

typical provisions for Adventures with Piper

~~~

What are you planning for the coming week?

Can you believe it will be August?

~~~~~

giveaway giveaway

It's been a while since there's been a Comptonia giveaway, and I've been trying for over a week to come up with a good idea. Yarn? Could do. A book? Maybe. But with so much tension and upheaval going on in the wider-than-my-world, I wanted to do something that would feel a little special. A little uplifting.

A little positive for goodness' sake.

It took a while, but then...light dawned!

I emailed a question, and Kiva emailed right back
and said, "Good idea!" so here we go.

Are you familiar with Kiva? Since 2005, this non-profit group has funded microloans all over the world by combining donations of $25 or more. Donors choose a loan they wish to contribute to, and after that loan is repaid, a donor can re-loan the original donation to another borrower!

All the screenshots are from the Kiva website.

They are nice images; left-click to embiggen.

I. Love. Kiva.

I love the fact that 100% of every donation goes to funding a loan. There is a separate option for donating to Kiva admin costs. This is brilliant. A $25 lender does not have to wonder how many of those dollars are really going to the designated borrower, because ALL the dollars are going there.

I love that Kiva does such a great job of making this program work. The repayment rate is 97.1%. That's due diligence, that is.

I love that more than 2 million loans have been made, in 83 countries, by 1.5 million lenders, to the tune of over 800 million dollars. Oh, and Kiva has a top rating on Charity Navigator.

It's an unusual experience, making a Kiva donation. Reading the borrower information is a tiny, unique window on ordinary lives around the world. There's much I wouldn't have imagined. And much as familiar as the view from my porch.

Maybe a cooperative group of farming women in Vietnam are adding to their small breeding herd of pigs. Or cattle. Or goats. Maybe an urban taxi driver needs to repair the vehicle that supports an extended family, or a shop owner needs enough capital to begin purchasing products at a lower bulk rate. Maybe someone is planting apple trees in Moldova, or growing a business in California. 

The Kiva website offers simple filters to help a donor find the loan they wish to support. Some search filters are geographical. Some filter by the purpose of the loan - such as agriculture, or retail business, or clean energy - or by characteristics of the borrower: elderly, single parent, individual/group, etc.

So, okay...

this is all very interesting, but what happened to the giveaway? Have you forgotten the giveaway? The one I mentioned waaaay up at the top of this post?

It's a $25 Kiva Gift Card

(purchased by me)

for the winner to donate to your Kiva loan of choice.

It's a giveaway giveaway :)

Yay! Right?

If you have already donated to Kiva, the $25 will be added to your account. If you are new to Kiva, redeeming the gift card will set up your account. And in case you have concerns: in my experience, Kiva does not pester donors. I get an email periodically to let me know when a loan has received repayments, so I know when I have enough funds available to donate again - that's about it. And that's actually pretty nice.

So if you want your name in the hat for this giveaway, just leave a comment. Any comment will do, but if you feel like sharing something joyful, that will be appreciated by me and every reader who comments after you, I'm sure.

Feel free to share this giveaway, in any way you like. It's open to anyone on the planet, or on the International Space Station.

I'll do the random number thing next Thursday, the 21th.

Good luck!

~~~~~~

when the right one comes along

A friend once complained to me that her husband "would rather have no furniture in the house than buy something that isn't exactly what he wants!" She was complaining to the wrong person. If I don't need something immediately, I can wait a long time - often years, sometimes decades - to find "the right one" of the items on my longterm shopping list.

An advantage of this approach: when the right one comes along, there's no dithering or delay - it's a snap decision.

By the way, none of this applies to Piper.
Piper gets whatever she wants.
Pretty much instantaneously.

~~~

I've been cutting lumber by hand - and very badly - for a long time. No matter how careful I am, it is always a bit of a miracle when my angle cuts actually fit.

Even when Expert Assistance is provided.

During the building of the original screenporch in 1997, I had the short-term loan of a table saw and compound miter saw. It took a little while to get comfortable with using them - so loud! - but they soon became invaluable - so accurate! so powerful! When I gratefully returned them to their generous owner, both tools were added to the permanent shopping list. Somewhere between "livestock scale" and "adjustable daybed."

Fast-Forward nineteen years...

SNAP!

The lovely person who sold me this well-cared-for compound miter saw for a very low price (I actually challenged it and offered more) is also considering selling a table saw of similar vintage. I gulped (even at a very reasonable price, it is still, in the coin of my realm, a few truckloads of hay) but then said, "Please let me know if you decide to sell, because I would like to buy it also. Anytime."

Readers, I will keep you posted. But that one would probably be a Wordless Wednesday: just a picture of a table saw and a tall gin and tonic. ;)

~~~

Remember when I painstakingly salvaged all those bits and pieces of lumber after the porch renovation? Some of it has already been put back to work in the goat barn. And now some of it will be returning to the porch, in a new role: simple brackets supporting the windowboxes. Very satisfying!

This lumber shows its history.

Weathering on the exposed sides...

...claw marks from squirrels scrambling up to the roof...

...a carpenter's note from the Great Gable Window Search...

 ...and the occasional nail-hole, as you can see in a few of these newly-cut pieces. So glad I took the time to remove Every Single Nail from this lumber before storing it for reuse. It was ready to go!

Apparently this project requires special screws - I'm learning something new here! - so it won't be finished today. I hope you don't mind. I'm turning the simplest of projects into a very long process, but having fun doing it.

And soon I hope to show you the windowboxes in place.

For now, here's a peek:

I hope your Sunday is full of color and adventure!

~~~~~

birthday girl

Today is LeShodu's birthday.

She is my foundation doe;

the Matriarch of Cloud Harvest Cashmere.

Every goat on the place is related to her.

She came here in 2010, at the age of 6:

In Spring 2011, LeShodu introduced Violet and Lily of the Valley :

 

Acer and Betula followed, in Spring 2012: 

Reluctantly (it was my idea), LeShodu took a year off in 2013...

"Humphh."

...then produced Vinca and Dara in 2014. 

LeShodu was formally retired as a breeding doe in 2014.

Again, it was my idea.

LeShodu's clear preference was to continue growing her herd.

Can a Queen ever have too many Subjects?

LeShodu does not think so.

Of course, LeShodu has not retired from either brush-clearing...

...or producing very nice cashmere.

Happy 12th Birthday, LeShodu - Queen of the May!

~~~~~