Solidarity 2

Follow up for yesterday's post.

A friend of our's and old customer

from our shop posted this to Facebook today.

Salute

THIS is it.

EXACTLY!

LOL

(Perfect timing Keith!)

Solidarity

Bikers have this solidarity thing going on.

When they pass each other on the road

they drop their left hand down to the side

like back in the day when you were

signalling that you were slowing down.

(Did people actually do that?  LOL)

Anyhow.

This morning I was following a biker.

It was about 57 degrees outside.

Not COLD.

But not warm either.

He was bundled up so I'm sure he was

doing just fine, enjoying the lovely morning.

Another biker was approaching from

the other direction.  They each

moved over a little towards the

center of the road and

dropped their hands in 

the accepted "salute".

It almost looked like their hands

were going to touch.

He was bundled up too.

The feeling it conveyed was 

"I feel ya brother.

Be safe out there."

Sometimes it means

"Dude - isn't this awesome!?!"

And sometimes it's just

"Hey"

Kyle always "saluted" when he was

riding his scooter.

It was a crap shoot whether other bikers

would acknowledge him.

But I always mentally high fived the ones who

were cool enough to.

(And generally tossed 'em a thumbs up)

Bikers.

They wear black leather.

And sometimes tattoos.

But most of 'em are pretty cool folks.

Popular Cow

I was wandering around on Facebook the other day.

And noticed something odd.

I guess this is a super popular cow!

She gets to tell you about grass-fed butter

from Healthy.Holistic.Living.com

And she also gets to tell you about how

Bison is always raised without

antibiotics from my friends at

Buffalo Horn Ranch in Calgary.

(Makes sense - can you imagine giving

a buffalo an injection???  LOL)

I know - it's usually in their feed...

but buffalo don't eat "feed".

In fact, when you put out hay for them,

they wander over, take a bite or two

and then head back to the

pasture and dig through the snow

to find grass.

"Squirrel!"

Anyhow - that is neither here nor there.

Back to the cow...

Cracked me up that they were back to back.

Hope she's getting royalties!

Critters 2

It must be critter week.

Similar to shark week.

But not.

Monday when I got home from work

Rod was walking out to the back 40

with tools in tow.

Never a good sign.

Sure enough - Andy (my horse)

decided that, once again,

the grass is greener on the other side.

(Last time he jumped the southern fence

and tore a muscle in his butt - about the

same time I tripped and fell in the woods

and dislocated my shoulder...

Long story short, I didn't notice he was 

hurt because I was so busy pretending

I wasn't....)

So this time he didn't decide to JUMP

the northern fence.

He just decided to step over / through it.

The top rail came down a couple

of weeks ago.  

One of those "we'll fix that this weekend"

and then the weekend is gone, things.

There are, sadly, no pictures.

We have a wire fence.

It's big squares about 4" x 4" maybe.

(I have no idea)

Anyhow.

He put his left hind foot through one hole

and his left front foot through the other.

And then realized he was stuck and

sort of just stood there.

Thank goodness for all the years of

Parelli training that taught him stuff 

around his legs is no reason to panic.

Eventually Rod got home.

Discovered him.

Rescued him.

And then we fixed the fence.

Meanwhile, Sir Loin suddenly went

dashing across the pasture in full bore

chase mode.  

Chasing a BOBCAT who had one of

my chickens!

Sheesh.

The cat got away, but just barely.

Sir stood by the fence and glared it down

for a long time until I walked over

and it vanished into the woods.

Sir got extra grain that night.

What a good steer!

(The dogs were locked in the garage

until we could fix the fence...)

Wonder what today will bring...

Critters

Seems like I've been doing a lot of driving lately.

Back and forth to work.

Back and forth to school.

Back and forth to the store.

Just seems like I've driving a lot.

So it shouldn't come as too big of a surprise

that I was driving last night.

Coming home from school.

It was late.

On the final weekend I give an

"end of class exam" that doesn't

even START until 7 p.m.

So it was after 9:00.

And dark.

And the highway wasn't TOO busy.

Driving along in the right lane

my headlights caught something on

side of the road.

A bobcat!

A BIG bobcat!

Just standing there.

Watching the vehicles go by.

I only got a glimpse.

But it was a FIRST!

The night before that, when I got home

from school, Rod and Kyle were 

not there.

And the chickens needed to be closed up.

So I wandered out in the dark.

And I SWEAR there was a coyote 

in the woods next to our place!

(I didn't see it, but boy could I hear it!)

Sounded like he was pretty close!

This morning as I was (again)

driving to work - I noticed a large

bird of prey (I wasn't very awake and my

bird of prey identification skills are 

shaky at best...)

It had just completed a dive into the river

and successfully captured a fish for it's breakfast.

Said fish was clutched securely in it's

right talon.

It flew up and landed on the top of a 

street light to eat the fish.

And was finding it challenging to balance

on one foot while holding his fish in the other.

And I realized that must be a daily issue

for birds who catch prey instead of just

scooping up bugs on the fly

(as it were).

There is absolutely no point to this post.

No message.

No lesson.

Just random critter "sightings".

And a peak into my life.

PEAK!

Baby It's Cold Outside

Yup.

The Florida girl is whining about the cold.

It was COLD this morning.

With the wind chill it was 38.

I don't care where you live.

That's cold.

But especially in the land of

"I only HAVE shorts"

-Kyle

(And he works outside)

Last night for dinner I made a big pot

of really yummy

Chicken Jalapeno Popper Soup

from the Trim Healthy Mama cookbook.

I shared it with the two new

Sister Missionaries in our ward.

One of them is gluten intolerant.

We had a good conversation about

some quick and easy recipes she could make.

And I sent them home with a

big ol' cottage cheese tub full of

left over soup.

Just had a little serving of it for my 

mid-morning snack.

(yup, it's noon.)

(I'm late.)

LOL

Hope you are staying warm.

Wherever you are.

Curds and Whey

Someone today was asking me for a recipe for Poutine.

I gather all Canadians eat it.

I never did.

Although I consider fries and gravy

to be fine dining.

(Especially KFC gravy over McD fries.)

(Tastes best while sitting in the park,

skipping 2nd period English)

(I know...)

Of course, the fries and gravy served

in the Wisewood cafeteria right after

seminary were pretty amazing too!

Anyhow.

That got me thinking about eating curds.

Which reminded me of a memory

from waaaaaaaay back.

(yup, even further than high school!)

I'm pretty sure it was the year I was in grade 2.

Or maybe a little later...

Marlys was our piano teacher.

Anyhow, we were at their farm.

While there we took a trip over to Glenwood

to the cheese factory.

I remember being fascinated watching them

make the curds and whey in these giant

square, shallow metal vats.

All that milk just sitting there heating up.

And somebody running a rake thing through 

it constantly breaking up the curds.

And then going into the cold room

and seeing all the giant wheels of cheese.

Mmmmmmmm

Glenwood cheese.

The best cheddar!

To finish up the trip we all got a bowl

of "curds and whey".

I don't remember what it tasted like.

All I remember is being nervous.

I couldn't really enjoy the treat.

I was on the look out for the spider.

Eyes

They say the eyes are the window to the soul.

I've always been fascinated by eyes.

When I first started teaching my biggest challenge

was that my students were following along in their books.

They were marking.

Writing notes.

NOT looking at me!

After years and years and years of speaking

in public (church) and connecting with

my "audience" through their eyes

I found it really HARD to teach

to the tops of their heads!

I didn't know where to look!

Anyhow.

I digress.

I love seeing people's eyes.

I can tell (usually) by looking at your eyes

if you understand what I'm saying

or if you are just waiting for me to 

stop speaking so you can do whatever

you were going to do anyway.

Check out THESE eyes.

He has the most gentle, kind, compassionate, loving eyes

I have ever seen.

I suspect he is looking at Mom.

And there are practically little cartoon hearts

shooting out of those eyes.

THAT is eternal love.

I love those eyes.

(And the man attached to them.)

PS - for my gazillion non-family followers 

(Hi Katie!)

it's thought Dad had a mild stroke but 

he feels pretty good this morning.

Hoping for further good news

as the day goes by.