Wow, talk about a long break...

Been a little busy, hope to post a little more often over here. I'm doing NaBloPoMo on my other blog.

Morgann Rose is almost 3 months old now. Life with 2 has been a heckuva challenge, and I'm not sure if it would be any easier if Anthony wasn't a special needs kiddo. I'm struggling, but still upright, at least.

Friday's Feast (#189)

Appetizer: What was your favorite cartoon when you were a child?

Unfortunately, I'll have to cheat and pick more than one... Underdog, Kimba, and Speed Racer.

Soup: Pretend you are about to get a new pet. Which animal would you pick, and what would you name it?

For my next pet, I have my heart set on a corgi. It will probably take a few more years before the house is really ready for one. I've liked the name "Aurora" for a dog, but I'm not sure I'd be able to pull it off with who I bring home.

Salad: On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy getting all dressed up for a special occasion?

Well, if everything fits, my hair cooperates, I achieve color-coordination, and the jewelry matches, I'd say an 8. Unfortunately, I usually can't get more than 2 of those things to align at the same time, so "dressing up" (a comparative term out here on the farm anyway--unholed jeans and a v-neck tee counts as decent off-property wear) is mostly a huge pain in the butt.

Main Course: What kind of music do you listen to while you drive?

I tend to stick with one radio station (bobFM), but if I'm desperate to finish an audiobook (or if it's a long trip, say to Oma's), I'll connect my iPod.

Dessert: When was the last time you bought a clock? And in which room did you put it?

I had to actually walk around the house, looking for a real clock. My last clock purchase was my alarm/radio/disc player, sometime in the past 7 or 8 years. It is (naturally) in my bedroom. The last thing I bought that has a clock integrated, is our phone/intercom system that I found at the warehouse-type store that rhymes with bosco.

Rescued another baby tonight

[yes, I'm too lazy to type it all in again, and upload pictures, etc.]

click the link for story and pics

Fireplace eggs, and real rain

Last night's cold front (which stretched from Oklahoma to south central Texas) brought us some real rain (just over .5") between 10:30 and 1 last night. Luckily, I'd brought home a new rain gauge (the donkeys destroyed the other one) from the local big-name farm supply store, so I could actually report the good news. My son and I were there to pick up an incubator and an auto-turner that was being held for us; we also bought the gauge and a bag of scratch grains for the chickens since they were handy. We've been out of the scratch for at least a week, but not for lack of effort to obtain it. DH had done a feed run last week, and did not realize until he unloaded everything that the scratch hadn't been included. We weren't able to go back to the feed store in a timely manner, so we had to eat the loss. I really hate to not support the local businesses, but this is not the first time they've held back goods or given us the wrong item.

Anyway, we are now incubating 2 dozen eggs in our fireplace (it really is the safest and most convenient place in the house, with 3 cats and a toddler to worry about), and we'll find out if we'll have chicks in at least a week and a half (if not sooner). Part of me is hoping that we don't get the full two dozen out of this venture, as we really don't have the room (in the henhouse) to triple our flock.

This is where I'd be posting a picture of the strawberry I just picked from one of the two plants in our garden (as I was out looking for the rain gauge), but none of our digital camera battery packs are charged (I think they are losing their ability to charge fully), and I could not find the cord for the dc adaptor. So, I had to settle for taking a picture with my Fuji dinosaur, and I'll post it after I've found 10 more shots to snap, and have the film developed/digitized. Anyway, it was a good breakfast *wink*

Thursday Thirteen #6: 13 Places You Can Find Me Online

Thirteen Things about Marina



1. Marina’s Den
Unless you’re a friend, you won’t see much but memes and news items that catch my attention.

2. Momma Writes About Books
Mostly reviews, some memes, challenges and goal-setting, and other extra-special news that may explain why I have large time spans between entries.

3. Tales of a Texas Farmwife
Adventures in the Texas hill country, with animals we weren’t ready for, and land that isn’t manageable given our stage in life.

4. where I blog about my son
For the most part, this is locked to friends and family, so if you’re a friend that I haven’t invited yet, let me know.

5. My very-bare myspace page
I signed on mostly to keep up better with a few people, and perhaps to find a few high school buddies. Not much content, but who knows when that may change?

6. I’m MarinaWolf on twitter
I think I have only one real follower, but I don’t know who else of my friends may have an account. Let me know if you are! You’ll hear a lot more from me.

7. 43 Things
This is where I track my personal goals.

8. All Consuming
Book and movie consumption, not complete, but working on it. I crosspost reviews here when I’m diligent.

9. Book Crossing
Have scaled back on my activity here, but I try to keep the basket full at Panera, and my goal is to have all owed books out of my house before my daughter’s birth.

10. del.icio.us
Interesting websites and articles I come across.

11. Amazon wishlist
You can get an idea of what I like to read here, also.

12. care2
Joined this environmental site a long time ago, and used to be fairly active with signing petitions and submitting the occasional news item.

13. Photos
My flickr profile. Since most of these are of my son, I keep them available to friends and family. Let me know if you’re a friend I haven’t invited yet!





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Friday's Feast (#185)

Appetizer: What does the color dark green make you think of?

Clear Lake, in California. Our family lived in a triple-wide right next to it for 3 years (2nd through 4th grades). This was during a bad drought, where we had water coming up over the lakewall the year before we moved into the “house proper” (we spent my 1st-grade year in the office building in front), and we were able to step off the pier into sludge by the time we moved away. One corner of our (rental) property actually had to be boarded off, as the ground gave away after the water had receded. Anyway, Clear Lake was a very dark green when viewed up close, apparently due to algae.

Soup: How many cousins do you have?

Assuming this means first cousins only, not cousins of parents nor children of cousins, I have 9: 2 girls and a boy (all older) via my mom’s sister, 2 boys (one older, the other younger) via my dad’s younger brother, and 3 girls and a boy (2 older, 2 younger) via my dad’s older brother. My father has two half-sisters, but I don’t know how many (if any) children they have.

Salad: On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how honest are you?

Close to a 7. There are some things that I absolutely have to take to my grave unspoken (dishonesty by omission). Other utterances I may be tempted to make do not need to be shared for the sake of politeness. There are also things that I may not mention because I truly believe that no one gives a rat’s patata about them.

Main Course: Name something that is truly free.

Oxygen/air. For now, thank goodness.

Dessert: Using the letters in the word SPRING, write a sentence.

Start playing regularly in night garden.

Anthony's garden

Daddy helped him plant these:




The beans will be climbing up poles arranged teepee-style.

Hey Texans!

I think there are still a few of you who drop by...

Have you heard that we can Vote for TX general issue license plates?

There's two votes per household, and yes, you can vote for what we currently have.

From what I understand, one reason for the redesign is the need for another digit on the plate (my, aren't we growing?).

In other news, I haven't been posting much because my new pregnancy has really knocked me on my butt. I'll see what I can do to be more entertaining as soon as I'm not running amok horking.

Thursday Thirteen #5 (ed. 118)--Thirteen Farm Chores

13 Farm Chores we do at Browncoat Acres...

1. Groom donkeys (currying and hoof cleaning)

2. weed garden (well, what's left of it)

3. clear cedar (where cedar grows, grass doesn't)

4. collect and scrub eggs (the hens are on sabbatical, so haven't actually done this in a while)

5. shear sheep (this is only twice a year, and we're down to 3 from the original 8)

6. relocate rocks for landscaping/soil control (we're pulling most from the back of the property so we can establish the bigger garden/orchard there)

7. trim back rosemary bushes (we have 3, and they encroach pretty quickly. We'll have plenty for wreaths this year)

8. fetch grain and hay for animals (we have a choice between 3 feed stores, and I want to find a cheaper source for hay)

9. vaccinations (for 3 donkeys, 3 sheep, one dog, and 4 cats)

10. clean guns (DH does deer hunting in season, and we also have them around for the "varmints")

11. fence maintenance/repair (not done often, but crucial when necessary)

12. feed and water animals (we still don't have a great system, but it will be pretty moot in a little while)

13. clean out chicken coop/shred paper for nests (I think we're down to about 10 chickens now. The poop still builds up pretty fast, and we use paper instead of expensive hay)

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Halloween night at the farm, or not...

Out here in South Henly, the farms are pretty spread out, and it can be hard to meet the neighbors (or it could be my social-idiot tendencies). It also makes it difficult, if not impossible, to do any trick-or-treating (locked gates, guard dogs, and so on). Most of the "big" churches (the one that burned down a few months ago has only 200 parishoners) have some sort of "Fall" or "Harvest" Festival (gotta take the night back from those pagans *eyeroll*), and a few of the local businesses had parties over the weekend (at least one of them was charging $5/ghoul). The occasional neighbor will throw a party, but out here, it's mostly for the grown-ups.

As with last year, I wanted our son to get a better idea of what the secular aspect of this holiday is about (well that, and the photo-op that the grandparents demand), so DH and I drove up to the north end of Austin to trick-or-treat with some friends of ours (actually, our birth-attenders, they were the first to see Anthony when he was tiny and slimy) who have two little girls (one each slightly older and younger than Anthony--both redheads--whom their own father has dubbed "heartbreakers"). They live on a long cul-de-sac, which turned out to be the perfect number of houses to visit for 3 3-and-unders. At one house near the end of our route, there was a skeleton by the front door, and as I was walking up with Anthony IT MOVED. Gah! Took a few years off me right there. It didn't faze him, though (either he's too young to be creeped out, or we've done a good job of showing him what's natural in the world, so to speak), and he looked at all the decorations that she pointed out, and waved "bye" like the polite little Texan he is (no laughing from those who know better!). Oh, he was a purple-caped bat this year. He wore that cape well, and knew it, too. That's my little Leo ;)

In other, miscellaneous news, we lost one of our ewes (the friendlier one, too) to a predator last week. I guess Sombrea was concentrating on protecting Firefly (not that I am complaining--he's the higher priority), and wasn't available to drive the canines off. Last Sunday, DH and I sheared the remaining sheep, but were not able to get a really good pelt from any of them. DH bagged some of what might still be salvageable for, I don't know exactly what, carding practice, maybe? Our hens are still on laying strike, and I've no idea when the eggs will come back. They seem to have recovered from their molt, and I changed out their nest bedding, but am still seeing nada.

My main focus this month will be on my other blog; I'm participating in NaBloPoMo, but I will make an effort to check in here more often, even if it is a lot of memeage and lists.