Too old for this?

Oh no....she went back to the toy box...

Are those barrettes?

oh dear...Dad's gonna owe me for this one...

Dad? Why am I in a crown?

you know we wore her out...

when she falls asleep in her pizza.

Changes coming a little early...

We always pick the best weather for things, you know that right? So...when a storm finally threw stuff our way this is what it looked like outside. Gorgeous and thankfully the foot that fell came over the course of three days.

But, that didn't stop the latest event from happening!

Wednesday Mike hopped a Greyhound to Ohio. Life being what it is and disregarding schedules and well thought out plans and the like, Mandy and Mandon's expected move date at the end of March was bumped up to last week.

So, Mike and Mandy picked up a moving truck, packed up her stuff and drove up through snow and wind and white-outs. They pulled into the driveway late Thursday night and by Saturday morning the truck was unloaded and dropped off a few miles away.

Believe it or not everything that's going to be unpacked has been and we're settling in. Mandon's thrilled with her room and having her 'Poppy' around.

The cats love that we have an extra couch and spend a great deal of time on it.

This was taken the evening we unloaded the moving truck...think we wore them out? I think the girls felt she was safe to lie near once she zonked! ;)

You wanna know what!?!?

Hello everyone. This farm update will be a bit different. We recently received a survey from the US Census Bureau entitled "The American Community Survey" - now this is something I had never heard of before but, being it is a Census year, opened it up for a look. This "anonymous" survey starts out with the Census-required number of occupants and quickly delves into some incredibly disturbing questions. Like what, you may ask. In addition to questions (to the anonymous survey, remember) of name, age, address, DOB, phone number, ethnic origin, marital status, and sex, there's:

(Numbers are actual question numbers from the form).

(7a) How many separate rooms are in this house, apartment, or mobile home?
(7b) How many are bedrooms?

(9) How many automobiles are kept at home for use by members of this household?

(11a) What was your electric bill last month?
(11b) What was your gas bill last month?

(16) What do you think this house and lot would sell for if it were for sale?

(18a-c) (Paraphrased) Do you have mental or emotional problems? Have problems with stairs? Difficulty dressing or bathing?

(30) Where did you work last week? With street address.

(31) How did you get to work?

(33) What time did this person usually leave home to go to work last week?

(47a-h) How much money did you make last year? And from what sources?


So, you've asked me questions about my net worth, income, and when I leave for work and how many hours I work (I left that one out, sorry). Isn't this information that burglars need to know? And you want me to give it to temporary employees that make 10 or so dollars an hour?

I won't even go into details about the 243 laptops the Census Bureau has lost and how people have had their personal information "accidentally" posted on government websites repeatedly. Or how Scientific American recently revealed that "confidential" Census information was used to identify Japanese-Americans who were later interred during WWII. Or that Homeland Security has admitted using the (once again, "confidential") information for profiling Americans of Arab ancestry for profiling during Bush's "war on terror."

I also can't help but notice that some of the questions are part of the public record: How much is my house worth? Ask the tax assessor. How many cars do we have? Ask the BMV. How much money did we make? Ask the IRS. Where do we work? Once again, ask the IRS for W-2s. The other information is none of your business.

So, this 28 page form is supposed to be mailed out to 3 million homes annually on a rolling basis (at a cost of $120-$150 million/yr from the GAO). And it will enable (according to the handy-dandy pamphlet that comes along with it) "your community leaders from government, BUSINESS, and non-profit organizations to plan more effectively. Since when is it the American taxpayer's job to subsidize market research for businesses?

And if they are just using this information anonymously, why do they need your name, age, DOB, and PLACE OF BIRTH?

The Constitution (does anyone even remember it exists) allows for a decennial ENUMERATION of the population for congressional redistricting and apportionment. THAT IS ALL.

So, I have a couple of other questions: Why has it been around since 2003 and yet no one seems to have heard about it? Could it be that if they asked all of us these questions at the same time, we would assemble with our family and co-workers and decide that we weren't going to answer such intrusive questions?

And if it such a neighborly questionnaire (American Community Survey certainly seems benign, doesn't it?), why are you threatened with a fine for failure to comply? This is all a bit too "Big Brother" for me, (and yes Dad, I know they know when I brush my teeth, probably and what toothpaste I use) and we refuse to roll over and willingly cede our Right to Privacy. We are not "data sets." We are human beings and American Citizens!

Sunday morning experiment...

These pictures don't need much explanation ;) I've a recipe for refrigerator dough that I use for pizza crusts...well, the recipe also comes with a recipe for the following, using half the batch. So, Friday night I made pizza and with the leftover I made these delicious lovelies. YummmmmY!

Waiting to rise...

Fresh from the oven...

Turned out on a plate...

Ready for serving!

They were absolutely fantastic. Definitely something we'll have in the future!

So I went to collect eggs...

...tonight, just like every other night. Trudge out through the snow(still falling) feed the rabbits and make my way into the hens' side of things. I toss out some food for them, fill the water trough and turn my attention to the nesting boxes.

Peek in the first and EEK! There's a freakin' opossum grubbin' on eggs!! Talk about a nasty surprise!

looked something like this!

So now what do I do? Well, the barn's at least a hundred feet from the house, the wind is howling and, of course, everything's closed up tight. No chance I can yell and get Mike's attention.

Now, picture this, okay? I'm standing in the middle of the hen house, chickens scratching about my feet, seemingly oblivious to the fact that there's a PREDATOR IN THE BARN!

Ok. So I have a water bucket and my egg bucket. No help there. I stand back, keeping an eye on the little bugger. Thankfully it IS a little bugger and it looks like it's hoping like hell I don't realize it's there.

Well, I have to do something. Hoping for some inspiration I go back to the rabbit side of the barn and look around. Finally I decide I'm going to see if I can get the blasted thing into the water bucket so I can take it up to the house and get Mike's help.

With heavy gloves and an empty feed sack in hand I head back to the hen house. The thing's still in the same spot, in fact it looks like it's cowered even further into the back of the nesting box.

Now, I'm really not all that keen on getting bit, and I can't seem to see anyway around that. 'Possums have killer teeth and the gloves I had weren't 100% leather ones.

Okay.

*deep breath*

I turn the feed sack inside out and bunch it together in my hand. Carefully I stuff it in the nesting box, figuring if the thing was going to attack me it could attack the bag instead. Thankfully it didn't! Taking the bull by the horns I reached in and grabbed it with the bag and yanked it out. The front of the box turned the bag back over it and I was able to drop the critter into the bag like some crazy ass Crocodile Hunter.

Well. Phew. Okay, that part at least was dealt with. Holding the bag(with the opossum in it) in one hand I fished the rest of the eggs(the whole ones at any rate) out. With the 'normal' chores handled I made the trek back to the house, water bucket, egg bucket, and 'possum filled sack in hand.

So now what the hell do I do?

Well, thankfully I was now close enough to get help. Mike fetched the .22 and shortly thereafter there was a dead 'possum.

Now how's that for some mid-week excitement?

Spring Fever?

This last weekend Jen and I decided to try something we have both been interested in some time, home brewing. We bought each other kits for Xmas this year and finally got around to playing with them.

This is Jen's kit. It came with instructions (all 5 steps). Just grape juice, yeast, and toasted oak chips (for those of us who don't have wine barrels at home, I presume).

Here is the wine-to-be all mixed up and on it's way to being White Zin. The peat mossy looking stuff on the top is the afore-mentioned oak chips.

Here is Mikey's kit. Notice the number of ingredients. (Beer is much more complicated than vino - as evidenced by the 25 step instructions that accompanied the kit).

Here we are after the grains have been steeped, malt and bittering hops added. Boy did that smell like heaven. Btw, this is a brown porter that I'm working on.

Here we are on Sunday. An hour or so before the Super Bowl, Jen tells me that we have grape juice on the office floor as her wine decided to "explosively ferment" (no shit). So we transferred her brew from the carboy into an extra fermenter (positioned next to mine full of "sweet wort") and both have been bubbling along happily since.

So, after two weeks, Jen has to transfer hers over into the carboy for another 12 to 14 weeks before it can be bottled (and needs to wait for another 3 months to age). Mine will go into bottles with corn sugar (to provide carbonation) for another two weeks before it is ready to drink. I can't wait.

Afternoon...um...visitor?

I do believe there's truth to the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words..."

I'm just not sure which thousand that would be!

Both pictures were taken this afternoon as I stood on the front porch. This was the second pass the chopper made!! The first one had them hovering over directly over the house, then over the neighbor's! Yes...we are wondering "what the hell!?!"