One Thousand Nine Hundred Seventy-Two

I started working through the Spanish language CDs right alongside my girls, but, as with everything else around here, I couldn't spend as much time on it as I'd like, and now I'm behind. Way behind. Like completely dropped out, and no one's even pretending that I might learn Spanish before the Lord comes back.

When you grow up in Texas, you start learning Spanish just about the time you finish learning the pledge of allegiance. In spite of several years' instruction, I have forgotten every bit of it, except for one terrific little phrase: "mil novecientos setenta y dos." It rolls off my tongue quite easily, sort of like a Spanish version of "Super-cali-fragilistic-expiali-docious." Only it's not some silly, made-up, useless little babbling. Not at all! Mil novecientos setenta y dos is a REAL Spanish expression that could come in quite handy in today's globalized world.

It means "1972", and if that's not a pertinent thing to know in a foreign tongue, I don't know what is. This bit could prove invauable if I ever cross the border and need to convey some vital information, like, say, how many calories are in a Mexican Big Mac, or how much a draft horse weighs. Or maybe I'm in on a big discussion about Watergate----where would a big Mexican discussion about Watergate be if no one could say 1972?????

And I know it so well, I think I could say it in my sleep. That's because, at the beginning of junior high Spanish every day, we had to greet the teacher and recite the date. Most of what we said changed often---the day of the week, the date, the month--- and none of this took permanent root in the ol' cerebrum. But no matter the day or month, the classroom chorus always ended with "mil novecientos setenta y dos". 1972.

Back in junior high Spanish days, it was always 1972. And as far as my understanding of the language goes, it always will be. All I have to do, to slow down my fast-paced world, is speak a little Spanish.

On the other hand, we don't really want to go backwards, now do we?

Audrey's Great Job

Last week found Audrey face to face with this critter as he peered up at her out of a cardboard box.




A hush fell over the vet clinic as the box was opened. For just a moment, time froze, stilled by the majesty of God's creation.




Then it was time for vet business.
Someone had shot the bald eagle, leaving him to die. Someone else found him and took pity.


Before he could undergo the orthopedic surgery needed to put him back together, he had to breathe a little sleeping gas. "Just relax, and count slowly backward from ten," the vet is coaching.








This is Dr. Steph, one of Audrey's bosses. She's feeling the bones in the shoulder and wing, some of which have been shattered by the gunshot.


Audrey's standing by, ready to do whatever Dr. Steph asks. That's her bare hand at the bottom of the photo. Does this girl have a great job, or what!!!???

(Of course, some days she does clean cat cages.)









Dr. Steph has put four pins through the bones, to hold them together. The next step is to cut these pins off short, then affix an external stabilizer through all four of them, to hold them in place.

The bird will live with Raptor Recovery people for a few weeks while his bones heal. Then he'll be back to the vet, to have his hardware removed.

I hope Audrey is working on the day of his return visit.

Everyone needs a little awe now and then.

I wish I'd been there to take these photos, but I wasn't.

Zebra Farm

Why Grow Alfalfa?

Everyone should grow some alfalfa.

If you load your alfalfa onto a truck and sell it to someone else, you can convert it into cash.

Horses convert alfalfa into an afternoon of relaxation for their owners,

and cattle know how to convert alfalfa into a glass of milk or a T-bone steak!

What's not to love about alfalfa? Don't you need some of this very versatile crop?

It smells really good in the barn, too.

Barn and draft horse photos by Merrill

Long Shadows -- Early Morning Winter

Thank you to Merrill for pointing out colors and contrasts at the breakfast table.

Postcards

On the way home from church, we passed two bald eagles out in a soybean field, tearing at a deer carcass. When I returned with my camera, the shy birds fled. Not wanting to waste the trip, I took a roundabout way home, hoping to find something lovely or interesting to photograph. It worked:

If John ever gets tired of farming, I think I might have a future in postcards.

It's Not Baseball

"There are only two seasons - winter and baseball." ---Bill Veeck

Bill Veeck was a lifelong baseball fan. Starting as a concession vendor and ticket seller for the Chicago Cubs, Veeck eventually purchased and sold several major league teams. Veeck is credited with planting, in 1937, the ivy that still grows on the outfield wall at Chicago's Wrigley Field.

It's definitely not baseball season, so that leaves us with.................

For the Anne Girl

Someone has "tagged" me via cyberspace. Computer tag rules are:

*Post the rules on your blog
*Share six non-important/habits/quirks about yourself
*Link to the person who tagged you
*Tag six random people by linking their blogs at the end of your post
*Let each random person know she has been tagged by leaving a comment on her blog.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    This is who tagged me. Thanks to Erica for the photo.

I remember the last time I played a game of real tag, not in the computer realm. It was on a big piece of playground equipment. The other contestants were lots younger, and lots faster, and their enthusiasm ran longer than mine. I frolicked and chased and tagged for a time, but after a bit my attention wandered. The rules and the boundaries faded; I strayed off in search of my camera or a bit of conversation.

Same for the cyber world. You may tag me, but I might just make a faltering attempt and then wander away, looking for a cup of tea.

In that vein:

1) I can do a funny "lip trick" that no one I've ever met could duplicate.
2) I used to wish I were a boy, when my mother would call me in to set the table while leaving my brother outside playing swords with my male cousin. I'm so glad we don't always get what we wish for.
3) I'm not very good at anything after 9 p.m., but I can fall asleep in less than ten seconds.
4) I've met Garrison Keillor. I've been in the same room with Ronald Reagan and, later, Mikhail Gorbachev.
5) I lived in Germany for three years, beginning when I was six.
6) Once I rode my bicycle all the way across Nebraska.

Whew. I'm out of breath. No tag backs.

Nerds and Geeks

Did you realize that Tim Tebow, winner of the 2007 Heisman Trophy, was homeschooled until he went to college?

I know of homeschooled people who are good at lots of different things, both in my locale and around the country. Things like building computers, filmmaking, constructing houses, writing and publishing books. They are privately and successfully running homes and businesses with little notice from the rest of the world. But it's also nice for homeschooling to occasionally put on a big, successful public face like Tim Tebow's. These people are public banners, proclaiming that the quiet universe of homeschooling actually works, and proving that we're really not just an assortment of nerds and geeks.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Internet photo

Groundhog Day

No posts for nearly a month! I must have, like the famous groundhog living in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, seen my shadow on Feb. 2 and retreated to my hidey hole for another six weeks of hibernation. Sometimes that doesn't sound like TOO bad of an idea, but it's not the truth.

The truth is that I've been learning physics and selling a software program that my dad wrote for farmers and teaching geometry and designing a horse barn and visiting relatives out of state and preparing for the nuclear or economic collapse of the world and......deep breath........taking just a few moments to see if I could get a good photograph of the fire that chases away winter's bleakness around here.

This morning the Lord reminded me that His yoke is easy and His burden light. Today I am coming to Him, learning of Him, warming my soul at his hearth.

It is a good place to be.