The sun is so low that when it does pop out through a crack in the solid grey that is our sky, all our shadows make us look like monsters. Screen left is Boo and screen right is Sheila. Off on our walk.
Everyone wants to check out the compost heap on the way.
Off they go. Boo was not a bother so he can come again, said Ton. As they left him behind.
Without our dear Kupa the hierarchy in the barn has changed – in the bird population. The roosters are scaring the pea hens away from the food. Kupa was such an unassuming bird I had no idea that he protected his girls while they ate. So I feed them upstairs.
Though they do make a habit of climbing into the pig food bins and eating the oats so I am not too worried. I will need to find them a new male though. It seems they need one for more than one reason.
Every farmer has an obsession about the weather and with no TV or radio and even though I do check the weather on the computer I was thrilled with MY Christmas present.
A weather station, it has a gizmo outside on top of the house for telling me wind speed and direction as well. Nothing dramatic yesterday, just bloody cold. (-8.5C). Of course now I am studying barometric pressure.
My ice champagne ice bucket waiting for New Years!..No threat of it melting.
I had a few thoughts yesterday. Some things I would like to see in the New Year.
WHAT IF they designed a movie theatre that had three screens, one in front and one on either side, you would need to shoot the movie with three different cameras simultaneously from three different Points of View but it would be pretty cool as a viewer, we would be right inside the movie, and if they were all 3D, that would be exciting – unless it was a horror movie then it would be horrible.
WHAT IF the supermarket aisles could read your grocery list or your grocery thoughts (some people like me forget to take their lists) and when you start looking for, oh – avocado oil, the sign in that aisle immediately changes to avocado oil, raising itself up and down gently to attract your attention. But only you could see it because the guy next to you is looking for quail eggs or hard wood floor cleaner or a life.
WHAT IF dishwashers were at waist level so you don’t have to bend down to load them and you didn’t have to rinse the dishes clean first covering the floor and your feet in water because you are working too fast because you HATE doing dishes.
WHAT IF houses had those sucky vacuum shutes, like they had in old department stores, in every single room and you opened a little hatch and shoved your laundry in there and woosh it was sucked straight to the machine. And another sucky thing on the wall that just sucked all the dust up.
WHAT IF the lights in your house had batteries. So you could hang them from anywhere and they did not need wires.
WHAT IF you could just throw all your devices in a pile in a special corner of the house or a special box in your car and they were wirelessly recharged. Without plugging in. So you could not lose your charger because you did not need one. You could park your light batteries here too to charge up. Plus possibly a brain or two, I know a number of brains that need a recharge, though I would rather not take my brain out of my head to be charged up ..that sounds a wee bit messy, it might be easier if I sit in the corner with all the other devices as well.
WHAT IF you had a special button on the wall that when you pushed it your cell phone calls out to you – I am over HERE! with flashing lights and wee oo wee oo noises. And one for the car keys too.
WHAT IF you could push another button and the entire wall of your bathroom raises up like a garage door (the one with the bath not the one with the toilet. That would be a mean trick to raise the wall up in the toilet when someone is sitting on the toilet just minding their own business and thinking about nothing much and then there is a click and a whir and the wall begins to roll up. I think that would be rude) and when the wall is raised you can wash the whole bathroom out with the hose then let it dry in the sun, but not today as it is too cold. Everything turns to ice so fast in the cold, the dogs have a drink out of their heated water dish and the drips from their mouths freeze onto the verandah floor and stay there. Daisy has icicles. Imagine what a hose in your bathroom would do.
WHAT IF they had bed units in airports that you can rent for an hour or even two when your plane was held up or you are between flights. Lined up along one wall like lockers. Just a box with a bed and a door that locked and an alarm that you can set. And a little lady at a desk saying mind you are out at 5 exactly or you will be charged for an extra hour and no friends, this is a clean establishment. You could take in your own water and a book.
WHAT IF it was a fashion to have 3 foot high hair-do’s, like the French in the 1700’s, with bird cages in them, how would we fit into our cars? We would be walking about the supermarket with our hair getting stuck in stuff. They would have to have extra staff with long sticks to help you get free. How would I wear my beanie?
WHAT IF women went bald, really bald – like men do, would there still be comb-overs? Were there ever comb-overs, I find it hard to believe.
WHAT IF my eyes were green, not pale blue, would I be a different kind of person?
WHAT IF cats could read your minds and there was nothing to read. You were having one of those perfectly innocent blank moments. Would they feel superior? Do they already?
Do you ever wonder about stuff like that?
May your New Year be full of glory and joy, to help you through the hard bits. There will be hard bits. Life is like a drain, sometimes it gets stopped up with hard bits. Joy is like an orange plunger or a wire brush, it makes things sparkly clean. So I wish you lots of joyful times. But we will be OK you and I, we have The Fellowship – and we are all wearing rubber gloves and wielding plungers. And laughing like drains!
Love your friend on the little farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
78 responses to “My Monsters and I go for a Walk and Wonder about Stuff”
Celi, I delight in your blog. So glad I joined your followers. I click on your email notification with anticipation … What wil Celi have to say today? Today’s post makes me think of “I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me and what can be the use of him is more than I can see….” Delightful, and what a great image you posted. Tim and I sit on our kitchen bench in the morning, now part of my routine is reading your post. He isn’t willing to consider walking pigs, a herd of 10 sows might be a bit unruly. We will have to live vicariously. Today our bench sitting witnessed a shark shinned hawk come diving in to grab one of the doves feeding at the bird feeder. Junkos, and sparrows scattered and feathers floated. Life and death on the farm. Makes me sad and question my new bird feeders that I love so much. I have lived here 33 years and never witnessed a hawk grab a dove but I have never fed birds until last spring. Conundrum.
Thanks for your words and pictures and all the very best in 2014.
Walking a herd of sows would make a humurous picture, but I think it would only work with one. When I had two they raced off together and the whole thing was a disaster. It is an interesting conundrum, the birds, though I guess you fed a hawk? as well. They are useful birds for keeping mice and rabbits down, maybe you could make a little sign for the doves.’Keep one eye on the SKY’.. c!
It makes me cold to look at your Christmas present…brrr. I’m not so sure about the French 1700’s hairdos, but the ’60’s beehives might be fun…though hairspray isn’t my favorite thing. May 2014 bring you and all of yours way more sparkly clean moments of joy and happiness than the hard bits, miss C.
Your imaginative and wandering mind proved quite entertaining to me today. I, BTW, have green eyes.
I’m also fixated on weather, and have a weather station nearly as detailed as yours. Love it to bits. What if Light: have those in the closet. Cats already believe they can reads minds, and have fooled themselves into also believing that humans are empty-headed. This is why they’re so uppity. This is also why I’m a dog-person. Mobile Phone: just ring its number with your landline, so you can hear it ringing. Sucky-Uppy thing: You’d still have to empty the sucker-upper. Just open the front and back doors, and let the dust blow out.
Happy New Year, my darling!
What if we could blink, think and be transported to a friend’s house for a chat – then blink and return home. Guess this is the next best thing.
Love your New Year’s ice bucket.
It’s very chilly here today – and the furry dogs are wild with the joy of it playing hide and seek in the bushes
Hope the new year is bright and wonderful for all of the farmy!
Oh I have always wanted to say “Beam me up Scotty” and travel to places! We have managed to recreate almost everything else from Star Trek so maybe this isn’t so far fetched?
So far so good. Sci fi’s track record is stellar!
The sky’s the limit!
I always look forward to your posts and get my vicarious dose of country living while looking out the window at the city center here in Long Beach, CA, along with regular emotional jolts because your writing does that. I laughed aloud at the guy in the supermarket! And, yes, my mind wanders and muses just like that but how in the heck did you manage to recall them all once you got back to your computer? Mine flee almost as quickly as they arrive!
Happy New Year and Bon Courage for 2014 to you and yours and The Fellowship!
Oh.. my goodness, if only a few of your What If’s could come true we’d have a much easier world to live in! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you the Happiest New Year and a fantastic 2014!! xx
Okay, some responses:
1) I think you could patent some of these ideas. All you have to do is find the time to implement them!
2) Cats *do* read our minds, didn’t you know that? : )
3) I have green eyes. What does that tell you? (Not very different, I think, in spite of our different paths.)
4) That comment about women going bald I shall not address. It’s a great fear of mine. (My poor little grandmother lost almost all her hair, probably because of too many meds over the years. She hated it.)
Happiness and joy to you, too, my friend. I love your analogy about the hard bits that clog things up. So true. Keeping the joy and recognizing it when it comes, even when it’s in “small bits,” too, is so important. Peace.
Love your weather station. I have become a weather fan due to the nature of our twice a year tornado seasons.(alabama) I need one of those. Your “what-ifs” bring to mind one of my favorite writers,Ray Bradbury. Stay warm and have a very Happy New Year! While I know the cold is needed I am so looking forward to spring. The fact that my seed catalogs are starting to come in is giving me that urge,to you know plant things…Cant resist: See ya’ll next year. 🙂
Love your What Ifs–a few already have been invented! 🙂 I so appreciate your blog and really look forward to reading your words every day. I’m not sure why you (and many others) chose icy cold Illinois to have a farm when you could be so much more comfortable out here in Northern California where you wouldn’t have to battle the weather ;), but regardless, I love hearing about every little thing happening out there on the farmy. Only best wishes to you and yours for the New Year.
Holey Buckets!!!! All those thoughts so early in the day????? 😀 Great photos! Love the monsters!!! 🙂 Cold at your place too I see! Brrrrr…….I’ll ponder them!!! 😉
We had a serious train derailment in our area. 25 miles from our farm. A train carrying grain derailed and caused a train coming in the opposite direction and carrying crude oil to jump the tracks resulting in a huge explosion with a giant mushroom cloud!!! 100 feet it exploded into the air. Huge flames and black smoke covering the area in toxic fumes. People evacuated to the city and can’t return to their homes. Terrible way to start the new year.
I wish that the wind would come from the east. There is open land for miles and no homes.
And it is freezing…feels like 30 below! I feel for the emergency and hazmat workers too…really bad conditions.
Hope everyone else has a Happy New Year and God Bless all of you!!!! Be safe if you are going out and if home? I pray that you are comfy cozy!!!
Saw that on the news Mere – looked bad! Hope everyone gets to go home soon. Feeling for all those people without power too – must be really miserable to be so cold!
Thanks Lyn. When it is people you know and do business with it is so close to home.
Terrible times for people in different places. I hope no one here has felt or in the future never feel the brunt of something like this. Severe weather is bad enough! Sooner or later it does affect all of us at some time in our lives…
The nursing home has been on my mind and also the veterinary clinic.
Here’s to better times for everyone!!!
Oh you poor thing, that kind of cold makes you feel so hunched over, and that amount of oil tearing through your tow at speed ! goodness.. take care mere.. c
Actually, they already have those snooze rooms in some airports. I say it on a TV program, once. Love your weather station. It always seems colder when I know the temps than when I don’t know. Does that make sense? And yes, cats always read our minds. Wonderful post again, Celi. Happy New Year. Oh, and I want a kitchen that can be hosed down, too.
Wherever those rooms are is where i am having my stop-overs from now on! c
Travelling down the drain of life in the company of the Fellowship is a most delicious thought! Happy Happy New Year Dear Celi!
I’m always having to ring my landline to locate my mobile in the house. Can’t ring my car keys, though!
Exactly, there needs to be something done about that! c
Happy New Year ! Oh, and cats always feel superior.
Well, that’s cause they are, lol