My posts are crooked, the barn is leaning, the feeders are sinking and the BooBoo limps. The hay bales list, the fields are poggy and not one fence follows a straight line. 
The posts are on a lean, the gates drag and the chickens perch on ramshackle lengths of pole. All this I can take but if the horizon were crooked then I would lose my mind.
Straight is good.
The flat straight becalmed-at-sea-like horizon of the prairie is a perfect frame, reluctantly show casing my crooked contributions. The chaotic landscape hangs on flat-screens, a work in progress. An incomplete orbit.
Have you ever thought that you can move your head every which way, even stand on your head if you like (and if you can I would be VERY impressed) but the horizon of the prairie always stays in a perfect line watching our antics with dry straight lipped amusement. The Earth better not shake her head in amusement – we will all fall off.
I think that Sheila has found her forever friend in Tia the little heifer. But I am telling you right now that THAT PIG is NOT coming into the milking shed. Not in a million years!
Scroll down to the instagram feed and you will see Sheila being amusing.
Today the high will be 46f/7c – a perfectly acceptable winters day – maybe some snow tonight to liven things up. The weather promises us deep cloud for at least the next six days with gradually lowering temperatures. Good for the skin right?
I hope you have a lovely day.
love celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
78 responses to “The crooked-ness”
I love straight lines and order too much I think. I always admire crooked, cracked, broken old in other people’s lives…find it so much more beautiful (that wabi sabi thing)…so I have let my ruler go a bit lately. Straight is good. But so is crooked. The pigs are most fetching today.
I am cursed with the need to have things balanced and straight. I have been known to straighten paintings in banks and peoples homes while I am chatting and without even consciously deciding to do it. My daughter is cursed with the same problem. Though neither of us could be accused of being tidy.. c
I do the same thing- absently minded straightening things while out and about.
Embarrassing isn’t it – when you turn around and everyone is staring at you – open-mouthed.
Lol, the gift of “knowing” level & plumb is indeed a mixed blessing; )
If the horizon tipped up we’d fall off! Sheila is such a funny pig 😉
Morning Mad. Sheila is the happiest I have ever seen her now that she has her little herd of calves. We all knew she did not like pigs ..
I suppose the cows do as they are told 😉
The instagram pic of Sheila in the boot is wonderful!!! That pig is just too much!!! XO Oh, and I had great fun watching my steps yesterday, my first day of counting. Now today, I know I’ll have many more steps, as I do both Zumba and Yoga. The problem is I won’t be able to have my phone of me counting the steps. So I can see the advantage of the bracelet!
Sounds like you are going to have a great day! c
Sheila! What a pig she is. How’s Poppy? Do you still have Molly? and drat! I took my step tracker off last night and it is still on my night stand.
I know that feeling.! Yes Poppy and Molly are at the West side with Manu. I should take my camera over there if I remember this afternoon.. c
Oh Sheila!
I know!! c
Our former governor and ex-wrestler, Jesse Ventura, once explained why the streets of Saint Paul….let’s just say, “lack conformity”. He attributed it to the Irish and their love of “the pint”. There are times when it appears that Mother Nature might share the same affection.
Ha~ I am of Irish extraction though many, many generations ago! Mother Nature tipsying about with a glass in her hand sounds perfectly reasonable to me! c
How in the world did Sheila get into the boot? With her heft is she still able to jump? I can’t believe it
Well, that old car has flat as a pancake tires so it is not very far off the ground, and Sheila is above my hip now – she is a tall pig.. c
I love order and straight lines, but Nature works differently, and I love the natural order too… In the end, Nature wins. All our straightnesses are only ever temporary. Was Sheila being a bit of a Pig in the Manger about the car boot, or was anyone allowed to play?
I believe anyone can play!! c
I am very sorry to hear that BooBoo’s injury hasn’t healed yet. Could you remind me what is going on there and what his prognosis is? Our family would be so upset if something happened to our “goofballs” (IE: dogs).
The prognosis was it will never heal but if we are careful for a long long time it may grow new tissue around the injured cords in his leg. And this is what we are working on. But he HATES being left inside when i am out working .. And now no walks, no running, no jumping gates or onto the back of the truck. Ever. I think he will always be limpy too. c
Yes, yes. I remember now. So sorry for you and your sweet Boo.
Celi, is there a link to Sheila’s story? How did she come to be with you? And to STAY?
Hmm. I bought Sheila and Charlotte to raise to be sows, Charlotte had piglets but was a terrible mother so she left the farm. Sheila had such a mammoth fight with a boar, when the man in charge put her in too early, that she was badly injured (she got a few good bites into the prize boar though). She did not get pregnant and after she had recovered she never came back into heat. The Fellowship voted to keep her and to help out where-ever they could buying calendars, T shirts, donations, etc to pay for her food and lodgings. So she went from being a breeding sow to a pet. She is an unusually clever and friendly pig. She is on a very careful, very lean diet to ensure she gets the best chance at a long life because pigs NEVER stop growing – they just keep getting bigger – they slow down of course but a fat pig does not have a long or healthy life. I think that is it all in a very shortened form.. c
This is a story to put a smile on faces, really lovely x
Sheila is more than a pet, much much. But I don’t like the idea of her growing and growing and . . . If there’s meaning in nature, could pigs be symbols? I’m thinking about that now, and though I find a possible application there, I like Sheila too much to take it seriously. Sheila means Sheila, that’s it.
Not many hogs are allowed to grow as old as Sheila will so it will be interesting to see how much bigger she does get. After about 6-7 months of age their growth rate begins to slow and unlike humans the skeleton seems to keep growing. Though I am actually still trying to find scientific evidence that this is the case.
And your photographs have a perfectly aligned horizon! A bit of crookedness is good – the way the trees lean according to the prevailing wind or wandering sheep tracks but thank goodness the horizon stays level. Have you ever tried to walk a straight line in the dew or snow and then looked back to see a wavering trail? I try so hard but cannot walk dead straight.
What an exercise. I will try it.. but I cannot even MOW in a straight line! c
I deliberately don’t mow in a straight line!
wise girl
Did Sheila heave her hindquarters into the boot as well, I would have thought that she is too tall? I like things straight too but my cats have other ideas. Now I am also wondering if Sheila appeared at the door and asked nicely she might well escort Tia into the milking parlour, however there is the chance that nobody else would get their share of the milk 🙂 Laura
NO just her front legs, she is so long she could reach in with just her front hooves in the boot. c
aaaww come to Bacon my sweet Sheila. I’ll console you for not going into the milking shed. Snorts with piggy laughter. XOXO – Bacon
You are a very naughty piggy, Bacon. Saying such things to my Lady Pig. c
Our barn is crooked, the road is crooked, there is nothing flat on our horizon, no place to set a coop, or hut, or garden that is level. I love that we have hills and mountains, and hollows as much as you love the flat horizon. I grew up on the flat coast of Virginia and don’t miss it at all.
I do miss having hills – I also grew up on a beach and i find the straight horizons here almost consoling. c
Waxing poetical my friend – and I sooo enjoyed it!
We haven’t seen the sun in about 10 ten days… or more… and I am sooo sick of it. I’m a person who does NOT do well in winter… at least at this stage of my life.
I love that Shelia and Tia have become such good friends. Isn’t it interesting how even dogs and cats become fast friends very often?
PS I saw that I have the movie you recommended (can’t think of the name right now… Morning Brain Fog…is on Netflix. Looking forward to watching it this evening! ; o )
I hope you like it – I am still remembering images from it.. c