THE BRIEF
Lots to do today and I want to start early so I will be brief.
First a tiny scream of frustration: I am thinking of deleting one of my social media streams lest I discover a war being declared over a twitter feed. Or something else completely outrageous. The news reels from one thing to the next making us all seasick from the twisting barrage of hyperbole. Twitter has become a force to be reckoned with. How did that happen? And I want to stop reading the news app. But if we stop bearing witness does that make us safer? Is knowing what people are saying in tiny fifteen-second bites actually helping make us safer – keeping us informed. Must I be informed of all this to be a responsible citizen of the world?
I have deleted from this post more than I have allowed. But you all know me well enough – you all know yourselves well enough – to read between the lines.
And I think the answer is yes. We must stay informed – we are citizens of the world – we have a responsibility to seek the truth, be informed and use this information to promote the greater good, to be good though I admit the truth is getting hard to find. And is often cloaked in opinion. Objective so very hard to find.
Anway. Sigh.
There is a delicious lack of news on the farm front. Things move much slower and with less hysteria in the natural world. The cows brought their calves up to the barn at dusk all by themselves. Molly is still waddling about looking enormously pregnant (unless something happened in the night). The chooks laid about forty eggs. The one pig escaped again and again – she can get OUT under the electric fence but not back IN so she stands on the other side and waits for me to lift the electric fence so she can easily run under. I have put the fattening pigs onto free feed as they are getting too big for me to feed when they are hungry and I am working alone. It was a comedy attaching the feeder to the Rat House barn while they were all knocking at it and investigating it, even though it was as yet empty, chewing on my boots, huffing at each other around my feet.
I have put the free feeder into the big pens field. It has a hopper that i keep full and a little lid at the bottom that they open and feed from. I can hear it opening and closing as I write. It was a comedy attaching the feeder to the Rat House barn while they were all knocking at it and investigating it, even though it was as yet empty, chewing on my boots, huffing at each other around my feet. There are three reasons for the new feeding regime- the feeder has a little lid that they open and stick their heads in to eat. This means that the wild chooks don’t get as much of the feed. Secondly, if they eat when they are hungry they don’t tend to gorge. Thirdly I work alone so there is a safety issue.
I have two fields of pigs. Six in each. So I have a perfect opportunity to do a proper trial and see if they really do eat the same amount when the food is always available. That is the theory anyway. Though I am certain they will eat a little more but steadily. I will take a picture for you today.
Today I will set up the calf creep. You know what a creep is right? A space that only the little ones can get into where no big cows are allowed. It is in the barn. They have their water and extra feed in there – and I fill it with deep warm straw, often the calves use it as a safe space to sleep.
Alex is still sleeping her baby, Rainbow, right down the back away from the herd. Often I find the calves on the outskirts of the sleeping herd. Cows are big. It is safer for babies to be slightly removed. When the mothers bring them up to the barn they are tucked into corners so it is quite natural for the calves to use the creep as a safe space.
I hope Molly is still in one piece as there will be hammering involved.
I never know what I will find when I go out to the barn in the early mornings when I have a sow this close. I checked her about midnight and she was fast asleep. Giving birth to that many babies takes hours.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love celi
WEATHER: Still beautiful.
Monday 10/02 0% / 0 in. Partly cloudy. High 81F/27C. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph.
c
66 Comments on “THE BRIEF”
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Your cat seems having a great time playing with the clay pots….
Yes – cats like to sit inside things!
I love the image of you gumboot-deep in wriggling piggies! I wish for a peaceful and constructive day for you, Miss C, as free of Twitter-fed confrontational opinion as possible 🙂
I never actually comment on Twitter or even read it – I am just worried about it being endlessly quoted as though it is a reliable news source.
The word “twitter” bothers me. What happened to us that now we accept the fact that the leader of the free world and the Pope … “tweet?”…. it doesn’t feel right.
I have an orange cat also. My vet told me that orange cats made the best barn cats. I don’t have a barn, and he is an indoor/outdoor cat, but he has decimated the chipmunk population around here.
First time I have commented, but I always read you first thing. You set such a good and peaceful tone to my day. Thanks!
Twitter and TWEET! they certainly are such vacuous words! Thank you for commenting – and thank you for reading – my marmalade cats are pretty good mousers too – I should let them into the house more often but the barn is pretty clean of rodents! Have a great day – talk tomorrow!
Nor do I, but apparently some people find it all too easy to say whatever comes into their heads without prior thought or consideration for the consequences. Here’s to a perfectly good life without Twitter…
I don’t use Twitter so don’t know what’s been happening, but I can imagine 😢 Hope you find a solution that works for you. Stunning photos, that kitty is gorgeous!
Thankfully I am happy with Instagram as my social media of choice – just pictures
😀
We will see if they are as greedy as pigs…
I hear the lid clanging open and closed and they seem to be just snacking frequently – we will see when the numbers come in
Good day to you — trying to avoid all the news today — will catch up tomorrow. We tried the lift-up feeders and they worked very well….both for the pigs AND for the numerous families of raccoons unfortunately. We only have 2 pigs at a time to feed so we now just feed them in the morning all they will eat and clean up during the day as it seems the coons mostly came at night. I do wish it would have worked because, as you say, it is a bit hazardous getting in the pen with buckets of milk and feed — so much easier for all to just fill the hopper that was along side the fence every so often.
I long ago learned that being informed and being immersed in social media news feeds or postings are not necessarily synonymous. A little judicious following, a little selective reading, are enough. Spare me the rest of it.
Agreed . My grievance is that social media is creeping INTO the mainstream media. Twitter has become the news.
That’s true, too. I stopped listening to our radio “news” station when they began offering us “what’s trending in Houston” four times per hour.
Re social media, here’s another take on its importance at times of crisis: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/10/gross-dishonesty-mainstream-media-catalonia/
I agree though that one’s information-handling-skills need constantly to be on the alert for misinformation and hyped-up rumour based on zero fact.
Yes – rumours abound.
While social media was a great help during the hurricane/rescues, most of it is just annoying and superficial or ego driven. I mimic Shoreacres’ plan.
Besides so much nicer being outdoors and unplugged…you know where real life is. Enjoy the day!
I am trying to stay indoors today as I think Molly is getting close – it would be nice if she has her piglets in the daytime when it is so warm.
Thank you for the intro comments. I agree it is getting to be very hard to find truth and sense. We are assaulted with numerous channels of ‘stuff’. Only a small part is actually worthy of consideration. We humans evolved with sources of information that were limited by how many people were in our group, what we could see and hear in our environment, and whether we were wise enough to survive. Today, we are flooded with rivers of tweets, likes, posts, emails, instant messages, etc, all on a small device we hold in front of our faces. Our brains simply cannot process that much at a time. We are in overload mode. It is important to step away from those numerous sources and choose a few we can trust. Remember the days when we read a newspaper or two and watched the evening news? Too many people know too much about things not important.
I will now step down from the stump. Thanks for listening. 🙂
I agree. Years ago – way before the recent onslaught of social media I read an interesting discussion about how the current generation saw thousands more images in an hour than our grandfathers did in a lifetime. At that point we were discussing whether this was contributing to a higher suicide rate in the younger generation. In the last decade our brains exposure to stuff has quadrupled again and again and infinitum. (sp) I still maintain that this exposure ( images and now more of the written word as everyone piles in to have their say) is directly contributing to increased anxiety and mental anguish. It is a wall and surely must implode.
I think, as with so many things, it is all about balance–which is so true its become a cliche. I like to keep up on the news but I’m teaching myself that I can also limit my exposure. I got on Twitter just now to read a bit about what happened last night and quickly got off again, disgusted with the politicizing of it. But, I do have to tear myself away and remind myself I can be up on what’s happening without subjecting myself to vitriol and anger. And, most important, I come here every morning because the farmy is an oasis of calm and peace. So thank you for that.
Oh I am glad you can get calm and peace here – I sure do.. c
I like to keep up with what is going on, but not via twitter.
Yes. But what bothers me is that Twitter is being used AS a news- source. This is where the media goes to collect the news and quotes and pictures. But maybe this is just the way the news Is now.
That is unfortunate.
And they wonder where the “fake news” comes from?; )
Well..that was a long brief!.. I do hope that you are ok out there workig on your own, You need a Jake…. I suppose at this time of the year all the woofers and helpers are back at Uni… but I do worry if you might overwork yourself. You are so dedicated that sometimes you cannot stop. Take care my dear friend..take care xxxxx
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2017 at 2:50 PM
The workers only come for a few months a year – the rest of the time I work out here alone – so no need to worry.
ACK! This is the third time in as many weeks I have written a long reply and it disappears when I “Post Comment”. It is truly annoying! … I fully agree with Jim R, though, to choose your source of news with qualified news people and with Charlotte Dixon to limit ourselves on the social media…… and instead come to the farmy as an oasis of calm and peace! Please, Miss C., don’t ever stop! ~ Mame 🙂
I will do my best . c
The life of a cat eh! Curl up in a handy plant pot in the Sun and then move off umhurriedly when needs be.
I do not use FB or Twitter and read a few select blogs daily and for the most part avoid the politics and drama that way. However I do have a TV on and so will sometimes be bombarded by current crisis or tradegy. Then I come back to the farmy for my fix of peace and tranquility Laura
I am glad I can offer some calm – most of the time !!
Celi – what is the plant with all the seeds in the second picture you posted? (The ones mixed in with the sunflowers) Is it a weed or some kind of grain that you have growing? Curious! : ) Thanks
It is a type of heritage corn though I am not sure of the name
It looks to me like broom corn, I believe the same family as sorghum.
I do believe what you’ve got there is Sorghum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum_bicolor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_sorghum. I remember seeing a field of it while on a trip to see relatives, got out and snatched one head of it because it was so odd, then forgot to look it up. I know you had a photo of it before and I meant to look then. I found it tonight while checking something else entirely – go figure. I thought you might like to know. You can eat it and you can feed it to your animals. It has a nurtient profile rather like oats. Save some of the seed and plant it next year.
Thank you!
Ah yes, the news. I often listen to the radio as I’m fixing breakfast for the family, then again in the car on my way home from the school drop. The rest of the day is filled with the sounds of animals- who, of course, have their own tales (tails?) to tell. The world can take care of itself. I have chores to do and my own to care for.
Well said!
I know what you mean about the social media stuff. I’ve gone on so many two week breaks this year where I delete all my apps from my phone. It’s hard to hear what’s happening and then witness people being insane at the same time. Now I try to connect with readers and friends, but I never scroll through the news feed anymore. It’s just not worth the bad mood ya know?
That is so funny! Deleting your apps! I should do that with my news app!! You are right – it really is not worth the bad mood. How are things with you – I must pop over and see what you are up to.
Im actually in the process of rebuilding our blog. We went on quite a hiatus, but its given us time to reflect and find where our priorities lie. So the blog is now getting a makeover and lots of new articles are on their way!
Good for you taking am hiAtus. Sometimes that really is the best option.
I gave up on twitter years ago as I felt it was a time sucker and mindless….as is Facebook and I only allow myself 20 minutes if that a day.
News is no longer unbiased and honest…..whatever happened to journalism? Have a lovely day …..perhaps Molly will produce her babies today?
I think Molly is very close – I am forcing myself to stay away and not disturb her but in the night she built a rather messy bed and UNPLUGGED the babies lights – how she reached that far I have no idea. She always gets very naughty just before delivery.
ohmygoodness! That Molly~ A girl after my own heart!
Having ‘gone back into the studio’ after quite the hiatus (the latter spent mostly blogging) I’ve found myself more of a worrier about the progress and purposes of my art than I had been for awhile—materials and time being very costly, never mind whether the skills are headed in the direction I want them to be—but that’s a stress I can face: it’s all my own.
The time spent in front of canvases and with paper/digital art media in hand is, additionally and conversely, a great gulf of thinking/breathing space between my inner self and the onslaught of insistent and competing “news” voices that include every source claiming to be vital and essential to my happiness and being informed. I have never read a Twitter feed, so can only guess at how deeply that would distress me, and rarely visit either Facebook or Instagram anymore unless summoned by a personal message, and I am more and more glad not to feel dependent on any of these for my sense of being-in-the-world.
Thanks for a great reminder of why! On that note, I’m going to trot back upstairs now and finish another painting while happily listening in my head to the Farmy chorus!
xoxo,
K
I am not a big one for FB or Twitter -(though I admit to loving Instagram!) what worries me is that TWitter is IN the regular news. And these tiny text boxes are being used to release some pretty important information. Anyway – I have farm work to do and happily, that is my real though little world.
Whatever important news is released on Twitter is, by the very nature of the size of messages allowed, are not complete and cannot be relied on: often out of context, often not correct and so very often just opinion and/or nastiness. Anything important will be duly reported on reliable news sources. I’m with you, I have reduced my social media coverage to Instagram because I, too, just love the photography 🙂
On “reliable” news sources… My grandmother often said, “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” We need to become more aware to determine just who’s paying (and exactly what tune we’re dancing to ):
I don’t have a Twitter acc and the twitter feeds I have read, well it just comes across as a nasty gossipy forum.
I watch the news and listen to it on the radio, but to be honest if it gets too nasty I turn over, I get too upset. I suppose some people would say that’s wrong, but I can’t take it, things play on my mind, especially the awful things that have happened recently.
That’s why I love your blog, it’s nice and gentle and kind, and all the farmy I think are the same.
Ohh and I like Instagram too.
I hope Molly has her babies soon and alls well. 😀
You covered so many things in this post – a bit from The Outside World and lots of things from The Farmey. I love it!
And I know exactly what you wish you could’ve said… or at least I’m pretty sure I do..
I’ve been thinking about watching the ‘news’ less because I feel that I’m getting so stressed out lately due to all the ‘shit’ happening… both man-made and natural disasters. Just like you, I feel I should be informed but where/when do we say ‘enough’? Me – I think I’m going to watch enough to be informed… then turn off CNN.
Now that we have 24 hour news… we’re blasted but every little thing ALL THE TIME. It’s not good for us…. So, we just have to turn it off!
Thankfully, other than a grunt, cluck, oink or squeal, (and in my world the calls of the woodlands), animal’s “social” actions are relatively quiet and without ugly drama – and if so, it’s short lived and never thought of again. Sometimes I wish I could go live with the animals… like the deer and have four legs and a set of those hooves, to carry me away quickly and quietly.
I have purposely not learned anything about twitter as I thought it was just another crazy social media thing to suck precious time away from the real world…ignorance is bliss! Now that our so called president uses it exclusively for all of his bs, lies and attacks on his fellow human beings, I know for sure now that I made the right decision to stay away from it.
I love your cement and terra cotta pots and here’s hoping Molly is a good girl when the magic hour{s} come…:)
I only check Facebook once a week and mostly for things family and friends are doing, I don’t follow much there. I don’t have a Twitter account (also don’t use a cell phone except the very rare times I’m out of quarters to shop or whatever, otherwise I’m on my desktop), I check a headline accumulator site daily, see the various headlines, deside if I want to read further or not (usually not, the headlines generally are more than enough), and read the various blogs I follow. There are things to be said for being so extremely connected, i guess, but I do not find them positive or healthy. I think we all need to edit our exposure to the onslaught of “news”. I too come here to the Farmy for a healthy dose of sense, calm and normalcy, simple daily living. I hope Molly delivers soon. Have a lovely evening.
There are probably news media sources with integrity but there is just so much else to sift through, so I regularly exercise my -sceptical- judgement, and selective uptake. Twitter is simply a feed source… much like that you use for the piggies. But unlike, no control of quality of what goes in, although the end product sometimes resembles that from the piggies’ ends! However, I’m a believer… social media, even Twitter, keeps us connected in a way we never were.
To each their own! I definitely do not want to and am unable to be ignorant of what is happening in the world, be it good or bad, but: I do paidwork on the computer for long hours every day. One takes short breaks: I have as reputable an Australian news source as I know on my ‘favourites’ bar . . . every couple of hours I click and look at the headlines . . . read those which seem of importance and sometimes one link leads to another to clarify . . . five minutes: I am up-to-date. I simply do not have time for other formats but actually have the orange buffoon on as a ‘favourite’ [ha-ha!] and, once a day check what his febrile mind has manufactured now – in thirty seconds I know what others are talking about . . . . the rest: thanks: I have better things to do with my time and life 🙂 !
I think we are all in agreement trying to deal with the onslaught of social media, Twitter especially. I think that is just the app at the time. Next year it will be something else. And will probably be no better. Everything that comes to us digitally can come to us from anywhere, unchecked. Even in a “news” app. It takes a very deliberate effort to wade through it and filter OUT. I feel your pain. However, we can always, always count on something meaningful and/or delightful coming from you. Thank you for making my day so many times.
Yes, I would like to know whoever thought 24 hr. news was necessary. A gazillion channels so you can see the same thing over and over ad nauseum. I don’t do twitter and I have FB just to keep up with the extended family. What really bugs me is, after the so called news casters give you the facts they go on and on speculating about what MAY have been the cause or what the perpetrator MAY have been feeling, it’s just nuts. Really, just tell me what has happened, I don’t really care what some talking head thinks about it, I am perfectly capable of making up my own mind. Like you, I’ll just hang here on my little farm type home with all the critters – you ALWAYS know where you stand with the critters!
Thank you for your thoughts and words! I found myself musing from this wee stump in response…
It is as if the globalization of information has finally developed to the point that our world is once again a small village, in which gossip – benign, malicious, salacious and otherwise – runs freely. It’s true that gossip can be informative, can provide swift news in times of trouble, enabling a community to pull together to save themselves and their neighbors. It can also ruin lives, create undeserved fortunes, maintain the power of the greedy, and support witch-hunts initiated by the vicious.
At first it seemed an astonishing benefit that we can now all be linked, able to share information across the globe in microseconds. But for every piece of information we receive it seems we must now ask ourselves, what was the purpose of the sender’s particular perspective, their presentation of reality? As in a small village, it seems we must review who gave us a particular piece of gossip and how we view that gossiper’s motivation, in order that we might judge the merits of the information and decide whether it should be absorbed or discarded.
All of which takes so much time and can only ever lead to an uncertain conclusion… And so i limit my intake, as it appears some other readers here do too. Except for the farmy – that is given unlimited intake every day!
I have found that I can ad lib feed my pigs til about 16 weeks without them getting too fat as those first few months seem to be complete conversion of food to growth. Post 16 weeks they start to lay down too much fat if they can eat what they like. So effectively I start limiting their food intake at a time when they are getting bigger and bolshier and I dare say pretty hangry. I find that throwing a tin trough over the fence (one strand electric) then hopping the fence and dodging and weaving the pigs whilst aiming the feedbucket at the trough is what works for me. In my mind I am like one of those american football players trying to avoid being sacked but I suspect my version is a lot less athletic than I think it is and probably just foolish! I’d be interested to know how the feed experiment works out.
I am all about reading between the lines. When my last parent died, I declared myself a citizen of the earth, and I stick with that. I have not been following the farmy activity as diligently as I wish, but I’m happy to see the new babies! That gives me a sense of peace and continuity in this mad world.
when the world goes crazy, pull on boots, watch the cats taking everything less seriously, and maybe muck out a stall or two. I’ve never raised nor milked cows, but been around enough horses, goats, chickens and a random burro to know a farm is the first choice of “anywhere but here”.
No “lack of news on the farm front” here. The farmy news is front page stuff for me.