Wanderings

Anything you dream is fiction,
and anything you accomplish is science,
the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction.
- Ray Bradbury
February 13th, 2013

Good Morning Chickens

Letting the chickens out in the morning is really funny. Here are my chickens rushing to see Erica and he popcorn.






February 9th, 2013

Walter

We have this fool young Rooster named Walter. He makes a fuss when he is in his cage, so we wind up letting him wander the house. I have to follow him around with paper towels as he is not housebroken, and not likely to ever be.






February 9th, 2013

Snow Day

It snowed a little overnight. I measured a consistent 11.8 inches deep (the distance light travels in one nanosecond). I measured a drift at 19 inches.

Here is the view outside my front door:

I shoveled a little in the front and around back to the deck. The cats went out briefly and Furry had an encounter with Snuggles, the stray cat who lives like a troll in out cellar.

I shoveled out the chickens and found we had eight eggs, including a green “Easter Egg”. I fed them in the yard and checked their food and water inside the shed. It was 45 degrees F inside, warmed by chicken body heat, but tonight it will drop down below 10 degrees F.  I want to go over to target and buy another heater to replace the one that died last week. Yesterday I put the last of the pumpkins in the shed, but they have only pecked it a little. They will eventually destroy it; they like cabbages better. I have to buy one when I go to get groceries tonight. The chickens need the greens in the winter.

The bad new is that when the temperature was up around 45 yesterday, I checked the bees and the last three hives are dead. I have no bees going into the Spring. I have to order some more bees for the Spring.

I have lost 7 pounds because I don’t have my Dunkin Donuts in the morning anymore and I am much more active. I check my mail, but I have not worked much on the computer. I want to do a little programming, and work on a short story, but I am too tired at night.

I have had one interview, where they more or less committed to hiring me (haven’t heard back, yet), and I have a phone interview next week at a big company right here in Rockland County – very easy commute. What I really miss is the morning bus ride. I don’t get to read, now, and I miss the conversations with my friend Varrick.






February 5th, 2013

House Rooster – Walter

I’ve been unemployed for two weeks. I have been working on finding a new job and working on the spare room that I never finished when we built the addition on the house.

It was about 34 years ago on February 2nd, that we moved into our little bungalow and then about 16 years later when I tore off the roof and built a second floor plus a 10 by 10 addition. I finished the upstairs many years ago, but the new room on the first floor was filled with spare furniture and other junk and was never finished. Over the last two weeks I have finished the insulation and put up the sheet rock. I am now spackling the walls and putting nice oak casings on the windows.

I have had a few interviews that went well, and it looks like I will be working again soon, so the spare room may have to wait another 10 years before I get time to work on it again.

Our newest Chicken is a 12 week old fellow named Walter.
Walter
Walter is a very nice boy, but he is too young to go out in the cold, and the other chickens have not accepted him, and they attack him. He hides behind us when we go outside. When he gets his full feathers on and puts on some weight, he will be head rooster, but the time being  he is a little woos.

Walter lives in our kitchen for now. He likes to get out and steal cat food and poop everywhere. He is cute and mostly friendly, but it will be nice when he lives outside.






February 4th, 2013

Frogs in Aspic, Like a Box of Chocolates | Amazing Stories

A very very nice review of my book at Amazing Stories.

Frogs in Aspic, Like a Box of Chocolates | Amazing Stories.