Thursday This n That

I don't post very much anymore because I don't really have much to say.  Work, home, kitties.  The occasional trip to Wallyworld.  This is my life now.

Briefly touching on my old life, I signed up for the Smashwords sale next month.  50% off all my books during July.  (Although, if I read it right, any book that's 99c now will be free.  There are a few of those, so go for it.)

Today is my one-year anniversary of going back to work.  I should get my review today.  I think it'll be a good one.  I've hit my goals, my customers love me, and I take on whatever is thrown at me. If not always with grace than at least with style.

The kittens are slowly settling down.  Well, for varying definitions of 'settling down'.  Sawyer decided it was fun to jump down behind the tall dresser.  Unfortunately, once he was back there he couldn't get back out.  The first time, he accidentally fell back there.  The next several were intentional.  So this morning, I moved the dresser flat against the wall so he can't get back there.  We've moved or hidden so many things now.  Our spare room looks like The Room of Requirement.  I half expect to find a diadem in there.

Finn has become my little cuddle-bug.  He's such a good kitty that he sometimes gets less attention because we're constantly having to deal with Sawyer's antics.  Luckily, he's pretty much happy playing by himself.

We have baby turkeys.  Yay.

And fawns. Yay.

Okay, well, that's about all I've got for this morning.  Have an awesome day out there everyone.

Thursday This n That - Thanksgiving Edition

Despite what you and the folks at WKRP might think, turkeys can fly.  Wild turkeys can anyway.  I think the big, white, domestic turkeys have been bred to have such large breasts that they can't fly anymore, hence the carnage at the Pinedale supermarket.  

If you don't know what I'm talking about, I am sad for you.  Go forth and find the episode online* and watch it.

This is a wild turkey:

This is not:

Both pictures taken the same day (11/27/14) and both are hens.  The top turkey went on to live her life.  The bottom turkey went into our bellies.  And there was much rejoicing.

Hubs really does make the best turkeys.  Today, he will be using his magic on a 14.5 pound Honeysuckle White.  It's been thawing in the fridge since Saturday and is ready to go.  Mmm, turkey.  

I was telling the folks at work the story of the one Thanksgiving where we had a whole rafter of turkeys in the yard while our own turkey was in the oven.  They were all like 'I'm not sure I'd be able to eat a turkey with all those turkeys watching'.  We had no problem with it.  And neither did the turkeys. LOL

Speaking of turkeys, here's another picture.  It looks like that big ol' turkey is about to attack that poor, defenseless squirrel.

Don't be fooled.  This was taken a second after the squirrel had attacked the turkey and that tom is trying to get away while the squirrel acts all innocent.  Shortly after, the turkey left to find easier food to eat.  

Anyway, I hope you all have a glorious Thanksgiving Day, with loads of food and the people you love.  :HUGS:  And that neither the turkeys nor the squirrels give you any trouble today.  ;o)

* I found it for you.  (Actually, someone on FB posted it.)  It's not the whole episode, just the good part.  You're welcome.

Sunday Update - Week 29?

I can't believe it's already Sunday again.  And I damn near forgot to post an Update.  Not that there's much to update.  Life amongst the chaos go on.  To what extent they'll allow it to go on remains to be seen.

When I look back at the week, I realize I did next to nothing.  No writing or writerly pursuits.  I did read a book.  Yay!  Also my activity log for the week only has one entry and that was last Sunday, when I went for an early walk before it got too hot to be outside.

A neighbor gave me zucchini, which I shredded into 8 cups worth.  I made a batch of bread, which promptly disappeared (one loaf to said neighbor and the other down our gullets).  Yesterday, I made another 2 loaf batch.  I still have enough shredded zucchini to make four more loaves.  (I freeze it in 2 cup increments for easy use.  The recipe requires 2 cups per batch.)  And I made granola bars yesterday, too, because I have been remiss in making granola bars and we were out.

I discovered on Monday that Dollar General was going full-on mandatory mask on Tuesday.  Thus, when I went to DG on Friday (I was in town and needed a couple things, so why not?), I masked up.  I managed to make it through without a full-on panic attack.  'Breathe through your nose and don't try to talk' seemed to work.  Both of these are antithetical to my person.  Yep, I'm a :gasp: mouthbreather.  And a talker.  The latter of which should come as no surprise.  But hey, if I have to do those things to get through wearing a mask, which I have to do if I want food for my family, I will do it.  Stupid as it all is.

The fawns are coming into the yard regularly now.  We think we have 5 individual fawns*.  I'll know more as I succeed in getting pictures of them and comparing spot patterns.  The two tom turkeys are also regularly visiting the yard again.

Other than that?  Nope.  What went on in your life last week?

*Update: 6:55am - there are 5 fawns in the yard right now, so it's confirmed.  The light's still to low for pictures.  Sorry.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since I haven't gotten any turkey pics this year, here's Hans again from 2017 stopping by to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.

(Actually, he stopped by to get some turkey lovin' from those hens who were thoroughly disinterested, but hey, it's a classic Thanksgiving pose, so I'm going with it.)

I hope you all have a wonderful day filled with fun, family, and food.

-B.E.

Thursday This n That

You know, I realized something the other day.  I am so over vampires.  Pretty much over werewolves, too, except for a specific author.  Still okay with other paranormals, though.  It's just when I see 'vampires' in the detail for a book, I keep scrolling.  Meh.  I guess they're okay as a tertiary character - vampires make an appearance in Wish Hits the Fan, for instance, but they are only present because reasons.  And none of them are core characters or even minor characters with a chance at their own story.  I thought about doing a side story with the Rusalka, but never with the vamps.

You know how sometimes it seems like as soon as you buy something, you see it on sale somewhere?  I think it's working in my favor right now.  It seems like as soon as I have a a Kindle Countdown Deal set up for one of my books, someone buys a copy at full price.  I feel bad for that person, whoever they are.  The universe is cruel sometimes.

I can't believe it's Thursday already.  Not sure where the rest of the week went. 

I bought some votive candles the other day in a few nice scents - hazelnut, vanilla, and a blue one I can't figure out.  They don't last very long, but they were cheap.  A side-happy about them is the cupboard where I keep them smells lovely right now.

Tick season has arrived.  I found one when I was cleaning leaves out of the gardens.  Ticks love leaf litter, doncha know.  Anyway, I saw it crawling along a dead leaf, so I got it and squashed it.  It made me sad - seeing it, not killing it - because it means my time in the woods is drawing to a close until autumn.  =o(

Which reminds me, I need to order more pesticide so Hubs can spray the yard.  Tick-mageddon 2019. Yay.

Speaking of ticks, we had a possum in the yard the other day.  Yay!  Possums eat tons of ticks.  So do turkeys, and we're seeing a bunch of those.  Turkey lovin' is in the air once more.  The main rafter of about 15 hens is back and the two dominant toms are following them everywhere - all puffed up and in the mood for romance.  Too bad for them the girls aren't quite ready for romance yet. 

Okay, that's enough out of me this morning.  You got anything to share?

Thursday This n That

Well, it's Thursday. 

For the past two days, I did some working in the woods.  Tuesday night I ached so much, I promised myself I would take it easy on Wednesday.  Wednesday came and both Hubs and I went into the woods.  We worked for about two hours.  Now, we're both sore.  I predict there will be no exercising for either of us today.

We had a thunderstorm last night.  Thunder.  Last night.  January 17th.  Umm, yah.  It was also pouring rain and it sounded like we were getting sleet at one point.  Bleh.  Needless to say I did not sleep well last night.

Sleeping Ugly is still on sale.  Despite my best intentions, I didn't do much advertising on my own yesterday, but apparently it was enough to take SU from somewhere in the millions ranking to the 160Ks.  (Must've been KU downloads - no whole book sales yet.)  Increase in rankings was what the intentions were all about, so it's a win.  Get it out of the bottom before the paid ad goes live.

Live PD needs to be on every day.  Some days we can get by watching COPS reruns.  Sometimes we get our law enforcement fix by watching Police Women of...  But, yeah, Live PD is the crack.

Speaking of crack, I made my crack dip the other day.  Hubs finally tried it and agrees that it is, in fact, awesome.  It's just refried beans, salsa, and cheese - microwaved until the cheese melts.

After we left the woods yesterday, the turkeys came in.  They really seemed to enjoy all the spots we disturbed.  The whole rafter was down in there, pecking and scratching with wild abandon.

A group of turkeys is called a rafter.  Seriously.  Look it up.  Also, baby turkeys are called poults.

And I'm outta here.  What wild and wonderful things do you have to talk about today?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Thursday This n That

My ad comes out today and the waiting is kinda killin' me.

We've been updating the drainage system here.  We live on a hill, you see, and so when it rains, the water comes straight down the hill toward our house.  Which means we realized the first month we were here that we needed some kind of drainage system.  And what we created works for the most part.  Except that ditch I created next to the driveway.  I mean, it works, but it's eroding .  Soooo...  We've come up with an idea to line the ditch with larger rocks.  Lord knows we have enough rocks around here.  It's about 60% done now and yesterday's gullywasher proved that it works.  The fast moving water was slowed down by the rocks.  Yay.  Now to finish it.  Hubs has been a champ, filling the wheelbarrow with rocks from the downslope, rolling it back uphill, and adding them to the ditch.  He's awesome.

I haven't exercised since Monday and I'm feeling like a toad.  I did some gardening yesterday - enough to break a sweat - but not really a lot.  I'll rectify that later this morning and do my exercises.

I looked out the window just now and saw 4 deer and 3 turkeys.  I told Hubs "Your entourage is here."  He's feeding them now.

I need to bake something, so Hubs has treats.  I have the ingredients for cake cookie bars.  I just need to get off my butt and make them.  

Raspberry sherbet with chocolate ice cream is yummy.  And I found this 'choco-politan' ice cream at Wallyworld.  It's like Neapolitan, but with three strips of different chocolate instead of the usual brown/white/pink. This is dark/white/milk chocolates.  Yum.

The more I exercise, the more I can eat treats without gaining weight.  Funny how that works.  I mean, not A LOT of treats or it defeats the purpose, but still.

Ugh, I need to vacuum.

What's on your this n that list today?