Something Different

Now that I'm pretty re-hooked on the internet via my computer, I realize again how much time can be wasted on it. Time I could be working in the yard (too hot), being at the beach (no excuse), doing my laundry (ugh), staring at the chickens (enjoyable, but with a time limit that doesn't last longer than washing my hair twice).

So, in the hot hours when the effort required to do much fails me, I'm trying to switch online time wasting modes from Facebook and Netflix to some of the following.

Following a few more links I get in my email. Like this article about Harold Burnham, who is one of the extremely accomplished recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship Award for his boat building skills, good enough to be considered a Master Boatwright. Thanks, Suzanne!

I'm not a big game player. I never had a farm on facebook. Well, I did have an underwater garden there for awhile, I admit it. It was for a good cause, but eventually it drove me insane(r), with its constant neediness, let alone my friends gardens that needed help as well. Maddening. Sorry, friends, I failed you and your gardens...and I'm only a tiny bit ashamed.

On the flip side, playing scrabble and doing crosswords together with my kids this trip was fun. Especially when I won. Well, you can't win at crosswords, but you can sound smart. Unless your kid is smarter. Damn them! But just in case any of this sounds like good time wasting activities to you, here is what I found that covers all the bases. Until the weather cools off.

Merriam Webster has a great website for all sorts of games to let you know you still have a brain. Or not. I thought I was pretty great on the vocabulary and picture recognition sections until I looked at the leader boards, where I found dust in my mouth. Hey, I'm way over in my age group, who ARE these people who are faster and smarter by a really big margin? I have no idea, but the gauntlet is now thrown down.

QUIZZES
Vocabulary Quiz 10 questions—see how your score compares.	Name That Thing The visual vocab quiz
Spell It The commonly misspelled words quiz	True Or False? A quick quiz about stuff worth knowing

And I haven't even started on the crosswords by myself yet. I get distracted by things like the banana quit that just flew in my window and out of my door. With all the noise a bunch of them are making, I'm wondering if a new family moved into my eaves while I was away.

Maybe this whole game thing is a passing fancy. Maybe I'm just reacclimatizing (10 points).

Have a try to think fast Thursday! Do something thorny.

For Chicken's Sake!

Remember those cute little baby chicks, so tiny I had to put straw mats on the floor of their little cage to be sure they wouldn't break a leg (ok, so one broke a toe. Shoot me. She's just fine, thank you very much)?

Well, they aren't so little anymore. Either the coop shrunk or they are bordering on monster chickens.

The truth is, the coop didn't shrink (Culebra is weird but not that weird) and they are about exactly the right size for their breed. But it was obvious when I got my first look at them after four months that they needed more room.

Ideally, so say the experts, there is no ideal and the experts don't agree on how much square footage each chicken needs. But if I do the math of putting together the various estimates, apparently they need your whole world, though I'm not very good at math, so that might not be exactly right. I think around 3 to 4 square foot a chicken sounds about right too. Like I'd know how to do that. The chickens won't stand still long enough for me to measure them.

In my world, they get what they get, driven by a few factors. One, what is lying around already or can be scavenged and made into more safe, protected space? Two, how much can I do myself, which is the only way it will get done? Three, figuring out one and two.

Chanticleer, who ran away from siren singing to the girls (Steve, we need to talk!)

I already had some wire net around, given to me by a friend who believed I might actually get around to this project one day. Then another friend had some more lying in a post construction trash pile, very nickable. Ask and you might receive. I did and I did.

The coop had a bit of a space under the baby chick cages, so all I needed to do was wrap it in the wire net, nail it to the existing posts (a staple gun would have been great, but I don't have a staple gun), cut a door in the old wire to give them access to it and wa la! Space gained, still safe from predators (like the wild and persistent rooster who longs for them daily, let alone dogs roaming about).

Crawling around underneath the baby chick cages would have been a very amusing video, no doubt. To you. So you'll just have to imagine it instead.

No, it's not finished. There will be a 2X4 edging at the bottom.
Soon. Really soon. Then it gets painted. *maniacal laughter here* 
One day, I'll extend the run around the front of the coop. For real.

Would Martha Stewart approve? Not as chic as the Williams Sonoma coop?

At a bit over 1000.00 bucks, my chickens would need
a chicken psychiatrist to feel at home.
Oh, and it only is big enough for three chickens.

Probably Martha would approve, because doing it my way (I paid Benny 100.00 bucks to build the coop out of all recycled material - not because I'm particularly a recycling maven, but that's what he used since that's what he had, which was fine with me, and the rest, so far, has been freebies) means I actually have chickens instead of waiting for someday when I could afford something prettier, fancier and never gonna happener.

With the last snip of the wire making the new doorway, they began to explore their new space. First one, then a few more, then the whole flock was crammed into this exciting addition, which was not exactly what I had in mind. But now they are used to it and wander back and forth, enjoying the indoor/outdoorness of it. I'm happy. They are happy (which I'm hoping translates into more eggs). Life is good.

You can buy plans for my Island Woman Culebra Homestyle Chicken Coop at fine fantasy outlets inconveniently located anywhere. At the low price of blood, sweat and tears of joy, it's a steal of a deal. Have your credit card ready and call 1 800 DIY-SOON.

I think I'm using the word exactly way too much. Which is truly ironic. I'm not sure exactly when I'll stop doing that, but be aware; I'm on to it.

Have a work your week well Wednesday. Do something with wide wonder.

Interesting, This Internet Thing

I think I've mentioned, maybe one or two dozen times, how much I despise our local and only landline phone system choice, Claro, owned by one of the world's wealthiest men who, I am beyond certain, obviously uses another company for his phone. So I finally, after nine years,  cut the cord and went another way. Another way that has a bit more speed than dial up, but not the fast whiz bang of Claro when everything was going well (back when it was PRTC, Puerto Rico Telephone Company), which, as time went on, wasn't often enough. 

The upshot is that yesterday, trying to upload a video for this blog about five times and failing and then trying to upload the photos you are seeing now and failing, I realized what my choice really meant, and means, for my future online. Lack of predictability and sometimes,  ability itself, to post my little missives into the ether: a : the rarefied element formerly believed to fill the  upper regions of space. b : the upper regions of space : heavens - Merriam-Webster dictionary.

I'm not sure what 'formally believed' means. Maybe it's a Prince thing?

So there it is, the consequences of choice. It has set me to thinking about when I first moved to St. Croix. There was barely any internet, but I'd come along in the early days, the days before www anything (much to the annoyance of my family and friends who got busy signals for hours - dedicated lines? What was that?). 

Asking around got me to the beautiful but not so well stocked library (but they had computers!!) where I used what was quaintly and truly called Freenet (I was going to give you a link to Freenet, but it is not what it used to be - still pretty damned interesting now, if you like to find out about that sort of thing). No graphics, no colors, just text. Then I signed up with AT&T, at a rate that would drive a middle income family of four into financial ruin within six months. I justified it because I managed a small hotel and it was about business. Mixed with pleasure, but business. 

We had one of only two web sites on St. Croix at the time - really - and the owners had no idea how to even access it, let alone use it. George's nephew had created the page for the hotel as a school project and as far as George was concerned, and I fairly accurately quote, "I'll learn to use that fucking  computer when my goddamned body is cold. I have better things to do." And he did, until a few years later, when he realized the hotel was getting 50% more bookings and more importantly, he could find antiques online. Another story for another day. Maybe.

Finally a guy started an internet company that was in line with stateside qualities and we were jet propelled into the 20th century, computer wise. Twenty years behind the states, we caught up fast and furiously and if I'd been a smart person, I'd have taken my knowledge and become a web page developer. But no one has ever accused me of using my brain in any way influenced by financial motivation and I didn't do that. Look up St. Croix now...

I've often wondered about life without the internet. No ability to call up, in seconds, what that flower/fish/cloud/food/solution to a problem medical/mental/spiritual or only curiosity driven information and answers . No instant connection to far flung family and friends. I mean, I spent the first half a lot of my life without it. I've traveled and sailed and been without it. But to do without it now? Completely? Hmmm.

So, instead, a slow connection. Big deal! I can live with that. And I hope you won't mind living with it as well. I can't be sure that whatever dribble I want to churn out won't turn to butter instead of cream (do you know how to make butter? there are lots of ways, but this way involves dancing, so now you'll know). Point being, my stream of consciousness style might be muddy waters and I'm choosing to live with that.

And now you know the rest of the story!

Have a take your wildest pick Tuesday/Wednesday! Do something totally without worry (in the long run, you'll know when you've done it right).