Journee's Critters

I made that myself--anyone like it? :)

Just a few pictures I took just a few moments ago of our tree, and some of its decor. :)

 Our tree; (not a very good picture, I'm afraid.) We had to move Cortana's cage down to the basement in order to fit the tree. That's Duke, sleeping by it. We find Cricket and Smokey under the tree all the time, sleeping. It's very warm, because of the bubble-lights.

 I picked out that ornament, you know. Lol. I thought it was great.

 It's true, this will be Fletch's first-ever Christmas. He's very excited, I can tell.

 I think of Winnie the Pooh every time I see this fish ornament. A mackerel in a tree. Finally, Pooh was right.

So far, we haven't had much snow this year--not enough to play in, anyways. I don't know how this little guy managed to trap so much inside that little bulb....

I've been trying to learn a little more about genetics--besides what I learned in this year's biology. I'm mostly using chickens as a example, and focusing more or less on color genetics.

I've learned some so far, but it will be a proud day when I learn what all of this means:

It looks a awful like a color, and then a whole bunch of squiggles.

And letters of various, uneven sizes. It all means something about the genetic make-up of the chicken; but so far what it means has totally escaped me.

I'll get there.

Someday.

~

Journee

Yeah; so, it's been a while since I did a proper blog-post, lol.

So, not long ago our Civil Air Patrol squadron participated in the program called Wreaths Across America. Anybody remember that?

They recently completed a very nice little video about it, which I will post right...now....

It all went very well, and we had a good turn-up, along with a good amount of wreaths to place on the graves of the cemetery.

Our squadron also performed Color Guard for the ceremony. I was one of the rifle bearers, and the other was our squad's firth sergeant, Robert. The two flag bearers were our cadet commander, David, and also Andrew, who, like me, is a flight sergeant.

~

Besides that, I now have a rooster in my room.

One of my frizzle-mix bantams, named Pirate. He was one of my special-needs chickens, having gotten into a fight with the menacing smooth-feathered frizzle-mix bantam Obi-wan. Pirate had taken a injury to his left (I think) eye, and the skin grew over it; blinding him in that eye.

Quite sometime after his last fight, I started letting Pirate out of his pen to roam around. He was doing fine, until one day he disappeared for a few hours in the woods.

He came back, his face bloody, and purple. Both eyes sealed completely shut. Apparently he'd been fighting with Obi again, and I just hadn't known it.

So now I've got this blind rooster biding his time in my bedroom in a small dog kennel. He's doing great, and is taking antibiotics in his water to keep him healthy.

I don't think he will be able to see again, and he'll probably end up staying in a separate cage, and getting out in a pen in the mornings through the evening until bedtime. But for now, he gets to sleep in my room, and get pampered. He eats if you show him where the food is by tapping it, or letting the scratch/pellets fall and making that clacking noise. He'll drink if you touch the back of his neck, and encourage him to lower his head. Once you show him, he'll keep eating or drinking until he's full.

Lately, the past two mornings, he's started crowing. And keep in mind that his kennel is right next to my bed.

It woke me up right away the first morning, and Quinn too, who promptly yelled, "KFC!"

She threatened him repeatedly.

This morning he wouldn't stop crowing, so I put a towel on my bed and put him under the covers with me. I rolled over, and put my arm over him, which made him very happy. He snuggled up next to me and laid his neck across my and put his beak in my hair.

Then he clucked for a bit and fell asleep. You see, he likes to cuddle, and be petted when I'm sitting on my bed reading.

Surprisingly enough, my room doesn't smell like chicken poo. Which is a plus, because that would have really mixed with the smell of my two buck-rats, my lizard, and my dog. And Quinn's doe-rat, for that matter. Lol.

I've been keeping my room very clean, and Pirate's bedding, so, long as nothing weird happens. I can probably keep him inside until the spring, when it's warmer, and I won't be freezing my butt off outside trying to feed and water him. Lol.

~

Also, on the subject of chickens, I'm planning to get some more bantam chickens in February. Crossing my fingers over here, hoping I can!
~

 All the best,

Journee.

Psych.

Yeah--I'm a nerd.

Yup, I did it. I called them to the fence and jumped in the ditch--crawled through the barbwire, and was surrounded. Mobbed. Kidnapped. 

By those horses.

It had been so long since I was able to go right up to them like that.

|

 Several years, actually.

I mean, I'd petted them a few times, and fed them some apples and carrots. But it'd been a very long time since I was surrounded--and got to hug one.

Horses smell nice--don't you know?

Very nice.

It's a dreary day today, and as I write this my family is downstairs watching the Waltons, and finishing up a nice; relaxed--after we put Zeb down for a nap--lunch. (Which was very good, fyi.)

~

I've decided to do a little update on some of what's been going on. So recently, I bought eight new books. Three books to the Ranger's Apprentice series, a Pendragon book, a book called Reckless, which is written by the lady who authored the Inkworld books. I also got a book called The Fire Within (which wasn't very good,) and that was written by a fella named Chris d'Lacey. I also got a book called Among The Hidden, and also a book called Airman. 

So far I've finished Among The Hidden, and The Fire Within. I'm almost done with Reckless, and I've just started the Pendragon book. (Seventh in the series, titled The Quillan Games.) That's a lot of money in book, lol. 

And soon I'm also hoping to get the books: The Demon King (by Cinda Williams Chima,) and Incarceron, (by Catherine Fisher.) They look interesting, so I'm eager to try them out.
~

I've also been working on rewriting my dragon story (yah hear that, Lightclaw?) and so far I've got about 4930 words...not so bad, though I'd like more done by now. I hope to get quite a bit done today--I just have to wait for the moment of writing inspiration to spark...which is nearly always guaranteed to happen when I'm supposed to be sleeping, or when Quinn's on the computer. Lol; go figure. My mom says to write on paper with a pencil, which I try--but it's not the same! I can only write under certain circumstances. Lol. I can't take that argument to court, though. Nobody gets it. ;) *Dramatic sigh.*

~

Besides all of that--I've been having some real trouble with my birds, lately. All of my banty hens (that's Snowflake, Jellybean, Cottontail, and Sparky,) have been killed by hawks in the past two-ish weeks, along, also, with a couple of unidentified birds, and Sparky's chick Spencer. Bantam-wise, I just have four roosters now. Pirate, Remus, Obi-wan, and Bunny. I don't understand it! What's so bad is that I haven't seen the hawks attack...

 ~

The last day of the year-long drought had finally come to a simmering end.
Across the wide deserts a black thundercloud grew in size; mounting on itself until it towered over the dry, dusty landscape like a monster.
A gale of wind rose in a howl, picking up great sweeps of sand and small stones and tossing them for miles around: caught up in the searing crosswind. Lightning flashed, and deep, gravelly rumbles of thunder bubbled in the chest of the brewing storm. The sun was hidden behind a dark stretch of whip-lashed clouds: and a thick blanket of menacing shadows fell over the cracked earth.
All over the sparse desert, its residents sought shelter: grateful for the incoming rain, but frightened by the size of the expanding clouds, and by the striking talons of lightning which raked the air with a smoky, burning scent and seemed so close it made the ground sizzle.
For miles east, north, west, and south: sand and stone was flung in a wave of wind--a sandstorm of great proportions. With no trees, and with the land being so flat: nothing stopped the wind from racing with a fierce pleasure across the dry-lands.
And then, in the cradle of the monumental stormcloud: the first bowel of rain began to leak towards earth--the first taste of liquid the desert had drank in a long while. At first it was a calm shower, and the creatures of the desert rejoiced in the rain, feeling it fall onto their backs and faces: cool, and sweet. A heavy contrast to the hot, burning, unforgiving sun that had beat down upon them for the last year.
But then the storm turned nasty. Lightning flashed, and scoured the ground into deep black rents. The rainfall strengthened until it felt more like ice shards hissing down from the heavens in furious torrents.
Heavy, dart-hearted thunder rolled through the bellies of the fat, shadowy clouds--they hung like dark, misshaped stones stacked on top of each other throughout the air, hovering. And with the thick gray sheets of rain falling from their insides they seemed practically ready to cave in towards the earth.
The sand which had been formerly blowing outwards was sucked in towards the main cloud formation in a whirl; mud splattered, and the ground was quickly flooded by syrupy, grimy puddles and sinking quicksand’s that made the ground move, and slide until it seemed unsafe.
This master-storm wasn’t stagnate, either. Born on the most powerful winds of the past two centuries it progressed towards the east-lands, leaving a wreckage of land and floodwaters behind it. By the time it passed over them: the deserts were no longer there; instead, a good mass of the west had become a barren, muddy lake.

~