Creekistan, We Have Puppy

Well, actually, not quite yet. Next week we will be the proud "parents" of a rescued puppy named Bandit. His mother was killed by a car when he and his litter-mates were 1 week old. As far as I can tell, he is the only surviving puppy left. But he's doing great! We met him today at the shelter.

We've got some things to take care of before we can bring him home, but everyone, including my husband, is excited.

Wish us luck!

Thursday Thirteen (13) March 30, 2006

Thursday Thirteen (13)

Thirteen Things about AMY THE BLACK My birthday was this week! My husband's birthday was this week too! I have two lovely, loud children: A boy who's 5 1/2 and a girl who's 14 months. During the day, I'm a mild mannered marketing/graphic designer who works for a very small company. During the night I am a not-so-mild mannered mother and wife. Until this summer, I worked for a large corporation. Thank God I got away! My job deals with high-tech software and hardware. I have a very low-tech home. I can't even get on the internet at home. I tend to be a hypercondriac. There's always something wrong with me! I am a tomboy--I play video games, Legos, and I'm not afraid of technology. I like Star Wars, Star Trek, and a lot of other sci-fi stuff. I sometimes sleep with a large stuffed dog. I am a Democrat, but I wish the party would do a better job getting their act together and their message straight. I enjoy hearing about the paranormal, like ghosts, bigfoot, UFOs, and a lot of the things that Art Bell used to talk about on the radio show Coast to Coast.

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Vultures

The turkey vultures arrived this week. But isn’t it an omen if they sit in a tree outside your bedroom window and stare at you?

Do they know something we don’t?

After 12+ hours of sitting there, they finally flew away.

I hope they gave up

Exhumation of the "Dead Body" - Your Opinion Matters!

The defination of Exhumation is:

1. Dig up a body – to dig up a corpse from a grave

2. Reintroduce something – to reveal, reestablish, or refer again to something long forgotton or neglected.

If you all haven't read all of my blog, you may not be familiar to the mysterious mound on my property. Read my initial post here: http://http://creekistan.blogspot.com/2006/01/dead-person-buried-on-our-land.html#links


SURVEY
I would like to solicit comments and suggestions on what I should do about this. The weather is getting better. Perhaps it's time to do a little CSI and unravel this mystery!

Thursday Thirteen - March 23rd

Thirteen Things That Happened to Me This Week I got my doorknob for the front door! It snowed and we had a snow day at home--the entire family was home. I visited the city and did a lot of shopping. Great therapy, but it's good to be back in the quiet country. I got a Vendi Cafe Moca at Starbucks. A rare treat. I ran over a cat. I felt terrible, but there was nothing I could do. It literally ran under my car. I'll have to burn some incense in it's memory. In the country, that kind of thing happens a lot. I killed a mouse. But I didn't feel so sad about it. I gave it a chance to go away--I let it out the back door. But it came back. The cat was in the process of killing it, but I finished the job. So, in a way, it was a mercy killing. I'll burn incense for it too. I cleaned out my trunk. Now, I'll have to clean out the wheel-barrow that I put all my stuff into. I signed up to take a class over the Internet. It's in a subject I know very little about, so wish me luck! I cut some beautiful Daffodils so that we could enjoy them. Again, it was a mercy killing because three days later we had a hard freeze and some snow. I convinced my husband that we need to get a puppy soon! I better get one before he changes his mind. I got to watch South Park for the first time in a long, long time. I sure missed Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls, especially since Chef took is Scientology balls and left the show. I heard from a long lost friend. Hi Sharon! I took my children to an indoor marching Percussion contest. I think both kids want to be drummers now! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! (leave your link in comments, I'll add you here!) 1. Kidzoo

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. ItÂ’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Houndog Harrison Band

This CD was recorded in my back yard. Okay, maybe a 1/2 mile down the road. But still, very close by!

CD Baby Houndog Harrison

I don't normally like this kind of music, but they guys really speak from the heart directly into mine. The have captured the spirit of the area in which I now live.

Thursday Thirteen - March 16, 2006

Thirteen Things I need for my Creekistan Home 1. Doorknob for the front door. The round piece of wood that my husband screwed into the door fell off. 2. Microwave that my cups and plates will fit into. 3. Robotic sweeper to suck up all the mud we track in. 4. House plantsants, since all of ours died over the winter because I left them outside. 5. Dog. 6. Curtains for the windows. But not total coverage--I want to see the beautiful forest outside! 7. Front steps to replace the cement blocks I'm using now. 8. Washer and/or dryer. But that would mean we'd use up more water. Oh well, I'm willing to make my husband fetch water more often! 9. My own truck. 10. Internet access. 11. Satellite TV - yeah, I know I said that I weaned myself away from TV, but I still would like to watch a show here and there! 12. Cement driveway - See item #3 about tracking in mud. 13. Siding. Naked wood just isn't cutting it! Besides, the woodpecker that wakes me up in the morning is no longer charming. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! desertodyssey.blogspot.com enanddavin

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. ItÂ’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Frequently Asked Questions about Creekistan

Q: Do you have running water?
A: Yes, we do now. We have a full bath with toilet, shower, and sink. We also can do dishes.
Further details: We do not have city/county water. We have to obtain water by whatever means necessary and store it in a large cistern buried in our yard. We recently re-awakened a well and pump water out of that well into the cistern. We lower the pump, with a hose attached, into the well. Then run hose across the street and across our yard into the cistern. We have to do this every 3 weeks or so. The water from the well is fine, but we don't drink the water.
More details then you ever want to know: Getting water into the house was easy. Getting it out was more difficult. "Gray" water is the kind of water that comes out of the tub and sinks. That water drains into a garbage can that we sunk into the ground, and eventually filters out into the ground. The previous owners ran the water directly into the creek. Not nice. "Brown" water is the water from the toilet. It goes into a septic tank. More info here: http://www.inspect-ny.com/septic/lockwood.htm

Q: How do you cook?
A: I'm not a bad cook, I must say. Actually, we have a full kitchen that is better then any we had in the city, except for not having a dishwasher and garbage disposal. We have propane gas (as Hank Hill would say, "Propane is God's gas.")

Q: Do you watch TV?
A: Nope. We can't really get any channels. During the winter Olympics, we managed to get a viewable image, but it didn't last long. We can't get cable, so satellite is the only thing we could get. But right now we are in no hurry to get TV because we've managed to wean ourselves away from it. Instead, we watch videos from Netflix (see our Rental Queue on the right hand?) We also play games, listen to music, go for walks, read, and just plain get goofy.

Q: If you don't watch TV, how do you know what's happening in the world?
A: I read the news on the Internet http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn&q, and I listen to the news on NPR http://www.npr.org/. This way, I still get the real news without all the Hollywood hype.

Any other questions? Just post a comment and I'll respond!

Chickens

While visiting our friend Widow Bryant (see blog http://creekistan.blogspot.com/2006/02/boyz-from-wood.html#links) we got a glimpse of some baby chickens. She had some fancy chickens that were white with the large headdress feathers. She named them Ike and Tina. She also had some beautiful black chickens with some red feathers. Ike had fathered some chicks with one of the black hens. They were in Widow Bryant's kitchen staying warm under a lightbulb. My son fell in love immediately.

During our visit, we discussed how easy or difficult it is to raise chickens. Since we have plenty of property and no close neighbors, we could easily get some of her chicks and let them free-range in our yard. Zeb didn't like the idea, but I said that some day he'd come home and there would be chickens and there wasn't anything he could do about it.

Before leaving, Widow Bryant gave us some eggs to eat. The next morning, I was about to make the eggs when my son tried to “rescue” one of the eggs so that he could hatch it. He carried it around for a while. I finally convinced him that we cannot have any chicks right now and that we need to eat the egg. He cried. What a hard lesson to learn.

We don’t have a barn and I don’t want the chickens roosting in the “haunted house” that we’re going to tear down, so a hen house is in order. I’ll be seeing what I can do to make one.

But, with bird flu becoming a big problem, we may have to wait until this pandemic is over before getting our own birds. We'll just have to visit Widow Bryant and Ike and Tina.

Waiting Room

One of the adjustments I'm having to make is the fact that there isn't a lot of choice in doctors in this area. I've had to just ask around about some doctors. Others, I didn't have a choice. For my primary physician, I chose the first one on the list: A. Adams. Actually, he turned out to be pretty good.

Friday, I was visiting my OB/GYN. They're nice there. But I do have to wait a lot. I guess with only a few doctors in the area, they have to see a lot of patients.

While going back to my exam room, we ran into an older lady with a Poodle puppy. All jokes aside, the lady's Poodle was rather cute. It reminded me of my childhood dog. We stopped to pet it, and then continued to the exam room.

I sat for a while, thumbing through Country Living magazine and Homes and Gardens. I was beginning to wonder if I'd been forgotten, when I decided to listen to see if the doctor was near.

What I heard told me right away why I was waiting so long: the stupid lady with the Poodle was distracting everyone in the office. They were all cooing and awing at the little dog. They were saying how cute it was and petting it.

Yes, at a OB/GYN office, all the nurses were petting a old lady's Poodle.

I even heard the comment: "We don't even get this excited about a new baby!"

Don't worry. I did eventually get to see the doctor. But I didn't have a cute little poodle for them to look at.

thirty seven seconds

When I'm lonely for the city, I like to check in on my friends and former colleagues in the city. Here is a friend and photographer, Jim, who lives in the city. He is trying to post a photo a day.

Interesting that while I'm looking for glimpses of the city, he's looking at glimpes of nature.

http://www.thirtysevenseconds.com

Trailer Park

Since we have two construction trailers on our property, do we live in a Trailer Park? If so, will we be in danger of tornados? I hope not.

Tired of Tires

Just a quick note. Starting to do some Spring cleaning. Actually, we're cleaning the creek. Zeb counted no less than 20 used tires on our property. Seems our previous residents loved to roll old tires down the hill into the creek. Yee Haw!

Funky Sock Exchange

I was recently invited into a funky sock exchange. How ‘90’s! It was given to me on a copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy page explaining the rules of this pyramid scheme.
Should I participate? I normally don’t. But I don’t want to ruin their fun. So, I decided to only send to one friend. Who that will be, I don’t know.

If you want to participate, please let me know.

• In the meantime, here’s some information on Ponzi schemes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme
• and Pyramid schemes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme
• A discussion of the history and various types of chain letters: http://www.snopes.com/luck/chain.asp
• FTC Consumer Alert The Gifting Club "Gotcha": http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/giftalrt.htm

The Country Living Bible

Everything you ever wanted to know about living in the country is contained in The Encyclopedia of Country Living: An Old Fashioned Recipe Book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157061377X/sr=8-2/qid=1141228091/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-7962018-9924807?%5Fencoding=UTF8