tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:11:45 +0000http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/noreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)Blogger216125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-8855704453493273632Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:54:00 +00002008-08-17T22:11:45.618-07:00My grandmother had a plum tree, several apricot trees and about a zillion rose bushes. Every year, it seemed that the apricots all ripened at the same time, and my mother would drag us all over to grandma's house for a weekend of jam making. As kids, our job was picking and pitting. My older brother chopped and my mother and grandmother did the actual canning of the jam. Apricot jam was the http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/08/cooking-my-past.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-2888066109752124249Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:05:00 +00002008-08-16T14:20:21.035-07:00On Tuesday, there was apparently a yowling outside the house. I didn't hear it because I sleep with earplugs in, but the Pirate heard it and thought that it was the skinny black stray we've seen around. He didn't investigate. It wasn't until Wednesday evening when nobody'd seen him that the Pirate asked. "Have you seen Oswald?" No, I haven't. I knew that I'd seen him Tuesday. The cat came outhttp://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/08/loss.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-1555140846861585588Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:42:00 +00002008-08-10T19:51:49.240-07:00Don't tell me - I know. It's been three months (okay, two and a half) since our last post. But you know how things go here. If we'd had a second to ourselves, we've have blogged about it. June: school let out and the girls were off! First everyone went to Phoenix to see the grandparents before the girls went off on a whirlwind tour of D.C., Philadelphia and New York. When the Pirate and I came http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/08/seasons-rest.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-1858704610123870478Tue, 27 May 2008 22:11:00 +00002008-05-27T16:01:45.971-07:00catsvermindogsIt's been a busy weekend for all of us. Aoibheall's parents were in town to help celebrate her birthday, we worked a booth at the Boulder Creek Art & Wine Festival, and the cats and dogs have gotten to work on the vermin. The festival was fun; smiling and being nice to people was great. The best part for me was that since I was volunteering it was easy to laugh off any stress - what were they http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/05/banner-weekend.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PirateGuillermo)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-459984812224963126Tue, 13 May 2008 05:23:00 +00002008-05-12T23:05:18.809-07:00vermindogsBe careful what you wish for, and all that. A couple days ago Aoibheall woke up and found half a rat on the rug in front of the bathroom. Fox has discovered that rats are made out of meat. She left the head, shoulders, three feet and the tail; I assume that was because those are the bony bits, but maybe she wasn't all that hungry or maybe she just wanted to leave us something so we could be http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/05/fecund-eptitude.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PirateGuillermo)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-5786250797800062832Fri, 09 May 2008 02:47:00 +00002008-05-08T20:01:16.668-07:00catsvermindogsDagmar and Esme have killed moles. They've not managed to demonstrate digging for anything except cat poop, though, and they've not caught any rats. We went to the store and bought a pair of live rats. We wanted to go coursing with our dogs. We set up on the driveway, in front of the closed garage door. Three of us standing around with brooms and poles to poke the freed rat back into the middle,http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/05/house-of-inept-animals.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PirateGuillermo)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-2036653265684679290Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:18:00 +00002008-04-13T21:10:44.363-07:00dogschickensWe got sick last week. Two weeks ago we scrambled the house around, moving everyone's beds so that now we have an office for Aoibheall to work in. The Badb had what seemed like a head cold, so she had light duty. The rest of us shifted heavy beds and furniture. By Monday, all the furniture was where it was supposed to be although the books are not all back on shelves. But I had the cold. It http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/04/summer-in-spring.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PirateGuillermo)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-8363843783455988717Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:29:00 +00002008-03-13T09:58:56.996-07:00The peeps are now in their second big week. On Saturday, they were allowed outside for the first time. Babd and I went into town and bought a new Blue Broom of Justice, as the old one just isn't doing the job anymore. Mostly because it's now the Blue Stick of Pathos, having lost all its bristles. Our friend came out to see the historic event as the peeps were rounded up and turned loose in the http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/03/winter-in-spring.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-8571609693650205451Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:07:00 +00002008-03-03T13:25:10.822-08:00The thing about birth is that you just never know when it's going to happen. A good friend of mine went to bed on a Friday night thinking "Tomorrow, we'll get that car seat, and we'll be all set for the new baby" only to be woken by his wife at 3:45 in the morning to tell him that they had to go to the hospital NOW! Similarly, with stacks of Girl Scout cookies still cluttering our garage, the http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/03/parenthood.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-129702568067560208Wed, 06 Feb 2008 05:18:00 +00002008-02-05T21:31:09.445-08:00dogsThe more charitable of our readers will probably say that Fox has decided to train up these dogs. The more cynical would say that it's just That Time of Year, when strapping young Vermin set off into the wet, green woods to seek their fortune and find, instead, a moderately disgusting housecat. Tonight, Fox set a mole loose in our bedroom. I saw her sitting in front of my dresser and I figured http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/02/training-vermin.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PirateGuillermo)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-8577256596762396496Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:54:00 +00002008-02-04T22:26:24.181-08:00dogsSo there I was, minding my own business, putting away clean laundry and Fox is staring at a spot underneath my dresser. The last time this happened, it was nothing - she'd been chasing dust bunnies or ghosts or something. But this time, instead of looking up at me guiltily and skulking off, she went back to paying rapt attention to the space beneath my dresser. I went and fetched a flashlight. http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/02/she-shoots-she-scores.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PirateGuillermo)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-3647385533229531307Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:51:00 +00002008-02-04T14:51:22.427-08:00power chickens illnessSaturday was Groundhog Day. We didn't notice, though, because we were celebrating our first monthly Day Without Electricity. The last big storm that came through knocked out power in the San Lorenzo Valley for three days (for some people, I think we were only out for two). Power outages are a fact of life up here in the woods. We decided to practice, just so that we're all comfortable and ready http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/02/day-without-electricity.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PirateGuillermo)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-3227573215950644373Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:54:00 +00002008-01-04T18:51:10.892-08:00It's raining! Hooray! The weather service says it's supposed to keep on raining until Monday. All together now, "We can sure use the water." Very good. This morning we intended to get up, feed and let out the animals, and then crawl back into bed. We'd work from home and just stay nice and dry indoors. Well, the first part of that worked out okay. We got up and took care of the animals. I even http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2008/01/dibble-dopp-dopp-dopp.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PirateGuillermo)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-296469093456378231Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:04:00 +00002008-01-13T19:16:42.658-08:00chickensWe had that batch of wind eggs that I posted about a while back, and we thought that once those were over everything was back to normal. Nature is much weirder than that, though. The Pirate went out of an evening to shut up the chickens in their coop and collect the eggs and came back with two. Sort of. One was a nice, normal egg. The other one was the membrane and innards of a nice, normal http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2007/12/ill-give-you-a-for-effort.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-3211168300880630278Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:10:00 +00002007-12-13T20:46:55.445-08:00I'm sorry we haven't updated in a while. You may think it's because nothing whatever has happened to us, and therefore we have better manners than to create time-wasting posts chronicling our navel lint. You would be wrong. We would dearly LOVE the leisure to contemplate in electronic writing the nature, texture, color and volume of our navel lint, but we have no such leisure. Instead, we (http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2007/12/best-laid-plans.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-6698326214103347459Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:30:00 +00002007-10-30T20:32:25.314-07:00We just had an earthquake. We're all fine. Babygoddess wondered why mommy wanted her to get out of the bed under the big plate glass window and go stand in the doorway. I think we need to work on responsiveness.http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2007/10/rattle-and-roll.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PirateGuillermo)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-3679611011043726671Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:42:00 +00002007-10-23T09:17:27.111-07:00bioneers conference campingThis past weekend I attended the Bioneers conference in San Rafael, CA. I went because Aoibheall said, "You should go. This looks like something you'd really get a lot out of." She was, as usual, absolutely right. Since the Babygoddess was going to be with her dad this weekend, we figured that rather than spend a gajillion dollars on a hotel room just for me, we'd spend a third of a gajillion onhttp://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2007/10/bioneers-2007.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PirateGuillermo)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-5386075719155719779Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:08:00 +00002007-10-17T21:37:31.810-07:00It's been a while since we visited the chickens. They're still down in the henhouse, clucking and cooing and turning into the sort of ladies who sleep until noon, gorge themselves and gossip incessantly. Everyone knows a few like that, don't they?In the last two weeks, we've started getting pullet eggs. Pullet eggs, for the uninitiated, are much smaller than regular eggs and often have no yolks. http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2007/10/second-childhood.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-1786519687304495734Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:11:00 +00002007-10-09T11:22:39.841-07:00This past weekend, we finished the floor in the living room. The moldings have been reattached; the furniture is back indoors; the noo-noo (christened Nuu-Nuu because we like that better) has been installed. Yes, I laid down the floor. Yes, I made many mistakes along the way, but I think the floor looks beautiful. Everyone helped put felt feet on all the furniture and bring it all back inside. http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2007/10/home-improved.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PirateGuillermo)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-7119758878145274628Sun, 23 Sep 2007 04:10:00 +00002007-09-22T21:38:14.649-07:00You've all seen our chickens and their coop. You've seen the puppies and their house. Now it's time we broaden our acquaintance. Come on upstairs into the house proper. Here's a view of my living room: If you've ever actually been to my house, you're saying to yourself "You've redecorated! We like the addition of the table saw!" But no, it's just all of our living room (and dining room) http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2007/09/home-improvements.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-8439568233065357040Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:03:00 +00002007-09-05T13:18:04.162-07:00After about ten days of having the bait eaten out of the trap but no rat to show for it, the Pirate relocated the trap under the chicken coop. That's right, on top of the six inches of chicken poop where the rats are making their smelly, damp burrows. Once the long weekend was over and the cool weather returned from wherever it had been vacationing, the Pirate and I rested up from the hectic http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2007/09/we-were-this-close.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-43856386364589320Sat, 01 Sep 2007 05:22:00 +00002007-08-31T22:22:57.605-07:00What do you get when you mix cheese, peanut butter and cereal? It sounds like one of those revolting DIY snacks of the '70s, right? "Cheesy Peanut Toasties" or some such dreck. Actually, it's rat bait. You see, we bought a trap. The dogs are showing every sign of being good terriers. They love to dig, they love to rip into things, they're playful and inquisitive and tireless. They're also http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2007/08/how-far-would-you-go.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-2100447298729123497Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:00:00 +00002007-08-13T11:31:40.667-07:00After completing a grueling 1500-mile round-trip foray to Phoenix and back over the weekend, I decided to complete the dog house I'd started before we left. I'd finished the basic bones of the structure, the four walls attached to supports, and there was a surprising amount of scrap lumber on the floor of the garage. I put together the supports for the floor (yes, yes, I know that there's a http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2007/08/chez-chiens.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-2542559408819336537Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:07:00 +00002007-07-31T10:08:01.983-07:00We found Gregor Samsa scuttling about on the deck. We fed him to the chickens.http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2007/07/kafka-in-country.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068516.post-5230547657154251164Sun, 29 Jul 2007 08:14:00 +00002007-07-31T10:37:37.269-07:00For a few nights, racoons have been coming up onto our deck and eating the dogs' food. Once they had gone so far as to come into our laundry room, but we started closing off the doggy door. What surprised me most about the whole racoon thing was that I never heard them. Not while they were in the house, not while they were rolling the dog food bin twenty feet from where I was sleeping. http://www.coprosperitysphere.com/dispatches/2007/07/rumble-in-jungle.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aoibheall)