Hiya

Good Monday morning to ya!  (Okay, I know it's *your* Wednesday morning, but it's *my* Monday morning.)

I spent much of my Saturday (your Monday - is everyone totally confused now?!) working here at home on a new website for a client.  The deadline we set is tomorrow (end of March), and I'll have a couple more hours to spend on it today.  Then I'll be ready to present it to the client and meet with her tomorrow.  I'm happy with the way it's shaping up.  Definitely a step up from her current site's design.


I know that it's natural for me to say that the (MY) new design is better than any old one, but that's not always true.  Case in point, I'll be starting a new one next week, and when I had my initial meeting with that client, I honestly told her, "I don't think I can make a new one look much better than your current one!"  But, it wasn't an updated look she's going for:  it's ease of use.  The way the current one is built, she can't even access it to make changes!

Many web designers do that on purpose so that THEY can always get the customer's business when it comes to changes / updates.  HOWEVER, what ends up happening is that the client DOESN'T bother them with those changes / updates (either because they're so minor and/or they don't want to suffer high fees for the edits) and just ends up getting more and more frustrated and unhappy.

The platform *I* use for designing the sites allows me to hand it over to the client once the guts of it have been built.  Then (if they wish), they can take over the administration of it.  Of course, if they WANT to keep me on retainer to make the edits, I'm more than happy to do that.  Just seems to be easier, on so many levels, to make the website user-friendly.  And that, in turn, makes customers happier, I think.


Geez, soapbox much?

I spent lots of saddle-time in the car yesterday.  Had a check-up with my shrink who informed me that I'm going to be one of the rare few who only need to check in with her annually . . . unless I "need" her before then, of course.  It gives me confidence and confirms my good / solid? mental state when that happens (especially given these last two - four weeks).  The same happened, years ago and following the realization that I couldn't have kids, when my once-a-week-for-a-year therapist (prescribed by above shrink) told me that I didn't need to reschedule for the following week.  I laughed and asked, "What, you think I'm cured?"  She, a relaxed Brit raised in Ireland, smiled her gentle smile and said, in her wonderful lilting tone, "Yes, luv, you are."  :)

So, three hours in the car down, and three hours in the car back.  Saw 3 adult bald eagles, 2 juveniles, and another which was either a huge hawk (I'm horrible at identifying them) or a small, immature baldy.  When I told my folks that last night while picking up the dogs, Mama Pea asked, tongue-in-cheek, "How did you know they were juveniles?"  Picking up her meaning, I responded, "'Cause they were drinking and smoking and flying recklessly."  Yuk, yuk, yuk.

Anyway, since I've been a Single here on the homestead, my big city trips have been more sensible:  either I'll schedule an overnight to get everything done (and not drive home in the wee hours of the morn', exhausted) or I'll make shorter trips.  Plus, with my folks being Maisy & Tucker's doggie day-care providers, I don't want to make the days too long for them (meaning my folks).  So, I only did minimal running around yesterday after my appointment, and got all the way home here to Swamp River Ridge at 6:00!

There was plenty of warm sunlight left, so, while I was out doing chores, I tackled the job of cleaning out the bee hive.  This winter was the first I'd tried to over-winter honey bees here, and it wasn't a successful venture.  The colony was alive and well during the mid-February thaw when I popped the hive open for a look-see but then the cold snaps following did 'em in.  They didn't starve to death:  there was still uncapped honey in 9 of the 20 frames.  They froze to death.

Bee keeping up here is a fairly losing prospect, but the rewards are so great that we keep at it.  The key is over-wintering.  And no one has discovered this key yet, unfortunately.  But, hopefully, with time and trial-and-errors, we'll* figure it out.  (Mind you, I really know NOTHING about bee keeping.  I just do what Papa Pea tells me to do!  But, I hope to gain knowledge & experience as the years pass and I keep at this new aspect of homesteading.)

* Year-before-last, a few folks got together and organized a very informal local bee association.  While the core group remains the same, more and more people show interest in joining each year.  Also, there's a new documentary coming out about the environmental importance of honey bees and the wide-ranging (world ranging!) Colony Collapse Disorder.  Anyway, go here to learn about the documentary, Queen of the Sun.

Now for some pictures.


I put a bungee on the sunflower seed can last night, but, as you can see, it did no good.

Raccoon, 1 / Chicken Mama, 0.  I'll devise a better plan to foil him/her tonight.

The view of downtown from my office building door.

This will be just the second but last picture for today.  I've spent too much time here on my arse and need to get ON WITH IT!  I took the above on Sunday.  Still lots of dirty snow in town although it's melting every day.  Here at Swamp River Ridge, there's still TONS of snow!  Heck, my folks (who live just outside of town) even have grass showing!  It will be WEEKS before that happens here!  I'll take some pictures outside today to show you that Old Man Winter is still holding strong.  :)

Ten

I thought I'd have time for a proper post tonight, but, as usual, I've worked myself right out of time.  So, inspiration struck, and here follow 10 random Points of Interest / True Facts:

1. Annie Blue is trying to catch a mouse in my office as we speak ('course, she brought it IN and then let it go so that she could play with it).
2. I became a new auntie today!!  (But, shhhh, I need to let her tell you first!)
3. I'm hungry.  But it's 11:45 at night, and I'm going to bed.
4. I am down to 4 (pullets, now) of my original 15 Partridge Rock chicks.
5. I think I know what's killing the chickens:  a nasty squeal from the chicken yard brought me out at a trot near sunset only to see something large, grey, and winged take off from one of the trees surrounding their area.  No wonder I haven't caught anything in the on-the-ground live trap!
6. I collect coins.  My mother didn't know that.
7. I've finally settled on names for the kittens (I think):  Bonzi for the cuddly one, and Dosie for the timid one.
8. Our heat and humidity has finally broken, I think.
9. I thought I'd be able to get the new computer I need for just under $500.  (You can begin laughing hysterically now.)
10. The new header picture is a scanned postcard from many years ago of the little berg I call "town".

That's all!  Discuss amongst yourselves.

The New Year Begun

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the "normalcy" that next Monday will bring.

I like things to be somewhat "set".

And, these past two weeks of holly-daze have made for some confusion regarding what day of the week it is, where are we going, who's doing what and so on. So I'm ready to bring Monday morning's normalcy BACK! (Mind you, I CERTAINLY did not feel that way when I worked outside the home . . . let's make that PERFECTLY clear.)

That said, the lack of normalcy has allowed for a huge amount of visiting and catching up with friends. We're still "doing Christmas" with various groups of people, and yesterday was no exception: on the road for the 1-hour drive to town to have a traditional "meat pie" meal with friends at 2:00 and then down to the local tavern for a surprise birthday party at 6:00. After getting in about 1:30 AM on New Year's Eve, I don't think last night was but an hour earlier. So, I'm happy to be in tonight!

The snow continues to fall. It doesn't seem that we've had a day or two lately between little storms. The winter of '08-09 will go down as The Year We Finally Had Winter, no doubt! And, all I can say is, "Thank goodness for back-up plows!" We STILL don't have our 1-ton ("good", new) pickup back from the mechanic, so the old 1977 plow truck has been earning its keep. And, in addition to our 4+ mile-long winter driveway, we're keeping a friend's long, twisty, hilly driveway open while he travels for work every two weeks! Tom drove the plow truck to his massage therapy appointment this afternoon and then plowed out Big View on his way home.

(Some day, I'll have to tell the story of the old '77 plow truck. It's the vehicle I got to [had to?!] drive in high school on the days I was lucky enough to take one of the cars in. Mom & Dad figured I had fewer chances of getting hurt in a metal box that size. It's also the car I had my very first kiss in! Right in front of town's only mortuary! Good grief.)

Anyway, I digress . . . .

Here are some shots I took yesterday after yet another dumping. It being New Year's Day, the main road wasn't plowed when we headed into town @ 1:00 in the afternoon. Fortunately, the snow was fluffy, and we'd taken the 4-wheel drive Subaru.

So, this is the "main road" that we drive 12 miles of in the winter (between our 4 mile long winter driveway and the highway).



Even the highway wasn't very clear. We drive about 20 miles of this to get to town.




And then: town. In the early afternoon of the 1st, it was quiet! Perhaps everyone was still nursing hangovers?!