Raising Chickens
April 2008

Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec
Blog Archive: 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007
Physics Glossary Thumbnails Wine Glossary Video Archive

Links are good as of their posting date. Comments may be directed to bradley@wogsland.org.


28 April 2008 - Cougar Dan

Womb names have a long and silly tradition in our family. I was Hollingsworth Fitzgerald. My cousin Julie was Bubba Abdul, a name which has stuck with her through life. More recently we called Zara Austria. Well, the family finally has a new baby on the way - growing up in the Cougar Den, that is, my Cousin Kate's belly. She and Howie are very excited, as is the grandmother to be.


27 April 2008 - Nancy turns 50!


24 April 2008

I've been sick the past couple days with a rather nasty cold. I tend to become rather introspective and zenlike when sick. One can become too concerned with the past and the future to the neglect of the present. We all tell stories in our heads - stories of our lives that we try to fit into. Being a slightly ambitious person I often have several complicated and mutually exclusive stories going at once, which is a nice setup for failure. There is a saying that nothing succeeds like success, but the same can be true of our past failures if we let them dominate our story. So lately I've been trying to focus on the present. Cooking really helps bring the now into focus for me. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.


Other people are enjoying the spring weather though.


20 April 2008

As evening turns into night I'm drinking a nice Kabinett left over from yesterday's winetasting video while Cara and the girls put up the chicken coop door. The neighborhood cats are drooling with envy.


19 April 2008 - Ribbon Run 2008

It just had to be raining this morning. I ran in a race in Farragut to raise money for Autistic adults. I was aiming to bring my time down under 30 minutes again, but alas I finished in 30:54. And to continue the dampening, our state senator Tim Burchett was there to hand out trophies and $5000 of taxpayer money. Since my 30:54 was enough to earn me a 3rd place trophy in the 25-29 division I did some politicking while shaking Mr. Burchett's hand. He tried to let go but I let him know that I wanted to be able to get wine shipped to my house - a bill which is currently under consideration in the legislature.


18 April 2008 - Chicken Wranglers


17 April 2008

The cold snap of the past week left most of us with a cold. Poor Maxwell has a barking cough that makes him sound like a Neanderthal. He's been home from school the past couple days. On the mend is Brittan, who suffered a bike accident last week when her chain fell off its gear. She had to get four stitches underneath her chin and they came out on Tuesday. Most of her other scrapes have healed and she and Alora have avoided the cold which has settled upon the rest of us. The chickens also came through the cold with no trouble, even though they are now living outside in their shed. I thought we ought to give the place a witty name like "Club Chickmo", but the girls just want to call it the chicken coop. C'est la vive.

Tonight it's nice and warm. I'm trying a Symphony tonight, which is a sweeter grape developed in California in the 1960s. Sweet goes with heat. YouTube offered me a partnership to share ad revenue on the videos I make, but only videos with material no one else has a copyright claim to. So I can't earn any money from some of my best older videos, like "hot wife". Over 1,000 people watch that video every day, with my lame Borat impressions and video clips from our Hawaii vacation. I also can't sing "Happy Birthday" to anyone - TimeWarner owns the copyrights to it for another few decades. We'll have to see if the restrictions are worth it. Nalts told me that the copyright insanity can get a bit irritating, but it's improved as they've developed the program (he was invited toward the beginning of the partnership program last year).


12 April 2008

Pink petals are falling on my laptop as I sit on the patio writing this, eating some Ole Ray's Bourbon Salsa from Mast General Store and sipping a Sangiovese. It's a cool, windy springtime day - perfect for family activities. This morning the kids and I went to the 44th annual Talahi Plant Sale were local growers ply a variety of native plants and plants which fair well in East Tennessee. The event is put on by the Knoxville Garden Club and there were some very knowledgeable old ladies there working the sale. Let's just say 20-something males are not a key demographic for gardeners. We got some trilium to try in the alcove where even grass won't grow. Unfortunately not the bonanza I'd hoped for, but it did get me to finally start a Tennessee Garden Diary.

Cara slept in and skipped Talahi, so we came home to pick her up before heading out to the Dogwood Arts Festival in Market Square down town. In addition to the "official" art exhibition and sale there were a number of local businesses holding special events in light of the festival. We spent a long time sampling goodies and southern standbys at the Mast General Store before heading to the fair proper - that place is like a Cracker Barrel on crack plus an outdoorsman's clothiers rolled into one. The festival itself had music and some nice art, but much of it was overpriced. Our main comparison is the Santa Clara Art & Wine Festival we attended a couple years ago. The art there was less expensive ($60 paintings rather than $600 ones) and there was wine to taste. The Dogwood Art Festival had wine, but it was one tent of Bud Lite and California bulk wine. There was a much better representation of other local specialty food makers (BBQ, honey, etc.). We still had a lot of fun though, as the Oak Ridge Art Center provided a variety of crafts for the kids to do in the park next to Market Square. And, of course, I made a video:


11 April 2008 - Blue is a Girl Color?


Yes. Yes it is.


10 April 2008

The garden is planted with onions, peas, bell peppers, cucumbers, jalapeños, sunflowers, parsley, cilantro, basil and sage. The shed is built and the chicks are in it. And I've planted a few grapevines in the sideyard. The girls' dream of living on a farm seems to be coming true.


Daisha and Maxwell discuss the chicks.


4 April 2008 - Shameless Self-Promotion

Just in case you're curious to read my insane poetry, I've created a Cafepress store with a book of my poetry as well as some stuph with Ole's picture on it.


2 April 2008

So did anyone find my rickrolling ridiculousness funny yesterday, or are you reading this blog before you read that one? Well, even if I didn't get anyone chuckling with my blog, over 6000 people watched my attempt to be admitted to the Virgle Project:

Just to give a little backstory, Google founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin teamed up with Richard Branson for this April Fools Joke soliciting applications for people wishing to colonize Mars. Alas my children are not quite old enough to play any pranks on me like unhooking the car battery or putting a bucket of water on the back of the door. Nevertheless we did have a fabulous brainstorming session about all the possible jokes one could play last night at dinner. It was raining so we were unable to work on the chicken coop, which has occupied most evenings lately. Like tonight:


Stacey (behind coop), Alora, Cara, Brittan, Maxwell
(Zara was asleep in the car)


1 April 2008 - April Fools Day!

Just when you think life can't get any worse, Cara got fired from the hospital today. They sent her an email this morning confirming that she no longer was employable by Parkwest. Accordingly we have hired an attorney (see his website) who has promised to get us just compensation. This will be an expensive process, however, so any money you can send to this address would be greatly appreciated.

You've been Rickrolled!
Happy April Fools Day!


Web wogsland.org

TOP | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007
Last ∆ on 28 April 2008 by Bradley James Wogsland.
Copyright © 2008 Bradley James Wogsland.