A blog about bovine...

My friend has been feeling under the weather lately. Because of this, I have been helping her around the place. Imagine my surprise one morning when I walked out to the chicken yard and found this making a salad bar of the fruit trees in the backyard:

His name is Sammy. He is our neighbor's young long-horn. As it turns out, those horns are great for thrusting into the branches of fruit trees and thrashing branches down.

He had also made an extensive visit to our meager pile of alfalfa hay, making it quite a bit scarcer than it had been the day before. Sammy is no fiend, however, because where ever he went, he left a pie in gratitude for his samplings.

Now, I'm no stranger to farm animals, but I have to admit, my experience has not been in handling meat animals. Horses, dairy animals, chickens, they are all familiar with some sort of working relationship with the person who feeds them. The larger animals learn to be handled, to be led, the smaller ones learn not to be stepped on. I have found that I like this relationship style.

Now, this is where the real problem appeared: getting the large fellow back to his proper pasture.


I decided to try the most obvious approach. I grabbed one of the nearby horse leads, looped it around his head, and cinched it at his neck, and with all the confidence I could feign, I turned and marched towards the pasture...for two feet, where I was stopped by the unbudging steer behind me.

I looked at him. His big moist eyes looked back at me, cast a glance towards the apricot tree, and then slowly returned to me. The meaning was unmistakable, "You're kidding me, right? Leave this dessert bar to return to weeds? Hmm... No."

 

Clearly, this boy had developed a sweet tooth, so the next thing that occurred to me was to take advantage of it. I grabbed a scoop of molasses mash from the horse shed and attempted to coax him back through the gate. After the first nibble he follow a few, painstakingly slow steps. I had made the mistake all the greats make though: Never underestimate your adversary. Apparently, bovine possess the basic mathematical abilities necessary to estimate proportions and understand basic size comparisons. He took a meditative gaze at the two fruit trees, and then a calculating hesitation on my small bowl of mash. 2 trees > 1 handful of grain, and off he went to return to his new found love.

So, I took my own meditative moment and recalled how my friends at the fairgrounds managed their meat animals, and then, remembering multiple techniques, I proceeded to commit consecutive failures. I got behind him (outside of leg length) and made forceful sounding "HetHaHup!" shouts, clapping my hands, stomping my feet and making big, herding motions. He responded with a pitying glance over his shoulder and continued his plans. I slapped his rump. He flicked his tail. I tugged on his ear and tried several different commands. He shook my hand off like a fly that tickled him. I took a hold of his horn and attempted to lead him back to his pen. He sighed, and I could almost swear I caught him rolling his eyes at me.  I made horse noises at him, I called him mean names, I called him nice names, but nothing I did even earned his focused attention. Finally, as I leaned against the fence, exasperated and pondering, my eyes fell on the hose.

And then I tried a little experiment. As it turns out, while Sammy will tolerate a slap on the rump, a tug on the ear, insults to his personal existence as well as to the cow that bore him, Sammy absolutely cannot tolerate cold showers.

There is something guiltily funny in seeing a longhorn skip hastily back to his pasture with all the scurry of a startled rabbit. Especially if said longhorn just spent the last 30 minutes unbudgingly outside of his pen.

And this was one of those random things that happen in my unusually boring life.

I have now learned that grabbing a bull by the horns is not always as effective as ambling after him with a hose full spray ahead.

Thanks for reading.

Eleven things for the Eleventh day of the Eleventh month (of the Eleventh year)

1. Last month, I had the Ten things for the Tenth day of the Tenth month ready...and forgot to publish it. Oops.

2. Happy Veterans day. Seems like a strange phrase to say for this sort of holiday. Thanks to my friends, relatives, and strangers who hjave and are serving to protect my home.

3. I get to go to Magic Mountain with my family tomorrow. No roller coasters for me, but I get to go along and enjoy the fun that is my family at a theme park, and take pictures...and hold bags while they ride. Maybe this time I should bring a stroller.

4. It is really murky outside! It looks like Bakersfield tried to be a snow globe, but then at the last minute, forgot that we don't do snow...so it used dirt instead. Ew. Valley fever, anybody?

5. I am 3 weeks into my first class towards teaching credentials, which, somehow means that I am 2/3 of the way through my textbook. I am a stinking reading machine! The class is linguistics: teaching readings/writing, and ESL students.  It's actually a lot of fun.

6. I finally got my new car last month...but then, you've probably already read that blog, so you know. (I'm only up to six things... urg)

7. My friend gave me an orchid. It's really pretty. I forgot it at her house. Right now, my orchid is really pretty at her house. It will probably stay prettier that way.

8. I got a letter from my sweet Abigail in Ghana this week. She got promoted from P3 to P4(grades) this year, she's so clever! She started P1 at age 8, and here she is, 2 years later, all the way up to P4.

9. Somehow, whenever I get to the day number that matches the month number, I always manage to have a blog I was planning to post that day...so I feel like it has a tendency to double up, even if my blog has lain fallow all that time before that day.

10. I am really enjoying following some other people's blogs right now. First, my current favorite is by JD, the woman who has taken a gift package to my Abigail, and my parent's Emmanuel in Ghana. She is currently in Ghana right now. At this very moment, she is off the grid, because she is working at Lake Volta to free child slaves. How great is that?! So, there are no blogs being posted for a few days, but there will be, and she has quite a few blogs posted up until she had to go off the grid a few days ago that are worth reading., You can read JD's blog here.

The second blog, is actually multiple blogs. It is a Compassion Blogging trip. Compassion takes popular bloggers to a country they serve and lets the bloggers dig through records, see where the children live, see what the families have to deal with, and see what Compassion is doing in their communities. It is really great to read, and it is great to see Compassion International's dedication to integrity. You can follow their current blogging trip in Ecuador, as well as past blogging trips here. So, if you were looking for some easily accessible good reading, I have just provided you with HOURS worth.

11. I can't think of much else to share without making it a life story, so I'm just going to share soemthing else I've been appreciating: Johnny Cash.  Specifically a recent song, which is a cover of Nine Inch Nails song Hurt.

And those, blogfriends, are my 11 things for the 11th day of the 11th month (of the 11th year).  Thanks for reading, even though I disappear for long spurts sometimes!

Feeling blue...

So, this past summer, I took my trusty little '97 escort (known to many as Zander) into the mechanic. The news wasn't good. The repairs tallied over 2000 dollars, while my poor Zander only managed to reach the 500-1000 dollar resale value. I considered that with the repairs, it might be worth investing to keep my little car, but as I reflected over the past several months, I realized that lately, I had often been paying medium to large repair bills to keep it running. To add to that, the interesting new noises and rattles were really starting to make me nervous on my long distance (and often quite mountainous) trips.

To add insult to injury, the escort's air conditioning died the moment our local Spring approached 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Our summers often top out at 112 degrees, and keep a general average of 108 degrees. I literally sweat this dilemma out all summer. The main hold up I had was that I just could not find a vehicle for sale that I liked better than my little stick shift. I have often referred to it as the motorcycle of cars, as it is so small, light weight, so quick and responsive. I was having a difficult time finding comfort in the larger, heavier models of cars that are currently being made. True, these vehicles are all better equipped. They are all prettier. Some of them even have better gas mileage, however each test drive felt like I was driving a new gaudy, metal, leaden fat suit. I found that the Hyundai Elantra was tolerable, but it was just okay. It is a great car. It would do, but I had no love for it, but maybe some day, I could grow to love it. In short: I was so ridiculously tired of car hunting, it wasn't funny. I was on the verge of settling for the Hyundai when on the spur of the moment, I decided to test drive one more vehicle.

Here's where I get really corny: You know in the beginning of the Bible(Genesis 2), when Adam needs a companion, so God brings each animal to him one by one, and Adam names them all, but none of them were it? And then Eve showed up, and Adam cried "At last!" (NLT "Finally!").

I am not saying that this is the same as the start of a romantic relationship, and I am in no way saying that shopping for cars is that same as finding a spouse (and I'm not implying that women are material possessions to be bartered for. Let nobody panic). I do feel that in this moment, however, I gained a partial understanding of Adam's relief, after seeing how very "just okay" every option in the world was to him, to finally be presented with "just the right" solution. From the point of pulling this car off the lot on the test drive, my driving instincts cried out, "At last!" and it was love at first drive. I left that poor Hyundai high and dry, but I'm sure it'll find someone who can love it for its bulky qualities. See, blogfriends, I warned you it was going to get corny, but you just kept on reading, didn't you?

And now you're thinking, enough of this chatter, where are the pictures?!

This blog has been delayed for a long time in waiting for me to come up with pictures of this car. I finally got the pictures, but I have to give a heads up, it's dirty and the pictures were taken on a cloudy day, so the color in the photos seems a little muted to me.

 My friend, Merida, saw the car as she pulled in to the parking lot. "It's just a color that makes you happy!"

  The official name for the color is Blue Raspberry. 

That just happens to be my favorite jolly rancher flavor.

My sister in law says it's "Blue like a tic tac!"
I enjoyed that.
















Another phrase that came to mind was swiped from a book title, "Blue Like Jazz" but in a happy sort of way.

Whatever you can say about the color. It pleases me.  It's a color that makes me smile, attached to a car that I like, attached to a loan that is deepening my credit score to open doors of possibilities in the future.

Additional things that come with my choice of car and color:

-My youngest siblings enjoy the ability to easily pick it out when it's near school, and they are hoping a kind, wonderful older sister will give them a ride home, rather than having to walk home after school.

-I don't have much of an issue finding it in a parking lot.

-People I know are having an easier time tracking my movements around town. ("I saw your car in the Target parking lot Saturday...")

-When I chose this color, I realized that if I ever wanted to sell it, I had narrowed my selection of buyers, because I thought the color was so girly that no self-respecting male would buy a car this color. I think I was wrong in that assumption. Every stranger who has complimented the color in a parking lot, every stranger I have caught lingering over it, or asked what the official name of the color is has been a male. I've never owned a new car, so it has been surprising to me how many people actually comment on it.

-The backseats are oragami! They fold up in all sorts of ways!

It rides smoothly. It's high tech, and gives the ambiance of my own personal space shuttle. I feel like I've stolen a vehicle from a Disneyland Tomorrowland ride, and I don't intend to give it back! A majority of the time, the CD playing is the Pixar's Greatest hits sound track, which includes the music from the credits of The Incredibles (action spy music) as well as the instrumental section from UP, when Carl's house takes flight. It just seems like the correct soundtrack for my car right now.  My car. I'm still adjusting to that idea. It's nicer than anything I've owned before, and honestly, I'm still fighting the expectation that any day now, a rental car company is going to show up and say, "Okay, you've had your fun, time to give it back now."

So, this is it. I have had a few far away friends ask when this blog is going up. My cousin Keira has been aching to see its color. Her mom, (my first cousin) Laura, told me that Keira has been pointing out Fits whenever they pass them on the road, "There's Caitlin's car...but what color is it?" Well, Keira, now you know.

Thanks for letting me share.

-Caitlin

Feeling abandoned?

Well, blogfriends, perhaps you should. To tell the truth, life on this side of the computer has been so busy, that I have not so much as logged into my account in over 2 weeks.

So, I feel as though, while I don't have anything quality to post at this moment, I owe you some signs of life.

For those of you who did, thank you for praying for my interview for school. I was accepted. I am currently in my first quad of school. The first class is a linguistics class focused on teaching reading, and teaching ESL students. I find it very interesting, though there are times where the reading is hefty.

My housemate got sick...really sick a few weeks ago. That has definitely changed our living routine some while she recovers.

I also managed to crawl through the paperwork of finding a car and getting a loan, there will be more on this later...as soon as the daylight is nice, and the camera goes outside to document.

Other than those major things, all of the in between business...I honestly can't tell you where the time went, but believe me, I definitely noticed it while it was going! I've had fun, and I've not had fun...that's generally where time goes.

I will do my best to finish some of these draft blogs I've got stored, as well as catch up on the planned ones, that will make this place less boring!  Until then, know, I'll come back eventually. You have not been entirely abandoned.