New Blog, New Routine

Since this blog was begun as... and has continued to be... my journal, I've started a new one about, mostly, birds. It is called, at the moment, "Birds". Appropriate, yes? It came into being when a bird I couldn't identify showed up in front of the barn one morning. I took lots of photos. Then I needed a way for crack birders to see the photos and identify the bird for me. It seemed difficult to upload them to one of those photo sites, but I know how to upload to this blog site... so I did.

Lots of birders did, indeed, look at my bird and tell me it was a juvenile Chipping Sparrow. If you're curious what a juvenile Chipping Sparrow looks like, check out my new blog: http://lindafink-birdnotes.blogspot.com/

Then it occurred to me that I could upload more bird photos, since I seem to take many that don't really need to be in my journal. Ergo "Birds" has become a repository for bird photos I don't want to lose in the depths of my computer. One of those, in particular, I am quite proud of, so will share it here, too. I took this photo of a Great Egret at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, which is a place I visit often... since it's on my way to the feed store. Great Egrets are common there this time of year and pretty oblivious to humans snapping pictures of them.


Besides a new blog, I have a new routine as long as the days are hot (anything over 75 is hot to me) and as long as the baby goats are drinking all their moms' milk if the moms are not locked away from them. New routine: I get up early as always, feed horses and chickens and (this is the new part) milk goats. I used to feed horses and chickens then go back into the house for breakfast before meandering out to the goat barn. But now I'm having to lock the does away from their kids at night so we and our customers can have some milk. That means full udders in the morning... So, after horses and chickens are fed, I milk the goats... before their cries of indignation set the Big White Dog to howling. Then I turn the does back in with their large children who don't need all that milk.

By this time, I'm hungry and retreat to the house for breakfast. After breakfast, I let horses out, clean barns and feed hay to the goats. By then it's hot. So I go back to the house and... here I am, typing out a blog post instead of getting more work done. My plan is to ride a horse or two before lunch (I rode two yesterday) but if it's too hot (or I'm too lazy), stay in the cool house and Get Things Done. Or take a nap. Or write a blog. Late in the afternoon, I go back outside to weed, water, mow (or ride horses).

Of course, routines are made to be broken and this is horse hoof trimming time of the month so this morning, after chores, I trimmed Nightingale's hooves. That left me too hot and tired to ride Mr. Smith, as planned, before lunch. (I'm too wimpy to trim more than one horse per day.) Maybe I'll revive and ride this evening.

For those reading this who are also too tired or hot or wimpy to get anything done, here is a fascinating blog with lots of photos of an adventuresome 25-year-old who is currently hiking the entire Pacific Crest Trail from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. He crossed into Oregon yesterday. Noah Stryker is an Oregon birder who has blogged previously about his Antarctic penguin studies (his book about that experience has just been published) and his Australian Fairy Wren research. Noah has packed a lot of living into his 25 years with no signs of slowing down. http://noahstrycker.com/latest/

And now, since everyone tells me they like the photo part of my photo blog the best, here is a butterfly on a daylily at our farm, adding beauty just by living, totally unconcerned with goats or horses or blogs or new (or old) routines.